My mum was flawed and so is Aung San Suu Kyi. It took her 20 years to understand that politics is the art of compromise. She supported her party’s boycott of the election last year on the grounds that political prisoners remained in jail and the constitution needed to be amended. There are still political prisoners in jail and the constitution is yet to be amended but she has supported her party’s decision to compromise and return to the electoral process. The irony is that a reformist government headed by former members of the Tatmadaw gave her and her party no choice.
I applaud the NLD’s decision to return to the electoral process and give the people the satisfaction of voting for it, something it denied them last year. No one is infallible.
Investors need access to transport to export their goods. Access to the sea is one very easy way to do that.
Southern Germany is entirely different, in close proximity to several highly developed countries all with an excellent infrastructure of roads and railways. You can stick stuff on a truck and are only a few hours away from Switzerland, Austria, Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, Italy, France etc etc.
I think the far north is reaping some effect from the river links to China but it seems mostly import driven right now.
As to the media: the local media mostly went to newly flooded sites, when areas have been flooded already for several days they did not cover this anymore, other than when accompanying relief efforts. The international media held back to the most part, as “the story” was flood in Bangkok, meaning the Sukhumvit/Silom area. Well, that story didn’t happen, in the end.
As to the government policy. In many of the heavily inundated areas i went, army and gov reps explained to me that they tried to get people to go to the prepared shelters as they were stretched too thin. In some areas they kept up some boat services for residents who decided to remain. I understand both sides, especially residents who decided to remain for fear of the rampant thievery. But looking at the huge area that was affected, and the difficulty of access, i could see that the authorities were stretched too thin.
I am not able to judge the government. This was a disaster. Ineptitude, corruption, inter departmental bickering and conflicts are a natural part of any disaster, and also in the west, or when western agencies are involved. Compared to what i have seen in the Tsunami, for example, and especially when western aid agencies were involved, i found that the flood here was rather well managed. But what do i know, i am not a disaster expert.
I do not entirely agree with your assessment of the army. I found the soldiers working very hard. But i do not agree with the media distortion of claiming that the military was the only institution doing proper flood relief. In any country in such a disaster the military is called upon first, as they have the equipment, the man power, and the training. Police has still its regular duties, and on the ground, i have seen police working very hard as well. As i have seen Red Shirts, and Yellow Shirts, and other volunteer groups.
As to locals and houses on stilts. Bang Bua Thong is a new community. I have been talking about old khlong communities, and a time when wooden houses there were built on stilts more than 2 meters high (as the majority of houses in my old neighborhood at Klong Mahasawat were, and the many other neighborhoods in the endless maze of khlongs. This once was the main life style in this part of Thailand, and still exists to some degree. I have lived in the mid 1990’s for about two and a half years in the Khlongs of Nonthaburi, and often miss the life there, going around with my boat, living in the middle of orchards at the gates of Bangkok, going shrimp fishing at night, different vendors coming by on boat every day during their rounds … sorry, i digress. 😉
In the vicinity of Bangkok, Bang Bua Thong was not even the worst affected area, just one of the worst. Navanakorn was worse off, up to three meters of water, and the nearby White House community was up to 4 meters under water. I don’t know about the many other suburban housing estates along Pahon Yothin Road towards Ayutthaya- access was really difficult. It took me often more than 8 hours commute, just to take photos for less than 2 hours.
A story that i have heard many times while going to the flood areas was that more than a hundred years ago there may have been a worse flood, old people said to me who were told about that flood by their grandparents.
The issue of jurisdiction over such a flood gates was well addressed in 1994 by Donald Alford in a TDRI paper “Water Budgets and Water Regions”. As I understand Mr Alford, the river basin is the natural basis for coordinating input and output with storage of natural water flows. There are eight such major basins within Thailand and two more international. At that time jurisdiction was by hydrologic region of which there were five. What is the case now?
@ Nick Nostic and some others,
I am sure Thitinan is capable of answering your point about the lack of coverage by the news media, however, having a house surrounded by water for 60 days with my builder’s workers stranded there gave me a unique perspective as well. To be honest the press coverage was abysmal for the outer suburbs and they were the worst affected. Daily I would scour the news reports about Bang Bua Thong but it was as if it had been wiped from the map. And to try and find an English version was impossible. If it hadn’t been for cell phone communication we wouldn’t have known if the workers had survived or not.
