Recently, the Newsweek published an interesting article entitled How Democracy Dies by Joshua Kurlantzick, an expert on Southeast Asia affairs of the Council of Foreign Relations. The article talked about political phenomena worldwide, saying the situation for democracy was worrying.
Reason for Regression
The article analyzed that democracy in several country had regressed and this happened in Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Russia and Asia. The main reason for the regression was the middle class people who used to fight for freedom and democracy by toppling dictatorial regimes. The article said the middle class people were seeing that it was hard to create true democracy so they became disappointed in the system.
The main reason that prompted the middle class people to feel so was the fact that leaders of several new democratic countries regarded elections as only a way to power. And after they won an election, they abused the administrative power and practiced nepotism. Their interpretation of democracy that way was distortion of democracy, and thus causing the public to lose faith in the democratic system.
Kurlantzick also analyzed that the economic crisis also affected democracy in certain countries because the middle class regarded that democracy and freedom came with the adoption of globalization and capitalism. After their income dropped because of the economic crisis, they blamed the democracy for the economic crisis.
Implementing Policies
The article cited examples from several countries, including the Philippines, Venezuela, Russia and Cambodia. Kurlantzick highlighted the case of Thailand as a graphic example. In the example, Kurlantzick talked about former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, saying he got the power through democratic means and implemented policies as promised during the election campaigns and helping the poor. But Thaksin eventually abused the authority. Kurlantzick also talked about the summary killings of drug suspects during Thaksin's war on drug and the disappearance of lawyer Somchai Nilaphaichit.
This is the view of a westerner who still remembers the administrative style of Thaksin. Kurlantzick also talked about the phenomenon of the middle class people in Bangkok becoming disappointed and calling for the use of special power and a coup instead of using democratic means to bring about changes by supporting the opposition or by pushing for changes via newspapers.
Kurlantzick recounted that the middle class reasoned that the coup needed to be staged to preserve democracy. And eventually, the middle class people got what they wanted - they could topple the Thaksin regime and destroy democracy at the same time.
Kurlantzick did not conclude who was right or wrong. He simply presented an analysis in a view of a foreigner. But he added that after the middle class caused the democracy to regress by a coup and other undemocratic means, the lower class people became dissatisfied, leading to protests. Kurlantzick said this did not happen only in Thailand but also in Bolivia and the Philippines.
His last observation in the article was that kind of fight destroyed system and mechanisms of the country administration as well as the people's rights and freedom. He said it would take a long time to rebuild these democratic elements and there is no guarantee that the rebuilding would be successful.
Solving National Crisis
So, I am sharing this article so that Thai people would know how other people are viewing our situation. Sometimes, all Thais are like being caught in the middle of a bout in which fighters are fiercely fighting with no indication that they would stop. When we see how our "audience" analyze and think about our situation, we may be able to see it through and find a way-out for solving our national crisis.
The principle that we need to adhere to and need to have a common stand is that democracy is the best system for providing equal political and economic chances to the people and for guaranteeing the rights and freedom of the people. All problem solving efforts must be based on democracy. What happened in the past should be regarded as a painful lesson and we should never choose a coup as a way-out again.
Check-and-Balance Mechanisms
Most of all, there must be mechanisms for sharing power so that all sides and all classes in the society will take part in the ruling with the feelings that they are all owners of the country. All interests must be equally distributed instead of being concentrated to only a group of people no matter whether they are old or neo fenders. And when someone has money and power, that person must use the power with justice instead of abusing it to benefit himself and associates. To achieve this, the check-and-balance mechanisms of the public and private sectors must be strengthened as soon as possible.
We are all humans no matter whether we are elites or ordinary people. We need to respect each other because if we fail to see each other's face and respect each other, we will end up fighting against each other.
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