Not the time to play the blame game

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?"

Brought to you by the letter 'S' (For Shameless)

Thais have shown their generous spirit in flood aid efforts, but the trucks rolling around submerged sois bearing banners seem to be filling the sewers with something else entirely

Day 28 of the flood. It seems the infested waters are bringing with them disease, crocodiles, poisonous snakes and politicians.

Another truck rumbled past me last Wednesday on Vibhavadi Rangsit Road, full of supplies for flood victims _ and another missed photo opportunity for your columnist.

How I wanted to take its picture to include in this column! Alas, my iPhone 4S was rigged up to my car stereo and despite driving at a moderate 110km per hour, there was no time to wrench it out of the stereo and flip it into camera mode.

I wanted the picture as evidence. That truck was full to the brim with bottled water and boxes, but that wasn't what caught my eye.

It was the big white canvas draped over one side of the truck with giant red lettering: DONATED ITEMS COURTESY OF POLITICIAN KARUN HOSAKUL.

Karun Hosakul? The guy who attacked the Democrat MP in the parliament cafeteria a few years ago? Goodness, hasn't he turned over a new leaf! If only all our politicians could have such an epiphany during times of national disaster.

Not a few hours after that _ and how's this for a coincidence _ I am coming back the other way along Vibhavadi Rangsit and there is another truck with red letters on white canvas. Only this time it wasn't Mr Karun being generous: A GIFT FROM POLICE GENERAL THAKSIN SHINAWATRA.

My reaction was immediate. I let out a sigh of relief with the knowledge our intermittently beloved former prime minister was still alive and kicking.

Seeing that sign was the first I'd heard of him in weeks. Since the start of the floods he's been quieter than a Nana Plaza go-go bar on Makha Bucha Day. But just when I thought he'd been swallowed up into the black hole of Montenegro or something, here was a truck bearing gifts.

It certainly reminded me of the good old days when Thaksin would sweep through the impoverished countryside, tossing wads of 1,000 baht notes with the flick of a hand to his beloved followers, who would fall to the ground and scoop them up with undying gratitude.

That is being flippant, I know. At least he is sending out trucks of gifts, despite my mother teaching me to be wary of strangers bearing such things.

But to say I'm a little hurt is an understatement. Isn't a truck or two of bottled water a case of too little too late? I mean, whenever the Cambodians have troubles he's quick to fly in and help them out, like when they had economic woes last year. He dashed over there with ideas so great that Hun Sen even appointed him economic adviser.

Well we're having a few economic troubles of our own at the moment, but we're getting no advice whatsoever from him. And if anybody needs advice, it's his own flesh and blood.

When I didn't get the opportunity to snap a pic of Mr Karun's truck, or Thaksin's, I went online to find a picture in the hope of passing it off as one of my own. And that is where I discovered a raging torrent of an entirely different kind.

It seems that up until last week these trucks with canvas-draped signs were leaving Don Mueang airport with alarming regularity.

Even I can see that's a little odd. Don Mueang was the centre for donations from generous Thais all over the country. The trucks are leaving Don Meuang. Surely Mr Karun and his mates aren't draping his canvas over my donations!

Well that explains why a mountain of donated goods were left behind at Don Mueang when the Flood Relief Operations Command (Froc) decided to get the Froc out of Don Mueang _ and quickly. In their hurry to vacate, they forgot about all those donated goods. That mountain is now underwater, but not before Channel 3 news reporters filmed it last Saturday night for the country to see.

Well of course it's going to be covered in water. Those floodwaters were rising rapidly, and it takes time to a) load a truck and then b) drape a big canvas sign with your name over the sides of that truck. Plus a good sign writer needs time and energy to do his job properly.

And so, on the same day hundreds of Saphan Mai locals milled around the back of a truck, stretching their frantic hands out for donations of food and water, such supplies were being swallowed up by the dirty waters of Don Mueang. One newspaper printed these two images side by side on its front page last Monday without the need to add an explanatory word.

(Faced with growing public resentment, last Tuesday cabinet announced that the Don Mueang pic was ''old'' by way of excusing it. As in, a month? No, it was three days old, not the day before as reported. So that makes it OK. Please, dear readers _ no nasty emails to me about that. They said it, not me.)

The online Thai community is very unhappy about this situation. There is now a Facebook page with dozens of pictures of trucks bearing canvas signs. Other pics show donated goods with stickers featuring politicians' names slapped on them. Now many people want to slap the politicians right back.

I don't bristle at politicians who see great PR ops in our flooded despair. After all, if the skytrain can interrupt my silence with blaring TV ads inside carriages, why can't Thai politicians blare out their names from the sides of trucks as the nation sinks? It's something to keep in mind next time you're at the polling booth, however.

