Last month, I spent a few days visiting my relatives in Songkhla. Most of my family relatives live there and I stayed with my uncle’s family this time.

Among other things, we discussed politics. The time I was there coincided with the censure debate and we spent some time watching it.

To my surprise, I discovered that my uncle’s family – despite all of them having Southern origin – is anti-Democrat and pro-Thaksin. I was eager to find out why.

My uncle told me he once dreamed of being an elected Democrat MP. He used to go to Democrat rallies and activities when he was young. But now, having witnessed decades of Democrat involvement in the south, he has changed his mind.

“Democrats are toh lae”, he said. The Thai word toh lae (ตอแหล) is too difficult for me to translate it into English. In this context, it is best interpreted as: “Democrats criticize their fellow politicians (like Thaksin and Co) but whatever they’re saying actually applies to their own behavior too.”

My uncle would go on and elaborate on his comment:

“Democrats talk about Thaksin being corrupt and helping his own friends and crony. They talk about this as if they themselves are not corrupt and not helping their own crony!”

He then quickly cited incidents in the past in which the Democrats were involved in corruption cases. People like Suthep and Banyat are far from being free of corruption. The famous one is of course Suthep’s involvement in the land scandal (Sor Por Kor) in which he distributed hundreds of title deeds to wealthy businessmen instead of farmers. And this was just one of the many corruption cases that the Democrats were involved with.

“And Suthep, a godfather (jao poh) in his own province, is still there today, holding the position of Secretary-General of the Democrat Party. If the Party is so ideological and so godly, why would it let Suthep be there? The answer is simple: Suthep is a big ‘finance’ guy for the party.”

Now, on vote-buying:

“The Democrats always say Thaksin wins because of his money, because of vote-buying. People in the North and Northeast elect Thaksin because they get money. The Democrats are saying all this as if the Democrats are not involved in money politics! As if they don’t buy votes here in the south!”

He then went on to talk about his own and his friends’ experiences that show how the Democrats use money to buy votes. Some cases are straight vote-buying, but most are done through local network of “vote banks” (hua kanan). Money is given to influential figures in the localities – from local bureaucrats and local politicians to school teachers – who then influence others to vote for the Democrats.

He then told a story about one evening when he was at a Democrat rally some years ago. Chuan, a famous figure among most southern people, was speaking on the stage and my uncle told me he said this:

“Isan people’s vote can be bought with 10 baht. The vote of us – the southern people – can never be bought!” (I don’t think anyone records this speech and so I urge the readers to use your own judgment whether to believe it).

Behind the stage, however, my uncle observed the Democrat staff giving bank notes to their local network. Right there.

“Chuan himself might be clean, but he’s aware of all of his party’s wrong-doings and chooses to ignore them because he himself benefits from it too. Can you say this guy is honest and saintly? I don’t think so. The same thing applies to Abhisit.”

“And the democrat cronies are everywhere in the south! People with personal connection with Democrat MPs get better treatment and better projects. Yet the Democrats pretend to be blind on this when they talk about Thaksin’s cronies.”

Then, he said:

“The Democrats always say their party is founded upon an ideology and belief in democratic principles. Yet, if you look deeply, you don’t see any ideology in the Democrats! They seem to cherish their democratic principles only when it is in their own interest to do so. Otherwise, democratic principles are nothing to them.”

The evidence supports his claim. Just look at the last coup…

“What have the Democrats done for the Thai people? The Isan people have long been ignored by many Democrat governments. So, now that they are looked after by Thaksin’s policies, the Democrats came out and said ‘hey! That’s populist policies. That’s bad!’ This is partly true but it certainly is better than being ignored by the Democrats.”

That’s why some have nicknamed the Democrats as NATO – No Action, Talk Only.

He also mentioned about the Democrat powerful (and scary) influence in his hometown, Surat Thani.

“The other day I went to see my mom, who is 90 years old, in my hometown. When I started criticizing the Democrats and praising Thaksin, she shut me up. She said she’s afraid someone in the village would hear it and bas consequences could follow. In my village, people were told and almost threatened to vote for the Democrats.”

He then talks about Thaksin:

“Thaksin is much better. He gets the job done, effectively. He came to Songkhla one day and asked what was needed to be done to make life better here. People told him they needed new improved roads. So he directed the budget to improve the road linking Songkhla and Hatyai from 2 lanes to 6 lanes. This has made my quality of life much better than before as we don’t have to drive in a narrow road with all those trucks any more. The Democrats have been here for a long time but never really do anything.”

So much so about my uncle’s anti-Democrat perspective.

I think what I want this blog to convey is not to say that Thaksin is better than the Democrats. We all are aware of Thaksin’s wrongdoings. Sometimes, we are too obsessed with one man’s crime that we forget about other equally serious problems.

Many say Thaksin is “evil”. If so, I think many of the Democrats aren’t any better either.

If you say Isan people’s votes are bought, so do those of southern people. And for many southern people who don’t vote for the Democrats because of money, they do so because their parents vote for the Party, or because they are socially connected with the Party, or because they like Chuan, or because they are told by their superiors to “follow the crowd”. Is this picture anything better than the situation in the Isan?

I think the reality is that Thaksin would have won in Isan without spending much money to buy votes, just as the Democrats would have won in the south without doing so. Isan people love Thaksin for the benefits they get from his policies; southern people love the Democrats because they don’t really have a choice – the social and political structure there has been so much influenced by the Democrats.

With the alternative party choice – the Democrats – having a history full of ineffective policy-making and corruption, I am not surprised to see so many people voting for TRT and PPP.

If we were to see any real improvements in Thai politics, the Democrat Party NEEDS to go through some serious reform. Suppose Thaksin and his crony were to vanishe today, Thai politics will still remain plagued with corrupt and evil politicians and it’s no good for the Thai people.

This is a serious problem. Thaksin’s wrongdoings need to be taken care of, but so too the Democrats’.