One positive outcome of the turmoil is that people in power are at last aware of the inequality problem. For the first time, the government has allotted a budget specifically for this issue. The peak business associations asked to meet with government to discuss inequality. The Thai Chamber of Commerce have come up with a “road map” to reduce inequality. One of the panels appointed in the wake of the may 2010 violence has been tasked to address this issue. But addressing economic inequality in top-down, paternalistic style will not work. Politics has to lead economics. Thailand’s battered democracy needs to be rescued. In the wake of the 3 july 2011 polls, that means reforming the constitution to return towards the 1997 model; removing the multiplying restrictions on freedom of expression; reinstating the processes of bureaucratic reform and democratic decentralization and providing a route for the Army to withdraw from the political front line.
We continue to believe that Thailand is engaged in a historic transition whice will ultimately be positive. Yet it will take time.