Everyone (in the press) were talking about the great job the army did, but during my time travelling along klongs and flooded roadways to and from Bang Bua Thong, the only time I saw the army actually doing something was around the areas that hadn’t flooded. It was if the whole thing was stage managed…..badly. And the advertising on the sides of army trucks was laughable. In 21 years in the Australian Army I have never seen anything like that and I’ve been to a lot of disasters. Did the Thai army think people might have thought the army trucks came from Burma, Cambodia or Malaysia?
Flood relief bags and fresh water were totally non-existant in my area. The monks in the local temple were abandoned and on their own, but local people still managed to drop by in boats daily to make sure they were fed. My builder’s workers and the new house, which is over 1.5 metres off the ground was the only house in the soi to survive and be a storage facility for the rest of the soi residents. Motor bikes, dogs, golf clubs etc were all stored on my first and second floor.
And I did check to see if the land had ever flooded (which is why it was built off the ground), but even the Teseban and Or Bor Tor could only go back 20 years and in that time it had never had a major flood.
It took 40 days for the Bang Bua Thong authorities to set-up a web site so people could find out what was really happening so communication up until then was non-existant.
The worst part of the flood was listening to all the politicians self serving themselves, guessing half the time and listening to the self appointed media experts who emerged overnight. The male Channel 3 reporter was the worst. I watched one channel 3 reporter side with the BMA “expert” who said “your politicians are weak” and when he nearly caused a riot it was discovered that the BMA “expert” had no authority and couldn’t tell the residents when the BMA was going to open the gates they controlled anyway. So why was he sent? Which also raises the question; why does the BMA control flood gates in another province outside of Bangkok?
I’m sorry I just can’t agree with some of the broad sweeping statements made by some people and if you looked at some of the photos I have it would make any normal sane person cry. None of this up to the ankles, thighs, waist or chest in water, it was over most peoples head at Bang Bua Thong. And the houses that you could only see the roof of were everywhere. So much for the locals knowing and building houses on stilts.
To be honest Thitinan’s article was the first I’ve seen on the two sides of Pak Kret in Nontharburi, most of the rest of the reports I read were self serving twaddle from people who weren’t actually here.
I copied the translated story to make it easier to read, as is my wont, and added the wikipedia’s explanation of the IMEI business. Which adds more degrees of uncertainty to the Inquisitors’ tale, but is not at all essential to its complete collapse as any sort of proof in a real court of law.
The story, as I read it:
Abhisit’s secretary gets 4 SMS messages he doesn’t like from phone number A, takes a picture of the screen each time, delivers his complaint and evidence to the cops.
The cops discover that number A is now extinct. Phone company A provides the IMEI, a sort of serial number implanted in every phone, that occured together with number A in the call records on the offensive calls, and the cops use that association to connect the phone number B issued by phone company B with the IMEI, and thence, at least in their own minds, with the offensive calls.
But the connection between the IMEI number and a particular handset is by convention only. It can be changed, and used as a matter of course to be changed in Thailand, until quite recently.
When the cops track down the handset advertising the IMEI in question they find in it (or in the handset belonging to the wife, or son-in-law of its owner) a SIM bearing phone number B from phone company B. Meeting Amphon, they should have said… hmmm, this guy doesn’t really seem likely to have done this ‘crime’. On questioning, in fact, they discover that Amphon took the phone to be serviced around the time the ‘crime’ was committed.
The story that the handset they found bearing an IMEI which they took to be identical to the one previously associated with phone number A and the ‘crime’, the handset in which the SIM bearing phone number B from company B now resides (or coincidently paired with another such handset), is the phone set used in the crime is no more likely to describe what actually happened than is the story that some other handset was programmed by the phone repair guy to whom Amphon entrusted his handset with the IMEI of that handset, and that the SIM bearing phone number A from company A was used in that other, reprogrammed handset, and that other handset was used to do the ‘crime’.
And these two scenarios, the one the cops ‘liked’, and the other one I just elaborated, as well as other possible scenarios, seem equally likely to explain the facts related so far. Except that Amphon’s circumstances kind of skew us non-cops toward the second-handset theory, at least they do me.
Yet the cops make no further attempts to gather more information. ‘Perhaps’ thinking they have someone in the person of Amphon whom they can easily convict using their usual methods. And of course they are right.
The prosecutors think so too, and so take up the case and the judges, explicitly noting that the prosecutors have NO CASE, convict on the well-known legal axiom that a person charged with a crime must prove themselves innocent : is guilty until proven not so.
It’s total crap. I hope I’d be too ashamed of such a vicious, lame, frame-up to allow myself to be associated with it. But the cops, prosecutors, judges weren’t in this case. In all cases of lese majeste, it seems to me.
