Making Thailand an Asean-friendly country

The Asean agenda has been on top of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s must do list since the very first day. A few weeks after his power seizure, the Preparation Centre for Asean Community (PCAC) was set up to show he meant business on Asean matters. Now nearly a year has been wasted propagating what the country needs to do, but without tangible action. The National Reform Council, tasked to reform the legislation and bureaucracies to turn the country into an Asean-friendly member, has remained a mere talk shop.

In recent months, due to increased external pressure, the government has put all effort into rectifying headline-making rotten parts of Thai society — modern slave traders, mafia fishing bosses and overbearing traders. Apart from the immediate challenges emanating from political reform, constitutional drafting and a myriad of issues on national reconciliation, Prayut still has pin-picked human trafficking as a national priority — a formidable task.

During earlier meetings on this topic, he lost his temper due to the high level of denials and indifference of concerned officials. He has threatened them, especially those in uniform, with reshuffles and severe punishment in cases of negligence. 

As a result, some progress has been made with arrests and prosecution of culprits. Last year, police filed 280 charges, which led to prosecution of 155 cases. As of today, the court has passed verdicts on 47 cases, while another 108 await decisions. By international standards, it is still insufficient given the long history of abuses and human rights violations.

Worse still, the recent discovery of over two-dozen graves of Rohingya refugees along the Thai-Malaysian border in the Sadao district, Songkhla, could further tarnish the country’s record on human smuggling and ruin the upcoming Trafficking In Persons report, to be released in June by the US. Currently, Thailand is requesting assistance from Malaysia’s Special Branch with the case as Malaysian human smuggling syndicates are also involved in the cross-border activity. The victims were waiting along the border hoping to cross over to Malaysia for jobs.

Human trafficking, slave labour and the plight of the Rohingya are international issues that attract the scrutiny of the international community. Within Asean, the leaders of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia want to find a regional resolution but Myanmar remains recalcitrant. The Bali Process should be an appropriate forum to find a sustainable solution.

Recently, Prayut caused a hoo-ha when he used his big stick – Section 44 — in a desperate effort to eliminate the overpriced lottery cartels. It is still a work in progress. Now, with exactly 233 days remaining before the Asean Community deadline, the frequently asked question is whether he would deploy a similar strategy to get all concerned agencies and authorities to implement all the AC action plans. Or, he could just ignore and be satisfied with bogus make-believe scorecards over economic, political and security as well as, socio-cultur?al pillars.

Truth be told, after the 26th summit in Malaysia last month, Prayut suddenly realised that Thailand had not done much to fulfill pledges to make it the hub of Asean economic integration, connectivity and digital-driven growth. Last Friday, he restructured the one-year old PCAC by heading the organisation himself and co-chaired by deputy prime ministers. However, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn, who presided over the PCAC chair previously, had not been given any specific assignment. 

Prayut, who will now oversee the Asean-related schemes himself, instructed the Foreign Ministry to prepare a five-year plan, instead of 10-year plan, for Thailand’s integra?tion with the Asean Community. “He wants to see what kind of progress Thailand has accomplished in the medium term,” said a senior Cabinet official attending the meeting on Friday.

Throughout its 48-year history, before the Asean documents and decisions were agreed upon and made public, they were thoroughly discussed and changed before adoption by consensus. So, Thailand and Asean members have no excuse to backslide on the implementation. Even with the current lowest denomination on action plans, quite a few Asean members are still to be found wanting over the culture of compliance.

Despite all the hype and huge money spent, the Thai authorities and their agencies are still thinking in silos over the Asean community building. Their work often stands alone without reference to other organisations. Whenever there are cross-cutting issues requiring collective approaches and impossible decisions, the whole process gets bogged down. For instance, Thailand has the highest number of restrictions on certain imported commodities in Asean.

As Asean becomes more integrated, crosscutting issues from the Asean three pillars are becoming more common. As such, competition and jealousy could also come into play and quickly turn the whole endeavour into political bickering between agencies causing further delay and procrastination.

The time has come for all ministries and state enterprises to assign an official who understands the AC and its implications to coordinate and synergise their activities. These “Sherpa” people will connect all the dots within the government’s labyrinth networks. That way, the whole country will know where it is headed, as bureaucrats would be able to update their work.

Finally, more public signposts should bear the Asean emblem and related information to increase the awareness and sense of belonging to the AC inside the country and beyond. 

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration should take the lead. Past efforts trying to make the capital an international city must be more mindful of Asean components, which were sadly missing.