The man who’s bought more wreaths than most on Earth

Which is why I believed him when he revealed fresh information about himself during our recent meeting, the first in three decades. It concerned his transition from local to national politics after being approached by a big party.

We met because a mutual friend had just passed away. When the conversation veered toward funeral expenses, Kla boasted he bought more wreaths in a week than most people did in a lifetime. The actual number is at least two wreaths per day since he became a local politician a few years ago. In short, thousands and counting.

Rural Thai politics demands such “sacrifice”. It doesn’t matter who has died; your wreath must be there. If you are a Bangkok politician you can miss a few funerals, but people like Kla don’t have that luxury. “If you are a local politician, the worst thing that can happen is your opponent’s wreath hanging at a funeral where yours isn’t,” he explained.

There are roughly a dozen temples in his “area”. Kla has to set aside tens of thousands of baht every month, because each day brings at least two more funerals. “You should set up a wreath-making business to cut costs, and maybe sell to the other politicians,” I joked. 

Both Kla and his opponents have their favourite wreath-makers, who charge them less than the market price.

How about appearing at funerals in person? It’s better than the wreath situation, but he still has to attend about 10 per month. Busy days, when he has to attend two or three funerals in a matter of hours, are common. “Normally, I call the abbots involved and beg for rites to either be delayed or moved forward so I can show my face at all of them,” he said. 

Kla said that he and his political rivals hate having to do all this, but they don’t have a choice. “There is nothing we would like more than a law banning politicians’ wreaths at funerals,” he said. “We would like to see serious enforcement of such a ban. Not just on wreaths, but also on wedding gifts and all that kind of stuff. We would want violators thrown in jail and made an example of. We would love to be able to tell the voters that, hey, we can no longer give you wreaths, because that’s illegal. But as things stand, people like me have to do it because we know our opponents are doing it.”

Since he is my friend, I had the audacity to joke that he would recoup all the wreath money once he’s in Parliament. And because I’m his friend, he cursed me rather than talk nonsense. Then he went back to calling for a ban on politicians’ lavishing gifts on communities. He admitted, though, that society’s attitude has to change first, because as long as there’s a demand for politicians’ wreaths at funerals, the supply will continue.

“I’ll keep sending my wreaths. You can count on that,” he said adamantly. In a way, the wreath tradition is proof of how smart rural people are. According to Kla, voters make a distinction between the regular appearance of your wreaths at temples and one-off gestures ahead of elections like spraying for mosquitoes or cleaning out canals. Vote-buying is the delicate art of showing you are more “sincere” than your opponents.

Kla’s story confirms my belief that political reform must be wholesale, and a revamp of the social mindset is probably the most important element. It would be easy to outlaw politicians’ wreaths at funerals, but not so easy to stop voters from wanting their wreaths every time someone dies. If you ban wreaths, something else would pop up.

New laws may be in the pipeline to make election candidates more honest, independent and accountable. Contrary to the general belief, many politicians actually welcome the moves, Kla told me, but the flow is so strong that everyone has to go with it. Tightening the rules may help constrain the supply, but the demand will hardly be changed.

Playing politics would more than likely still require a big financial investment. So, the question is, if everyone still needs to spend extravagantly to achieve political office, how much hope is there, really? Like it or not, our political system remains one where wealthy folks wield a strong advantage when it comes to getting elected.

Thailand’s “political reform” has focused too much on changing the rules, while the equally if not more important change of attitudes has been largely overlooked. As long as Kla continues to buy wreaths because he has to, the future doesn’t look bright.