In fact I'm not bitter about almost anything during these floods. Look at the positives; the donations that went underwater this week were a ''mountain'', straight from the hearts of average Thais. This is a country of people with extraordinarily big hearts in times of crisis.

And look at the army. If you have been anywhere near a flood-stricken area you will have seen them in action, hauling people and belongings into boats, through mud and poisonous torrents. They work non-stop amid cries from angry and afraid locals who are going under. You might like to pass that off as a PR exercise also, but not until you too have stood in that dirty chemically infested water. It's certainly much easier to paint red letters on white.

So I remain positive. We are over the manic buy-everything-off-the-supermarket-shelf phase we were in this time last week, and thank goodness for that. We got a little crazy there, hoarding water and instant noodles with the same zeal our politicians were hoarding canvas and red paint.

And when the flood waters recede, don't for a minute think it's over. The clean-up begins. Other than my labour, I am going to be very hesitant in donating anything. Because there is one thing worse than my donations being covered in water and sludge _ and that is canvas.

IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT WILLING TO HELP, BUT REQUEST SENT TO WRONG AGENCY

Pumps to drain inner city floods are just a phone call away, says Chartthaipattana Party de facto leader Banharn Silpa-archa.

STILL AFLOAT: Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut (right) inspects repairs along the Chao Phraya River in Pathum Thani.

Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra should contact the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) to solve the flooding crisis, he said yesterday.

The Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry's RID is supervised by Mr Banharn's party.

Mr Banharn spoke to the media yesterday after MR Sukhumbhand on Thursday said he did not receive cooperation from the RID when he asked for water pumps to remove water from inner Bangkok.

However, Mr Banharn said he had checked with RID director-general Chalit Damrongsak, who denied being contacted by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) about the request.

Mr Banharn said he found that Bangkok city clerk Charoenrat Chutikarn had written to the Interior Ministry, not the RID, asking for water pumps.

"If MR Sukhumbhand calls to ask for water pumping machines from the RID director-general, it's all over.

"In such a crisis, we don't have to follow procedure exactly. If I were you [MR Sukhumbhand], I would finish it in one day," he said.

Since the floods began four months ago, the RID has sent many water pumping machines to flood-hit provinces, including more than 10 to eastern Bangkok.

Mr Banharn also criticised the BMA for diverting too much water to Khlong Pasi Charoen and Khlong Maha Sawat canals in the west of Bangkok through Tha Chin River as the two canals had no embankment and were generally shallow and full of rubbish.

As the Tha Chin is a meandering river, draining water through the river to the sea would take at least one and a half months, he said.

Mr Banharn, who comes from Suphan Buri, denied he had ordered RID officials not to open sluice gates there to protect his home province from floodwater.

Large parts of the province, especially Bang Pla Ma district, were submerged, and floods hit the province every year.

Mr Banharn said Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had dealt with the flood problem carefully. She listened to all opinions, including those of RID officials, before making any decision.

It was not yet the right time to enforce an emergency decree to deal with flood problems. Doing so would create panic and fear among foreigners, he said.

Mr Banharn brushed aside claims his party will lose control over the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry in the next cabinet reshuffle because the ministry had failed to solve flood problems.

He hadn't heard such reports before.

Pheu Thai Party sources said former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, brother of prime minister Yingluck, was disappointed over the performance of some ministers throughout the flood crisis.

The sources said Thaksin wanted the next cabinet reshuffle to happen shortly.

Ministers under scrutiny and who could lose their jobs included Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit, Social Development and Human Security Minister Santi Prompat, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut, Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul, and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk.

Yingluck Banks on $26 Billion Plan After Flood ‘Stumble’

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra plans to win back confidence in her 12-week-old government with a reconstruction package after Bangkok residents blamed her for an inadequate response to the country’s worst floods since 1942.

“The floods may be a blessing in disguise for the government to wake up and do the things it needs to do to improve this country,” Energy Minister Pichai Naripthaphan, who has proposed spending as much as 800 billion baht ($26 billion) on recovery efforts, said in a phone interview. “It’s just like a kid who starts walking and a strong wind blows. You might stumble, but then you need to get up and start walking again.”

Mixed messages over the severity of the flooding, which fueled panic in Bangkok, threaten to erode Yingluck’s popularity and energize opponents whose protests led to the demise of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, five years ago. To regain the trust of voters who have seen floods swamp their homes and shutter factories employing more than 600,000 workers she will have to rebuild damaged roads, bridges, homes and factories.

“This is really hers to win or lose,” said Michael Montesano, visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore. “If she does a good job with the recovery, a lot of the fumbling recently will be forgiven, at least with everyone except her diehard opponents.”

