POLITICS-THAILAND: Thaksin’s Gung-ho Style Irks U.S. Politicians

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 3 2004 (IPS) - The U.S. political establishment is getting increasingly rankled by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s gung-ho style of leadership.

U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the second figure from Washington who has vented his rage at a slew of Thaksin’s actions and policies within a month.

Before him, in early March, U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell launched a scathing attack at the Thai premier due to Bangkok’s soft stance towards the military government in neighbouring Burma.

”Thailand is no longer the most democratic, open and free partner of the United States in South-east Asia that it once was,” thundered Kucinich in a letter circulated to other U.S. congressmen according to a report in Saturday’s ‘The Nation’ newspaper.

To buttress his views, Kucinich recalled the human rights violations that occurred during the Thai government’s ”war on drugs” last year. ”Thai authorities have been complicit in 2,600 extra-judicial murders of suspected, but never convicted drug traffickers,” he wrote, quoting a recent report from the human rights lobby Amnesty International.

He also expressed alarm at the ”sweeping crackdown and takeover of the news media” in addition to criticising the Thai government, like McConnell did, over its stance towards the Burmese junta.

Kucinich’s letter was written to warn the U.S. government against pushing for a planned free trade agreement (FTA) with Thailand, negotiations for which are due to begin in June.

This trend towards Thaksin-bashing in Washington was set by the U.S. State Department in February in its annual report on human rights practices in 2003. The human rights climate in Thailand ”worsened” last year, the state department’s publication noted, and singled out the ”war on drugs” launched by the Thaksin administration as a fundamental reason for this situation.

Thai government officials assert, however, that the Thaksin’s policies are being unfairly judged by U.S. lawmakers who have failed to ”look at the broader picture, particularly the views of the Thai public”.

Some of the statements made by Congressman Kucinich ”do not reflect the real situation in Thailand,” said Sihasak Phuangketkeow, spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs. ”Thailand is second to none when it comes to press freedom in South-east Asia.”

He also explained to IPS that the government’s campaign to eradicate the profusion of narcotics in the country ”had the support of the people, because it is a serious problem”.

The Thaksin administration, he pointed out, has assured that ”fully transparent investigations will be conducted” for cases where excess force was used.

The prime minister still continues to enjoy wide support in the country according to recent polls, although such public endorsement is not as high as it was in 2001, the year Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai) Party won a landslide victory at the polls.

Yet his style of leadership has been increasingly coming under fire from Thai academics, sections of the media and human rights defenders.

Friday served up a typical example of this pattern, when Thaksin’s abrasive and at times harsh style of government was highlighted by a Thai scholar at a seminar examining the type of political leaders in South-east Asia.

”Since 2001, the Thaksin government has closed down much of the political spaces opened up over the prior quarter-century. This has been dramatic,” Pasuk Phonpaichit, an economist and author on corruption and the illegal economy in Thailand, told a packed conference room at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

That has been achieved through a broad strategy, she noted. To begin with, Bangkok attempted by reduce the threats of protest from the poorer sectors by offering ”more welfare, village funds and various ‘care’ schemes”.

When such efforts failed, ”the government reverts to repression,” Pasuk explains. She cited the tough measures Bangkok used to quell rural communities who were seeking a remedy from the government after the construction of the controversial Pak Mun dam in the north-east undercut their livelihoods.

Even non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which had been in the vanguard of expanding Thailand’s democratic culture in the 1990s, are in the firing line. Besides using several repressive laws, the government has also marshalled the military to ”serve as an ally and resource”.

The Thaksin administration ”has tamed the media through a mixture of law, regulation, intimidation and money,” Pasuk asserted. ”The media is possibly tamer now than at any time in Thailand’s modern history.”

It is a view in keeping with a March report by the Thai Journalists Association. The study noted that the press worked under more pressure in 2003 than in 2002 and faulted the government for this deteriorating climate of press freedom.

The consequence of this change, according to the study, was more self-censorship by journalists when touching on topics critical of the government or the prime minister.

Despite this, political analysts say that Thaksin may still be voted back into power when Thailand has its next general election due in less than a year.