And inevitably, by association, due to the incessant beating of the drums of jingo by those who claim to be his friends and ‘protectors’, HM the King of Thailand, perhaps – or likely, at his age and in his physical condition – presently incapable any longer of controlling the actions of the thugs and goons who claim to be his protectors, will likely be tarred with the same brush those thugs and goons have used to tar Amphon.
Maybe it is perception, Arthurson, but Thitinan specifically stated that Political Prisoners in Thailand and New Mandala appeared unengaged. I felt that 72 between the two of them over less than 6 weeks was a pretty good effort. Throw in Bangkok Pundit and there were plenty of posts. PPT had plenty on the politics of the flooding too. I’m not vouching for quality, but there was plenty to read.
Great comments. And this is useful for my own thinking about Malaysian politics.
First of all, I think we should ditch this “intellectual” and “anti or un-intellectual” label. I am not sure what it means to say that a question is purely intellectual or theoretical. In this context, it sound disingenuous when the questions are intensely practical — we are not asking about hypotheticals nor are we dwelling in some rarefied theoretical space.
As I said in my comment, it is not clear to me whether the Barisan Government will acceded to a peaceful transfer of power if it loses an election. Nothing the DPM says would clarify this issue because I think the answer to this issue depends upon larger political dynamics that pull in opposing directions.
These dynamics have to do with a tension between the government’s desire to appear democratically legitimate and its commitment to an ethnocratic political program. To keep that program intact, it must be seen to be sufficiently powerful to constitute and protect the identity of the ethnos — the Malay political unit. This is something that it can only do if it controls the reigns of power and squashes any challenge to the ethnocratic political paradigm. The logic of its ethnocratic commitment leaves no space for democracy.
This tension between ethnocracy and democracy is a structural problem within Malaysian politics. And I think it goes a long way to explaining why the ruling government constantly swivels between democratic and anti-democratic postures. It wishes to appear democratically legitimate but its foundational political commitments militate against democracy. This also explains, I think, why Malaysian politics displays ambiguous patterns that make it difficult to know whether the government will or will not allow a peaceful transfer of power.
This is why I think there is no clear answer though I certainly hope that Marzuki is right.
OK! There is no such a name called Rohingya in the history of Arakan. British has recorded Muslims in Arakan as Chittagonians. So, in everyone’s opinion, this is the rightest term Biritish used for the Muslims in Arakan. So, British’s records are most correct. If so, what term did the British use for Buddhists in Arakan? Rakhine? Obviously not! If yes, is there any evidence for the fact that British refered the Buddishs in Arakan as Rakhines? British are right and honest because they refered Muslims in Arakan as Chittagonians. The same British are wrong and dis-honest because they refered Buddists in Arakan as Maghs. Why double standards?
Screw both religions, Islam and Buddist, and both names, Rakhine and Rohingya here. Let us put some logical arguments. Everyone will agree if we say that there were the periods called Dhannyawadi and Vesali in the history of Arakan. No one will deny this. OK, then. Can anybody tell us that the kings or rulers in these two historical periods, which dated back to more than 2000 years, belonged to which stocks of human race, Indo-Aryan (i.e. Indian-look-alike people) or Mongoloid (Mongolian look-alike people)? What are the meanings of terms Dhannyawadi and Vesali (Vaishali)? From which language these terms were derived from? In which stock of human race did Siddartha Gautama Buddha and most of earliest follwers, because of whom Buddhistism had spreaded throughout the region, belong to?
We know there was a people called Rakkhasha (in Pali meaning Cannibals) who used to eat even human beings who are stragers to them. The word has varied through historical periods from Rakkhasha to Rakkha to Rakkuain now to Rakhine. According some other people, Rakhine was derived from Pali word Rakkhita (meaning people who look after and take care of their race). Yet, it doesn’t matter to us. In accordance with the historians, the place was called Rakkhapura (again in Pali). Has the whole region of Arakan including Chittagong area been called so? Have the cannibals used to live throughout the whole region? How did these Rakkhasha people look alike, mongoloid, aryan, caucasians, negroid? Why was a Pali word “Rakkhasha” used to address cannibals? Who named these cannibals as Rakkhasha by using a Pali word? Wasn’t there be a paralell people to Rakkasha, who named them so using Pali word? Or have they named them “Rakkhasha” (cannibals) by theirselves using a Pali word? Was Pali the language of cannibals? Wasn’t Pali an Indian literature and language? Isn’t it originated to India?
