One topic that has become a non-stop issue for discussion, be it in the office, home, gym, Starbucks or on Facebook, is The Flood: who is the person responsible for this devastation across the country?
The finger-pointing usually comes down to the various people in government, as they are always targeted in any given time of crisis. Well, why not _ after all, they are the elected representatives of the people and are supposed to be responsible for the wellbeing of the people.
Pictures of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra as a crab with various parts representing the body and the small brain size; other pictures showing Ms Yingluck looking like a zombie, and still more pictures showing Ms Yingluck with the features of her brother Thaksin, are all floating around in emails and on Facebook pages.
However, I for one would like to stand up and say that the criticism leveled at the government is not totally fair. I know a lot of our readers would beg to differ on this. But allow me to state my reasons.
During a recent visit to Malaysia, at the insistence of a close friend and source I was asked to stay back for the setting up of the "Asean Business Club", a group of elite business people across the region who have come together to work out their differences in order to create a better environment for business in the Asean grouping.
Although I was in Kuala Lumpur, the person at whose insistence I'd stayed behind failed to turn up for this event because he feared that if the flood hit Suvarnabhumi Airport then he would not be able to return back home.
The closure of the airport didn't happen, but his absence gave me free time to mingle with the businessmen and high-profile delegates attending the event in Malaysia.
One of the delegates was former British prime minister Tony Blair, a seasoned politician who was elected to parliament in 1983 before becoming leader of the Labour Party in 1994 and subsequently leading it to electoral victory in 1997 and governing Britain as prime minister till 2007.
In his own words, the seasoned politician explained that it took him nearly a year to learn the way a government functions. This was despite him being leader of the opposition and a member of parliament for more than a decade before taking the premiership.
Now if a person such as Mr Blair took so much time to learn, why are people putting all the blame on Ms Yingluck for the flood problems?
If I am not mistaken, the problem of the flood started right before she was sworn into office, even if it escalated after she took charge.
But can _ and should _ all the blame for the ensuing problems be placed on a lady who has no political experience? Is it not fair to also blame the caretaker government for mismanagement? After all, the dams were collecting water during the monsoon season.
Should the government that was in place prior to this not take a share of the blame as well? For they were there during the 2010 flooding and should have recognized the consequences that would follow if proper action were not taken in time.
Last year's flood was far less severe but the losses were in the billions, and 100 lives were lost as well.
The only difference, it seems, is that this time around the people of Bangkok have been impacted, so I guess that's where the feeling of not being satisfied with the working of the government is coming from.
My saying this is not to show support for the mismanagement that has occurred in the handling of the current flooding, but then, the lack of support and lack of coordination from the likes of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is also to blame
.
Putting the blame on one single person and asking for her resignation is simply too harsh.
Yes, the government messed up in its handling of the situation, and yes, there may have been (though yet to be proven) areas of blunder in the procurement of relief bags or handling of donated goods.
But this has given the government an opportunity to learn from its mistakes and it seems (so far) that things are moving in the right direction.
All that needs to be said is: let's join hands together and work to solve this problem. Once the situation returns to normal, the finger pointing can proceed.
But for now, we Thais should stand shoulder to shoulder and help each other to solve the problems at hand, rather than push someone to the point of discouraging them in their work by hounding them with questions like, "So will you resign from the job?"
No comments:
Post a Comment