Our prime minister deserves every chance to make it work

Every conscientious leader works incredibly hard, because every buck stops with him or her. We often see them age before our eyes. Running a country is not for the fainthearted, and it is always lonely at the top. One never quite knows whom, if anyone, to trust. The convolutions of the job can only be fully appreciated by the person who actually occupies the highest office of the land.

Prime Minister Prayut came to that office with the odds stacked against him. The military coup that halted the massive street protest and ended the threat of bloodshed was never a popular move. He did not rush into making it, instead waiting until every other political option was exhausted. With the stand-off between opposing parties erupting into violence in which war weapons were deployed, military intervention was necessary to restore law and order. The “democracy” it halted had been exploited with impunity by self-serving politicians to a degree unimaginable to the Western world. As such it never had a chance to become truly full-fledged and enduring.

Staging the coup was perhaps the easiest part. Forming a cohesive and able government was never going to be a simple task. For Prayut, the job was made much harder by a deeply divided country in which “questionable” elements could not be avoided. But like American president Lyndon Johnson, he might have figured it was better to have those elements inside the tent pissing out, rather than outside pissing in. Every decision seems to require difficult trade-offs.

Then the job of establishing reform and legislative bodies proved more challenging than anybody realised. Old ties, inextinguishable bad habits, personal agendas and egos, preferences and bias were abundant. The Western press likes to say it was him and him alone who appointed all of them, as if there was one homogenous group that he could handpick. But in fact, there was no such thing, nor was there the possibility that the premier could cherry-pick from the best and brightest, let alone have absolute control over their selection. Everybody in these two important chambers also knows that there are more factions than one can count, even in the military sphere, and many have opted to hedge their bets. But in truth, most members of the two bodies have been working long, hard days. They have passed a slew of draft laws that were left untouched by the previous Parliament, many of whose members cared more about lucrative rewards and back-door dealings than their job as legislators. There are many new bills now under deliberation that are unavoidably controversial and difficult, and it is the prime minister who is being targeted for criticism, as if he alone could make all those issues disappear and completely satisfy all sides. In many cases, Prayut is expected to make hay when the sun is not shining. How can that be humanly possible?

Then there is the major issue of the populace and country’s economic wellbeing, after trillions of baht were syphoned into private hands during the previous administration. The current government faces double jeopardy on this front. First, it has the enviable task of restoring fiscal discipline conveniently sacrificed during the previous administration in the name of populist policies. That means belt-tightening. Second, it is facing plunging world prices for two commodities that are major foreign exchange earners – rice and rubber. The Asean market, once Thailand’s vital export destination, has been lost to cheap Chinese products. The economies of several of our major export markets are in the doldrums, and hence our shrinking export volume. That means more taxes therefore are needed to close the gaping holes in public finances. That cannot make the government popular, but it has no other choice. 

Internationally, Thailand is receiving rather a bum rap. The world seems to be fixated on the coup, preferring to ignore the events that led up to it. It is understandable that the United States and European Union, who see themselves as guardians of democracy and democratic values, would want to turn a cold shoulder on Thailand. But it is rather difficult to comprehend the double standards they are displaying over military coups. Two years ago, Egypt experienced a military takeover which resulted in the deaths of many citizens and the incarceration of thousands. The new military regime was accepted and even commended by the West. The military government in Thailand committed no such atrocities. But that fact was conveniently lost on the West.

Last but not least, the unrealistic expectations of Thais for the prime minister to be Mr Fix-it, a panacea for all the country’s ills, must have given Prayut many sleepless nights. He takes his job very seriously, and the tasks in front of him are monumental. And on top of that, he has to rectify grievous wrongs committed by the previous government, as well as making people feel that their lives are improving under his administration. No one gives him the benefit of the doubt, but with less than a year in office, he can only do so much, even if he works 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Winston Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of government, except for all the others. What the Thai prime minister has been trying to do is to lay strong foundations for democratic rule in Thailand. As Henry David Thoreau put it: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

This one honest man, whose straight and aboveboard talk has often got him in hot water, one without a huge ego, one who can apologise, one who is willing to listen and change the government’s stand on issues such as petroleum exploration concessions to be sure it is in the nation’s best interest, and one who is so stressed out by the multifaceted warranted and unwarranted challenges … this man deserves every chance and our support to complete his task.

Lest we forget, it is never about him. It is about all of us.