Burmese Junta and some extremist Rakhines don’t want to recognize the name “Rohingya ” not because they want their real identity so as to give them “Nationality” but because once they become successful in branding them as Bengalis, it will become easier for them to drive them out of Arakan land. Ultimately, Junta’s dream of making Arakan into purely Burmanized Bhuddhist region will come true. Junta wants neither the people called Rakhines nor the people called Rohingyas. Thus, Juta has been setting up modal villages by bringing Bamars from central Burma. Rakhines are well aware of that. Some of the Rakhines simultaneuosly want to fight Junta on one side and Rohingyas on another side in order to have an independent land. It is a very wrong tactic. History has proven that. Hitler lost in the war because he fought Soviet Union on one side and English and French on another side.
Furthermore, we think everybody knows Mexico and Argentina, people there are of spainish origin and speak spainish language. Why don’t people call them Spainish instead of Mexican and Argentinian? Americans speak English language and most them are of English. Why don’t people call them English in stead of Americans? The word “Rohingya” is a slight variation of the word “Ruahonga” (in Rakhine meaning “from old village”) because the place where Rohingyas used to live was called Ruahong. Rohingyas have the habit of calling someone by the place name where they live. For example, if somebody is from Man-Aung, he will be called as Man-Aunggya, if from RatheThaung, then RatheThaungya and if from ButhiTaung, then Buthi-Thaungya etc. The word Rohingya has formed exactly the way Rakhine has formed from Rakkhasha.
In history, Rohingya didn’t feel to call them as Rohingya because the situation and the time had not forced them to call so. It doesn’t mean that this people didn’t exist before. So, if someone says there is no word as Rohingya in the history of Arakan, then there is no word as Rakhine either. I have just put a logical argument here. Anyone who is interested to reply to us is warmly welcome as long as he or she doesn’t go abusive. We, hereby, unconditionally apologize to anyone who is conciously or unconciously offended by the argument here. Our intention is not to create divides but unity. And webelieve that as long as two or more groups of people are not equal in everything, there will be no peace and unity. We need peace and unity in order to make our nation into a developed nation. No one can benefit from fights! So, enough of fights!!
I would encourage New Mandala readers to explore further the following issues:
(1) Find out the reason why an Emergency was declared in Sarawak in 1966? And why the Alliance government (precursor to Barisan Nasional) used the Emergency to overthrow the Chief Minister.
(2) Find out the reason why Emergency was declared after May 13, 1969?. The race riots (or more correctly put a massacre of the Chinese as the numbers of Chinese who died were disproportionate to the Malays) was largely in Kuala Lumpur, and to some extent Penang and Johor. Yet a nationwide Emergency was declared. Isn’t it ironic that security forces that had successfully battled the communists could not handle a race-riot. It was the only other time than 2008 when the ruling party could have lost power.
(3) Find out the reason why in 1977, an Emergency was declared in Kelantan as Barisan Nasional toppled the popularly elected PAS government.
(4) Find out the reason why in 1994, Anwar Ibrahim would lead UMNO’s efforts to overthrow the popularly elected PBS in Sabah extra – constitutionally.
(5) Find out the reason why in 2009, Najib Razak would lead the overthrow of the popularly elected Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak extra-constitutionally?
(6) New Mandala readers with expertise in analysing texts and sub-texts, should analyse the speeches given in Malay by the Prime Minister and his Deputy at home (to their party & Muslim supporters) as they single out “DAP Christians” as their bogeyman and compare that with the language used by Nazi’s at the end of the Weimar Republic against the Jews, the Hutu’s against the Tutsi before the massacre in 1994 and if you have the time, how Slobodan Milosevic’s regime against Bosnian Muslims and Albanians.
Tell me if you see any parallels.
Maybe then Malaysians and the international community will understand why I asked for a guarantee from the DPM to respect the rule of law and the democratic rights of all Malaysians – not just UMNO.
Holding a cabinet meeting and acknowledging a flood disaster brewing . . . then doing nothing. The novice woman delegates and forgets about ‘major matters’ discussed in her cabinet meeting.
Oh well. Certain Reds believe in their fairies, until they drown to their necks.
BTW Sanyo Thailand had decided today that it will be closing down their semi-conductor operations permanently. Sanyo President
Mr Tetsuzo explained that prolonged flooding at Rojana Industrial Park caused so much damage to the company’s machinery and buildings that the cost of renovations would be too high to bear.
So far the Yingluck government has NOT done anything to restore the faith of the Thai (and business) people in their government to prevent a repeat of the crisis, and, render them the necessary assistance to get back to their shattered lives.
Come now Vichai, you are exaggerating. You say: “. . . because succeeding Yingluck cabinet meetings suddenly went silent about the floods, until too late.” Your note refers to the 11 Aug cabinet meeting.
True….
