Thailand's unfinished ‘Lodi' journey

It all began with a song. “Lodi”, written by John Fogerty and sung by Creedence Clearwater Revival, tells of a musician stranded in a small town — out of luck but not out of hope. “Oh Lord,” he sings, “stuck in Lodi again”.

- Peerasit Kamnuansilpa

File photo dated Jan 1, 2022 shows local politicians in Surat Thani province riding to work on an elephant's back.

(SURAPONG CHAOLAN)

The refrain lingers — not merely about a place, but about being caught in life’s pauses, between where one has been and where one longs to go. Listening to it today, I cannot help but think of Thailand — a country that has journeyed far, yet not far enough; one that has known moments of brilliance but remains caught between aspiration and arrival.

In many ways, Thailand has its own Lodi. Decentralisation, for instance, once carried the promise of autonomy and local empowerment. It was an idea born of conviction — that citizens should be trusted to make decisions for their own communities, that power should travel outward rather than upward.

The 1997 constitution was a declaration of that hope. It spoke of democracy not as an abstract system but as a daily practice of governance — a village, a subdistrict, a town learning to manage its own future.

The momentum was real. Local councils emerged, communities debated budgets and public participation was no longer a slogan but a living experience. Yet as years passed, the journey slowed.

The Decentralisation Act still stipulates that the central government must allocate at least 35% of the budget to local governments, yet in practice, this mandate has never been enforced. The figure never exceeded 30%.

Still, the dream of autonomy was alive. More than 150,000 local officers across the nation grew into new responsibilities, learning to lead and serve under the promise of self-governance. They were pioneers of a democratic experiment that still deserves to be completed.