Even ‘khon dee’ can need a stiff drink
Building a booze-free, smokefree, sin-free society is a utopian dream of moralistic teetotalers, and we should sincerely admire ThaiHealth Promotion Foundation for trying. To pursue that dream, the embattled ThaiHealth goes to all lengths: flirting with conflicts of interest, questionable funding practices, and assuming a pose of moral superiority demonising drinkers, smokers and sometimes suggesting a brutal connection between the working class and alcohol binges.
Its heart is in the right place, we don’t doubt that, just like we dare not doubt the junta’s heart. Because they mean well, because they want the world (or at least Thailand) to be a healthier place, because their years and experiences embolden them to ride their high horse, because they have the moral mandate to improve society, because of all these they get carried away and believe they should enjoy a free pass — again, just like the military government believes. The doctrine of khon dee, “the good people”, holds up only to an extent. Khon dee is also human, and khon dee is not immune to the all-too-human desires of love, hate, greed, or to the lure of ego and narcissism.
No schadenfreude here; that’s unhealthy. When the junta brought the axe down on ThaiHealth and suspended seven board members by the hemlock of Section 44, it also brought an epiphany. What looked like a marriage between good people — the executives of ThaiHealth initially welcomed the coup and military rule, anything but “bad politicians” — was spectacularly severed. It was a purge, an exorcism, only the exorcist isn’t a priest but perhaps a demon in disguise, and we should sift through the tangle of interests and agendas here.
ThaiHealth controls a fat purse of five billion baht earmarked from alcohol and tobacco tax. The basis for the suspension of its seven members is conflict of interest (sound familiar?), because several of its executives work for smaller organisations that receive funding from ThaiHealth. The funders are sometimes the funded, in other words. The practice is not illegal, but it’s certainly dubious, a glaring loophole that cannot be explained away simply because the funder “means well for society”. The government will appoint new ones next week, and the regulation is expected to be fixed. So here comes the tricky part: who will control the fat purse? More bureaucrats and puppets, it seems. Speculation is rampant the government wants their hands in ThaiHealth’s wallet so they can channel the money to oil their pet projects. Not to mention that the cigarette and alcohol lobbyists are working extra-time to ensure their interests are on the table.
Make no mistake, I believe ThaiHealth is essential. It is an independent agency built on the model of civic participation that promotes decentralisation of public healthcare activities. It supports green campaigns, alternative media outlets, and helps grassroots people through its network. And the way the junta swung its hammer at the seven executives was horrible — any arbitrary use of Section 44 is always horrible — and they deserve our sympathy for that.
But still, what happened should trigger reflection on the agency’s attitude. It should be obvious that having one’s heart in the right place is not a wild card that overrules other considerations, especially when someone has such a huge budget at his disposal. The end, as they say, cannot justify the means. ThaiHealth’s mission is to champion a healthy society, physically, mentally and spiritually (and hence its proud initiative “praying across the year” on Dec 31), and yet sometimes their tendency to equate health with morality shows an obsolete, distorted perception of the world. While it has done much good in reducing potato-couching, puffing and drinking, ThaiHealth’s projects express disdain for people who have the free will to choose the lifestyle they want, however unhealthy. “Poor, stressed, drink!” — that’s the agency’s trophy anti-alcohol campaign that stigmatises farmers as hopeless boozers. That image sticks, especially in the snooty eyes of the middle class (who drink wine when they’re stressed out by the bad economy).
Like the military government, ThaiHealth frames its narrative as the good vs the bad. But that’s false: the narrative is about finding proper control of taxpayers’ money through transparency, accountable leadership and checks and balances. Saints don’t need sinners to tell them this. Because of their frame of thought, ThaiHealth showed great relief — if not support — after the military takeover. Maybe not anymore. Things will get unhealthy in the shakeup, and it’s clear now that in the 99% democracy we have, even the good people need a stiff drink to get through it.