However it is not easy to shift from the old paradigm. A study by
King Prajadhipok's Institute (2009) found that the public has limited
access to information and opportunity to participate, monitor, and
evaluate government plans. The result of the questionnaire survey on
planning process (2008) showed that the practice of public
participation has been limited and varies between agencies (variations
include areas of direct participation, committee selection,
questionnaire survey, and survey on website.) even though public
participation is required by the Royal Decree on the Good Governance
of Public Administration B.E. 2546. Despite the effort to improve the
public participation in Thailand, the struggle to overcome poor quality
of participation including the coverage, level of involvement and
timing remains (Maneepong and Webster, 2008; Charuvichaipong
and Sajor, 2006). There are reported cases, for instance, of a rush and
haphazardly conducted ‘public participation’ events in preparing the
Power Development Plan 2010, which was partly from a political
intervention (Foran et al., 2010).