Charter writers are deluded

I echo the sadness expressed over Thailand’s lost opportunities to achieve development on a par with Singapore. I attribute our failure to one factor – the common belief that Thailand’s evils can only be cured by legislation. The fixation on laws as a one-size-fits-all remedy has resulted in our going through 20 constitutions in 83 years – an average of one every four years. Prominent lawyers always play a great part in the drafting of Thai charters, labouring under the delusion that theirs will endure in a coup-less future. They have been proven wrong 20 times and that number will almost inevitably rise.

In sharp contrast, Singapore has achieved its enviable status not by written law alone but through the pragmatism of one person – Lee Kuan Yew. Using autocratic methods, he succeeded in instilling his own selfless example of incorruptibility and efficient management. His ends-justify-the-means philosophy won him few friends in the West, but he silenced his critics by achieving an economic “miracle”, an education system ranked the world’s best, a competitive business hub, low corruption levels, and an advanced digital economy. Singapore’s development is now on a par with almost anything the West can boast. Given those achievements, I am willing to forgive some of Lee’s transgressions against human-rights standards. 

Thailand will remain stuck in its vicious constitutional cycle until we realise that along with laws we need stronger standards in governance and public life to guard against and punish those who brazenly take advantage of any charter to further their own ends. This is the only way to ensure that coups never happen again.

Songdej Praditsmanont