Thai vote: democratic backslide?

Wanlop Chunete, a dairy farmer in the arid hills of northeastern Thailand, is better off today than he was four years ago. He still owes the bank money, but his monthly repayments are lower and he's bought more cows with his profits from milk sales. When he goes to the local hospital, he pays only 75 cents a visit.

Come Sunday, when Thailand elects a new parliament, Wanlop will be returning the favor.

"I will be voting for the governing party," he says "Compared to the other parties, Thai Rak Thai delivers on its campaign promises. Other parties come here and pay respect, but nothing changes."

Sentiments like these are expected to hand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra an unassailable majority in parliament. During his four-year tenure, Thailand's GDP has grown 22 percent, second fastest in East Asia after China. Many Thais credit Mr. Thaksin's more authoritarian approach, seeing him as a man who has brought stability and can get things done, whether it's fixing the economy or mobilizing government aid to tsunami victims.

But the prospect of another landslide for Thaksin, in an election seen less as a contest of issues than as a referendum on him, has raised concerns that Thai democracy could be the ultimate loser. Analysts say the space for dissent has narrowed sharply under his rule, while judicial and constitutional checks on his power have been undermined.

"There's a general feeling that this administration does not fully appreciate the concept of human rights or what democracy means," says James Klein, country representative of the Asia Foundation. "Thaksin has basically said democracy is not the goal, economic well-being for everyone is the goal, and when democracy gets in the way of that, shove it aside."

Critics charge that Thaksin is moving Thailand into line with authoritarian Asian democracies like Malaysia and Singapore, where single-party rule is the norm. They say his mix of economic populism and repressive crackdowns is reversing decades of hard-fought political freedoms. A spate of extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers in 2003, and the death of 85 Muslims in army custody last October have drawn international rebuke.

"Thailand used to be a model for the region that showed economic rights and political rights can go hand in hand, that we could be an open society and a prosperous society at the same time," says Sunai Pasuk, a veteran campaigner and consultant to Human Rights Watch.

Thaksin has denied any pullback on safeguarding human rights and insisted that other drug dealers were behind most of the 2003 killings. He has offered a partial apology for the deaths of the Muslims, who suffocated after being stacked into army trucks, and promised to investigate security officials involved.

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