Critics say it has done very little of substance

Writer: ANUCHA CHAROENPO

Published: 7/08/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

The government's listing of its achievements over the past six months has failed to mollify many of its critics

They say it has failed to deliver the necessary policies to help the poor.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, in his address to the country yesterday on Public Relations Department television and radio networks, boasted the Democrat Party-led government had come up with more than 100 policy measures and successfully enacted them to improve the people's quality of life and boost the economy.

"I am confident that all the government's measures will make all Thais happy," he told a press conference after the address.

The coalition government has been determined over the past six months to solve the country's problems to fulfil its promises to voters, said the prime minister.

Six months ago, the Democrats joined with other parties which had defected from an alliance with the People Power Party after it was disbanded and its executive members banned from politics for electoral fraud.

Other PPP members immediately formed the Puea Thai Party which is now in the opposition bloc.

Critics yesterday cast doubt on the government's performance, calling on the prime minister to be open to different views, especially those of ordinary people.

They also faulted the government for not doing enough to encourage public participation in deciding government policy.

Sampan Techa-atik, a lecturer at Khon Kaen University's faculty of humanities and social sciences who has been working closely with people in northeastern communities, said the government was still proving incapable of solving people's problems, particularly the poverty plaguing rural villagers.

"The government is on the wrong track," Mr Sampan said. "It claimed success in its projects, so why are people still struggling with poverty?"

He said many government projects, such as the distribution of 2,000 baht to low-income earners and the monthly payments of 500 baht to the elderly aged over 60, were in fact populist policies.

Even though the projects seemed to benefit the recipients, they were tools for the Democrat-led government to seek votes in the next election.

The projects could not solve the people's fundamental problems, Mr Sampan said.

"The government must come up with policies to make people stand on their own feet rather than forcing them to rely on help from politicians," he said.

Chaipan Prapasawat, director of the Community Rights Institute, was disappointed with the government's performance, saying the Democrats should have come up with better policies.