During the past daree years, the Thaksin government has resorted to "populist"
policies to please the voters. The super CEO Prime Minister identifies big-bang
mega projects that require a huge amount of funding almost every two weeks.
Cheap houses, cheap notebooks, free medical services (3 0-baht programme), cheap
insurances etc., are examples of programmes launched by the government. These
programmes are called the caring-help {ua athorri) projects. These ua athorn
projects are not free of charge. Critics claimed that such projects reinforce
materialism and consumerism. Poor people may buy things they do not really
need. Government is encouraging people to spend. As in business, the government
is trying to find ways to take away money from people with promises of "good
deals." Not so long ago, the government's notebook programme was criticised for
giving the customers what they paid for. For cheap computer notebooks, they
were given low performing computers. These ue athorn projects are used by the
government to stimulate fake economic growth.