Stalled cash handout scheme sours voters on ruling party
Rungthiwa Pimphanit waited months for a long-promised cash handout of 10,000 baht (RM1,290) from Thailand's ruling party, which she backed in 2023 elections, but now the scheme to stimulate a stalling economy has been put on ice.
'There's no way I will vote for them again,' said the 34-year-old government employee from the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, who had counted on the money to pay for her son's school supplies.
Rungthiwa's hopes withered last month after news that the scheme, a key election plank of the ruling Pheu Thai party, would be delayed, fuelling doubt about any recovery in South-East Asia's second largest economy after years of tepid growth.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra blamed steep tariffs proposed by the United States, but the delay to her government's flagship programme, on which it has already spent 174 billion baht, poses a major political risk, say analysts.
'No one will believe anything they say,' said Thanaporn Sriyakul, director of the independent Political and Policy Analysis Institute.
'The government must keep its promises to the people. If they can't do what they said, it's over.'
The government still has time left in its term, said spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub, reiterating that the scheme had only been postponed. The next polls are two years away.
'By that time, if the economy is good, there may even be something more than this programme,' he said.
The handout scheme is popular across Thailand, with its continuation backed by about 60% of 1,310 respondents in a May survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, while about 46% said they would be angered if it was scrapped.
'I'm upset,' said 52-year-old Sathanee Siriphonchaikul in Bangkok, who had planned to use the funds to buy a washing machine. 'I don't think they'll do it again. The economy is bad.' — Reuters
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