From rice to rubber, political infestation grows

Rice farmers have problems. Rubber planters have problems. Among their myriad of problems, the biggest one, though, is that their problems have become badly politicised. In other words, national politics has been aggravating their troubles. Worse still, the recent roadblocks by rubber growers, the explosive debate on their plight in Parliament and the rocky talks between them and the government seem to be just the beginning.

If the political division has wreaked havoc on social media, the turmoil at the grassroots level is causing far more than ideological “stress” and a few more hours with smartphones or computers. Rice farmers and rubber planters have had to deal with the do-or-die issue of the price of their produce, which has sadly become intertwined with how the political winds blow in Thailand.

“Idealists” make some political commentary on social media and go on to receive salaries as bankers, academics, journalists or event organisers. The rice farmers and rubber planters don’t have that kind of luxury. It’s either sell their crop at a decent price or face a really bleak future. The debate on how far government subsidies should go or what is populism and what is government aid for people in need has been muddied by politics, played on relentlessly by both sides of the national divide.

If this goes on, the poor will suffer the most. And “suffer” doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of or insufficient state help. The ongoing political situation means that state aid can be over the top for some and dribbling for others. Again, this doesn’t mean rice farmers are unjustifiably getting help while rubber planters aren’t. This just means politically motivated help for rice farmers can be harmful to them in the long run and the plight of rubber planters has been obfuscated by suspicion that some of their protests may have a hidden political agenda.

It’s one thing when divisive politics causes a whirlwind of tweets or parody videos on Facebook. It’s another when government decisions on how much should be done for fundamental economic sectors of the country, and how quickly, are dictated by which party they support. The controversy over the rice pledging scheme and the raucous rallies by rubber planters have confirmed that the damage from our political polarity is hitting the most vulnerable groups squarely and hard.

Both sides are blaming each other over who got Thailand to this point. The blame game is part of the vicious circle preventing Thai politicians from treating national problems as they are. Rubber planters can never gain the government’s utmost trust, while the opposition will continue to question aid being lavished on rice farmers at the expense of fiscal discipline and at the risk of corruption. To some extent, both camps have been right, but they can also be wrong. Yet being right and wrong is the result of political prejudices, not real, sincere and thorough studies of national issues.

Besides agricultural problems, we have seen efforts to tackle the insurgency in the deep South getting frequently bogged down by national politics, in which the rival players, again, are pointing accusing fingers at each other over the unrest in the region. The campaign against drugs has also been politically tinged, and so has the issue of corruption.

So, the main problem is obvious. The more festering the political divide is, the more difficult it will be to return to the basics of helping people based on their real hardships and suffering. This only leaves the question of what are we planning to do about it.