BANGKOK (IPS) - Thailand's rural voters stood up to the country's powerful military by refusing to march in step with the junta's drum-beat for political change at the first-ever referendum for a new constitution held here.
Voters from the country's north-east, home to the poorest section of the electorate, delivered an emphatic 'no' vote in the plebiscite held on Sunday to approve the country's 18th constitution. According to the final tallies confirmed on Monday, nearly 62 percent of those from the north-east who voted, or 4.6 million people, cast a ballot against the constitution drafted by a military-appointed committee.
This rejection echoed in other areas, too, such as the northern provinces, where 46 percent, or 2.29 million, of those who voted marked the negative box on the ballot paper. In all, some 10.2 million people, or 41.4 percent of the electorate that participated, came together as part of the 'no' bandwagon.
It is a number that takes the sheen off the pro-military political establishment claiming an emphatic victory at the referendum, where those who voted for the constitution accounted for 56.7 percent of the ballots cast, or an estimated 14.3 million voters. ... Full story
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |