Democrat contenders face off

Democrat contenders face off

Abhisit, Warong and Alongkorn make case

From left Incumbent Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, former Democrat Phitsanulok MP Warong Dechgitvigrom, and former party deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot take part in a debate at the party's head office in Bangkok ahead of the party leader nomination scheduled to take place early next month. (Photo by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin)
From left Incumbent Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, former Democrat Phitsanulok MP Warong Dechgitvigrom, and former party deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot take part in a debate at the party's head office in Bangkok ahead of the party leader nomination scheduled to take place early next month. (Photo by Pawat Laopaisarntaksin)

Three candidates vying for the Democrat Party's top post have promised to pursue economic policies that will help reduce income inequality and ensure growth is beneficial to the poor.

Speaking at a debate held yesterday at the party's head office to allow all three candidates to share their vision and direction, incumbent party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thailand now needs a new paradigm in terms of economic management in order to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor.

Mr Abhisit, who has served as leader since 2005, said the structure of the present economy has created huge degrees of inequality that simply cannot be addressed if policymakers use the same old paradigm.

"The clearest illustration of this in the current government is its happiness of the fact that GDP will likely exceed 4% this year. But that number means almost nothing to 80%-90% of the people. Because of the degree of inequality, aggregate numbers mean little," he said.

Mr Abhisit criticised the policies of the current junta government, saying much of their policies are dominated by big business and that they failed to address the fairness dimension.

"If I win the race for the party's top post and the Democrat Party wins the election, I will implement a new indicator or index to gauge the livelihood of the Thai people because it is now clear that GDP alone cannot reflect reality and my team has already developed it," he said.

Former prime minister Abhisit said the Democrat Party under his leadership would implement income subsidies which he sees as a step towards basic income guarantees that many countries are talking about as a form of universal basic income.

Mr Abhisit also insisted that the party under his leadership would not support dictatorship and said if the party were to form a coalition government, its partners must have shared values.

The other two contenders, former Democrat Phitsanulok MP Dr Warong Dechgitvigrom, and ex-party deputy leader, Alongkorn Ponlaboot, said if they win, the party under their leadership will also focus on pursuing policies aimed at addressing the economy and bread-and-butter issues which affect people's everyday lives.

Known as a whistleblower for exposing irregularities in the rice-pledging scheme initiated by the administration of fugitive former premier Yingluck Shinawatra, Dr Warong said he will ensure that the price of commodity crops will improve as he has expertise in solving this specific problem.

"The price of commodity crops must not be manipulated by a few big players in the market. I know the problem and understand what farmers want, so I am the one to fix it," he said.

Mr Alongkorn, who was deputy president of the junta-appointed National Reform Steering Council, said he has already prepared new economic models such as the digital economy, tourism economy, creative economy and social economy to revive the Thai economy.

"My priorities will be to get on with reviving the economy, fixing our education system, and making sure there is good governance. Any corrupt projects or policies would need to be investigated," he said.

Dr Warong said another selling point of his platform is to eradicate corruption as it is an obstacle to the country's development.

He said he would work with anyone who is against corruption and would not care about the "rhetoric" about dictatorship versus democracy.

Thammasat University political scientist Orathai Kokpol said the Democrats demonstrated they wanted to advance democracy, but she was uncertain if doing so would bring them more votes.

Many academics said they did not watch the debate.

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