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Professor Alex, do you have any recommendations for us in Thailand about
decentralization and democratization, please Professor?
2TQH &T #NGZ $ $TKNNCPVGU ,T
Thank you. Kobkun Krub. I, of course, don’t want to be presumptuous to make
recommendation. But all I can do is to give you what we did in the Philippines. And
I’m not saying that we’ve been successful, but what I’m saying is we’ve moved in
that direction. Let me give you a very important part. 1972 we have Martial Law in
the Philippines. We had the dictatorship, and the dictatorship lasted from 1972 to
1986. This is very, very strong story. My, I guess, mentor told me about they need
to get involved. He said, one time, he was riding the bus, and standing in the bus,
there was a big man beside him and then he look at the big man and said, Sir.
Then the big man said, yes.
Are you Americari man?
No.
Are you a policeman?
No.
In that case, please remove your foot from shoes, because you’ve been
stepping on me for some time now.
My point is, we should get involved. That is what he is saying. If we do not
get involved, people continue at this… I’m talking about the Philippines, ok? That is
the message. We should get involved, because those circumstances, it might be true
or not true in our paradigm, in our perspective. Citizen’s involvement is very, very
important. And that is what decentralization is all about. That is what getting at it is
all about. More importantly that is what demanding accountability. I think, as they
say, when we shine the flashlight on those who are doing things, they will not do
things what they should not be doing, within the context of accountability, within the
context of transparency. So, that’s really 1, get involved.
No. 2, I would like to take out from what our last speaker said. When we talk
about public sector reform, when we talk about decentralization, it’s not for us,
definitely not for us. We’re old already relatively in this room. It is for our children,
and that’s exactly what they said. It sounds old, but that’s what sustainable
development is all about. It is for our children. I myself, I have three children and
sometimes, way back, I was wondering is this the kind of world I would like to give
my children? And like you, there were times when I’m scared to go out because it’s
not safe, and we owe it to them. The point is, did our parents think about us?
Perhaps they did, perhaps they did not. But they did not have the perspective of this
thing called sustainable development that the future is what we are doing today. ª£¸²£ª±¡¡²¥¸h¡¢h¢µÈ
We’re talking about democracy. We’re talking about decentralization. It’s not for us.