Not just that… what are we supposed to think of Thai’s (and Thai society) who tell us ‘not to fall into the trap of being sentimental about the old guy… he sent the messages for sure, and is now playing the sympathy card… the court evidence and the mobile phone logs etc… prove that… ‘ and then send these kinds of messages out to everyone in their e-mail contacts list…
It’s as if Ar Kong’s 20 year jail sentence wasn’t enough for these people. They need to destroy whatever feelings of sympathy still exist for him too…
But, just suppose Ar Kong had been set free (vvvvvv unlikely I know…) If the judge had dismissed the case, or given a not guilty verdict, it would have been a huge loss of face for the prosecuting police force, as, after persuing the case, the evidence they presented in court didn’t prove, with certainty, that the accused was the actual person who carried out the ‘crime.’
The democrat politician would have lost face too, for pressing charges, over something as ‘trivial’ as a rude SMS, and for expecting the police/courts to spend time and money investigating it.
Unfortunately in Thailand, face saving, whatever the cost to others… is everything… probably why some people out there (like whoever wrote the comments in post no. 16) are so determined to justify the verdict, and destroy what little face Ar Kong’s has left…
Regarding New Mandala’s coverage of the floods, early on when the floods reached Bangkok’s vicinity i made a picture post showing heavily inundated areas – http://www.newmandala.org/2011/10/23/flood-images-from-nick-nostitz/ . This post received four responses, which was not exactly encouraging to make any further posts on this subject matter. My impression was that people did not care too much about the subject matter.
Usual promises by governments trying to attract investors do not relieve anyone of performing due diligence, which obviously was not done.
The industrial estates were built on natural flood plains. This was a known fact. Occasionally there will be floods that no human engineering can stop.
Many of the inundated suburban housing estates were built on flood plains. Just because these flood plains were concreted over does not mean that they are not anymore part of the flood plains.
Thais in the past, without any education, knew that there are occasionally massive floods. Their houses were built on stilts, they were adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Boats were part of daily life.
We may live now in the “modern age”, in the industrial world. But we cannot ignore environmental factors, either as governments, or as individuals. Past governments are to blame for failed urban developments, for insufficient water management, but manufacturers and individuals are to be blamed for not educating themselves before investing.
Back in ’95, during the last flood, Bangkok more or less ignored the flood, and did not learn the lesson. The only areas affected were low class areas, and rural neighborhoods in Bangkok’s vicinity, one such in which i lived then. Now not just the great unwashed have been affected, but also the affluent (the “i told you so” comment jumps to my mind…). But back then, in my neighborhood, we did not fall into hysterics. Maybe because people knew that this happened in the past, and will happen again. And you just cope with it. And we then did not have the great armies of volunteers, large scale military operations, regular food donations, etc.
So, excuse me, i am very tired of the whining by manufacturers, foreign investors, etc. When you tell them that not all is nice and shiny in the Land of Smiles, they get all superior, and refer to their army of consultants that told them what they wanted to hear, b – that Thailand is stable, that Thais are happy folks, that Thailand is safe, etc. They don’t want to hear of political problems, of social of problems, and of what environmental biologists have said two decades ago already: that Thailand’s environment as a whole is damaged beyond repair.
So yes, the land we bought, of course and naturally with my wife as the owner, is as safe from flooding as any plot of land can be – it is in a valley in the mountains (with almost intact forests), on elevated plateau (highest point in the valley) on a slope falling towards a khlong. We looked at three different plots of land before deciding for this one – deciding factor was that this plot was not prone to be flooded.
Exquisite irony that Vichai N doesn’t (can’t?) see that quoting at length a report of the 1st cabinet meeting dealing with the flood issues flatly contradicts his renewed claim immediately afterwards that “…PM Yingluck and her crew WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION.”
Still, at least it drops backs to a mere “…my suspicion lingers…” etc after that. As with opinions, all are entitled to their suspicions – though one has to determinedly ignore all reports of subsequent cabinet meetings dealing with the flood issues to even begin to place any value on this one.
BTW, Thaksin’s famous Skype conference call with ministers took place after the full cabinet meeting was concluded. One can take a view about the merits/wisdom of the exercise – but it’s (yet more) gross distortion of reality to call it “Thaksin (not Yingluck) holding the cabinet meeting”.
No word on Amphon, Joe Gordon, Somyos, Surachai, Darunee….
What are we to think of HM the King if he is not able to free Thais made political prisoners in his name as well as “reds, a failed star, an activist…” and an assortment of hi-so murderers?
