Survey of the Thai-language press: the by-elections - November 1, 2005 Translated and summarized from the Thai-language press Thairath After the by-election in four areas and knowing the official vote, the opposition parties are happy that opposition MPs now reach 125. This means they will be able to call no-confidence debates on ministers concerning corruption issues. Meanwhile Thaksin Shinawatra said during his mobile cabinet meeting at Nakornsawan Province that Nakornsawan is the province that trusts TRT and select all TRT MPs so this province will get privileges to help specifically. Provinces that trust TRT less will be helped later in a queue. He said this frankly and revealed to the media what he thought. Bangkokbiznews Thaksin surveyed at Nakornsawan Province and repeated to take care provinces which elect Thai Rak Thai first and specially. TRT jeered the opposition party that even though they received 125 votes, it will have no effects on politics. Matichon The lesson of Sunday's by-election: Thai Rak Thai, government power, and capital defeat the public opinion. The result of the election on Sunday showed that each party got one area MP. For the Democrat Party, Mr. Hochalee Marem, the MP of area 2 won without competition and passed the 20% of the MP criteria points. For Chatthai, Mr. Thiraphan Wirayuthwattana got 50,299 more than Mr. Prasaeng Mongkonsiri of TRT with almost 10,000 points. For the Mahachon Party, Mr. Siriwat Kajornprasart, area 4 of Pichit won over the TRT MP by 17,000 points. And for TRT, Mr. Payap Punket, won Chatthai in Singburi by only 753 points. The conclusion is that TRT lost 2 MP seats in 3 areas. This is the defeat that the leaders of party could not believe and might not accept. This because TRT is the government party that has government power and capital in hand and the PM and the leader of party visited the area personally in the last two weeks before the election. His interview show his confidence to win absolutely because of the party poll survey before and after the election. [Note: The three races that were contested appear to have been hard-fought and the loses for the government seem to have major consequences. However, the way each party won one seat is suspiciously like the divvying up and taking turns that often happens in Thai politics--both in terms of winning seats and taking turns holding seats. Taking this a step further, if TRT did 'allow' or accept that the opposition have 125 seats for some reason, it would indicate confidence and inside deal-making. An indicator of possible truth of this theory would be in how far-reaching the eventual impeachment debates are--if indeed it would be possible to coordinate one since it would require every opposition MP to vote for it.] Manager Academics point out TRT was defeated because the government cannot plug corruption news which not only impacts people in the city, but also in the rural areas. This also shows the efficiency of news, newspapers, radio and even TV, that the government cannot suppress. They repeated clearly that populism is not longer a potent mantra. Meanwhile the law professor of Thammasat University jeered that Thaksin is arrogant and made his own defeat and does not understand democracy. Academics believed people voted the way they did because they want to investigate the House of Representatives. From the Thai-language press: Thairath editorial: Freedom of the press "plummets into a gorge" - October 28, 2005 Freedom of the press is one index that measures the democracy of nations along with an independent judiciary service, political freedom, and rights such as holding elections. Every time in the past in surveys, Thailand is on the top level of Asia following Japan. In the world survey it is quite high on the middle level. But recently, the survey “Index of the World Press’ Freedom“ from “Reporters Without Border” showed that freedom of the press in Thailand is down abnormally. The ranking fell into a gorge from the 59th level in 2004 to 107th--this is in a ranking of 167 countries. Thailand is bested by even Cambodia (90th) and East Timor (58th). The survey found that newly democratic countries in Latin America and Africa have no more freedom of newspapers, but many countries in Asia are worse. The better countries are South Korea (34th) and Taiwan (51st ). The best freedom of press are in rich countries in Europe, Denmark , Finland, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, etc. So it is remarkable that Thailand is poor in freedom of the press which feel off from last year's level by 48 places. This is also sad because it happened under a democratic government and under the constitution which is praised to be the most democratic and having no dictatorial passages like in the past. The foreign organizations who set the level did not tell the reason why Thailand fell 48 places so we have to look back the press association which always watches the freedom of media. It declared that year 2002 was the "year of interfering in media", year 2003 was “year of rounding up media” and year 2004 was “year of splitting and destroying media.” For 2005, Thaksin talked big to foreign reporters that Thai newspapers have lots off freedom and they can criticize even the PM. However, the press association has not yet declared what kind of year 2005 is. The media may all agree that year 2005 is year that hidden attempts were made to grab media by buying stock and controlling the business by unfriendly people--as in the hope to grab the giant presses of Matichon group and Bangkok Post. Freedom of the press is the measure of the nation's democracy. It is a valuable asset that can be transferred into immense capital on the political and diplomatic world stage. Freedom of press came from our earliest reporters' struggle from the pioneer to the generation of today. So it is very sad if we finally lose press freedom in the time of democracy. More: Unlocking the Thai world: Thai-language newspaper headlines