South suffers from poor choice in govt officials
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In 1968, while on my first business trip to the deep South, I noticed that many of the public traffic signs were full of bulletholes.
But every time I asked the locals about this, they always said that’s the way people show their frustration when the authorities treat them badly. These same people told me not to sit, stand or even walk close to government officials in uniform during my travels, or I might be shot at.
This shows that governments in the past have not paid enough attention to solving the problems there. Some administrations even aggravate the situation by sending officials who have treated the people cruelly in the past. Some were stationed there because they had committed offences somewhere else. Another problem is that, when these officials were found to have broken the law, the government simply turned a blind eye to the offenders. Hence, if the Prayut government truly wants to solve the Southern insurgency problem for good, it should start by investigating and punishing officials who have committed or are committing offences against the people there.
Vint Chavala
Bangkok
