HAI RAK THAI’S VICTORY: It was Thaksin who made up voters’ minds

Published on February 21, 2005

Kesinee: What’s the difference between the previous Thai Rak Thai election victory and this one?

Phumtham: Last time we needed to attract attention with outrageous but practical policy ideas.

The difficulty that time was how to convince the public our ideas could really work. In this election we needed to convince the public that everything is sustainable.

And in this election our critics have been proven wrong in saying that only rural poor would vote for us.

What was behind this landslide victory?

There were three main factors. First, we have been paying serious attention to systematically expanding our party membership base, whereas old-style parties would only give importance to their own MPs. From a membership of 11 million, we now have 14 million and we are only one million votes short of our projected 20 million party-list votes.

The second factor is Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. It was he who made voters make up their minds in advance. He has demonstrated that he could be relied upon and rise to the occasion. He proved himself by repaying IMF debts and dealing effectively with the bird-flu and tsunami crises, and the embassy burning in Cambodia.

The third factor is successfully reaching out to rural people through main policies. The direct approach toward those people was unorthodox but it won their hearts. Our election slogans featuring successes and pleading for continuity also proved to be very fruitful.

This election seems to mock the “Tale of Two Cities” theory that says rural people elected a government only for it to be brought down by Bangkok voters. What’s your opinion on that?

Whoever gets stuck in old theories can never move forward. At Thai Rak Thai, our position is that whatever city people know will also be appreciated by rural people. Provincial voters know a lot and they are second to none when it comes to political awareness.

How much of a factor is the party’s use of shrewd marketing?

Admittedly, it’s the major way

of communicating with the people. You can’t think that marketing can only be used in business and not politics. You have to think of the best way to let the public know who and what we are. It’s not wrong to try to sell what we think and have been doing.

You can do good all the time but it won’t matter if the people know nothing about it.

But we don’t just advertise rhetoric: we deliver. And the most important thing is to let the people know what we have been doing.

What do you see in Thai Rak Thai achieving the first one-party rule in Thai history?

We hoped for it and we set it as our goal, but we didn’t really expect we would actually get it. We will translate this overwhelming faith and trust into energy and we would like to assure the public that the checks-and-balances mechanism will still be functioning. The opposition can still promote its ideas and the government will be very open to suggestions.