Thailand is once again being asked to imagine what the next constitution, now being drafted by lawmakers, will look like. Yet one important question has received remarkably little attention: will the new charter restore genuine local self-government, or will it simply be old wine in a new bottle, with the central government continuing to dominate local administration?
The question is not just an afterthought: it is about Thailand's future. A country cannot achieve balanced development while treating local governments as administrative extensions of the central government. Government -- either national or local cannot and will not be able to win public trust if local administration is vulnerable to manipulation, fraud, and patronage.
