First Round: Land Reform
In early 2011, and with no news of progress from the National Reform measures, the government made a significant move by proposing a 9,190.30 million baht budget for the “national reform roadmap” that would cover four strategic areas: (1) Future–building through child and youth development; (2) Life quality improvement and social welfare expansion; (3) Reform of the justice system, political system and addressing social inequality; and (4) Promotion of an equal and fair economic system.
On 7th February 2010, the Reform Committee Chair Anand Panyarachun and other committee members submitted their “first proposal” to the government by stating that the committee, after careful consideration, had identified that “injustice” was at the root of the country’s problems causing inequality and disparity of income, land possession and access to resources. Under the first proposal of “land reform for agriculture,” the committee therefore proposed five key elements as follows:12 1. Justice reform to provide legal assistance to hundreds of thousands of households facing land–related lawsuits; 2. Land holding reform for minor farmers. This would include setting the ceiling for land ownership at 50 Rai per family or otherwise a progressive tax rate would apply; 3. Land bank for Agriculture. This aimed to establish a fund to buy land from those who own more than 50 Rai and asset liquidations by commercial banks to be distributed to landless farmers; 4. Land use reform by re–zoning, a usage plan and a law against land speculation; and 5. Land management system reform allowing public access to information so that society knows who currently owns what.
With such a plan, it would almost appear that the government had stolen the thunder from the NRC. The fourth strategic area is the same as the nine “New Year presents” that the government “gave” to Thais, which has also become known as “Popular Reform”. These measures included: crime reduction of 20 percent in Bangkok Metropolitan area within six months; free electricity for consumption under 90 units a month; legalization of the motorcycle taxi system; improved access to business loans; more venues for street vendors; extending social security to cover every Thai; floating LPG prices for the industrial sector; price reduction of livestock feed; egg sales by weight and many more such measures.11 Such initiatives faced strong criticism as they seems no different from Thaksin’s “populist” policies which also had a negative impact on the country’s finance in the long run. The government, however, remained undaunted by the accusation of “buying people’s hearts” or advance campaigning for the upcoming election and about distorting the intentions of national reform.
The NRC Proposal received a prompt response from the Prime Minister when he went to give the first community land rights to Yong Cooperatives in Nakhon Pathom Province on 12th February 2010. Prime Minister Abhisit stated he agreed with the NRC proposal and promised to propose it for cabinet approval within two weeks. Draft laws regarding land taxes and building taxes had earlier been approved.13
53 10 Health Issues
From Reform to Populism