Conflict, Legitimacy and Government Reform: Equitable Allocation of ...

70 KPI Congress XI
A state like Thailand that is not opened up to media freedom or
social movements of different groups implicitly bars the general public
from getting involved in the formulation of public policies.
If that’s the case, where does a public policy in Thailand originate
from?
One way is from politicians who hold an administrative position,
especially right after assuming a position and before being lobbied by
government departments under his or her command, technocrats or
capitalist groups and businesses.
For example, solving cost of living increase problems by using
satang coins which were implemented by other prime ministers in the
past or putting a lid on salary increase of government employees (around
five million people) because the news could tempt retailers to hike retail
prices ahead of time.
We can’t deny it. Psychology is a factor in the determination of
product prices. However, there is a factor that is more powerful than
psychology, that is, demand-supply in rudimentary economics. If
demand-supply fails to function or does not fully function, it means free
competition does not exist in the market. Therefore, we must rectify this
to prevent monopoly or circumvention practices (compulsory licensing
(CL) of drug products partially undermines monopoly and
circumvention practices). Otherwise, non-production costs (e.g. different
types of rent) will be incurred or costs may arise from production,
distribution or transportation inefficiencies. The state needs to raise
efficiency by providing incentives or putting up obstacles to prevent
inefficient production.
Similarly, the idea to cap cooking gas price by taking subsidy from
the oil fund (or setting aside a separate budget) also points towards the
same direction, that is, trying to rid of consumers from the demandsupply
rule. Many past lessons have revealed only major and minor
failures along the way.