PR plan is another sign the wheels are coming off

For whatever it’s worth the government is planning to set up a special public relations team to communicate proactively with the public. The three PM’s Office ministers will take turns at chairing the team. Key areas of focus include economics, politics, social issues, national security, and foreign affairs.

Five other ministers have been put in charge of publicising a project or an issue. Transport Minister Chadchart Sittipunt will take up the infrastructure projects, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi the water-management project; Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong the rice-pledging policy; Defence Minister Sukampol Suwannathat the South insurgency; while Education Minister Phongthep Thepkanjana will focus on reconciliation and politics.

The Information and Communications Ministry will be in charge of gathering data submitted by each of the ministers, which will be accessed by the PR team to use, clarify or tackle any criticism doing the rounds on social media.  

The government calls it “pro-active” approach. Tired of being at the receiving end of various attacks from opposition, the public, the international community, plus local and foreign human rights organisations, the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra decided it was time to launch a new PR offensive.  

But from the look of it, this is old wine in a new bottle. Even that comparison is stretched because this new bottle doesn’t look at all impressive. Chadchart is fighting an uphill task to explain how the massive infrastructure scheme – which is long-term by nature – will benefit people given the huge amount of money to be spent.  

Sukampol has been trying to put on a brave face despite intense attacks by insurgents in the deep South and doesn’t know how to change the role of his soldiers from “sitting-ducks” to an armed forces actively engaging the militants. His off-the-cuff statements have done little to improve reconciliation between the region and the state.

Plodprasob, meanwhile, continues to become a bigger embarrassment by the day, not knowing when to put a lid on his public statements. Sooner or later, his behaviour will take its toll on the government.  

Education Minister Phongthep has yet to convince the public how closing down smaller schools and shipping students to bigger places will help improve the entire education system. His long-term vision for the country’s education is still a mystery.  

And Kittirat faces an extremely daunting task – explaining to the country’s taxpayers, and the world for that matter – how this morally bankrupt rice-pledging scheme, designed to help poor rice farmers, will not become a huge burden on Thailand’s economy.  

Already, Moody’s Investors Service has threatened to issue a negative outlook for Thailand’s credit rating. The agency has raised concern over the cost of the rice-pledging program and the political stability.  

Fresh estimates have implied losses of Bt200 billion for the 2011-2012 harvest year. The World Bank earlier put the losses at Bt115 billion. But the Finance Ministry has sought to play down the losses, saying that they could range between Bt70 billion and Bt100 billion. The Yingluck government so far has dumped more than Bt600 billion into the policy of buying every single grain of rice from farmers at prices well over market rates.

Asked why the government did not clarify the rice scheme’s loss to the public, Yingluck said the figures were still unofficial. Authorities are still counting the losses, it seems.  

One can say that Yingluck does not know – or does not want to know – the actual potential losses from the rice scheme. Because if she does, she will not be able to convince the public with a straight face with the same old line about that it will benefit the country. 

Beside the refusal to come clean with the real losses, the government is not even willing to explain how the government intends to sell the massive stockpiles of rice it has in its warehouses. And if they are unable to do that, what makes this government think their motley crew of PR strategists can succeeded in convincing the people about anything?