Some flood victims are getting only what they deserve
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There has been much criticism of the leadership, or rather the lack of it, shown by PM Yingluck and her Cabinet in fighting the floodwaters.
Criticism of those elected by a landslide is misplaced, for “Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve” (George Bernard Shaw). Voters knew from the start that she was no more than, as Thaksin himself put it, a clone, a stand-in. Whoever heard of a copy being a leader? Pheu Thai’s campaign plank put it bluntly: “Thaksin (not Yingluck) thinks – Pheu Thai acts.” Dear voter, what did you expect from one who had never run anything larger than a firm owned by her brother? If you blame Yingluck on this score, blame the one in the mirror for choosing her.
On the other hand, those who chose her wanted her to bring Thaksin back, and, to her credit, she’s progressed quickly towards that goal: even before taking office, after her foreign minister talked to their ambassador, Thaksin got a visa to visit Japan, their own laws to the contrary. Also, even in the midst of the worst floods in Thai history, with 283 people drowned, up to Bt150 billion in damages, and eastern Bangkok being sacrificed to the floods, she made time for something really, really important to her – appointing Thaksin’s former brother-in-law as top cop. Talk about blood being thicker than water (pun intended).
Dear reader, do you deserve a better government than what you’re getting now? Then become politically aware and active now, not just at election time, and demand leaders who put national interests before those of their kin.
Burin Kantabutra
Bangkok