Inadequate Relief

Three-quarters of the respondents in an Oct. 30 Assumption University poll of Bangkokians said the administration’s relief efforts were inadequate. A poll by the same organization conducted Oct. 1-15 in 19 provinces rated the army and volunteers ahead of the government in dealing with the floods.

The central bank, which last week slashed its 2011 economic growth forecast to 2.6 percent from 4.1 percent, expects expansion to slow as the global economy weakens and the flooding impact increases, according to minutes of its Oct. 19 meeting. Government spending in response to the floods may prompt policy makers to hold the key interest rate at 3.5 percent, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Mark Tan wrote in a note yesterday. Thailand’s SET Index has gained 10 percent in the past month, mirroring regional benchmarks.

More than a meter of water has inundated parts of northern, eastern and western Bangkok as the government aims to divert floods around the city center. Yingluck has said the floodwater may take a month to drain from the capital.

‘Everything’s Flooded’

I don’t believe in my government anymore,” said Supalak Antonna, 29, as she stood on the foot of a six-lane bridge near Bangkok’s Grand Palace waiting for a boat to ferry her through chest-deep waters that have turned parts of the city into a trash-filled lake. “Many times they would say it’s okay, don’t worry, and two or three days later everything’s flooded. Yingluck, Thaksin’s youngest sister, became Thailand’s first female leader on Aug. 9 after her Pheu Thai party won 265 seats in the 500-member Parliament, the fifth straight time a party linked to the former leader has come first in an election since 2001.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and has lived overseas since fleeing a jail sentence for abuse of power. His allies won elections in 2007, and ruled for a year before a court disbanded the party for corruption amid protests by opponents who seized government buildings and the nation’s main international airport.

In the 26 provinces still affected by flooding, Yingluck’s party won about 70 percent of constituency seats in the July vote. The Democrats, who were ousted in the July election, control 23 of 33 seats in Bangkok, where Thaksin’s party won 32 of 37 seats in 2005.

‘Clearly Underestimated’

“The situation was clearly underestimated by the government,” former Prime Minister and Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said in an Oct. 31 interview while helping flood victims in Bangkok. “There wasn’t sufficient warning.”

On Oct. 5, after floodwater broke through a levee at Saha Rattana Nakorn Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya province 78 kilometers (48 miles) north of Bangkok, Yingluck went ahead with a scheduled trip to Myanmar as part of a tour of Southeast Asian capitals.

Two days later, with the deluge threatening two more industrial estates where Honda Motor Co. and Nikon Corp. have factories, she set up a flood crisis command and evacuation center at Don Mueang airport in northern Bangkok and canceled trips to Malaysia and Singapore.

‘50-50 Chance’

Yingluck said on Oct. 13 inner Bangkok would be protected by floodwalls. She reversed course two weeks later, declaring a five-day public holiday and warning of a “50-50” chance downtown areas would see as much as 1.5 meters of water in low- lying areas. Bewildered residents began hoarding bottled water and vacating the city.

Her Cabinet members also fueled uncertainty. On Oct. 13, Science Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi warned residents in northern Bangkok to evacuate immediately, only to have colleagues retract the order a few hours later. The next day, Justice Minister Pracha Promnog, who heads the flood relief command, said he would “guarantee that Bangkok won’t be affected.”

“We are not ignorant or indecisive,” Yingluck told reporters on Nov. 1. “I want to ask for sympathy from the media and the public because there are many problems. When we fix one, it doesn’t mean all problems will be solved.”

The Democrat party, which controls Bangkok’s city hall, has clashed with Yingluck on when and where to open floodgates and issue evacuation warnings. Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra told the public on Oct. 13 to heed only his warnings.

‘New Thailand’

“You’ve got a government that so far has not shown competence in handling the situation, nor transparency,” former Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said Oct. 31. “To start immediately talking, even before you’ve taken care of the people, of spending almost a trillion baht smacks of opportunism.”

The government’s so-called “New Thailand” project to revive the economy and build new water management infrastructure may cost as much as 800 billion baht, Pichai said Oct. 31.

“The government wouldn’t get it in a short time or be able to execute it that fast” because of strict rules on budget spending, Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul told reporters in Bangkok late yesterday.

Yingluck will head the committee overseeing the effort, Pichai said, without providing details on how the money will be spent.

“Nobody’s going to block the budget for flood relief,” said Sanit Nakajitti, a director at PSA Asia, a Bangkok-based risk consulting company. “People are going to be smiling when they get that money.”

With assistance from Supunnabul Suwannakij and Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok. Editors: Tony Jordan, Peter Hirschberg