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Mc A fascinating insight into Thai politics in the lead-up to the Thaksin revolution c Since 1932, Thai politics has undergone numerous political ‘reforms’, often accompanied by constitutional revisions and shifts in the argo location of power. Following the events of May 1992, there were strong pressures from certain groups in Thai society for a fundamental overhaul of the political order, culminating in the drafting and promulgation of a new constitution in 1997. However, constitutional reform is only one small part of a wide r range of possible reforms, including that of the electoral system, education, the bureaucracy, health and welfare, the media – and even the military. Indeed, the economic crisis which engulfed efor Thailand in 1997 led to a widespread questioning of the country’s social and political structures. With the sudden end of rapid economic growth, the urgency of reform and adaptation to Thailand’s changing circumstances became vastly more acute. It was against M this background that the Thai parliament passed major changes to ing the electoral system in late 2000, just weeks before the January 2001 election. Reflecting on the twists and turns of reform in Thailand over the edited by years and with the first in-depth scholarly analysis of how successful Thai were the recent electoral reforms, this volume is a ‘must have’ for everyone interested in Thai politics and its impact on the wider Asian Duncan Mccargo political scene. “[a] timely book on the “new” Thai politics which certainly contributes a Poli great deal to a better understanding of the political changes in Thailand...” – surin Maisrikrod, in Contemporary Southeast Asia, 26 (1), 2004 T ics www.niaspress.dk McCargo-RTP_reprint-cover.indd 1 22/12/2010 15:53 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page i Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM REFORMING THAI POLITICS 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page ii Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM Of related interest and available from NIAS Press THE THAKSINIZATION OF THAILAND Duncan McCargo and Ukrist Pathmanand THAKSIN – THE BUSINESS OF POLITICS IN THAILAND Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THAILAND Michael Kelly Connors CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRATIZATION Social Movements in Northeast Thailand Somchai Phatharathananunth WOMEN AND POLITICS IN THAILAND Edited by Kazuki Iwanaga 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page iii Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM REFORMING THAI POLITICS Edited by Duncan McCargo First published in 2002 by NIAS Press Reprinted in 2007 and 2011 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Leifsgade 33, DK–2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark tel: (+45) 3532 9501• fax: (+45) 3532 9549 E–mail: [email protected] • Website: http://www.niaspress.dk © Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) 2002 All rights reserved. While copyright in this volume as a whole is vested in NIAS, copyright in the individual papers belongs to the authors. No paper may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of author and publisher. The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the editor and contributors, and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Reforming Thai politics 1.Thailand - Politics and government I.McCargo, Duncan 320.9’593 ISBN 978-87-87062-94-7 (cloth) ISBN 978-87-87062-93-0 (paper) Printed in the United Kingdom by Marston Digital 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page v Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM CONTENTS NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ... vii PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... xi 1 INTRODUCTION: UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL REFORM IN THAILAND by Duncan McCargo... 1 PART I: THE MEANINGS OF POLITICAL REFORM 2 AN OVERVIEW OF POLITICAL REFORM ISSUES by Prawase Wasi ... 21 3 GOOD GOVERNANCE: A STRATEGY TO RESTORE THAILAND by Thirayuth Boonmi ... 29 4 FRAMING THE ‘PEOPLE’S CONSTITUTION’ by Michael Connors ... 37 5 THE MONARCHY AND CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE SINCE 1972 by Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian ... 57 6 HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLITICAL REFORM IN THAILAND by David Streckfuss and Mark Templeton ... 73 7 DEMOCRATIZATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE IN THAILAND by Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt ... 91 PART II: THE POPULAR SECTOR 8 CIVIL SOCIETY AND STREET POLITICS: LESSONS FROM THE 1950S by James Ockey ... 107 9 CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN THAILAND: A CRITIQUE OF ELITE DEMOCRACY by Somchai Phatharathananunth ... 125 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page vi Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM 10 RESPONDING TO ECONOMIC CRISIS: THAILAND’S LOCALISM by Kevin Hewison ... 143 11 POLITICAL REFORM THROUGH THE PUBLIC SPHERE: WOMEN’S GROUPS AND THE FABRIC OF GOVERNANCE by Philippe Doneys ... 