Bangkok's race for governor heats
up By Daniel Pedersen Photo by
Steve Sandford
BANGKOK - A
massage-parlor tycoon, a publicity-hungry social activist and
the father of three troublemakers are among the 22 candidates
voters in Bangkok have to choose from as they go to the polls on Sunday to
elect a new governor for this gridlocked metropolis of
11 million people.
It has been an entertaining
run-up to the vote, with candidates plastering the city
with billboards, leaving little room on its footpaths
for people.
On Tuesday one candidate succumbed
to the rigors of Thai democracy: Leena Jungjunga was
disqualified for performing a song-and-dance routine on
the back of a truck flanked by transvestites and
scantily clad women. The Election Commission ruled that
Leena had breached the law banning public performances
to attract the attention of unsuspecting voters. She is
threatening to sue.
But as the campaign drags
on, people are becoming less sure of whom they will vote
for - eleventh-hour polling suggested about half of the
3.9 million eligible voters were undecided. Still, 80%
said they intended to vote, unless it rained.
Over the past few weeks, the poll has evolved
from being a vote to solve the capital's perpetual
traffic nightmares to one billed as an indirect
referendum on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's style
of governance. This shift has gained attention in the
wake of more visible signs as to whom Thaksin favors to
win the poll, since his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai,
or TRT) party is not fielding its own candidate.
Now, as the race enters its final leg, Thaksin
has launched a last-minute assault on his Democrat
rivals, who are threatening to mount a comeback through
Sunday's election.
The premier's announcement at
last week's cabinet meeting that it was time the Thai
capital got a female to head the metropolitan government
administration for the first time in its history removed
all doubts about Thaksin's favorite - "independent"
candidate Pavena Hongsakul.
Thaksin's recent
publicity whirlwind, which included a hastily arranged
television interview on Wednesday night with well-known
commentator Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda, has coincided
with a significant drop in popularity ratings for
Pavena, the English-language daily The Nation reported
on Thursday. The efforts may do more harm then help,
however, as Pavena's ratings began to slip after TRT
gave her its backing.
What the TRT does not
want, say analysts, is for Apirak Kosayodhin, the
candidate of the country's main opposition Democrat
Party, to triumph as Bangkok's next governor. The head
of a leading mobile-phone company until turning to
politics for this poll, Apirak is almost assured of
middle-class support. Currently, he is up there with
Pavena as a front-runner in a field of 22 candidates.
Pavena, however, is not a greenhorn in Bangkok's
political milieu. She was a parliamentarian representing
a party that is among the coalition led by the ruling
TRT. She also was a candidate in the last race for
Bangkok governor in 2000. Pavena, an accomplished
campaigner for women's and children's rights, has been
attracting the lion's share of media coverage.
"Pavena's candidacy has become a referendum to
gauge the popularity of the TRT and Thaksin in Bangkok,"
Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at
Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said in an
interview. A defeat for Pavena would be "a loss of face
for the TRT", he explained, because the government has
been pursuing many strategies to defeat Apirak.
The prime minister, he said, cannot afford to
ignore the sentiments of the voters in the capital - the
most financially powerful and influential city in the
country - in the run-up to the general elections, due in
less than five months.
Other observers of the
Thai political scene assert that the stakes for the
governing TRT have been raised by an outpouring of
anti-Thaksin sentiments from predictable and
unpredictable quarters in the capital, which is known
for its ability to overthrow governments with strong
rural bases, according to a report in The Nation.
"There is a noticeable anti-Thaksin sentiment
coming to the surface and this will play a part in
Sunday's polls," Kavi Chongkittavorn, a columnist and an
editor at The Nation told Inter Press Service. "Some of
Thaksin's strongest supporters and members of the elite
and the middle class are also saying things openly, very
critical of the prime minister," he said. "It may
produce an anti-Thaksin protest vote against Pavena."
Over the weekend, the Thai premier received a
telling political blow when his political mentor and a
TRT adviser, Chamlong Srimuang, accused him of
undermining the Southeast Asian country's still-young
democracy. "Am I a villain today for being the one who
invited Thaksin into politics?" he was quoted in The
Nation on Monday as having said. To much of the voting
public, Sunday's vote is about whether Thaksin's
domination and expansionism should be checked.
