Over the past decade of Thailand's political turmoil, the colour-coded camps contesting power have offered starkly different visions of the kind of country they would like Thailand to be. Different perceptions of inequality in Thailand are at the heart of the polarisation.
Unequal Thailand: Aspects Of Income, Wealth And Power, edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker, is a slender volume of essays that brings rigorous scholarship to this emotionally-charged debate. The forward and introduction by Pasuk and Baker set the scene, explaining the realities of inequality in Thailand, using key statistics as evidence. Eight essays by Thai scholars follow, each supported by carefully researched facts and figures.
The three essays following the introduction discuss high concentration of land ownership, the influence on adult earnings of inequality in education, and capital markets as the wealth generating preserve of a relatively small upper-level segment of society (1.2 million Thais with brokerage accounts, of which only 330,000 are active investors). Statistics in these three essays reveal concentration of wealth and educational opportunity that is undeniably skewed towards the top.
In their introductory chapter, Pasuk and Baker note that the peak of inequality of income was reached in the 1980s. After 1992, income inequality has gradually but sporadically declined, partially due to pro-poor government policies such as universal health care, partially due to the end of surplus labour in Thailand, and partially to positive trends in international agricultural prices. At the same time, however, inequality in wealth has been increasing.
In her essay on concentration of land and wealth in Thailand, Duangmanee Laovakul states categorically that "wealth is very highly concentrated in Thailand". She attributes this in part to "undersupply of public goods and services", resulting from, among other causes, "the limitation of the government budget".
Duangmanee points out that budgets are constrained by low taxes, particularly on wealth. In the final chapter of the book, Pan Ananapibut takes up this point, discussing fiscal reforms through which the Thai government could increase its revenue by reforming the presently regressive and distortionary tax system, focusing on four areas: realigning investment tax incentives, reforming income tax exemptions, putting in place a negative income tax (the Revenue Department has recently put forward a proposal for this), and imposition of meaningful wealth taxes. The reforms proposed by Pan would significantly decrease inequality, but most are resolutely opposed by those who would stand to lose from such reforms.
Homeless people queue up for free food near Giant Swing in Bangkok.
Pasuk and Baker explain that although inequalities "can be explained in terms of economic mechanisms, these mechanisms operate within a political context which also needs to be understood". After the first three statistically based essays, the next four essays look at the intersection between political power and economic interests.
In their discussion of elite networking, Nualnoi Treerat and Parkpume Vanichara explain that Thailand has few institutions of "both structural and historical depth", hence the critical importance of cultivating informal relations among elite players. They describe the important role played by the National War College and various executive courses, in which networking and inculcation of group values is more important than the substantive course content.
For this reviewer, the most fascinating essay was Nopanun Wannathepsakul's "Network Bureaucracy and Public-Private Firms in Thailand's Energy Sector". All over the world, energy sectors comprise vast vested interests. Nopanun dissects the interrelationships between public authorities charged with setting energy policy and regulating the industry on the one hand, and the hybrid state enterprises producing energy on the other.
To illustrate how public and private sectors work together to get their way in the face of popular opposition, Nopanun describes the community protests against the pollution of the Map Ta Phut industrial estate. The protests were squashed, and the recommendations of the Anand Commission, established to investigate the situation, were eviscerated through legal and bureaucratic manoeuvres.
Nopanun concludes that Map Ta Phut, "in which protected monopolies deliver high benefits to a few while having severe implications on the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people, is a powerful example of inequality in Thailand today".
Nopanun's piece is followed by a description of godfathers in an undisclosed province -- "influential figures" who amass political power, both overt and behind the scenes. Godfathers hijack the democratic electoral process on behalf of family and clan interests, often using strong-arm tactics while simultaneously leading respectable community causes or themselves attaining elected office. This is the seamy side of power broking and network politics at local levels, another aspect of unequal Thailand.
Ukrist Pathmanand's contribution to the collection looks at "Network Thaksin". Ukrist explains that in his rise to power and years as prime minister, Thaksin relied on a network of major business groups with politicians and segments of the military and police, linked in a pyramid resting on a base of largely rural community support. This network involved new players in top-level politics, but the structure did not differ fundamentally from power networks of earlier eras; it seemed a reshuffling of seats at the top, one set of oligarchs replacing another.
Only when he appeared to threaten vital interests of other elite players did the military mobilise to throw Thaksin out in 2006. After the coup of 2006, Thaksin's allies in national power centres largely abandoned ship. His network then transformed from a capital-centric pyramid to a web, based in the provinces.
Pasuk and Baker's introductory essay links together these disparate contributions on inequality. In the debates concerning the issue of inequality in Thailand, they have a clear and forcefully stated point of view. Inequality, in their view, is pervasive in Thailand.
In the forward, Pasuk and Baker argue that in political terms, Thai inequality arises out of the oligarchic nature of Thai politics, "informal networks and coalitions of the few play major roles in the distribution of power and economic benefits". They credit the Thai oligarchy with flexibility, adapting and absorbing as needed to ensure its own survival and control over the distribution of wealth and power.
Towards the end of the book, in "Network Thaksin", Ukrist takes up oligarchy again in his analysis of the coups of 2006 and 2014, both perpetuated by the same groups determined to destroy Network Thaksin -- replacing its web based in the provinces with a traditional pyramid structure "topped by the rich few" and their military and bureaucratic allies, but adapted to be acceptable in the modern, globalised world. The coup of 2006 failed to accomplish its objective. Ukrist warns that the coup of 2014 may succeed where that of 2006 failed, in which case inequality will widen.
Pasuk and Baker's introduction sets forth a succinct framework for understanding Thailand's inequality in terms of modern Thai history and current politics. They did not intend this collection of nine short essays to be a definitive work on the subject of inequality in Thailand, but, taken together, these essays are an enlightening contribution to the literature on contemporary Thai political-economy, founded in well documented research and blessedly free of social science jargon.
Each page of the essays provokes thought and further questions. One would, however, have wished that the chapters setting forth income and wealth statistics had provided more international comparisons so that the reader could better draw conclusions on whether these are problems typical for a developing nation, or that Thailand is instead an outlier.
Reading these essays brings to mind other areas of inequality that merit consideration: for example, the bias of the judicial system in favour of the rich and powerful, the impact of corruption on inequality, the banking industry as a force for concentration of wealth or distribution of opportunity, and the issuing of concessions.
Perhaps most important, one would like to see discussion of the cultural factors that impede change in the oligarchic concentration of political power and the unequal distribution of wealth and income. Perhaps a successor volume is needed to expand the scope of this introductory treatment of "unequal Thailand"?
As Pasuk and Baker write, reducing inequality "will not quell the immediate conflict but is a prerequisite for achieving a more peaceful and coherent society in the long run". They caution, however, that immaturity of the political system will impede progress in overcoming inequality. "Democratic institutions are not enough" to bring about a more equal society. The problems are deep seated; the solutions require, in their words, "a mentality and culture that supports equity".
Unequal Thailand: Aspects Of Income, Wealth And Power
Edited by Pasuk Phongpaichit and Chris Baker
NUS Press Singapore, 2015
877 baht
