Whose word is the public to trust?

PM Yingluck Shinawatra’s favourite phrase is that “we all do our best”. I humbly reply that your best is not good enough. No coordinated effort as a team is in existence despite having legally appointed yourself as overlord of this crisis. Individual best is no use without being best as a team.

Blaming her for the floods is unfair. But who is to be blamed for 373 deaths, 62 provinces, 23 million people and 9.5 million households affected by the government’s Disaster and Relief Department? Was it an act of God and not preventable? Irrigation Department Chief Chalit Damrongsak seems to think so. That contention has yet to be investigated. We must not find a scapegoat but learn from what we have missed.

However, I fault her for the measure of relief, which has been so amateurish. The latest news of ways to evacuate all Bangkokians is like listening to a Tchaikovsky concerto with the promise of inner Bangkok as defensible, then reaching a crescendo of evacuating the population of Bangkok similar to Phnom Penh in her darkest hour. She simply does not get the poll messages that 80 per cent of the population does not trust the words of the crisis management centre, which is now also inundated. As usual, I just ignore the latest news of evacuation.

She could have learnt from the head of the Metropolitan Water Works (MWW), Charoen Phasra, for his message in calming the panic over drinking water: “I promise that the MWW will always speak the truth because our work is related to the quality of life of 10 million people. Any time when the MWW cannot produce an acceptable standard of tap water, we will let the public know and will not hide this fact.” That is short, and yet reassuring of the man’s integrity and sincerity. We have to share the calamity together, but let us know our true standing.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok