Korn bares vision ahead of forming new party

[snoop1130]

Korn bares vision ahead of forming new party 

By The Nation

 

Korn Chatikavanij

 

Korn Chatikavanij revealed after resigning from the Democrat Party that he no longer had enough time to manage the party amid the changing political landscape and he preferred to reach his goal out of it.

 

“The Democrat Party gave me an opportunity since my first election in 2005 when I was just 39,” the former finance minister said. “But after so many changes, the same point of view doesn’t work anymore. I am also a part of those changes and I want to see Thailand move forward, and I can handle it easier out of the party.” 

 

He added that he is planning to establish a new political party, gathering people with vision and good intentions to reform the country.

 

In the past few years, Korn said he was studying the development of agricultural products and structure of the Thai farm sector, to help prepare farmers for the future. 

 

“It’s my intention and Attawit Suwanpakdee (Former PM)’s to form a new party,” Korn said. “All members don’t have to be politicians, but they can be anyone with knowledge, capability and a motive. I want 80 per cent of them to be new faces. They have to be decisive because not all decisions can please everyone. We have to be ready for failure and learn from it".

 

Korn said that he believed that the bureaucratic system is still the biggest obstacle for Thailand as it has been corrupt for a long time.

 

Regarding the new party’s strategy, he is planning to register candidates for members of Parliament in every province to increase the chance and he will not recruit MPs of other parties. 

 

“Most new parties will be pressured to choose between the left and right political spectrum but I don’t want to make enemies,” he said. “This movement will be a clean slate for me after having been supportive of General Prayut Chan-o-cha but I cannot deny what I have done. Korn Chatikavanij is always Korn Chatikavanij. What I did, I did it for my country.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380719

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-17

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[canuckamuck]

May he find a way to break Thailand from it's groundhog day cycle of falling short of democracy.

[wordchild]

i knew him slightly in his investment banking days; a thoughtful, intelligent guy, head and shoulders (literally!)  above any of the current lot.

He will be someone to watch and i ,for one, hope he makes some impact. 

Maybe this is his time.

Edited January 17, 2020 by wordchild

[jayboy]

13 minutes ago, wordchild said:

i knew him slightly in his investment banking days; a thoughtful, intelligent guy, head and shoulders (literally!)  above any of the current lot.

He will be someone to watch and i ,for one, hope he makes some impact. 

Maybe this is his time.

Unfortunately all is not what it seems with Korn.An article in the London Review of Books of some five years ago is still relevant. He is I concede an able and good man but when forced to make hard political choices, he made the wrong ones.

 

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n12/richard-lloyd-parry/the-story-of-thaksin-shinawatra

 

Money quote:

While many people bear responsibility for Thailand’s divisions, prominent among them Thaksin,the suave villainy of the Democrat Party, and of men like Abhisit and Korn, is insufficiently recognised”.

“They understand how democratic opposition works, and how defeat, over time, strengthens losing parties, by purging them of what is unrealistic and superfluous, and forcing them into congruence with the aspirations of voters. Twice they have had the opportunity to reject military force and to insist on the primacy of elections; twice they have held the generals’ coats for them, and watched civil rights being trampled on, in the hope of gaining some respite from their own chronic unelectability. The Democrat Party’s leaders — young, attractive and cosmopolitan — could have positioned themselves as mediators between a corrupt, complacent old elite and a corrupt, arrogant new power.

Instead, they chose their natural side in the class war, and achieved the feat of losing the moral high ground to a man such as Thaksin. Their responsibility, and their disgrace, are very great.”

Edited January 17, 2020 by jayboy

[ParkerN]

1 hour ago, wordchild said:

i knew him slightly in his investment banking days; a thoughtful, intelligent guy, head and shoulders (literally!)  above any of the current lot.

He will be someone to watch and i ,for one, hope he makes some impact. 

Maybe this is his time.

 

Well, he's always had his physical and intellectual characteristics, they haven't helped him much so far (even accepting that Abhisit has been a dead weight for a long time).

 

Perhaps he'll do better outside of the Democrat party, but I doubt it. He'll find the weight of history will be like a millstone around his neck. People will not side with him because of his antecedents, he won't be able to throw them off..

Edited January 17, 2020 by ParkerN

[bangkokfrog]

1 hour ago, wordchild said:

i knew him slightly in his investment banking days; a thoughtful, intelligent guy, head and shoulders (literally!)  above any of the current lot.

He will be someone to watch and i ,for one, hope he makes some impact. 

Maybe this is his time.

I totally agree and good luck to Korn. However, (TIT) I suspect that even now those in power are looking to find problems with him, his supporters or the registration of any new party. They can't afford to have someone else with brains, experience and credibility against them.

[edwinchester]

Seems to me if he really wanted to be part of sweeping a fresh broom through Thai Politics he'd sign up with Future Forward. Instead signing up with old cohorts who have previously sided with the military reveals his true colours.

[bannork]

5 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

Seems to me if he really wanted to be part of sweeping a fresh broom through Thai Politics he'd sign up with Future Forward. Instead signing up with old cohorts who have previously sided with the military reveals his true colours.

Attawit Suwanpakdee, a former cohort and loyal supporter of Suthep and his Bangkok Shutdown campaign which paved the way for the coup, has announced he will join Korn in his new party.

 

[bkkcanuck8]

11 hours ago, jayboy said:

Unfortunately all is not what it seems with Korn.An article in the London Review of Books of some five years ago is still relevant. He is I concede an able and good man but when forced to make hard political choices, he made the wrong ones.

 

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n12/richard-lloyd-parry/the-story-of-thaksin-shinawatra

 

Money quote:

While many people bear responsibility for Thailand’s divisions, prominent among them Thaksin,the suave villainy of the Democrat Party, and of men like Abhisit and Korn, is insufficiently recognised”.

“They understand how democratic opposition works, and how defeat, over time, strengthens losing parties, by purging them of what is unrealistic and superfluous, and forcing them into congruence with the aspirations of voters. Twice they have had the opportunity to reject military force and to insist on the primacy of elections; twice they have held the generals’ coats for them, and watched civil rights being trampled on, in the hope of gaining some respite from their own chronic unelectability. The Democrat Party’s leaders — young, attractive and cosmopolitan — could have positioned themselves as mediators between a corrupt, complacent old elite and a corrupt, arrogant new power.

Instead, they chose their natural side in the class war, and achieved the feat of losing the moral high ground to a man such as Thaksin. Their responsibility, and their disgrace, are very great.”

In Thailand, like many countries -- you sometimes have no good choices (that will succeed).   You have to look no farther than how the FFP has come under direct and withering attack... so to have a chance of succeeding many times you have to make deals with the devil because this is the devils domain.

[jayboy]

1 hour ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

In Thailand, like many countries -- you sometimes have no good choices (that will succeed).   You have to look no farther than how the FFP has come under direct and withering attack... so to have a chance of succeeding many times you have to make deals with the devil because this is the devils domain.

That's  a perfectly well argued position but I don't in Korn's case agree with it.He made a terrible unforgivable choice.

 

 

[klauskunkel]

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Korn said that he believed that the bureaucratic system is still the biggest obstacle for Thailand as it has been corrupt for a long time.

The biggest obstacle for Thailand is the military with its impunity. He knows that of course, but he can't/won't say it... The bureaucracy by comparison is small potatoes and less dangerous by far.

Edited January 18, 2020 by klauskunkel