Thailand election promise - a free cow for every farmer

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Free cow for every farmer: Thaksin

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11112371%2

55E2703,00.html

Kimina Lyall, Southeast Asia correspondent

October 19, 2004

 

CALL it beef-barrelling. Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has

bucked his Thai Rak Thai party into election mode with a shower of

promises capped by a pledge to hand out cows to the nation's farmers.

 

Centring his re-election strategy firmly on those Thais who shot him to

power almost four years ago, Mr Thaksin hopes that his free calves will

moo down the opposition Democrats in poor rural communities in the

election due early next year.

 

Technically, the free cows are not free. Instead, Mr Thaksin, according

to his spokesman Jakapob Penkair, plans to set up a kind of animal bank

where farmers can borrow a calf and return it - fattened up - some years

later.

 

" They would return the capital, as well as interest, in the same manner

in which they borrowed - as a cow, " Mr Jakapob said. " Any difference in

weight will be given to the farmer in cash. "

 

Mr Jakapob said the scheme, which has been inexplicably named the

Special Purposes Vehicle, will be extended to pigs, chicken, goats and

any other livestock, and might ultimately see farmers cashing in their

animals for other rural resources, such as agricultural machinery.

 

But pesky details, such as how much it will cost, not to mention

failsafe mechanisms to ensure farmers don't switch their cows with

fatter counterparts to increase their profits, have not yet been

finalised.

 

Mr Jakapob said he expected details would be unveiled gradually, as Mr

Thaksin embarks on a campaign stampede through the country.

 

Also on tour is his newly-announced poverty relief caravan, a group of

technicians who will meet every Thai family and advise them how to

increase their wealth.

 

An opinion poll released yesterday suggested Mr Thaksin, who has reeled

from the effects of bird flu and religious violence in the south this

year, is unlikely to meet his personal target of 400 out of 500

parliamentary seats, but will comfortably win the election, largely due

to his overwhelming popularity with farmers.

 

Other pledges will extend the immensely popular health scheme and

introduce tax breaks to Thais who care for their ailing parents.

 

But it is the cows who are likely to round up the most votes. Mr Jakapob

said the idea came from Mr Thaksin's tour of the southern provinces. On

a trip to discuss the violent uprising, villagers instead told the Prime

Minister: " If you want to help us, buy us cows. "

 

Some of the new rural currency could come from Australia, under a recent

but controversial proposal to import 1 million cows to increase the

breeding stock of Thailand's 6 million cattle.

 

That idea seems to have stalled, partly because of local opposition and

also because of supply shortages in Australia. Cattle Council executive

director Brett de Hayr said the drought and other conditions meant

quality Aussie cows were now worth their weight in gold.

 

But that might just beef up the appeal to Thai farmers.