Govt doing well under the circumstances

I am amazed at the stoicism displayed under extremely difficult circumstances. The government too, having been thrown in at the deep end, if you excuse the metaphor, has acted extraordinarily well, given the appalling situation and having been only a couple of months on the job. Many, including your correspondents, have called for a state of emergency to be declared, citing comparisons with Hurricane Katrina in the US. That is totally unnecessary. I am not saying this isn’t a genuine emergency, but most people calling for this don’t understand what it is, or the difference between Thailand and the US. In the US, the main reason for declaring a state of emergency is to allow federal funds to be used and the deployment of the National Guard to help out. In Thailand, the Army is already out there and some relief funds have already been dispensed. I can’t see that a state of emergency would lead to any improvement in information dissemination; there will always be a few grandstanding politicians eager to get their ill-informed sound bite on the news. A state of emergency would compel various parties to work under one command, but since they are cooperating quite well already, there seems little point in this. 

Of course, what is needed is effective long-term central planning for flood prevention, but that might be a bit much to hope for. We can only pray that, as in the case of other disasters, this will spur the government to act, by way of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. In the meantime, it is sheer folly to berate Yingluck for not waving her magic wand to make all the nasty water go away.

Alan Mehew

Bangkok