A picture worth a thousand grim words

A photo published in The Nation on July 7 and widely shared on the social media charmed some viewers. It showed two schoolboys riding pillion on a motorcycle, one feeding the other instant noodles. Others were alarmed because neither boy was wearing a helmet. What was more troubling about the picture, though, was that the safety of young people was once again at risk, Bangkok traffic was once again in gridlock, and nothing was being done about either problem because Thai politics is also, once again, in gridlock. We can’t even agree on exactly what that picture represents.

There were people who saw the photo online and pointed out that it’s all very well to care about Bangkok children having a hurried breakfast on the back of a motorbike, but meanwhile rural kids are walking to school every day barefoot, and often on an empty stomach. The comment had a clear political undertone. The gulf separating us is making the lives of children everywhere in Thailand more difficult than they should be.

Without a functioning democracy to lubricate the wheels of the bureaucracy, the country’s development is largely on hold. Meanwhile an appalling amount of effort, money and brainpower is being devoted to gamesmanship – how to secure or consolidate power, how to outwit rivals, and how to get us out of this political morass so we can move on. Little time or energy is left for addressing the day-to-day running of the country, let alone fixing chronic problems. The photo of the boys on the motorcycle will linger on the social networks for a few days and then be forgotten in the next thunderstorm of political hate and prejudice.

The storms aren’t abating online because so many Thais have been drawn into a war that in fact does not involve them directly, the proverbial pawns in the game. The issues that should be of genuine concern to them – like our shoddy education system and terrible urban transit – don’t seem to matter as much as who’s ahead in politics. And, when these issues do rise to the crest of public awareness, politics gets in the way of the solutions, clouding social judgement.

The main reason we need a fast resolution of the political crisis is non-political. It’s because we need to set budgets and initiate projects for the general wellbeing of the citizenry. As matters stand – without an elected government, between constitutions, with public debate curtailed – any policies addressing social issues are viewed through the taint of political bias. If the military-led government were to step in and do something about Bangkok boys riding motorcycles without helmets, there would be an outcry over rural kids being ignored. 

The government won’t step in, however, because the political crisis – whose nurturers ride in limousines and private jets and don’t have to worry about traffic woes – keeps the needs of the majority of citizens on the back burner.

Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra is being prosecuted over her regime’s flawed rice price-pledging scheme. That was touted as a social policy, designed to benefit farmers in dire financial straits. It necessitated heavy government spending. It failed, and so far we don’t know precisely why. Perhaps there were political motives behind the plan, perhaps Yingluck’s opponents scuttled it out, and perhaps both sides, in waging their battle, wrecked a noble concept. All that’s clear at this stage is that politics got in the way of economic and social development.

It wouldn’t be fair to fully blame politics for jammed city streets and kids being put unnecessarily at risk. But certainly Thailand, under any form of government, would be a far better place to live if its politics weren’t so divisive. That photo of the boys on the bike was a picture that spoke a thousand words, mainly about what’s wrong with our society.