Lost in flood: information

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's ordeal has been totally different from that of the people in Thailand's Central Plains whose houses were flooded and whose lives have been vastly curtailed by the widespread inundation. 

Ai was detained in isolation for two and a half months, cut off from human contact or emotion to the point that he wished someone would beat him. "Because at least that's human contact," he told Isaac Stone Fish of Newsweek.

Still, his conclusion that people need information in order to stay alive somehow rings true here, as the prolonged flood crisis has pitched people living on the wrong side of a watergate or floodwall, against those on the other side, threatening anarchy in areas of the capital.

When the flood first trickled in, discussions and analyses by both local and foreign observers came gushing, that this could be the "final equaliser" for this politically bruised and deeply divided nation. The water would respect no political class or wealth. 

It would flow in and inundate places of the red and yellow, of those who support Pheu Thai or the Democrats, of the rich as well as the poor. In misery commonly felt, Thailand would finally stand united.

How wrong they were. Not only has the overflowing water failed to resolve the us-versus-them attitude bred by years of intense political conflict, it has brought on a new polarisation  the wet-versus-dry partition that promises to be even more personal than all the previous contentions combined, because this time the conflict is located right at the people's hearts their homes.

This is not to say that the difference between those who are flooded and those who are not is that between hell and heaven. But are people who live in inner Bangkok, in the central business districts of Sukhumvit, Silom and Siam Square, wrong that their places have not been touched by the flood?

I believe it is not their fault. These people have done nothing wrong by choosing to settle down _ buying the land and building a house in the CBD, which is understandably much more expensive than the outer areas be they in the east or west of Bangkok. They paid for a promise of convenience, after all.

Are people who have had to put up with the rotten smell, mosquitoes and all of life's other difficulties brought on by having floodwaters in their homes and surrounding areas for more than a month, wrong to come out and protest against their condition, to destroy barriers they believe prevent the floodwaters from flowing out of their areas, or to block roads in the hope that once other people become as inconvenienced they will start paying attention and hear their cry of grievance?

I believe they are not wrong, either. Who could blame them for trying to lessen their own suffering by themselves because no one has given them a helping hand?

So, what has gone wrong here?

Information has been missing, I would say.

Since the start of the flood crisis in July, the authorities _ the government, City Hall and bureaucrats _ have not given the public a clear picture of what is going on, what are the possible courses of action, which one they would choose to implement and why.

Take the big-bag tactic as an example. Has anyone from the Flood Relief Operations Command come out and explained clearly what these bags do and who would be affected by their coming into existence?

If some areas have to be inundated by a deeper flood or for a longer period of time in order for the authorities to better manage the water flow downstream from the big-bag barrier (which is obviously the case), why didn't the authorities explain the necessity of this option to people there and find a way to compensate them for the added hardship?

Without the information necessary for people to understand the situation and to make informed decisions, it is not surprising that some of them have decided to take the matter into their own hands and do whatever they believe will help including destroying these flood barriers and the big-bagful of inequality and resentment, regardless of the effect.

The same wet-versus-dry strife is happening everywhere across the capital_ on Rama 2 in the south, in Pathum Thani towards the north and near Bang Pakong River on the eastern side.

I wonder if the authorities could have avoided the growing chaos and ever-rising resentment had they been more generous and truthful with the information. 

As the Chinese artist said, when you don't know what is going on, the mind panics. "I realised you need information to stay alive. When there's no information, you're already dead."