“Definitely very bad judgment . . . Yingluck made a terrible call”. My assessment of the novice incompetent PM Yingluck stands.
The worsening floods and devastations at the North of Thailand was actually raised and considered at the first Yingluck cabinet meeting on August 11, 2011. It was the ‘second major item’ of Yingluck’s cabinet at that meeting.
“The second major item on the agenda that the Prime Minister stressed was the flooding from the effect of tropical storm Nok Ten. The Cabinet Secretary-General stated that the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit some of the affected areas in the Northern region including Uttaradit, Phrae and Nan provinces respectively. The Prime Minister also instructed relevant Ministers to visit the affected areas and directed the Ministry of Interior to be the focal point in coordinating the relief effort with the Policy and Agricultural Assistance Standard Committee as well as citizens affected by the flood. At the same, the Prime Minister instructed the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office to setup an Emergency Call Center 1111 to compile a list of complaints as well as provide information for people wishing to make donations to areas and people affected. The Government’s Public Relations Department has also been instructed to provide updated information and warning so the public can be aware of latest developments at the same time allowing relevant agencies to assist those in affected areas.
In addition, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Finance to consider revising regulations concerning emergency reserve funds that can be used to assist provinces so that they are more efficient and thus be able to provide more timely assistant to people in affected areas/ The Prime Minister also instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to oversee and inspect areas damaged by the floods especially agricultural areas in order to provide necessary assistance. The Government has in place projects that will assist those affected in the medium-term that includes rehabilitation. In this connection, the cabinet is not able to use the budget set aside for rehabilitation as it has yet to make its policy statement and will use funds from the current budget.
At the same time, the Government has established a Working Group to find a long-term solution to the problem. It has invited relevant agencies including the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to setup a meeting and lay out a long term plan as well as review and integrate previous water management plans for better efficiency in terms of dealing with the floods.”
But PM Yingluck and her crew WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION. And my suspicion that the Yingluck cabinet was criminally negligent by failing to address the threats/dangers of the bursting dams/monster monsoon lingers . . . because succeeding Yingluck cabinet meetings suddenly went silent about the floods, until too late.
By September2011, Thaksin even butted in, with Thaksin (not Yingluck) holding the cabinet meeting via Skype.
Distracted, ill-prepared, and excessively obedient to her brother Thaksin’s priorities, Yingluck blundered her way towards the tragedy of the Thai Big Flood, which resuled in lives lost and sufferrings and misery to every Thai.
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Mallika Boonmetrakul: an appalling Thai Politician
And this woman claims that her actions are based on her being “educated”… Incredible.
An unlikely encounter
My mum was flawed and so is Aung San Suu Kyi. It took her 20 years to understand that politics is the art of compromise. She supported her party’s boycott of the election last year on the grounds that political prisoners remained in jail and the constitution needed to be amended. There are still political prisoners in jail and the constitution is yet to be amended but she has supported her party’s decision to compromise and return to the electoral process. The irony is that a reformist government headed by former members of the Tatmadaw gave her and her party no choice.
I applaud the NLD’s decision to return to the electoral process and give the people the satisfaction of voting for it, something it denied them last year. No one is infallible.
Flood flavours
Nick
Investors need access to transport to export their goods. Access to the sea is one very easy way to do that.
Southern Germany is entirely different, in close proximity to several highly developed countries all with an excellent infrastructure of roads and railways. You can stick stuff on a truck and are only a few hours away from Switzerland, Austria, Czech and Slovak republics, Hungary, Italy, France etc etc.
I think the far north is reaping some effect from the river links to China but it seems mostly import driven right now.
Flood flavours
“Roger”:
As to the media: the local media mostly went to newly flooded sites, when areas have been flooded already for several days they did not cover this anymore, other than when accompanying relief efforts. The international media held back to the most part, as “the story” was flood in Bangkok, meaning the Sukhumvit/Silom area. Well, that story didn’t happen, in the end.
As to the government policy. In many of the heavily inundated areas i went, army and gov reps explained to me that they tried to get people to go to the prepared shelters as they were stretched too thin. In some areas they kept up some boat services for residents who decided to remain. I understand both sides, especially residents who decided to remain for fear of the rampant thievery. But looking at the huge area that was affected, and the difficulty of access, i could see that the authorities were stretched too thin.
I am not able to judge the government. This was a disaster. Ineptitude, corruption, inter departmental bickering and conflicts are a natural part of any disaster, and also in the west, or when western agencies are involved. Compared to what i have seen in the Tsunami, for example, and especially when western aid agencies were involved, i found that the flood here was rather well managed. But what do i know, i am not a disaster expert.
