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Published on April 29, 2008

Sopon Onkgara

The Nation

For some people, there is a feeling that the period has been unrealistically long due to a lot of activities, which in fact were much ado about nothing.

Much of the time has been wasted, instead of realising any substantive achievements for the public good. Political conflicts and power plays have been the mainstay throughout, with increasing intensity, like a fuse leading to a keg of dynamite.

For Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, much of his noted activities were about dutiful foreign trips, meeting fellow Asean leaders to firm up bilateral relations. Some said he did away with traditional protocol, seeking to experience the reality for people in those countries in his down-to-earth management style.

If we assess the performance of the administration in a fair manner, there was some progress in the areas of populist programmes to please the rural poor, although it will take some time to evaluate whether spending those billions of baht was eventually productive.

For most key Cabinet members, the first priority was the transfer of senior officials - the easiest task of all. It does not require much intellect, but the ability to withstand public criticism over nepotism and cronyism for self-serving purposes.

Transfers of officials are necessary for politicians to solidify their bases and set a network for smooth administration, especially in seeking undue enrichment through sweetheart projects and kickbacks considered as a handsome return from political ventures.

We can regard this administration as the most combative and abrasive in our history of gutter politics. Not only is a serious lack of civility, proper manners and good sense a subject of growing public concern, the problem of incompetence and craving for verbal sparring is also critical.

The pursuit of great shame is regarded as a great game, so to speak. No amount of public revulsion would make high-profile Cabinet members realise that they are there to serve the public and not act as the master.

The arrogance of power even exceeds the period under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration, which also failed to match the degree of callousness and insolence.

In the past three months, Samak is still acting within the confines of being leader of the People Power Party instead of a national leader dedicated in serving the public interest. Instead, he serves as a nominee of Thaksin and must toe the line, his attempt to become independent has not been convincing due to blurred objectives.

Samak is still walking a political tightrope, a loner among the PPP insiders. He realises that he is just a figurehead, devoid of respect and recognition by party members who still worship Thaksin, the undisputed paymaster with unlimited funds to fulfil reinvented ambitions.

What the administration is trying to achieve, obviously at any cost, even the risk of bloodletting in political confrontation, is constitutional amendment.

With a small group of MPs loyal to Thaksin, they have come up with a new version, based on the previous charter, and plan to ram it through the House ignoring all advice and protests.

This too, is self-serving, duly admitted by Samak himself when he uttered publicly that the need to rush the amendment was to avoid party dissolution and political penalties.

The ultimate beneficiaries would be Thaksin, his family members and cronies barred from active politics for five years.

The stakes are high. Thaksin stands to regain his massive Bt62 billion cash reserves frozen by the Assets Examination Committee and free himself from all criminal charges related to malfeasance and other alleged wrongdoings.

What the administration has achieved is to use daily verbal sparring, clowning and controversial conduct to divert public attention from the real problems related to peoples' daily problems due to rising cost of living.

Even if the ministers concerned tried to tackle the issues, there would be just proof of incompetence, nonsensical antics and failures.

The first 100 days will lead to a period of turbulent politics, confrontation in the streets looks inevitable.

The writing is on the wall. A pattern has been set. When violence flares up,

resulting in deaths and injuries the military will have to intervene if the police fail to control the situation.

What comes next is predictable, just a rewrite of the events prior to, and after September 19, 2006, with changes in some chapters and scenes.

What remains entirely unpredictable is who will win.