The ideas of Anek Laothamatas, the former leader of the Mahachon Party, are given a full airing in a recent Nation article. The article paraphrases Anek in a surprising way. I can’t find a transcript of the comments and so can’t confirm precisely how he related “sufficiency economy” to “populism”.

The Nation reports Anek as saying:

Globalisation and the sufficiency-economy model are good examples of populist policies as exemplified by the previous Thaksin regime that may have to be substituted for what he calls a progressive welfare regime. After all, a patronage-based society and a truly Western-style democracy do not fit together seamlessly.

Is this just sloppy reporting or is Anek actually testing the waters for a different kind of political agenda? Is he calling sufficiency economy a populist policy?