163 12 NGOS AND GRASSROOTS PARTICIPATION IN THE POLITICAL REFORM PROCESS by Naruemon Thabchumpon ... 183 PART III: ELECTORAL REFORM 13 THE 1997 CONSTITUTION AND THE POLITICS OF ELECTORAL REFORM by Sombat Chantornvong ... 203 14 POLITICAL REFORM AND CIVIL SOCIETY AT THE LOCAL LEVEL: THAILAND’S LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS by Daniel Arghiros ... 223 15 THAILAND’S JANUARY 2001 GENERAL ELECTIONS: VINDICATING REFORM? by Duncan McCargo ... 247 16 CONCLUSION: ECONOMICS, POLITICS AND CIVIL SOCIETY by John Girling ... 261 BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 267 INDEX ... 283 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page vii Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Daniel Arghiros has conducted research on Thai provincial politics and rural enterprise and is the author of Democracy, Development and Decentralisation in Provincial Thailand (Richmond: Curzon 2001). He is currently working as a development advisor in Cambodia on secondment from the University of Hull, UK, where he is a lecturer. Contact e-mail: [email protected] Michael Connors is currently revising his 2000 University of Melbourne PhD thesis – which examines how statist and liberal actors have attempted to construct ‘ideal’ Thai citizens – for publication by Routledge. He previously taught at Thammasat and La Trobe Universities, and is presently a lecturer in politics at the University of Leeds. Contact e-mail: mkconnors @hotmail.com Philippe Doneys is completing a PhD at the Institut d’Études Politique de Paris. His research focuses on ways non-state actors shape state policies and public decision-making structures, and he is currently researching non-state actors’ contribution to HIV/AIDS planning in Thailand. Contact e-mail: [email protected] John Girling is a political scientist who lives in France. Although now retired from the ANU, he continues to publish widely. His best-known con- tributions to Thai studies are the books Thailand: Society and Politics (Ithaca: Cornell, 1981) and Interpreting Development: Capitalism, Democracy and the Middle Class in Thailand (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1996). Kevin Hewison is a professor in the Department of Applied Social Studies, The City University of Hong Kong. His most recent book was the edited collection Political Change in Thailand: Democracy and Participation (London: Routledge, 1997). Contact e-mail: [email protected] Kobkua Suwannathat-Pian is dean of the School of Liberal Studies, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia. A historian by training, she has lectured on Thai and Southeast Asian history at Chiang Mai University, Thailand, and at the National University of Malaysia. Her books include Thai–Malay Relations: Traditional Intra-Regional Relations from the Seventeenth to Early Twentieth Centuries vii 00/prelims-reprint.fm Page viii Tuesday, September 25, 2007 12:58 PM REFORMING THAI POLITICS (OUP, 1988) and Thailand's Durable Premier: Phibun through Three Decades 1932– 1957 (OUP, 1995). Contact e-mail: kobkua@uniten. edu.my Duncan McCargo is a senior lecturer in the Institute for Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK. His other books include Chamlong Srimuang and the New Thai Politics (London: Hurst, 1997) and Politics and the Press in Thailand: Media Machinations (London: Routledge, 2000). He is the editor of the Routledge book series ‘Rethinking Southeast Asia’. Contact e-mail: [email protected] For more information, see the Leeds Thai Politics Website at http:// www.leeds.ac.uk/thaipol Naruemon Thabchumpon is a lecturer in the Department of Government, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. She has published several articles on the politics of popular participation in Thailand, and is currently working at the University of Leeds on a PhD thesis dealing with grassroots politics and the Forum of the Poor. Contact e-mail: junaruemon @hotmail.com James Ockey is a senior lecturer in political science at Canterbury Uni- versity in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has written extensively on Thai politics and is currently working on a monograph on the ‘Hyde Park’ era in Thailand. Contact e-mail: [email protected] Prawase Wasi is professor of medicine emeritus at Mahidol University. A distinguished physician, medical researcher, and Magsaysay Award winner, he is one of Thailand’s leading social critics and ‘senior citizens’. Dr Prawase chaired the Democracy Development Committee in 1994–1995, and has published numerous books and articles in Thai on political reform, civil society and social change. Savitri Gadavanij is a lecturer at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) in Bangkok. She is currently working on her PhD – which examines the political discourse of Thai parliamentary debates – at the University of Leeds. Contact e-mail: [email protected] Johannes Dragsbæk Schmidt is associate professor at the Research Center on Development and International Relations (DIR),
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