Why PM Prayut is no match for Anand
Re: “Who’s the best PM is only a matter of opinion”, Have Your Say, July 31.
I accept Somsak Pola’s challenge to prove that more than just “the Panyarachun clan” had high regard for Anand Panyarachun’s premiership. If we trawl through media reports dating back to the early ’90s, we find that Anand’s two terms were markedly free of the brickbats thrown at the previous and later prime ministers. He was commended for initiating economic, political and environmental reforms, particularly the acclaimed 1997 “People’s Constitution”. As for specifics, Anand has received seven royal decorations, was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in UK and was decorated by Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.
Perhaps the most relevant award in this debate was the 1997 Ramon Magsaysay Award for integrity and courage in government service.
I agree with Somsak’s choices of Prem and Abhisit – both good men. With regard to General Prayut, I would suggest that the jury is still out.
If one accepts that conditions in 2014 were such that Anand’s “Seven Pillars of Democracy” had to be suspended, and that it was right for the general will of the people to be overridden by the will of a single man, then yes, Prayut will be remembered favourably. Yet that would only be if the Seven Pillars were eventually restored. But I have some worries, particularly with regard to corruption. Having seized the low-hanging fruit of corrupt taxi mafia and the like, it is apparent that there are red lines over which the junta will not step. The Red Bull heir manslaughter is one, entrenched island mafias are another, police reform yet another, but the most serious is the failure of the military to set an example to the rest of society by putting its own house in order.
When those who expose allegations of corruption, nepotism or human rights abuses within the military are persecuted and even imprisoned, this makes the present regime no better than any of the previous elected regimes that manipulated the levers of government to protect and enrich their own kind.
Nigel Pike
