Thai PM stars in reality show
2006-01-18 14:07
Jocelyn Gecker
Bangkok - In many countries, reality television evokes images of telegenic contestants battling each other on a tropical island or engaged in trysts at a seaside mansion.
Thailand's prime minister is pioneering a new style of reality TV, starring himself and aired on the network his family controls.
Backstage Show: The Prime Minister, which started on Monday, features Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on a five-day tour through one of the poorest regions of Thailand. His government bills the show as an opportunity for the prime minister to meet the needy and tackle poverty as the nation watches him work.
Sceptics - and there are many - have assailed the show as a publicity stunt by the tycoon-turned-politician to boost his popularity at taxpayers' expense.
Opposition politicians, academics and the country's newspapers have heaped criticism on the show, which has the billionaire politician sleeping in a tent between visits to villages in the northeastern province of Roi Et, where the average monthly income is about 2 700 baht ($68).
Makes viewing a yawn
"Thaksin begins his circus in At Samat," blared The Nation newspaper's banner headline on Tuesday, referring to the first stop on the televised roadshow.
Trailed by 40 cameras and a military helicopter, Thaksin's reality show is not exactly exhilarating television. It follows the prime minister to provincial meeting halls, where he leads lengthy talks with local officials on poverty eradication. And it shows continual footage of a smiling Thaksin plunging into enthusiastic throngs of villagers, listening intently as they voice their needs, and promising that help is on the way.
That said, it shows the politician in his element.
"This is trademark Thaksin. He's a showman and he's very good at it," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a politics professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, who writes regularly about national politics.
Thaksin was re-elected in a landslide victory early last year, stemming in large part from his populist policies to deliver money into the hands of Thailand's poor rural majority. But his popularity has sharply declined among Bangkok's political elite.
Manipulating the media
One of Thailand's richest men, Thaksin is battling accusations of corruption and cronyism. Critics accuse him of mixing his family telecommunications empire with affairs of state and mishandling a bloody Muslim insurgency in the south.
Since taking office in 2001, Thaksin has attempted to muzzle the media through lawsuits and the closure of radio and TV programmes that criticise him.
"This is another example of Thaksin manipulating the media," said Kavi Chongkittavorn, a senior editor at The Nation newspaper and former head of the Thai Journalist Association.
"Welcome to the first television reality show of its kind on earth, featuring a national leader," Jeerawat Na Thalang wrote in The Nation. "Unlike all other reality shows, you will only see what he wants you to see. And the bad news is, you can't vote him out."
- AP