MPs are most like the military, that is, MPs are not rulers and even their duty to legislate is not so important. In the cultural constitution, MPs have almost no power at all. They cannot even appoint a village head (kamnan). But MPs have influence so even provincial governors respect them. Thus MPs are an influence on which citizens can depend to negotiate with the rulers.
The Thai don’t think of giving MPs any more power. They like to see MPs as puny (krajok) in this way, but it’s good if MPs have a lot of influence. Hence government MPs are better than opposition MPs, as those in government are expected to have more influence; for instance, they can even get a governor transferred.
The duty of MPs in the cultural constitution is to negotiate with officials on behalf of the people and to use influence to defend and protect citizens from the rulers they dislike. The part about raising their hands to pass this law and that legislation is fine because it gives them more influence, but has nothing directly to do with the MPs’ duty. It doesn’t matter if they go to sleep or go absent from the Assembly.
Whatever it says in the written constitution, this is the duty of MPs according to the expectation of the Thai in the cultural constitution. So MPs find that having and using influence is the main duty of being an MP. This influence can be used both for others and for themselves and their clique. MPs use influence in both ways intertwined – for others to gain the popularity to be re-elected, and simultaneously for themselves and their clique for personal benefit to create the economic foundation for re-election. It is not possible to be a person of influence in Thailand without having a pocketful of money to spread around.
Each MP has more influence than each military man, but MPs as a group have less influence than the army as a whole. In this respect, an MP has an advantage over a military man in that one MP has the supreme influence. But combining together as a group or as a party does not increase the MPs’ influence so much. While each soldier has limited influence, the military uses its influence to the full only when it is consistent with the policy of the military or of the commanding officer. An MP can be a patron (thi pung) more easily than a soldier. If an MP agrees to provide help (whether by saying something or by giving money), then the MP can use his influence straight away.
Moreover, because an MP has been elected, ordinary people feel it is easier to approach him than a soldier or a local godfather. So MPs are an influence which has importance in the cultural constitution. Whatever happens, the people who are not rulers must have MPs as an influence which they elect themselves for a fixed period, as a guarantee that the people can have easy access to them.
Other influences in Thailand, even though they are not disliked, are not influences which the Thai people created. Some influences create themselves and some are created by others, but only MPs are an influence which the citizens can confer on anybody they choose. Elections thus cannot be left out of the cultural constitution, because they guarantee that the influence which the citizens create will be of some benefit to themselves. The practice of those standing for election as MPs to bow and scrape, distribute little fishes (pla thu), hand out money for votes, and so on, is a practice which is very satisfactory for the people, because it helps to confirm that the citizens will get some benefit from this influence in the future because they have some control over it.
In truth, vote-buying (or doing anything which is not plain ballot-stuffing) is confirmation of the “sovereignty” of the Thai people according to the cultural constitution.