To counter Thaksin's power - his party enjoys an
unprecedented majority in parliament after a thumping
victory in the 2001 general elections - Chamlong is
urging Bangkok's residents to vote another candidate
into power aside from Pavena.
Chamlong's
criticism, arising from fears that the TRT is aiming to
secure more than 400 out of 500 available seats at the
next parliamentary elections, has also been echoed among
academics, former bureaucrats and non-governmental
groups.
Critics of Thaksin, who was a
billionaire business tycoon before he became prime
minister, were given a reminder this week about what
they could face if they consistently take him or his
telecommunication-business empire on openly.
On
Monday, Thaksin's Shin Corp filed a 400 million baht
(US$10 million) libel suit against the Thai Post
newspaper and a free-media activist, Supinya
Klangnarong. It was the consequence of a comment made by
Supinya that appeared in the Thai-language paper
alleging that Shin Corp had benefited financially
because of its founder being the premier.
Journalists in the country's print media have
been pressured into silence through other means, while
academics and bureaucrats have received verbal lashings
from Thaksin after challenging high-profile government
policies.
The consequence of the national
political ramifications hanging over the Bangkok
elections has in recent days taken attention away from
urgent issues affecting the lives of an estimated 11
million Bangkokians. Most visible among them is
untangling the worsening traffic problems in a city that
has about 5.5 million vehicles plying on its highways -
a figure that keeps increasing with the nearly 600,000
new cars that roll on to Thailand's roads every year.
Like all candidates before him and all who shall
follow, the outgoing governor, Samak Sundaravej,
promised to ease Bangkok's traffic woes. Yet traffic has
become decidedly worse in the past four years; the rate
of new car registrations is now the greatest in the
kingdom's history.
Then there is Bangkok's
growing mountain of garbage. In 1998, according to the
Public Cleansing Department, the solid waste collected
in this sprawling city that is bisected by the Chao
Phraya River stood at 3.1 million tonnes. By 2003, it
had risen to 3.3 million tonnes.
Here again
Samak proved to be a disappointment to the citizens who
voted him into office in 2000 with more than a million
votes. He gained more fame during his four-year term as
the host of his own television program, on which he
cooks spreads of traditional Thai fare.
But
Samak isn't the only interesting personality tied to
Sunday's election. Polling at No 3, with about 6% of the
vote, is dark-horse Chuwit Kamolvisit, a massage-parlor
owner who this year alleged that the police were taking
massive bribes to allow brothels to operate in the city.
He said he had proof and claimed to have paid out
millions in bribes over the years. Chuwit is running on
an anti-corruption platform (see Massage parlor politics, Mar 23).
Then there is veteran Chalerm Yoobamrung.
Chalerm's son, then known as Duangchalerm, was acquitted
on March 26 of murdering police officer Senior
Sergeant-Major Suwichai Rodwimut in a nightclub in 2001.
It was the last incident in a long string of alleged
drunken and violent offenses.
It took almost
three years to get Duangchalerm to court. At first he
fled to Cambodia, assisted by his father and two
brothers, one of whom is currently in jail. Scores of
witnesses at the club initially said they had seen the
shooting, allegedly at point-blank range and to the
head. Later they said the lights went out and they
couldn't be sure who pulled the trigger. Duangchalerm
has since shortened his name to Duang in a bid to lessen
any negative impact on his father's political fortunes.
This week TRT sources told The Nation that
Bangkok-based army, navy and air force personnel had
been directed to vote as a bloc for Pavena, potentially
delivering tens of thousands of votes her way. Employees
of Thaksin's vast network of companies have also been
instructed to vote for Pavena.
If this campaign
- replete with truck-mounted loudspeakers and dancing
girls - is anything to go by, the stage is set for
fierce competition in the nationwide parliamentary poll
that is set for January. On Wednesday Democrat member of
parliament (MP) Juti Krairirk accused TRT of having
bought the country's entire supply of plastic boarding
used make candidates' billboards.
He expressed
his concern about the opposition having to buy its
billboards from ruling party candidates at ridiculous
prices because suppliers could not assure him of new
stock until after the election. TRT MPs publicly mocked
him for not having enough money to bankroll his
campaign.
Additional reporting by Marwaan
Macan-Markar of Inter Press Service.
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the polls on Sunday to
elect a new governor for this gridlocked metropolis of
11 million people. 
