Survey: Political rifts stem from minority

POLITICS

The political divide which has hurt Thailand socially and economically for years stems from only a minority of the people, a new survey by the Thailand Development Research Institute reveals.

Seeing red About 100 red shirts gather outside Muang Chiang Mai police station to protest the application for warrants to arrest two core red-shirt leaders, Petchawat Wattanongsirikul and Surachai sae Dan. CHEEWINSATTHA

The study also found half of the poorest people say the economic divide between them and the rich has reached an unacceptable level.

The TDRI conducted a survey on the social and economic divide, politics and social welfare in August and September, interviewing 4,097 urban and rural families, covering every province across the country.

The results were unveiled in a seminar entitled "Economic Reforms for Social Justice" yesterday.

"The study concludes that the political polarisation between two camps is a matter for a minority," said Somchai Jitsuchon, an economist at the TDRI who co-conducted the research.

His research referred to the conflict between street protesters of two opposing camps - the yellow shirts led by the People's Alliance for Democracy and the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra red shirts led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.

"The majority of them said they did not feel they were part of the political demonstrations of either side and they stood in the middle of the conflict," Mr Somchai said.

The study suggested the two camps do not come from two different income groups - red shirts from the poor or yellow shirts from the middle class and the rich - as claimed by movement leaders and the media. Instead, each camp includes people from all sectors of the population.

Therefore, economic imbalance is not the key factor that had ignited the political conflict, Mr Somchai said. However, the gap has widened it so that it has reached certain groups of low-income people, he added.

On the economic imbalance, half of the poorest families surveyed by the TDRI said it is very wide and has reached an unacceptable level.

"Unlike the middle class and the rich, the poor look at economic inequality as an important issue," Mr Somchai said.

This sector of society believes better access to education and financial resources can solve their problems, he said.

The majority of the interviewees said the gap is also part of the fact that people who were born to poor families are likely to be poor when they grow up.

The TDRI suggests the state provide a new, long-term social welfare system acceptable to the people, not just a bunch of short-term populist policies.

Niti Eawsiwong, an independent social critic, said the state needed to address social and economic inequality by developing a welfare system that is practical for the nation's fiscal position so that it can be actually implemented.

The poor also needed to benefit from better distribution of power in politics as well as other decision-making mechanisms, he said.