Asia Times: Chuan government all heart


	July 22, 2000	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Chuan government all heart - or is it?

BANGKOK - While the Thai government's ambitious 1.5 billion baht (US$37.5 million) scheme to provide Internet access to rural areas has raised widespread accusations of corruption, a much more ambitious plan to develop local authorities has hardly caused a stir.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will next week present cabinet with details of its 4 billion baht development project for local administration and rural education.

The money, it is envisaged, will be used to hire about 20,000 people with bachelor or master's degrees to teach local administrative officers computer skills, accounting, and management and administration. For education development, 10,000 science and math teachers will be hired in schools nationwide. Local officials will also be trained in revenue collection.

The MoF aims to fund the project with about 1 billion baht still remaining from the Miyazawa Fund, and 3 billion baht from the Social Sector Loan Program (SSLP) of the World Bank. The 53 billion baht Miyazawa Fund, under a Japanese assistance program, provided Thailand with a soft loan last April to create jobs, increase competitiveness and business in provincial areas, and generally stimulate the economy. All of its funds were due to have been distributed by October last year.

Poonsap Piyaanan, director of the Government Budget Bureau, said if cabinet approved the project, it would begin in the middle of next month. The MoF says the project is part of its plan to distribute fiscal authority to local administration.

However, a Bangkok academic who follows development issues said the project was simply a strategy on the part of the government to win favor among rural people and to replace old projects that have failed. "Moreover, if the government really intended to develop the rural areas, they should have made studies and drawn up plans a long time ago."

The four-year term of Chuan Leekpai's Democrat-led government runs out in the fourth quarter of this year, and his cabinet has been accused of pushing through a number of major projects. Opponents claim this is being done so that ministers can profit from the deals, and raise money to fight the general election.

Thaksin Shinawatra, leader of Thai Rak Thai (Thai Unity Party) who has aspirations of his own to be the next prime minister, has commented that the rush to approve projects "represents the last chance for these corrupt politicians before mechanisms to check their practice are put into place".

Singled out for criticism have been the approval for the air force to pay 5.3 billion baht for 16 used US F-16 fighter jets, and two telecom projects with a combined investment of at least 5.4 billion baht. In the face of fierce opposition, the government has delayed a decision on the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives plan to spend 10 billion baht on building paddy silos across the country, purportedly to allow farmers to store rice to take maximum advantage of fluctuating prices

Similarly, the government has stalled on the contentious Internet project, which aims to provide each of the country's 7,200 Tambon Administrative Organizations with a computer and a person to operate it.

In a move designed to deflect attention, the project was this week transfered to the Administration Department under the Interior Ministry from the Transport and Communications Department, both of which, however, are controlled by Democrat ministers.

(From Manager Daily)

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