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All political parties, large and small, are trying to woo the elec¬torate with populist policies ahead of the election, but experts say it will not bridge the gap between rich and poor in the long run.

"It will only lead to a phoney povertyeradication pro¬gramme," said Chulalongkorn University political scientist Prapas Pintobtaeng.

Prapas, who has done plenty of research on rural poverty, said populist handouts like cheap loans and debt moratoriums will not address the issue of agricul¬tural production and farmers' debt as the sector will continue to bleed and turn rural farmers into seasonal unskilled workers in the cities.

He voiced his concerns last week at a roundtable discussion organised by Nation Multimedia Group.

"It's also risky to fiscal disci¬pline," said Songtham Pinto, a macroeconomist from the Bank of Thailand.

He said that many of the promised freebies could bank¬rupt the national treasury. While acknowledging that populist policies were not wrong per se, he said their success depended on how they were implemented by political parties.

Viroj na Ranong, a senior research specialist with the Thailand Development Research Institute Foundation (TDRI), said the media's stereo¬typing of the poor as rural vot¬ers who were "addicted" to pop¬ulist policies was disturbing because it revealed a deeproot¬ed bias against the poor.

Viroj reminded the panel that the rich got their own hand¬outs from the Thaksin Shinawatra administration through assistance with nonperforming loans.

"If you really count it, the cost of assistance given to the rich may be even higher than that given to the poor. I feel disturbed with the view that the poor are addicted [to populist policies] because it reflects a belief that the poor are lazy and do not know how to look after their interests."

But the panel agreed that the various populist policies are here to stay as long as politicians feel they can make instant electoral gains from promises made to voters. Bridging the social and economic gaps will require quality education, increasing the ability of people to learn and progressive taxes that cover inheritance tax, land tax and so on.

Songtham said that although farmers made up more than half of the workforce, the farming sector accounted for only 9 per cent of the GDP.

"In the long run, we must nurture people's ability to think and that doesn't mean just schooling," he said, adding that Thai soap operas filled with violence and romance revealed much about the condition of society.

Viroj agreed, but stressed that middleclass people also have a problem.

"If our population is not a quality population and is easily manipulated over the past year, such as the middle class [was manipulated by the junta], then it's tough. People were raised in a culture where followers and those with less power simply followed and trusted those with power," he said.

"Any state that reduces its own citizens to docile followers will never achieve greatness. I feel as if we're living in a cultural revolution [like China].

"Those with reserved power preach to people all the time about morality and ethics, but look where we are now. Perhaps this is the country with the most preaching. We ought to let people think more freely."

Prapas said the issues of natural resources, government budget allocation and progressive taxes cannot be overlooked.

Another TDRI researcher, Somchai Jitsuchon, said that people must have more to say about how to manage their own natural resources.

by Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation