Public has had enough of govt's false promises

A series of protests blocking roads to press the government to succumb to demands to fulfil election promises is a warning sign that the populist policy has turned sour.

Many people who took to the streets to press for their demands say that they are asking the government to honour the promises that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made during the general election campaign last year.

The discontent can be seen from a group of truck drivers who protested a planned NGV (natural gas for vehicles) price hike. One of them displayed a banner saying that the Yingluck government had betrayed them by raising the NGV price, even though they voted for the Pheu Thai Party.

The government said it had to raise the cost of NGV to adjust local prices in realistic tandem with international markets. But the protesting truck drivers and taxi drivers felt the urge to vent their anger on the streets because they believe that that the government owes it to them to follow through on populist promises. 

Amidst the current economic situation, the government will certainly find it difficult to raise the massive amount of money needed to realise its promises to the electorate. But voters are unlikely to accept this reality because these were political promises that the Pheu Thai Party pledged to voters in order to win the election.

The debate surrounding the minimum wage hike is an example of how the government will have to find a way out to minimise the impact of a sudden rise in labour costs. The debate over the highly anticipated subsidy for first house and first vehicle buyers has been less intense lately, thanks to the recent flooding disaster.

The government’s promise to give Bt5,000 cash to everyone who suffered as a result of the flooding has also started to draw protests from those who were left out of the scheme. Like all the other promises made during the election campaign, the government did not come up with details and descriptions of who would be eligible for financial assistance, leaving much room for confusion.

The government’s Bt2,000 electrical appliance purchase coupon for flood victims is an example of how the government has tried to work around the scheme. As it turns out, the coupons were not for Bt2,000 per se. Flood victims said they could not use the coupons as they wished because there were many restrictions, and Yingluck had to come out to apologise to the public over the confusion and mismanagement of the coupon scheme.

Rubber planters have also recently rallied to demand a subsidy on rubber prices. 

The government was already uncertain as to where the massive budget needed for its schemes was going to come from. It will now find it even harder to finance these schemes after the flood disaster, which will require another massive budget for recovery. The government has planned to spend Bt350 billion on projects related to flood recovery. The government will have no other options except to borrow more, even though the level of public debt almost hits the ceiling requirement. As a result, the government is under pressure to transfer the Finance Ministry’s debt from the financial crisis of 1997 to the Bank of Thailand, to enable it to borrow more to finance its new investment schemes.

The government has not made a good case for the defence of its populist policies, and the public has begun to question how it will spend the money to improve the well-being of the people. For instance, the Bt2,000 electrical appliance coupon project is financed by the Energy Conservation Fund. But so far it is unclear who is the real beneficiary of this project, because flood victims say they cannot get what they want from electrical appliance suppliers.

Populism does not necessarily have to be evil. But it can be a double-edged sword if the money is not spent wisely. Some recipients seem to be instilled with the belief that they can always rely on the government’s give-away assistance schemes. This complacency will come at the expense of individual self-motivation. What kind of nation will we be if a majority of the population lacks personal drive but chooses to rely on government help to solve their problems.