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50 การประชุมวิชาการ
สถาบันพระปกเกล้า ครั้งที่ 16

have to think about how to share the power from the center back to the people,
where it belongs in the first place. There may be some concern that some parts of

the country may not be ready, and we are not quite confident that they will be
ready, and we do not want to concede to any particular power or pressure from any
particular region of the country. But we do not have to concede to any particular one,

we just open it up. Chiangmai will have the same thing as Pitsanulok. Pitsanulok will
have the same thing as Nakornsrithammarat. Nakornsrithammarat will have the same

thing as Chiangrai. Everybody has equal share of power, devolved and decentralized
from Bangkok. We will have to think about that very, very carefully and very, very
seriously.

So, let me summarize. One is definitely decentralization of power, a way to the

future. And you know during the seven-eight months of demonstration on the streets
of Bangkok, decentralization has been the mantra. - “คือสิ่งที่ทุกคนพูดถึง” I hope that
is going to find its way into the new constitution, but you hear less about

decentralization now. [Probably because decentralization is not the mindset now
(spoken in Thai)].

Secondly, the gap of income between Bangkok and the peripheries seven times
difference has to be bridged somehow. We are worst in Asia in this income gap.

The more we develop, the bigger the gap. And you can feel the sentiment of the
people all around the country. And I am a provincial boy. I have that feeling that

why we have less opportunity, less income, less of the infrastructure, less of the
public services, only because we live far away. This pressure is going to continue to
grow, and we’d better be prepared for it.

The other one is professionalized bureaucracy. Let them do what they do best,

what they have learned, what they have prepared themselves to do. Many
appointments are not on merit system. A lot of appointments are not on the quality
of people. But, it’s what Anand Panyarachun always said: “in this country, it is not

what you know, it is whom you know.” And if that is the case, you are not going to
have a professional functioning effective competitive bureaucracy. Imagine you are

appointed an ambassador to a capital somewhere in Europe. C10. Full of opportunities,
full of potentials, full of technology, full of banks, full of financial centers, full of
corporations wanting to come and invest in Thailand. But your ambassador is not

capable of making those connections, negotiating, convincing, and persuading people
to come and invest in your country. What do you lose? You lose twice. One, you pay

him or her and you do not get the service back. Second, worse, you will send wrong