With Somkid, Prayut takes an unprecedented gamble

I wouldn’t have appointed them in the first place if I didn’t expect them to do well, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said of the new Cabinet members when a reporter asked about his expectations for the revamped team. The response might have been rhetoric or it might have been sincere, but the question was surely straightforward enough – and fair. 

Cabinet appointments have far too often been made on the basis of political alliance or some other vested interest rather than the appointees’ ability to serve the nation.

When coalition partners have bargaining power, the prime minister of the day might well accede to their wishes for Cabinet posts regardless of the candidate’s merit. If the premier is firmly in control, the portfolios are apt to go to his own choices. Typically, Cabinet appointments depend on who is doing the nominating rather than who is being nominated. 

Most notably, we have endured a string of poor ministers of education, and not for lack of qualified candidates but because the position is easily auctioned off to help ensure the government’s survival. Other key posts go to the clever campaigners who “deliver” substantial numbers of parliamentary seats. Ability to do the assigned job is rarely a factor in the selection process.

Whether a self-serving prime minister is to blame or greedy coalition partners, the result is invariably the same – ministers unable or unwilling to do their jobs and citizens cheated out of sound government. We have had ministers of science who were more devoted to superstition than technology. We have had justice ministers who in their private lives flaunted the law. And we have had corruption from stem to stern. 

The political crisis of the past decade has only made matters worse, with siblings and spouses substituting for Cabinet members banned from office due to election rigging and other offences.

We routinely witness Cabinet line-ups reshuffled solely in response to political pressure rather than as attempts to improve performance. Some ministers are so politically influential that they’re considered “untouchable”, virtually immune to impeachment and criminal charges. In contrast to routine practice in countries from South Korea to Canada, not a single Thai minister has ever resigned his post to take responsibility for a blunder occurring under his jurisdiction.

Prayut was facing a no-win situation this week when he added Somkid Jatusripitak to his Cabinet. Somkid is closely associated with fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, leaving observers to wonder whether the military regime is “getting desperate” in efforts to bring about real change. But he’s a solid choice as deputy prime minister in charge of the economy and, had Prayut picked someone else, especially a lesser talent, he would have been accused of bias or hypocrisy over his reconciliation plans. 

Prayut’s supporters, however, will be in mood to sympathise. Somkid’s appointment must strike them as the equivalent to a Pheu Thai government naming Supachai Panitchpakdi as finance minister. 

Regardless, the prime minister deserves credit for setting a precedent with this move, one that goes some distance in countering the practice of choosing ministers for the sake of political strength. 

A tradition that slows Thailand’s progress has been breached, however temporarily. We hope Somkid’s appointment represents more than a mere “exception to the rule”, and that future leaders continue to look past rivalries to find the best candidates for the jobs that otherwise simply aren’t getting done.