Amid the unprecedented health crisis that resulted from the spread of Covid-19, a political movement has emerged to offer a way forward.
Care -- Creative, Action, Revival and People Empowerment -- is a movement created by a group of big names in Thai politics and the economic arena, including investment banker and renowned economist Supavud Saicheua who joined the movement as a co-founder.
In an exclusive interview with the Bangkok Post, Mr Supavud said Care is a platform to gather views and experiences of Thais so they could be coalesced and bring about solutions for the country.
The main objective of Care is to reorient the way things are done in Thailand by asking Thais what they want going forward.
"We are all stakeholders here," Mr Supavud said.
"And I think we have a right and I think Thais do have wisdom, knowledge and experience that should be shared. I don't believe in a white knight who comes in and tells you do this or that."
The crux of the movement, according to the economist, is the idea the movement needs to be innovative, get everyone's ideas and "try to meld them and bring about a direction for the country and a consensus as to where Thailand should be going forward".
He said Care is willing to listen to input from all stakeholders who are willing to help the country divert from its current state.
"Thailand has not been moving anywhere," he said. "Economic performance has been lacklustre.
"We have underperformed in the global economy, whereas in the past we were growing at a rate of almost twice the rate of the global economy."
Economist Supavud Saicheua, a co-founder of Care, says the group is ready to listen to opinions from people from all walks of life who want to see the country move forward. Pattarapong Chatpattarasill
Mr Supavud said change is needed in how Thai politics works. He said ideas should be generated from the people and politicians should opt for wisdom of the crowd instead of following the lead of a few political elites that set the agenda.
The economist said Care has been welcomed by the public largely because the public feel a lot of weariness and pessimism about Thailand.
"I think a lot of people share our view that we should be able to do better than what we have done in the past five or six years."
What bothers him the most is the fact the economy is faltering badly.
"There is a belief that you could take it slowly, you could open up the economy slowly and things will be OK, as long as you keep the country free of Covid-19. I think there's a huge trade-off between what you want to achieve on Covid-19 and what the economy needs,'' he said.
Roughly, the economy loses about 250 billion baht a month during the lockdown.
He said even though it's noble to be cautious on Covid-19, the government should be aware of the cost of being overly cautious.
He urged the government and the public to see the importance of opening up the economy or risk it faltering further.
"Estimates from the private sector had talked about 5 to 7 million jobs being possibly lost if the economic reopening doesn't proceed as rapidly as it should," he said.
"Now compare that to 1997. We actually only had 1.4 million jobs lost. So this thing is about three, four times more severe."
The task leading the opening up of the economy is to not make the public panic and to ease the state of emergency, since it is no longer necessary.
Four main areas that need to be reconfigured as the country is moving forward after Covid-19 subsides are the automobile industry, ageing society, and the need to reform agriculture and tourism sectors.
As the world moves forward, he said a new change in the way we tackle the economy is required.
The government's 20-year strategic plan is suddenly outdated, irrelevant and redundant.
He suggests replacing it with a better version where people get to participate, noting that the strategy should set a course for Thailand in a way that the younger generation can actually have hope and have their dreams fulfilled.
"If we are to have a 20-year strategic plan, I would recommend that the people drafting the plan must not be more than 50 years old," he said.
He thinks that the people who have much more at stake in the 20-year plan are younger people; it's not just for the old people to impose on them.
Furthermore, during the health crisis the government needs to be clear what the ultimate aim of the government's strategy in dealing with the Covid-19 is going to be, adding that the government seems to be doing everything step by step, package by package.
Comparing Covid-19 to a chasm, where suddenly there's a big drop, Mr Supavud said the idea of policy is supposed to build a bridge that enables everyone to cross it.
In his view, a package should enable people to survive over those two to three years, not 5,000 baht a month for three months.
"There's a big difference between doing patch-up work for 5,000 baht a month for three months, and really helping everyone get across a bridge which we will build over this Covid-19 chasm," he said.
"And if this bridge needs to be two years long, so be it."
In this regard, Care aims to play a part of a platform that allows people to come together and try to find a solution.
Care would proceed while upholding the principles of democracy, especially the concept that the power belongs to the people, and therefore the people have the right to argue until a solution is presented -- and all can find a consensus.
Currently Care is at a starting point.
But the coordinators who have been assigned will be able to try to bring about a coordinated way of formulating a certain consensus and certain policy recommendations to pass on to national platforms.
"I think there's also an implicit belief that if we could come up with good ideas that are well thought out, and that has won the consensus of the Thai people, the Thai people will insist on it being implemented," he said.
"I think that's where you would have to have a leap of faith and believe that you can build a movement that can affect change in a material way."