I do not entirely agree with your assessment of the army. I found the soldiers working very hard. But i do not agree with the media distortion of claiming that the military was the only institution doing proper flood relief. In any country in such a disaster the military is called upon first, as they have the equipment, the man power, and the training. Police has still its regular duties, and on the ground, i have seen police working very hard as well. As i have seen Red Shirts, and Yellow Shirts, and other volunteer groups.
As to locals and houses on stilts. Bang Bua Thong is a new community. I have been talking about old khlong communities, and a time when wooden houses there were built on stilts more than 2 meters high (as the majority of houses in my old neighborhood at Klong Mahasawat were, and the many other neighborhoods in the endless maze of khlongs. This once was the main life style in this part of Thailand, and still exists to some degree. I have lived in the mid 1990’s for about two and a half years in the Khlongs of Nonthaburi, and often miss the life there, going around with my boat, living in the middle of orchards at the gates of Bangkok, going shrimp fishing at night, different vendors coming by on boat every day during their rounds … sorry, i digress. 😉
In the vicinity of Bangkok, Bang Bua Thong was not even the worst affected area, just one of the worst. Navanakorn was worse off, up to three meters of water, and the nearby White House community was up to 4 meters under water. I don’t know about the many other suburban housing estates along Pahon Yothin Road towards Ayutthaya- access was really difficult. It took me often more than 8 hours commute, just to take photos for less than 2 hours.
A story that i have heard many times while going to the flood areas was that more than a hundred years ago there may have been a worse flood, old people said to me who were told about that flood by their grandparents.
Flood flavours
The issue of jurisdiction over such a flood gates was well addressed in 1994 by Donald Alford in a TDRI paper “Water Budgets and Water Regions”. As I understand Mr Alford, the river basin is the natural basis for coordinating input and output with storage of natural water flows. There are eight such major basins within Thailand and two more international. At that time jurisdiction was by hydrologic region of which there were five. What is the case now?
Flood flavours
@ Nick Nostic and some others,
I am sure Thitinan is capable of answering your point about the lack of coverage by the news media, however, having a house surrounded by water for 60 days with my builder’s workers stranded there gave me a unique perspective as well. To be honest the press coverage was abysmal for the outer suburbs and they were the worst affected. Daily I would scour the news reports about Bang Bua Thong but it was as if it had been wiped from the map. And to try and find an English version was impossible. If it hadn’t been for cell phone communication we wouldn’t have known if the workers had survived or not.
Everyone (in the press) were talking about the great job the army did, but during my time travelling along klongs and flooded roadways to and from Bang Bua Thong, the only time I saw the army actually doing something was around the areas that hadn’t flooded. It was if the whole thing was stage managed…..badly. And the advertising on the sides of army trucks was laughable. In 21 years in the Australian Army I have never seen anything like that and I’ve been to a lot of disasters. Did the Thai army think people might have thought the army trucks came from Burma, Cambodia or Malaysia?
Flood relief bags and fresh water were totally non-existant in my area. The monks in the local temple were abandoned and on their own, but local people still managed to drop by in boats daily to make sure they were fed. My builder’s workers and the new house, which is over 1.5 metres off the ground was the only house in the soi to survive and be a storage facility for the rest of the soi residents. Motor bikes, dogs, golf clubs etc were all stored on my first and second floor.
And I did check to see if the land had ever flooded (which is why it was built off the ground), but even the Teseban and Or Bor Tor could only go back 20 years and in that time it had never had a major flood.
It took 40 days for the Bang Bua Thong authorities to set-up a web site so people could find out what was really happening so communication up until then was non-existant.
The worst part of the flood was listening to all the politicians self serving themselves, guessing half the time and listening to the self appointed media experts who emerged overnight. The male Channel 3 reporter was the worst. I watched one channel 3 reporter side with the BMA “expert” who said “your politicians are weak” and when he nearly caused a riot it was discovered that the BMA “expert” had no authority and couldn’t tell the residents when the BMA was going to open the gates they controlled anyway. So why was he sent? Which also raises the question; why does the BMA control flood gates in another province outside of Bangkok?
I’m sorry I just can’t agree with some of the broad sweeping statements made by some people and if you looked at some of the photos I have it would make any normal sane person cry. None of this up to the ankles, thighs, waist or chest in water, it was over most peoples head at Bang Bua Thong. And the houses that you could only see the roof of were everywhere. So much for the locals knowing and building houses on stilts.
