Assessing the assets

Assessing the assets

It's a bit rich to say these well-off politicians are champions of the poor

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE
Assessing the assets

Thailand has this law where you must declare your assets before you assume a political position, then declare them again when you leave that position.

This is to prevent politicians from becoming unusually wealthy during their term of office.

While the law is cute and well-intentioned, it is so easy to get around.

I know if I were a recently-elected politician I'd be parking my assets in the name of my wife, children, relatives and friends-who-owe-me both prior and during my tenure in office. I wonder if Thai politicians have cottoned on to that loophole as well.

Nevertheless the National Anti-Corruption Commission — better known as CSWT (Commission to Stop the World from Turning) — just came out with its list of politicians and their assets after the House was dissolved last December. It makes for interesting reading.

Just about everybody in power saw their personal assets climb, which is amazing because you'd think by spending all your time in tireless selfless service for the good of your country, surely your personal assets would suffer.

Au contraire, dear reader.

The prime minister is worth 575 million, up from 547 million or an increase of 28 million since the last election in August 2011. Her older sister Yaowapa Wongsawat is worth a meagre 123 million baht, while CMPO leader Chalerm Yubamrung is worth 178 million.

Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has a little more than 54 million baht but he is the leader of the elites, the traditional power-holders in this country, so you'd expect him to be swanning around the tens-of-millions mark.

Abhisit's monetary situation does pale next to his Democrat brethren, however. Korn Chatikavanij is about to hit a billion baht in assets, and there are more billionaires over at the Democrats than there are in Pheu Thai, at least on paper.

But I am intrigued by Pheu Thai, since they are allegedly there to represent the rural classes who must struggle against the rich. So why is it so many of these grass-roots Pheu Thai types are richer than the ruling elite?

Take Nattawut Saikuar for example.

Talk about a champion for the poor. In 2010 he led protests — not unlike his nemesis, Suthep Thaugsuban, is doing now. As a prominent voice of the red shirts, Nattawut demanded justice from the "elite" and "rich people".

Much of Nattawut's charm was the fact he was one of them, too. With a face only his parents would love, and dressed like he never missed the Kmart red light when it flashed for those "buy one get three" special nylon shirt offers, Nattawut was the driving force behind the perceived rural class uprising.

Only he wasn't really one of them.

This week it was revealed the 36-year-old Nattawut has 33 million baht of assets.

A champion of the poor with more than a million US bucks in the bank?

Just to put it into perspective I called some of my rural farming contacts.

I started with Tonmai, a 30-year-old rubber tapper who lives not far from my own house in northern Chanthaburi. I telephoned my neighbour to ask how much money he had in the bank at present.

Tonmai as it turned out was the one who picked up the phone.

"Sixty baht," he replied when I asked him.

"No, I asked how much money you have in the bank," I reiterated.

"Sixty baht! I heard you the first time."

"But you have a wife and two children."

"Exactly. That's why I only have 60 baht in the bank. It's expensive raising a family."

"Yes but what happens if your daughter gets sick?"

"I take her to the hospital," he said. "Doesn't cost anything."

"What if you bust your motorcycle tyre?"

"I borrow off you," he said, which is right, although "borrow" is being used extremely loosely here. Tonmai has perfected the hangdog "my front tyre is flat and I swear I'll pay you back at the end of the month" look as he sits at my feet on my patio, shoulders slumped, with his hands clasped in the traditional Thai wai position, followed by a mysterious yet without-fail disappearance around the end of the month in question.

I put down the phone and call my friend Samai from Suwannaphum.

No, not the airport. The district of Roi Et in the heart of the Northeast, a dry, dusty agricultural area which is home to just about every tuk-tuk or taxi driver in Bangkok.

How much does Samai, a rice farmer, have in the bank?

"I've got 6,700 baht. No wait." He cups his hand over the phone and calls out to his wife: "Go get the book bank!"

"It's a bank book," I said.

"Not in Thai it isn't," says Samai, always known for being a little defiant.

"Listen you don't have to get your bank book to find out exactly—"

"ON TOP OF THE RIGHT-HAND SPEAKER OF THE STEREO," he bellows to his wife. I can hear some shrill reply from her in the background that suggests the bank book is not there, which erupts into a war of words about not putting things away where they should be, while I am left hanging on the end of the phone.

Eventually I hang up. Half an hour later I get a call back from Samai.

"6,455 baht," he says. "It was 6,755 baht but I withdrew 300 baht yesterday to buy some whisky." That sentence alone sets off another tirade from his wife, who was standing next to him.

My final call was to Banjob, who owns a chicken fertiliser business in Nakhon Sawan.

"About 300,000 baht," says Banjob. "Why do you want to know?"

I would have thought you'd say those two sentences the other way around, but nevertheless I explain to him how I'm doing some private research on how much rural people have in the bank.

Banjob just laughs. "Why aren't you asking the next logical question that must follow?"

"Which is … ?"

"Ask me how much I am in debt."

"How much are you in debt?"

"About a million baht," he answers, after which he lets out a huge laugh.

That phone call sends me back to Samai and Tonmai. Without having to spare you details, my call to Samai precipitated yet another fight between him and his wife about his borrowing habits, but Samai is in debt to the tune of 60,000 baht thanks to a tractor he bought.

As for Tonmai, he owes 10,000 baht to a local loan shark, which is a helluva lot when you earn 500 baht a day and have 60 baht in the bank saved for a rainy day.

So the entire country is in debt, including Nattawut, the wealthy champion of the poor. He has 14 million baht in debt along with his assets of 33 million baht, which means he is really worth only 19 million baht, enough to feed a family of Tonmais for about four lifetimes, and certainly enough to shut Samai's wife up. For me the one thing that is apparent is that nobody in power is a champion of the poor. The poor are busy working and earning money and paying off debt. If anybody truly represents them, they are not in parliament.

With the exception of Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, perhaps. The party-list Democrat MP has assets of 45,000 baht, the poorest MP in da House. Now if only we could get him into debt; he would stand a good chance of being a true representative of the poor. n

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