Flood backlash swamps Thai PM

A makeshift wharf serves as a bus ramp in Bangkok, while some residents have dismantled barriers to allow the water to drain away.

A VAST and filthy sea of monsoon floodwater is creeping ever closer to central Bangkok, swamping large tracts of the country, leaving at least 530 people dead, crippling industry and eroding the once solid popularity of Thailand's novice Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The youngest sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister ousted in a coup in 2006, Ms Yingluck, 44, is a former businesswoman with almost no hands-on political experience.

The floods have been devastating Thailand for three months, and Ms Yingluck has been trying to manage the flood strategy since soon after she was elected in a landslide in July. Few believe she has managed it adequately.

This week she again batted aside speculation she would stand down, saying: "People supported and voted for me, so I want to continue my work to the best of my ability."

Handled well, natural disasters can give politicians a boost in the polls. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh took an "all hands to the pump" approach and surfed a wave of public approval when floods hit regional Queensland last summer. 

She cancelled her holidays to supervise. When the floods reached Brisbane, she gave briefings every two hours and told stories about how her mother had been evacuated.

It gave her a 12-point surge in the primary vote, from 26 per cent to 38 per cent, although support has fallen again since.

Ms Yingluck has shone neither in image or substance. When she has donned boots and trudged through floodwaters, it has been seen as little more than a photo opportunity.

Her ministers have been disastrously off-message, contradicting one another. The people's trust in her government's ability to deal with the crisis has seeped away. 

In Bangkok, residents have taken matters into their own hands and dismantled flood barriers to allow the water surrounding their homes to drain away. Others have barricaded their homes and businesses with sandbags and hastily constructed walls.

There is a widespread belief that certain districts have been left flooded to save central Bangkok, and that little thought has been given to the poor and working classes who backed Ms Yingluck.

Supplies are running short in the capital of more than 12 million people, and tempers are fraying. The floodwater are finally receding in some districts, where a huge task of cleaning and reconstruction is now necessary.

Ms Yingluck has asked for the public's understanding, saying Thailand's dams were full when she took office and the country has been battered since by a series of storms. This week she decided she would not go to an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation meeting in Hawaii.

Thailand's polls, while often inaccurate, have clearly depicted Ms Yingluck's ebbing popularity and the Thai people's ebbing confidence in her as a leader.

Yet Ms Yingluck, elected on Thaksin's coat-tails, still has some backing. Thida Thavornseth, the general-secretary of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship red-shirt movement, says Ms Yingluck has been hobbled by aristocrat civil servants and army officers left over from the previous administration.

"It's a new government, but that doesn't mean the Prime Minister can do anything," she told The Weekend Australian. "Most of the civil servants and military officers are the same; it takes time to change."

The Red Shirts' occupation of central Bangkok last year set the stage for the romping election win of Ms Yingluck's red-aligned Puea Thai party, but since the election there has been a perception red-shirt leaders have been sidelined.

But Ms Thida said Ms Yingluck remained popular with the people. "We cannot say that all the problems are because of Khun (Ms) Yingluck," she said.