What is more important? "Self" or "Society"

It is extremely hard to resist the fact that people do concern about themselves much more than they do for the society. No matter citizens or politicians. Under the democratic political system of Thailand, it is important that the politicians must gain the favor from the people in order to gain their votes. Notice, the favor from the "people", not the "country".

How can we know if the favor of the people is beneficial for the country? If I could be a politician and without any concern for the national interests, then isn't it much easier to simply gain the favor of the people by giving them some cash with returns of their favor. 

Isn't it possible? The answer is obviously yes! What happens when morality do not matter in order to gain the seats in the national parliament? That means, there could be certain possibility that the politicians without "necessary morals" will be able to gain their seats and ruler over our heads.

I do not say anyone does (or has ever done this), as I hope it would not happen. However, morality of the people in the country does always matter. What could possibly happen when we cast our votes for someone who gave us 200 baht for each vote? If we are lucky, then that dude will give us great policies in the parliament to improve our quality of lives. But for most cases, we might not be that lucky.

Voting for someone does matter more than just the matter of like or dislike. Before casting our valuable votes for any dude from any party, we must carefully read his/her policies and how they would benefit us and our country. In the other hand, I am not saying that we shouldn't collect the money from whoever gave us his/her money to gain votes. Surprise? Let me explain why.

In Thai election system, we are not allowed to notice if our friends or other people in our society have given their votes to anyone. For example, I will not know if my father has voted for whoever to be seating in the parliament, unless I asked him to see if he wrote an "X" beside any politician's name. Therefore, if you anyone gave you 200 baht for a vote, it is not a necessity that you must only cast your vote for that dude. Your 200 baht cash will not disappear from your hands if you do not vote for that dude. What's the result? Free money!

Unfortunately, if you did vote for him/her in order to remain loyal and truthful for the person who gave you a little (yes, very little) benefits in your pocket without really concerning about the national interests, sooner or later you and your country will suffer much more.

An article by: Administrator, Thailand Economic Forum, Bangkok.