Vicious circle of political fighting alienates the public

It could have been better had it come from somebody else, not Korn Chatikavanij or Chamlong Srimuang. Both men have said the same thing about the Yingluck government, but the fact that they are its arch-rivals does not help. The administration’s first year, they said, had been wasted on controversial schemes involving Thaksin Shinawatra, and most signs indicate that the second year will be more of the same.

There is much truth in the criticism, although for people in Korn and Chamlong’s positions, having a government fixated on helping a political character as contentious as Thaksin can’t be too bad. To others, it is genuinely joyless. While Korn and Chamlong may be sharpening their knives as the government ponders the future of the “reconciliation” bills and charter amendment, politically passive Thais can only pray. Political wars may give the warriors an adrenaline rush, but the real ordeals and real despair belong to those who have no stake in the fight.

The Yingluck government is entering its second year with politics still topping its agenda. Some issues are of its own making but others are probably not. What is certain is that our politicians on both sides of national polarity will spend most, if not all, of their time on things that won’t serve national interests whatsoever. What Thais want – an accountable political system that, despite flaws, tries to solve problems of men on the street – they will never get. What Thais dread – cut-throat politics dictated by vested interests and personal agendas – will keep dominating their lives.

To hear the political enemies taunting each other over the “reconciliation” bills can eat into our political sanity. To watch or read the news about what’s happening in the deep South, knowing that only lip service is being rendered, chips away at our hope. And to realise that all corruption scandals, like the ongoing rice-pledging controversy, will not end up the way they should, but will become blurred and distorted by the ultimate national divide, is absolutely exhausting.

Thailand has not wasted only the past year. Bad politics has stolen national priorities for a decade or so now. Key issues have seemed to revolve around it – telecom development, international relations, disaster relief, labour welfare, education, to name just a few. A debate on whether our economy is equipped to pay a Bt300 daily minimum wage, for example, is divided along the lines of what you think is worse on May 19, 2010 – the “massacre” or the “city burning”.

Thaksin will be visiting the United States soon. Whatever comes out of that trip will again be heavily politicised. If Parliament, dominated by the Pheu Thai Party, refuses to drop the reconciliation bills and/or decides to challenge the Constitution Court over the charter rewrite, the legislative branch will continue to be bogged down by political wrangling instead of having time to concentrate on other matters. The opposition, meanwhile, is certain to help keep things boiling with a censure motion.

Here we have all the three branches of our political system – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – getting entangled with one another over unhealthy matters. It’s easy to blame any of the three branches but Thailand has gone way beyond that now. In other words, finger-pointing is very routine and not going to solve anything.

The diameter of this vicious circle can get even shorter. Credit to the Pheu Thai Party for not making that happen yet. Its announcement that although the reconciliation bills would not be dropped, they would first go through some sort of public scrutiny, can be cautiously welcomed. At least public worries factored in to the ruling camp’s latest decision, although it is way too soon to consider this development a silver lining.