Follow up with investigation
Screeching demands for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to throw in the towel provide an object lesson in one thing: many Thai men obviously have deep-seated problems with there being a woman PM.
And therein, in my view, lies the problem which undermines PM Yingluck’s authority; political men holding key positions in the flood crisis who did not even have the humility and decency to acknowledge they totally lacked the technical knowledge and skills to do the job. Contradictions and clanger predictions made them, not PM Yingluck, look an ass.
It’s time for senior Thai journalists to do some real investigative reporting on who these heads of key departments really were, their qualifications for the job, and spell out what needs to change. It’s all a bit like [rescue charities] chasing accidents – they obviously fulfill a need, but there is a better way in an advanced society. In Australia, for example, there is a properly funded public ambulance service, staffed by fully trained professional medics. Dare I say, Thailand needs to urgently professionalise disaster response.
Darryl Bullen
Bangkok
