Thailand's shocking inequity statistics

[Bruce551]

Thailand's shocking inequity statistics

How will this political mess end? Will Thaksin Shinawatra finally return to haunt us with his bottomless greed? Or will the old, oppressive system that perpetuates social injustice prevail to suffocate us?

Is there any way out of this madness?

Ask historian/thinker Nidhi Eeo-seewong, and his answer is a resounding no. In his latest column in Matichon newspaper, he predicted that the proxy wars between the two ruling elite groups - one led by Thaksin, and the other by the old ruling clique - will not only continue to play out on the streets, but they would also get more violent.

"Thailand will never be the same again," he wrote. "There is no use in being nostalgic. Instead, we must put our heads together to find out how to minimise the damage."

How, indeed? How can normalcy return when the root problem of extreme economic disparity remains unaddressed?

How extreme? Prof Pasuk Phongpaichit did not leave room for doubt about our shamelessly unfair society in her recent keynote speech on "Towards a Fair Society" at the King Prachadhipok Institute conference. Among the glaring facts:

- The top 20% own 69% of the country's assets while the bottom 20% own only 1%.

- 42% of bank savings money comes from only 70,000 bank accounts holding more than 10 million baht. They make up only 0.09% of all bank accounts in the country. In other words, less than 1% of the people own nearly half of the country's savings.

- Among the farming families, nearly 20% of them are landless, or about 811,871 families, while 1-1.5 million farming families are tenants or struggling with insufficient land.

- 10% of land owners own more than 100 rai each, while the rest 90% own one rai or less.

- On income distribution, the top 20% enjoy more than 50% of the gross domestic product while the bottom 20% only 4%.

- The average income of the bottom 20% is the same as the poverty line at 1,443 baht per month.

- The gap between the richest and poorest family is 13 times, higher than all our neighbouring countries.

A fairer taxation system could reduce this economic disparity, she said. This can be done by expanding the base of direct taxpayers, introducing progressive land, inheritance, capital gains and interest taxes, for example. Unfortunately, the current taxation system worsens economic disparity by allowing easy tax evasion among the super rich while focusing on indirect taxation which treats the poor the same as the rich. Talk about justice!

State expenditure on free education, public health welfare, a comprehensive social security system and better agricultural policies have proven elsewhere to help bridge the gap, she said.

In Thailand, however, the amount of state expenditure is not only too small, most of them benefit the cities, thus worsening the gap between the rich and the poor.

The lack of political will among the power cliques and corruption are apparently Thailand's biggest obstacles. But the decline of public trust in parliamentary/money politics is no reason to debunk it, she insists. It is still the best system to allow democracy to grow more strongly, to effect fair taxation and state spending for the public good, to fight corruption and facilitate peaceful conflict resolution. "We just need to be patient."

Political scientist Seksan Prasertkul also offered his views on how to minimise Thailand's future pain. When society has become fragmented and pluralised by competing economic interests and globalisation pressures, the best damage-control strategy is to institutionalise participatory decision-making from the ground up, give political decentralisation a stronger push, and be more open to civil society voices.

As the clash of the titans looms, we should not let their cautionary advice go unheeded. For no matter who wins, their priority is to strengthen their interests and power. Without participatory politics, democracy will continue to be unstable. And without fixing the stark economic disparity through fairer taxation and state expenditure, the country's prospects ahead are indeed grim.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/blogs/index.php/2009/11/30/thailand-s-shocking-inequity-statistics?blog=64

Comments:

Comment 4

UP TO THE PEOPLE date : 30/11/2009 time : 11:47

As always, some interesting and important observations and statistics from Khun Sanitsuda.

And yes, nothing will change until the Thai people at large stop being apathetic about the political situation and stop voting for the leeches who mostly make up the parties and the parliament.

And even more important/critical is that the sincere and capable people who could guide and drive the country forward and who could develop and install policies and laws to distribute the wealth and create a more equal playing field will not come forward until they see strong signs that the electorate are becoming more serious, more selective and are actually rejecting the old gangs of thugs, leeches and thieves.

In other words it needs a middle class revolution (and I don't mean violence).

Comment 15

SORRY NOI date : 01/12/2009 time : 05:07

Sorry Noi, can't agree with your assertion that Thaksin tried to redistribute the wealth. I invite you to take a deeper look at the Thaksin era history, you might just find a different conclusion. Redistribution of wealth should be through policy, appropriate laws and regulations ,and though focused mechanisms which strongly establish equal opportunity for all and guaranteed equal justice for all, not through hand-outs and manipulation of the poor and uneducated.

Comment 18

Geoff O Email date : 01/12/2009 time : 08:44

Thank you Khun Sanitsuda for your straight talk in this and previous article's. The country has changed so much in the last 20 years since I arrived. I recall the problem in the early 90's and how Khun Annand restored a sense of stability and confidence. Once an extremely safe and polite society , I experienced being spat at in my car on Sukhumvit Road by screaming red shirts last April while police looked on idly.

In todays Bangkok Post there is a confusing and saddening story about the nuclear plans. On one hand permission is being asked to proceed while noting that a viability assessment has not yet been completed. Thai staff have been sent to China for training last year even though the promoters insist that no decision has been made on using Chinese material.

The main point of your article talks about improving the tax take

The feeding frenzy for the nuclear project seems to be well under way. How much longer can Thailand afford to feed so much to so few.

My comments "GM's" journal this morning:

Solar PV power pants (On Grid) 3 MW, there is a group elite Thais in the power sector, both government & business, that are obstructing the implementation Solar PV power plants, they are only interested in selling Kilo-Watt-Hours from Natural Gas & Coal plants.

This same group are ones promoting Nuclear Power. From the NGO point of view it is nothing less than all out WAR against the self-serving special interests in the power sector who are selling out Thailand's chance for a Clean Energy sustainable future.

The countries that have an Energy Efficient economy based on low cost Renewable Energy will have the best quality of life for their people and the most investment from the private sector worldwide.

Comment 20

Nicola date : 01/12/2009 time : 19:09

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

I agree that the tax system should be expanded. As it is at the moment, too many workers aren't paying any income tax.You can legally earn THB 190,000 per year (almost 16,000 per month) and not pay any income tax. Check out the Thai Revenue Dept website.

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/6045.0.html

Comment 22

John Limbo Email date : 02/12/2009 time : 06:06

Sadly enough both red and yellow seem to have fascist elements. We all know that 'yellow' stood for a corrupt and injust power structure that created the go-ground for 'red' to gain power: It was in the yellow era the inequity within Thai society was created.

Now 'yellow', after a militayr coup that enables them to do so, suddenly starts to cry foul and acts as if 'red' would have invented corruption, abuse of power and institutionalised theft.

The good thing of the red movement is that it for the first time challenged a hegemony that originated in an old feodal structure.

The popularity of Mr. Thaksin is a symptom of a changing system. It will take several decades, but once Mr. Thaksin will enter the history books as a historical figure, if you like it or not!

Aside from the fact that he in many ways was a disaster politically: he was and still is a man with a face, to the contrary of those dark figures who are hiding themselves behind the friendly faces of the Bangkok middle class house wives and elderly who have enough spare time to be used as yellow clad puppets, listening to sometimes very deceiving speeches written by their invisible puppetmasters.

The arrogance with which 'yelllow' shows its contempt for the rural population of Thailand is sickening.

Yellow is causing a serious rift in society.

I hope that very soon a democratically chosen government will be able to turn the tide. For my part Mr. Abhisit could be part of it.

Long live King and Country!

Limbo

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