For some former MPs, an elderly person's allowance, and help from their adult children, is all they have to live on
A cynical observer of Thai politics might expect that once an MP departs the scene, he will retire to a comfortable life in his local constituency with the financial perks and spoils gained from years of service to his country and party.
But for a handful of former MPs this is far from the reality. Some struggle to survive on a 500 baht monthly elderly allowance, while others rely on support from their children or are trying to pay off massive personal debts.
Spectrum visited some of the "forgotten men" of Thai politics who put their humble financial situations down to several reasons. They said they had refused to play money politics, including vote- and influence-buying, and lamented the passing of an era where they said politicians were more independent and outspoken and less beholden to the party machine.
They did admit to arranging outdoor movies and concerts and delivering food and presents to voters at election time, but said such acts were legal in the "old days" even though such acts would land them a red card from today's Election Commission.
Most complained that they had been forgotten by their parties and former local canvassers and lived very ordinary lives on modest incomes.
Former Chart Thai Party MP Prajan Klaphajon won the constituency of Nakhon Ratchasima in 1979 and 1986. The 68-year-old has no farm or other property to generate income.
Mr Prajan says his only profession is as a career politician, and life has been tough since he failed to get re-elected.
"I have made a simple living from writing stories about amulets for a magazine based in Bangkok, which earns me 400 to 500 baht an article, plus the 500-baht monthly allowance," said the former MP.
Mr Prajan has a shack with a rusty tin roof in Bua Yai district.
He is as inconspicuous as his fellow villagers and has joined an economic sufficiency programme under MP Somchai Chatpattanasiri of the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana Party to help him survive.
"Though I have been given no pay for my work in the sufficiency village, I have been fed three meals a day and sheltered in a house which is more comfortable than my old hut," says Mr Prajan with some of the eloquency which recalled his old days in politics.
Saneh Sorin represented the Sakon Nakhon constituency for the Seritham Party in 1979 and the Chart Thai Party in 1988.
The 71 year old says he remained financially independent of the party's leadership, and was defeated in his re-election bid in the following years.
"Candidates speculate which party is likely be part of a post-election government. They quickly join its rank-and-file, and buy votes to win MPs seats. They don't have to do much for their constituents any more," he said.
Mr Saneh said he had to taken care of his constituents in the Northeast as the party's Bangkok-based leadership gave him little financial assistance even when it was the ruling party.
To make ends meet nowadays, he has a eucalyptus plantation, though it will not yield him any profits until next year.
He depends on income from his wife's beauty salon in downtown Sakon Nakhon, plus the 500-baht monthly allowance.
Mr Saneh is trying to get financial help from parliament to pay a 5,500 baht eye treatment bill.
House committee on parliamentary affairs chairman Sakda Khongpet said ex-legislators are entitled to some medical coverage from parliament. A 16-million-baht fund had been established to provide financial aid.
A sum of 500 baht is deducted from the monthly salary of each lawmaker in both the upper and lower houses to contribute to the fund for their predecessors.
Chaisak Thakrairat, 67, was elected to Roi-et for the Chart Thai Party in 1995.
But he said he did not get on with the party's leaders, headed by ex-premier Banharn Silpa-archa, and became an independent MP with an 80,000-baht monthly salary, plus entitlements.
Sometimes he ignored partisan positions and followed his own counsel. He was defeated in subsequent campaigns.
He is a career politician, despite having bowed out of the national scene. He served as elected head of an Or Bor Tor (tambon administrative organisation) running his native tambon of Na Saeng in Selapoom district since 2005.
The administrative unit has been upgraded to a municipality and an election for its first mayor is scheduled, with Mr Chaisak intending to run.
"I'm undaunted by the sneers and sarcasm from my critics who earlier looked up to me only because I was a politician at the national level, and found it unbecoming for me to have relegated myself to local politics," he said.
"I found no differences between local and national politics as long as I was still doing things in the interests of the people and country."
Mr Chaisak describes himself as a farmer and has borrowed 30 million baht for his rice farms and two houses. He also pays 13,000 baht in monthly installments on his 700,000-baht pickup truck.
Mr Chaisak says he and his family live on a 200-rai rice farm and prices on his yield vary from season to season. As a member of a tambon administrative organisation, he makes 10,000 baht a month. His working children also provide income for the family.
He said he had not applied for the 500-baht monthly elderly allowance. "I'd rather leave that portion of the taxpayer's money untapped and hope all the needy elderly people have easy access to it."
Udomporn Khorpermklang was once elected an MP of the Social Action Party representing a constituency of Maha Sarakham in 1975.
He had been a pharmaceutical dealer, and was well-known in his native district of Phayakapoom Phisai and elsewhere in the northeastern province.
The late economic czar Boonchu Rojanasathian persuaded him to join the party, headed by the late ex-premier MR Kukrit Pramoj.
In that year, Mr Udomporn said he accompanied MR Kukrit to China and met chairman Mao Zedong and vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping in Peking.
"MR Kukrit launched a diplomatic overture to communist China to ask the superpower to stop supporting the Thai communist insurgents in this country upon the end of the Vietnam War," he said.
Today, Mr Udomporn said he is financially supported by his son who runs a roadside Isan foodshop in his native district of Maha Sarakham, and his daughter who runs a local radio programme. He also draws a 500-baht monthly allowance for the elderly.
Though he long ago quit politics, Mr Udomporn said local villagers still ask him for help. "Some ask me to help them tackle red tape, and others ask me to keep opportunistic landlords from grabbing their rice farms."
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