The previous government’s soft power initiatives are facing calls to be cancelled on grounds of a lack of clear, measurable outcomes and misinterpretation of the concept entirely.
Senator Alongkot Worakee, chair of the Senate Committee on Budget Oversight, called on the government to drop all soft power initiatives. The committee will summon agencies from nearly 12 ministries every Monday until Oct 30 to clarify their budget allocations under the soft power framework.
“Soft power isn’t just Lisa (Blackpink) eating grilled meatballs and posting about it — that’s marketing. What we’re seeing now is just event planning,” Sen Alongkot said, criticising the current approach as superficial and ineffective.
While procurement processes may be legally sound, the underlying concept is flawed.
“We’re spending hundreds of millions on events without any real evaluation. If you organise an OTOP (One Tambon One Product) fair, how do you measure its success? Why isn’t there a central system to assess impact, like a cashier in a department store?” he asked.
The government, Sen Alongkot said, should redirect the budget to more tangible infrastructure, such as building border fences along the Cambodian frontier.
Last year, the soft power scheme received a five-billion-baht budget and included plans to develop festivals and events, such as the Maha Songkran Water Festival.
Sen Alongkot said the failure lies with the previous administration’s misguided incentives. “The entire soft power budget allocation should be scrapped. It’s a waste of public funds,” he said.