09.10.09 Academic warns of 'bloodbath'
A respected academic warned yesterday that a chronic social
division could eventually lead to a clash and bloodbath if no attempts
were made to avert it.
Nidhi Eoseewong, a professor in history, said that the problem has
become "deep-rooted" after 20 years of social division, not just the
three past years as had been believed. He said the
problem of unbalanced society began since the time of King Rama V more
than a century ago. The on-going social division does not involve only
the elite, the middle class and the grassroots, as in the past, but
also a large portion of the lowest group that has become a lower middle
class both in the rural and urban areas. "This group of
people want more participation in public policy-making. In the future,
these people will demand not only political equality but also other
things, which will cause further stress in society. And I am not sure
if the middle class will be able to accept it," Nidhi said. Some
observers say Thai society has become severely divided over the past
three years following the 2006 military coup that overthrew the
government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Nidhi
was speaking during an academic meeting entitled "A Balanced Path for
the Thai Economy, Politics and Society", at the Sasin Graduate
Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University. He
said that a "terrifying spectre" would be unnecessary and unreasonable
bloodshed. "Are we going to prevent that from happening? Thai people
will kill each other unreasonably. What to be done now is to reduce
factors that can lead to bloodbath in the short and long terms," Nidhi
said. In the short term, he suggested a stronger system of
political scrutiny to give the people more power to scrutinise
politicians, in addition to allowing more freedom of expression. He
expressed opposition against issuing a law to regulate public
gatherings. In the long term, he said a genuine rule of
law and a welfare state should be established to provide security for
the lower middle-class people. Another panel speaker
Vishanu Kruea-ngam, who is formerly secretary-general to the Cabinet,
said that Thai society should adopt His Majesty the King's philosophy
of sufficiency economy to maintain social equilibrium. "There should be no extremes, no surplus and no shortage. The philosophy must be adopted in a reasonable way," he said. Pisit
Lee-ahtham, formerly a deputy finance minister, told yesterday's Sasin
meeting that the government should spend more money on social projects
in order to build up security for people in the middle and lower tiers
of society. Source: The Nation, 09.10.09
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/10/09/politics/politics_30114115.php
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