Following the example of communities who suffered from the recent floods, ordinary Thais are resorting to direct action to dismantle barriers that block the free movement of wealth, which is artificially bottled up among the elite.
During the floods, residents whose houses had long been waterlogged began to lose patience when it seemed that sandbag barriers that had been set up to keep the better-off areas of the Bangkok dry were simply prolonging their misery. In desperation, they formed mobs to attack sluice gates and walls of sandbags. They argued that there was no reason for their homes and livelihoods to be sacrificed any longer just so that other parts of the city could avoid getting wet.
These protests led in some cases to violence, as they clashed with police, or with residents from the other side who were now in danger of being flooded if the barriers were removed.
In a similar move, pro-poor protestors have started attacking what they say are the measures that prevent a fairer distribution of the nation’s wealth. They argue that it is not right to expect the majority of Thais to sacrifice their financial well-being so that a privileged minority can enjoy continuing disproportionate wealth.
Most attacks have been aimed at the ‘tax wall’. This refers a set of laws and regulations protecting the better-off from having to pay taxes that are common in other economies.
One group are attacking the absence of any inheritance tax. In most mature economies, assets above certain limits (adequate to maintain the family home, etc.) are subject to tax before they can be inherited. Thailand has never had any such tax.
This group keep observers posted at district offices in the wealthier parts of town. Whenever a notification of death is made, they check the make of car that is used by the person making the notification (normally this is a family member). Anything above 2000 cc and the person is seized, turned upside down and the contents of their pockets, handbags, etc. are requisitioned as partial preliminary payment of death duties.
A team then does a search of the deceased’s property, share holdings, bank accounts and other assets and makes a tax assessment. Goods to the value are then confiscated, auctioned and the proceeds added to tax revenue.
Farther along on the tax barrier, another group is attacking the lack of any serious tax on land holdings. In a series of lightning raids, protestors surround selected pieces of prime real estate and demand a nominal sum from every person wishing to leave or enter the property. This normally alerts the owners who, to prevent the inconvenience and loss of trade, are willing to negotiate a ‘tax’ based on the estimated value of the property. This sum again is sent to the Revenue Department.
Other protest teams locate idle land where speculative owners are waiting for favourable conditions to sell for a profit. This often leads to hectares of potentially productive land lying unused for years. Where these plots can be used for squatting, community enterprises or welfare purposes, the land is occupied in a manner reminiscent of the Sem Terra movement in Brazil. Where the land is not so useful, all access points are blocked and notices posted saying that access will be restored on payment of a ‘tax’, again based on the estimated value.
A permanent protest at the Stock Exchange of Thailand focuses on the fact that capital gains in share trading are exempt from tax. Trained protestors scan the crowd of punters and look for the tell-tale signs of a successful stock coup (the glint of greed in the eye, the self-satisfied smile and patting of the pocket). They rush in, seize the stock certificates and offer to give them back on payment of a tax calculated as a percentage of the unearned income gained.
A larger group is working to reconfigure the entire tax barrier system by raising the barriers based on direct taxes, such as income tax, which can be made progressive, targeting the rich and exempting the poor. At the same time they lower those based on indirect taxes, such as VAT, which everyone, poor or rich, pay at the same rate.
Other groups are working on dredging and widening the channels for economic progress. The education channel, for example, is in most societies the prime way in which people can improve their economic status. In Thailand, however, this is choked off by the noxious weeds of tea money, unequal allocation of resources and bias in favour of the already privileged, with a special ‘express channel’ of private education for the truly wealthy.
The government, however, is taking a very dim view of all these activities. When public pressure gets too great, they give way, at least for a period. But they constantly point out that just as it makes no sense for the whole of Bangkok to be inundated to the same level, government resources cannot be allocated in an even-handed way and some sections of society must recognize that the sacrifice of their economic well-being is for the good of the nation.
At least for the good of those elements that rule it.