We don't need another round of illegal killings
By The Nation
2011-06-04
Globally, it's now accepted that the 'war on drugs' has failed; Thai politicians should heed this and work instead at eradicating causes of abuse
Riding on the fear among the voters, party after party is declaring war on drugs and other evils in society, while one in particular has vowed to declare victory on its "war on drugs" within 12 months.
Nowhere is this message louder than in the Pheu Thai Party camp, where the de facto leader, fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra, declared from abroad that within a year Thailand would be free of its drug problem.
But we have heard this before, haven't we? And judging from his three-month "war on drugs" in 2003 - a period during which about 2,500 people became alleged victims of extrajudicial killings - another round of killings would put Thailand even further into the human rights spotlight.
People said a coup against an elected government was a setback for the democratisation process. But isn't killing so many citizens in such a short time frame also a big step back from a civil society where justice, rules, regulations, social norms, sense of fair play and due process are supposed to be upheld?
The fact that Thaksin's war on drugs in 2003 was popular doesn't make it right. If anything, it reflects the weakness in this society. The tendency to go for something drastic, regardless of how controversial or illegal it may be, reflects poorly on us as a nation.
Drugs, like many other ills, are a social problem, not a criminal problem. Drug dealing and abuse stem from many factors. From peer pressure to lack of opportunities and unemployment, the very fact that people turn to illicit drugs is a testimony to the fact that they feel they have nothing to lose or that they don't have much to live for.
Instead of hunting them down and killing them, why not tell them that our elected leaders will give them a reason to live? We shouldn't be talking about false hope here. Candidates need to be straight with their constituents instead of making far-fetched promises without talking about consequences.
Yes, all of us want an equitable society. But are we willing to go as far as paying 40-to-50-per-cent taxes as in some European countries in exchange for social services from the state? The answer is very likely no, or else politicians would be making this their party platform.
The problem here is that we don't trust our elected leaders to deliver on promises, but we elect them anyway. If we want better governance, we are going to have to make them accountable for their actions and stop going for quick and short-sighted solutions to our problems.
Thaksin also talked about taking the drug case to Thailand's neighbours. He said that back in 2001, but the Burmese government told him that Thailand's social ills were not Burma's problem.
And instead of getting the Burmese at least to take action on the drug-production side - namely putting pressure on opium warlords and drug armies like the United Wa State Army - Thaksin did more to help whitewash these drug outfits than curbing the supply of illicit substances coming out of their laboratories along the border.
Remember the bogus Yong Kha Crop Substitution Project in the Wa-controlled area that the Thaksin administration was suckered into giving Bt20 million seed money to while the rest of the world shunned it because they saw through it?
For Thaksin, good relations with Burma were good for his family business. Remember the Bt4-billion loan the Thaksin administration made to the military government in Rangoon to purchase satellite services sold by Thaksin's family-owned communications businesses?
Funny thing was that the money came from the US. Folks in Washington said they didn't know that Thaksin was going to use it for Burma because it was a violation of the sanctions the US has put on the military regime.
Thaksin has a track record of going to any lengths to do anything to benefit himself. For him, what's good for him is good for Thailand. And now his party is making all kinds of promises - the same ones Thaksin used to make - and doing it in his name.
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