Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Bangkok

Opinion/Analysis

by Burin Kantabutra

I agree with those who feel that the Democrats should focus on bigger issues than Prime Minister Yingluck’s famous Four Season’s Hotel meeting, which has been highly trumpeted as inappropriate.

To me, the opposition’s main objective should be to show voters that they can govern better than whoever is currently in power, and that thus, voters should choose them when the next election rolls around.

A recent ABAC poll’s results suggest that the Democrats are far from having done that – even if PM Yingluck was playing the female counterpart of Bill Clinton in a Thai version of ‘Le Lewinsky Affair’ or even passing on inside government information at the hotel.

When she first presented her policies to Parliament when taking office, PM Yingluck was roundly lambasted for having only myopic policies, (instead of showing us the so called ‘Thai Promised Land’ that she was going to lead us to) then showing how her short-term policies fitted into her long-term ones.

Democrats, show us that your land of milk and honey fits our needs better than hers in such vital matters as, say, water management or education – and, while you’re at it, explain why when you were in power, you didn’t implement the Japan International Cooperation Agency water management plan of over a decade ago, and why you didn’t do much that was substantial to improve the overall quality of education either, as shown by our continually abysmal ONET and other international test rankings.

Democrats Have Stirred Up a Tempest in a Tea Cup, But Failed to Deliver Themselves

If the Democrats can do that and credibly show why they’ll do better than the Puea Thai and than their own past record, then they’ll deserve to win next time – but they’ll need to focus on the big picture,… not just foment drama from the minutae.