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[The Quill]

HARD TALK: 'Friend' - you've got to say it with meaning
The Nation



Published on Mar 2, 2004



Less than six months ago, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra believed he was on top of the world. The Apec summit he was hosting had his approval rating soaring in a way no political leader before him had ever seen.

His ambition to be recognised as a regional leader seemed to be within reach. Thaksin could even proudly count US President George W Bush as a friend. After all, the "major non-Nato ally" status accorded Thailand by Washington was probably the best deal Thaksin could bargain for in standing side by side with the US in its war against terrorism.

But that was October 2003, and Thaksin today might already be missing those "good old days". A succession of events, including the violence in the South, the bird flu, the iTV scandal, the humiliating loss in the Songkhla by-election, and the ongoing face-off with the Egat union, have somehow brought him back to earth.

Even his "friend" George seems to be deserting him. The damning report on the human rights situation in Thailand issued by the US State Department last week had Thaksin fuming. The Thai leader, of course, never expected his good friend in Washington to treat him this way.

Thaksin and Bush probably have different definitions of the word "friend". As a superpower, the US considers countries to be friends only when they serve its economic and political interests. And Thaksin certainly is not naive enough not to know that.

But Thaksin's outburst over the US rights report is a good indication of how he interpreted his friendship with the US. And that it was definitely not the way he thought it should be.

Thaksin apparently believed that from the day he shook hands with his friend George during the Apec summit in Bangkok, there would be only backslapping and sweet words between them. After all, didn't Thailand uphold her part of the bargain by giving Washington her wholehearted support to the war on terror?

It was certainly beyond the prime minister's comprehension why President Bush would allow such a critical report of Thailand's human rights record to come out. Apparently forgetting all the handshakes and the new-found friendship, Thaksin was swift to denounce Bush as a "useless" and "annoying" friend.

Well, it seems rather unfair for Thaksin to vent his anger on his old friend this way. The Thai prime minister probably has only himself to blame for not having made clear to Bush the meaning of "friend".

Thaksin should have told Bush that once they became friends, nothing that would stir up bad feeling should be said about each other. Even if your friend is in the wrong, you are supposed to turn a blind eye to it.

Therefore, as a friend of Thailand, Bush was not supposed to take any notice of the 2,000 cases of murder and extrajudicial killings in the name of a war on drugs - much less make a noise about it.

And if Thaksin was accused of attempting to roll back press freedom in Thailand, his friend George was supposed to be oblivious to it. He was also supposed to plead ignorance to the problem of corruption and all other forms of human rights violations in Thailand that were pointed out in the report.

After all, at least by Thaksin's definition, that's what "friends" are for. The only problem was that he somehow thought that his friend Bush shared this understanding.

The latest US State Department report on human rights practices in Thailand, therefore, came as a rude awakening for Thaksin. All of a sudden, it dawned on him that he has been wrong all along in his assumptions about friendship with Washington.

But Thaksin is not a leader who is readily apologetic about mistakes he makes. He would rather put the blame on someone else. And in this particular case, if there is to be a culprit, it has to be Bush.

Now that the American president has been relegated to the status of "useless" and "annoying" friend, it should be interesting to see how he makes it up to the Thai leader. Bush should know better than to think that one can cross paths with Thaksin and get away unscathed.

Bush mustn't forget that Thaksin is not someone who is ready to kow-tow to anyone.

Even the United Nations earned his ire for criticising his government's war on drugs.

Here is a little tip for the American leader on how he can atone for his offence. When Thaksin is unhappy with a newspaper, he would have its owner fire the editor.

Bush should know what to do with his secretary of state if he still wants Thaksin to consider him a "friend".

THEPCHAI YONG

[The Quill]

EDITORIAL: Senate in a state of steep decline



Published on Mar 2, 2004



The writing is on the wall: the upper chamber of Parliament has succumbed to political interference and can no longer be relied upon to spearhead political reform

It would be a gross understatement to say that the elected Senate will have little to celebrate when it marks its fourth anniversary this week. What precious little the upper chamber may have achieved since its inception has been overwhelmed and cancelled out by a virtually unbroken string of scandals that culminated in the wholesale buyout of its supposedly politically-neutral members.| The 200 members of the Senate born of the 1997 "People's Constitution" were directly elected for the first time in Thailand's history in 2000 in a poll marred by widespread vote-buying and other electoral fraud.

Giving the Senate the benefit of the doubt, the public kept hoping that its members would somehow come to their senses and try to live up to high expectations that they would move forward badly-needed political reform.

The Senate, in a burst of youthful energy, offered a momentary glimmer of hope as many of its members appeared to be taking their job seriously by vetting legislation with rational debate and an apparent high degree of independence. For a time, the Senate even disagreed on certain key pieces of legislation with the ruling Thai Rak Thai-led coalition government, which commands an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives.

Armed with enhanced powers, the new Senate is tasked with vitally important roles, including the hiring and firing of members of the various independent organisations set up to ensure checks-and-balances between the administrative, legislative and judicial branches of government, as well as transparency in governance.

In hindsight, the public should have known better, given the fact that most senators are political old-timers - including former MPs - and retired government officials, plus a sprinkling of academics, social workers and independent thinkers.

Little surprise, then, that a Senate composed of so many people with doubtful credentials should turn out to have questionable integrity. Self-respecting senators who perform their duty honestly are few and far between and thus have little if any impact on the working of the Senate as a whole.

As a political institution, the new Senate's precipitous decline was remarkable for its speed and the depths to which it has sunk. From an institution entrusted with the mandate to clean up Thailand's dirty politics, the Senate has been manipulated and then co-opted by the powers-that-be to become an active partner in corruption, the very crime that it was meant to eliminate.

The majority of senators have since abandoned any pretence of upholding the constitutionally-required impartiality. Many of them have been persuaded by the enormous power of patronage while others have been intimidated or blackmailed into submission.

Last month's election of the new Senate speaker was marred by alleged rampant vote-buying, blackmail and intimidation to get a senator with close ties to the Thaksin administration installed. This was in addition to the alleged rigging of appointments of many people closely associated with the ruling party to key positions in independent organisations, such as the Constitution Court, the Election Commission and the National Counter Corruption Commission.

The most vicious elements of Thai politics that have kept Thailand weak, backward and poorly-governed seem to have succeeded in consolidating their power to perpetuate their evil designs - the corruption of all aspects of Thai political, economic and social life.

Thailand's hard-won political reform now lies in tatters as the Senate is now dominated by unprincipled and ethically-challenged members.

It's time for freedom-loving individual members of the public, political action groups and civil society organisations not only to be vigilant but also to build a united front to ensure effective opposition against the insidious corruption that is undermining the country's democracy.

The Nation

The Nation

[mrentoul]

Quote

Traditionally, it is supposed to be a day during which journalists are allowed the luxury of taking time out to reflect on the state of their profession

The luxury of time out?

The reporters I know are always taking ''time out''.

They never do any work.