BACK	ECONOMY-THAILAND: Patriotic Appeals Rise from Depths of Crisis

The effort, involving fund mobilisation and austerity campaigns to shore up state coffers, has gotten mixed reviews. Some hail it, while critics describe it as an ineffective way to solve the crisis, and just another example of the nationalistic wave sweeping Asian countries facing economic turmoil.

Such nationalism, emerging from the depths of Asia's crisis, is taking many forms.

It can be seen in the anti-western rhetoric of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, to rallies against conditionalities imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in South Korea and its citizens' donation of gold jewelry to help repay the country's loans. In Manila, central bank officials are asking Filipinos to sell their dollars to help stabilise the peso.

In each country, the message is the same: 'Stick together in this hour of crisis, we cannot trust the foreigners'.

Since July 1997, currencies in most Asian countries have depreciated drastically while dozens of financial institutions have collapsed and thousands of employees thrown out of jobs.

While the Thai and Indonesian currencies have fallen by more than 100 percent against the U.S. dollar, by this week the South Korean won and the Malaysian ringgit have depreciated by 90 percent and 30 percent respectively. The Philippine peso is now more than 70 percent below its pre-currency crisis levels.

The 'Thai chuay Thai' campaign, as it is called here, was initiated last month by well known Thai Buddhist monk and preacher Phra Phayom Kallayano, who set up a fund to help the government weather the crisis. The campaign has officially been adopted by the Chuan Leekpai government, and joined even by opposition politicians and the armed forces.

''There are 60 million people in this country. If one million agree with me (and contribute) we can have a lot of money to do many things,'' Phra Kallayano said in launching the fund, which has now collected more than 19,200 U.S. dollars in donations.

In the first week of January, army chief Gen Chettha Thanajaro appealed to Thais to sell their foreign currency to help stabilise the baht which touched a low of 52 to the dollar this week.

''I am asking for all parties to cooperate and show unity -- I am not concerned how much money we raise,'' Chettha said. The army's campaign has been organised with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Thai Bankers' Association, Federation of Thai Industries and other private groups.

Under the campaign, citizens who exchange foreign currencies worth 50 dollars will be given a 'Helping the Nation' pin to show they have done their bit during Thailand's worst economic crisis in more than 50 years.

Other ideas floated as part of the campaign are a call to government employees to take voluntary pay cuts, mobilise privately-owned gold into state coffers to boost gold reserves and issue bonds to Thais living abroad to raise foreign currency.

With Thailand's international credit rating lowered to junk bond or high-risk status in recent weeks, the finance ministry is believed to be considering appealing to the patriotic sentiments of overseas Thais.

But some Thai intellectuals say efforts like collecting funds from the public or cutting the salaries of bureaucrats are grossly inadequate, given the scale of the country's problems.

''There will never be enough to cover Thailand's external debts through such funds,'' said Prawase Wasi, a leading Thai social critic and pro-democracy campaigner who has suggested measures like the imposition of an inheritance tax, land redistribution and decentralisation of economic power. Thailand has an external debt of nearly 100 billion dollars, much of it in short term debts due over the next year.

Others are critical of what they see as an attempt by the urban elite, consisting of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen, to pass the burden of paying off Thailand's debts onto the shoulders of the entire country.

Arguing that the economic boom of the eighties benefited only a handful of Thais who are also responsible for the current economic mess due to over borrowing and misinvestment, these critics say the proper thing to do would be to make the debtors pay on their own.

Nearly 80 percent of Thailand's external debt is in the private sector and government measures, such as costly bailouts of financial institutions, are seen by many as being a misuse of public funds to help private interest groups.

This view has become popular following December's declaration of assets -- mandatory under the new Thai constitution -- by members of the outgoing Cabinet of former premier Chavalit Yongchaiyudh which showed many politicians and their wives owning wealth hugely disproportionate to their income.

By harping on the unity of the Thai people and appealing to nationalistic pride, critics say the 'Thai help Thai' campaign covers up the social and economic divisions within the country.

Many political analysts have pointed out that at the root of Thailand's economic problems is a deep-rooted hierarchy of haves and have-nots, kept in place through years of repression of those demanding change.

Thailand ranks among the top five countries in the world with income inequalities. Recent studies show that while the poorest 20 percent have only 5.6 percent of the national income, the richest 20 percent have 52.7 percent.

''The irony of the nationalism that the political elite is trying to whip up is that it comes hand in hand with moves to sell off a large chunk of the economy to foreigners,'' said Tavivoot Puntargvivat, a political scientist at Bangkok's Mahidol University.

Faced with widespread bankruptcy of the property and financial sectors, the Thai government in recent weeks relaxed several laws to allow foreign companies to hold higher stakes in local firms. The authorities are also banking heavily on tourist dollars this year to help revive the sagging economy.

In fact, several media commentators have warned that soon a large part of the domestic economy could end up being owned by foreigners, thereby threatening the country's sovereignty.

They say that Thailand -- which has prided itself as being the only country in the region never to have been colonised -- could end up a subsidiary to western multinational firms that have seen an opening in the crisis and are lobbying hard for more and more opening up of the economy to foreign investors.

The IMF, which has arranged a 17 billion dollar rescue package for Thailand, has also made further liberalisation of the Thai economy a condition for disbursement of the funds.

''The ongoing `Thai help Thai' campaign is a weak attempt by the elite at imitating Japanese and Korean style militant nationalism,'' said Tavivoot. ''It will never work unless there are deeper changes within Thai society to make it more egalitarian, which is the only way ordinary citizens will have a genuine stake in protecting their national interests.''

If the economic crisis does not get better soon, the proponents of Thai nationalism could soon find their own people turning against them for mismanaging the country all these years -- and forcing it to go begging overseas for bailouts that come with humiliating conditionalities. (END/IPS/AP-IF-DV/SS/JS/98)