Yingluck must stand up and face the music

One of the barometers of Yingluck’s popularity is the coverage of the mass daily Thai Rath.

Over the past few days, Thai Rath has stepped up its fierce attacks against the prime minister over her (mis)handling of Thailand’s worst flood crisis in half a century. In one of the first columns critical of the government, Thai Rath called for Yingluck to “throw in the white towel” because she could not manage the flood situation. It followed up a few days later by criticising her for having no repentance in spite of many blunders. The article told Yingluck to follow in the footstep of the Japanese prime minister in the aftermath of the tsunami by accepting responsibility and resigning.

Thai Rath generally has a cordial relationship with the Pheu Thai-led government. But it has a quick nose. The paper has maintained its position as the country’s largest daily in terms of circulation because it has a good system to measure public opinion. It knows the talk of the town, what its readers like or do not like. As the floods continue to create massive suffering, it does not seem that Yingluck is in charge of the situation. Much worse, the government has been telling half-truths all along about the actual threat and degree of the floods. Thai Rath’s readers are getting angry by the day at Yingluck’s mishandling of the situation. Thai Rath, understanding the mood of its readers, has emerged as the first newspaper to dump the Yingluck government. The social media are also holding Yingluck up to ridicule over the weakness of her leadership.

Sensing this change in the political tide, the government on Tuesday appointed Dr Virabongsa Ramangkura and Dr Sumet Tantivechakul to form two committees entrusted with rehabilitating the recovery and managing water resources to prevent future crises. Dr Virabong, the former finance minister, will help divert attention away from Yingluck, who appears to be running the country from a TV script rather than her own leadership quality and experience.

The committee appointment was followed by the announcement of budget deficit spending of Bt400 billion, Bt120 billion for flood relief and rehabilitation, and a go-ahead to implement populist policies such as first-home and first-car ownership programmes. Dr Virabongsa is designated as the government’s PR person to talk to foreign investors so they will continue to keep their shops and factories in Thailand. The first person Dr Virabongsa plans to talk to is the Japanese ambassador to Thailand. He will also travel to Japan to assure Japanese investors about Thailand’s investment programme and future flood prevention measures.

All of these political moves are designed to keep the government alive. They border on insensitivity to the suffering of Thais. More than 500 people have perished in the floods. The government should have displayed sympathy to the deceased and prepared a national day of mourning. It should pay more attention to the plight of the poor, salary earners and owners of small- and medium-sized enterprises affected by the floods. At the same time, Yingluck should vigorously focus on defending Suvarnabhumi Airport and inner Bangkok from the floods. If Suvarnabhumi and inner Bangkok are completely flooded, that would signal the end of Thailand.

On the contrary, Thais have the impression that the government is quick to please foreign investors, whose businesses are fully insured, while ignoring the plight of common people, who are owners of this country. The government is also quick to unveil big-money programmes such as the “New Thailand” project, earmarked for investment to the tune of Bt900 billion. 

Most importantly, the Thai public is entitled to know what has gone wrong with the management of water resources by this government. Mismanagement on this unprecedented scale has to be fully investigated. The findings – of the truth and nothing but the truth – have to be made public so that the culprits, having acted either intentionally or unintentionally, are punished, so that this grave mistake does not happen again.

Apart from investigations into the mismanagement of water stored in dams, the see-saw battle over water pumps between the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Irrigation Department, the government must also probe the widespread encroachment on to public land, which blocks waterways. The flood crisis has been aggravated by violations of zoning and building codes by the developers of industrial estates, golf courses, housing estates and other projects. All of these violations of the zoning law and city planning have to be dealt with decisively so that we don’t face the same crisis again.

Yingluck can’t just throw money after the problems. Look at the problems first. Tell the public what has gone wrong. Express sympathy for the deceased.

Since Yingluck’s honeymoon period over, she now has to make sure that she is doing the right thing every step of the way. Dramatic tears won’t help. Still, she can expect worse to come after the water has receded – from class-action lawsuits for compensation, to street demonstrations for her resignation to accept responsibility for the mishandling of this crisis that has destroyed the Thai economy and the people’s way of life.