Harrison George : Kamnan style

[Mid]

Please Note This is an OPINION Piece .


Kamnan style
Harrison George
Sat, 10/11/2012

In the good old days, when the majority of Thais could be safely kept downtrodden, down at heel and down on the farm, local government was a doddle.

To give the appearance of democracy, citizens were allowed to elect their village headman and the ‘kamnan’, the leader of the tambon, or subdistrict - the next highest level in the comprehensive and rigid hierarchy of governance in Thailand.

But ‘elect’ was a bit of an exaggeration. The principle in play was ‘guided democracy’ which in practice was more guided than democratic. The villagers couldindeed choose their leaders. But, you know, these ignorant uneducated masses never knew what was good for them and they might elect a gangster or other unwholesome person. So any election could be nullified on the say of the ‘nai amphoe’, who was in charge of the next highest unit in the hierarchy, the district.

Now the nai amphoe himself (and by the rules of government at the time, it was always a ‘he’), and his immediate boss, the provincial governor, have never been, and still are not, elected positions. Their loyalty lies with the Ministry of Interior, who appoints them, and not the local populace. If they wanted promotion to bigger, and more lucrative, positions, they had to prove themselves obedient servants of the state.By, for example, throwing undesirables out of public office. Keeping the locals happy has been the least of their worries.

This was shown by the monthly schedule of official meetings. If village and subdistrict meetings really expressed the vox pop, you would expect them first, followed by district and provincial meetings as the voice of the people filtered up. The reality was of course the opposite. Meetings were scheduled so that commandscould properly cascade downwards from the centres of power onto the powerless.

Now village headmen and kamnan were effectively given jobs for life, whereas ministry-appointed officials could expect to be transferred every few years. Think this through and you can see that officialdom had created a structure that could not help but reinforce the patronage system.

This becomes obvious when national elections are added into this mix, where residency requirements for candidates were so lax as to be meaningless. Where would a prospective MP from the big city look for canvassers if not to these lords of local patronage?

But then things started to unravel. Those pesky feminists managed to get the rules changed so that woman could become village heads, although entrenched patriarchy has managed to keep their numbers so low that governments are periodically embarrassed by them. Though not to the point of actually doing much about it.

But the real blow was struck by the 1997 Constitution, which espoused the cause of decentralization. One way this was going to be achieved was by term limits for village heads and kamnan and the creation of elected Tambon Administrative Organizations. Kamnan and village heads now, horror of horrors, had to face re-election. They could still indulge in shenanigans, but they had to be far less blatant about it for fear of an enraged electorate.

The inevitable counterblow from the forces of darkness came with the Surayud government, installed after the 2006 coup, which, as far as it dared, turned the clock back on all this democracy nonsense. One of their pressing problems was persuading the people first to endorse the constitution they’d had jimmied together and then vote for the ‘correct’ parties when elections were re-instated.

If you want to fix an election, who do you go to? Well, the military could and did try strong-arm tactics, but the effect was limited. No, best to go back to the tried and true methods and bribe the local patrons – with a return to jobs for life.

Well the constitution passed, sort of, on a since reneged promise that it could always be amended. But the elections since have been a disaster for the establishment. So we now have a re-elected government whose heart, and heartland, you would have thought, holds with reinstating the status quo ante.

And that is what their draft law on kamnan and phuyaiban attempted to do. The current incumbents, whose protests have been so carefully choreographed, have in fact nothing to fear. As a transitional measure, they can stay in their jobs until retirement, death or gross dereliction of duty removes them. But their successors will again be subject to fixed terms, which they could in fact hold for life since there is no limit to the number of times they can stand for re-election.

But now we see a sad case of frostbitten feet. The Pheu Thai party is having second thoughts about re-introducing even this limited form of democracy, such is their pusillanimous commitment to letting the people have a say.

So what’s next? A protest by sitting MPs and Senators, appointed and otherwise, alsodemanding jobs for life?

Erm, I don’t think I should have said that. Might put ideas in what passes for their minds.

prachatai.com

[Rocksteady]

Chonburi, is run by a well known family whose head is a very famous Kamnam and supposedly on the run for murder and in hiding in Camnbodia (cough cough).

His sons and nephews head all the decision making branches of local government and win every election by a country mile.

Yes, 'the fix' is well and truly in!