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Published on August 6, 2007

Should we limit the ceiling of financial contributions to political parties by big-time donors and corporations? At present, the election law permits a big-time donor or a corporation to contribute not more than Bt10 million to a political party. This relatively large sum is compared to not more than Bt5,000 permitted for members of the general public. Meechai Ruchuphand, the president of the National Legislative Assembly, raised his concerns about this issue over the weekend. He had heard that a political party had bought out incumbent members of parliament by making payments of Bt30 million to each of them. The payments were aimed at either attracting these incumbent MPs back to the party in question or preventing them from joining another rival party.

Financial contributions to political parties are a serious issue. The Election Commission must try to fully investigate this allegation of political parties buying-out MPs. If it can set up an effective system to investigate the MP buy-outs, it will help reduce corruption in Thai politics. However, Bt30 million was about the same level of payment made to MPs in the previous elections.

Thailand has not yet escaped from the vicious cycle of money politics. Both politicians and their capitalist friends invest heavily in political organisations and willingly buy out the sitting MPs to secure seats. During elections, they bribe the voters, especially in rural areas, with money and other enticements. Once they get elected and form a government, they naturally try to recoup their investment. This corrupt cycle must be deterred or an end put to it.

Meechai is correct to have raised this issue. If we cannot avoid money politics, why don't we just remove the present ceiling on financial contributions to political parties? Meechai argues that it would be better not to place any limit on members of the public contributing to political campaign financing so that everything can be seen above board and on the table. Otherwise, the money would change hands under the table anyway. For instance, an individual might want to donate Bt30 million to his favourite political party. With the present legal constraint, he would only be able to donate Bt10 million. So he will almost certainly try to circumvent the law by handing out another Bt20 million under the table. This, of course, leads to murky transactions and contributions.

Since it seems beyond anybody's powers to prevent money politics totally, why not try to improve the system? Political parties must be encouraged, if not required by law, to adopt transparent accounting. They must carry out public filing or submit disclosures of their financial receipts from contributors in detail. This would help raise the transparency and proper governance of Thai political organisations to another level.

Theeraphat Serirangsun, a minister of the Prime Minister's Office, has provided a weak argument in support of the existing campaign financing law. He said the ceiling on financial contributions to political parties must be maintained to ensure fairness. Political parties that do not benefit from big-time donors would not be left too far behind those with large contributors.

Is that true? The best way is for the Election Commission to find out through a scientific study. It should conduct a study into campaign financing or the actual costs that politicians shoulder during election seasons for posters, public appearances and political advertising. Then it would be easy to determine whether we should continue to place a limit on financial contributions to political parties.

Certainly, the cost of running for a seat in parliament, apart from the cost of vote-buying for the majority of politicians, is very high - much higher than the limit for campaign financing. It is impossible to run in an election with only Bt100,000 or Bt200,000. Political candidates with strong financial backing always have the advantage and win the seats. Meechai indicated that not everybody is like Chuan Leekpai, the former leader of the Democrat Party. Chuan would spend only Bt100,000 and win his constituency because he is well-known and highly popular.

There is still time to rectify the situation by amending the election law.  The National Legislative Assembly can do a service to the nation by removing the ceiling for financing. In the meantime, we must have a tough election law to prevent vote buying or money politics.