Give Thaksin a chance
Despite allegations of graft and accusations of vote buying, Thailand's tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra beat incumbent Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, often dubbed as 'the champion of clean politics', in Saturday's general election by a simple majority.
Thaksin's two-year-old Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party will win about 257 of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament against just 127 of Chuan's Democrat Party, according to unofficial vote counts from Thai television networks on Sunday.
The final result will be announced only after by-elections are held in several constituencies following allegations of electoral fraud and violence. The revotes, however, will not be detrimental to Thaksin's victory. The defeated Chuan acknowledged this fact on Sunday, saying "I believe one single party can almost form the government by itself" and that "there is no reason to challenge it by setting up another coalition".
An interesting question that immediately popped up is why the incumbent coalition led by Chuan, whose integrity and honesty has never been questioned, can be democratically defeated by Thaksin, whose populist policies have often been criticized as endangering Thailand's long-term economic programs?
During the campaign, Thaksin promised to provide one million baht (US$23,000) for direct development funding to each of his country's 70,000 villages and a three-year debt moratorium for debt-ridden farmers on 300 billion baht in loans from the Thai state-run Bank of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
He also promised to provide rural people with Internet links containing information on agriculture technology and to promote small and medium scale businesses to help move the country's economy toward self reliance.
Thaksin's business achievements and experience in developing his telecommunications technology companies into a business empire affirm his capability as a crisis handler, making him, at least in the eye of his supporters, just the right person to bring Thailand out of its economic woes. And at a much faster pace than Chuan and his administration had achieved.
Another important factor that led to Chuan's downfall is the change of attitude of people in the developing countries, especially those at the grassroots level, towards their countries' system of governments. What matters most for the common people is not whether their country is led by a leader with a clean bill of health, but whether the chosen leader could bring them real prosperity with which they could improve the welfare and education standard of their family members and offsprings so as to always keep up with the changes of time and new challenges.
Thais, like their counterparts elsewhere in the region, expect concrete changes in their real life. And Thaksin seems to be their choice.
It remains to be seen, whether Thaksin can deliver all the promises made during his campaign, or whether he can pass the acid test of coming clean and answering allegations that he did not honestly disclose his wealth, believed to be amounting to 60 billion baht, when he was deputy premier in 1997.
It would be a great irony if Thaksin -- due to his country's constitutional requirement for disclosure of wealth -- were later disqualified from politics after his party won the election. Besides, Thaksin has admitted that he might have made mistakes in declaring his assets and insists he earned his wealth legally.
If former actors and political dissidents can become leaders of their countries, why can't a successful business tycoon like Thaksin be given a chance to lead, especially after winning a democratic election?