To be honest Thitinan’s article was the first I’ve seen on the two sides of Pak Kret in Nontharburi, most of the rest of the reports I read were self serving twaddle from people who weren’t actually here.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
I copied the translated story to make it easier to read, as is my wont, and added the wikipedia’s explanation of the IMEI business. Which adds more degrees of uncertainty to the Inquisitors’ tale, but is not at all essential to its complete collapse as any sort of proof in a real court of law.
The story, as I read it:
Abhisit’s secretary gets 4 SMS messages he doesn’t like from phone number A, takes a picture of the screen each time, delivers his complaint and evidence to the cops.
The cops discover that number A is now extinct. Phone company A provides the IMEI, a sort of serial number implanted in every phone, that occured together with number A in the call records on the offensive calls, and the cops use that association to connect the phone number B issued by phone company B with the IMEI, and thence, at least in their own minds, with the offensive calls.
But the connection between the IMEI number and a particular handset is by convention only. It can be changed, and used as a matter of course to be changed in Thailand, until quite recently.
When the cops track down the handset advertising the IMEI in question they find in it (or in the handset belonging to the wife, or son-in-law of its owner) a SIM bearing phone number B from phone company B. Meeting Amphon, they should have said… hmmm, this guy doesn’t really seem likely to have done this ‘crime’. On questioning, in fact, they discover that Amphon took the phone to be serviced around the time the ‘crime’ was committed.
The story that the handset they found bearing an IMEI which they took to be identical to the one previously associated with phone number A and the ‘crime’, the handset in which the SIM bearing phone number B from company B now resides (or coincidently paired with another such handset), is the phone set used in the crime is no more likely to describe what actually happened than is the story that some other handset was programmed by the phone repair guy to whom Amphon entrusted his handset with the IMEI of that handset, and that the SIM bearing phone number A from company A was used in that other, reprogrammed handset, and that other handset was used to do the ‘crime’.
And these two scenarios, the one the cops ‘liked’, and the other one I just elaborated, as well as other possible scenarios, seem equally likely to explain the facts related so far. Except that Amphon’s circumstances kind of skew us non-cops toward the second-handset theory, at least they do me.
Yet the cops make no further attempts to gather more information. ‘Perhaps’ thinking they have someone in the person of Amphon whom they can easily convict using their usual methods. And of course they are right.
The prosecutors think so too, and so take up the case and the judges, explicitly noting that the prosecutors have NO CASE, convict on the well-known legal axiom that a person charged with a crime must prove themselves innocent : is guilty until proven not so.
It’s total crap. I hope I’d be too ashamed of such a vicious, lame, frame-up to allow myself to be associated with it. But the cops, prosecutors, judges weren’t in this case. In all cases of lese majeste, it seems to me.
And inevitably, by association, due to the incessant beating of the drums of jingo by those who claim to be his friends and ‘protectors’, HM the King of Thailand, perhaps – or likely, at his age and in his physical condition – presently incapable any longer of controlling the actions of the thugs and goons who claim to be his protectors, will likely be tarred with the same brush those thugs and goons have used to tar Amphon.
It stinks. All of it stinks to high heaven.
Flood flavours
Maybe it is perception, Arthurson, but Thitinan specifically stated that Political Prisoners in Thailand and New Mandala appeared unengaged. I felt that 72 between the two of them over less than 6 weeks was a pretty good effort. Throw in Bangkok Pundit and there were plenty of posts. PPT had plenty on the politics of the flooding too. I’m not vouching for quality, but there was plenty to read.
Will UMNO give up power?
Great comments. And this is useful for my own thinking about Malaysian politics.
First of all, I think we should ditch this “intellectual” and “anti or un-intellectual” label. I am not sure what it means to say that a question is purely intellectual or theoretical. In this context, it sound disingenuous when the questions are intensely practical — we are not asking about hypotheticals nor are we dwelling in some rarefied theoretical space.
As I said in my comment, it is not clear to me whether the Barisan Government will acceded to a peaceful transfer of power if it loses an election. Nothing the DPM says would clarify this issue because I think the answer to this issue depends upon larger political dynamics that pull in opposing directions.
These dynamics have to do with a tension between the government’s desire to appear democratically legitimate and its commitment to an ethnocratic political program. To keep that program intact, it must be seen to be sufficiently powerful to constitute and protect the identity of the ethnos — the Malay political unit. This is something that it can only do if it controls the reigns of power and squashes any challenge to the ethnocratic political paradigm. The logic of its ethnocratic commitment leaves no space for democracy.
This tension between ethnocracy and democracy is a structural problem within Malaysian politics. And I think it goes a long way to explaining why the ruling government constantly swivels between democratic and anti-democratic postures. It wishes to appear democratically legitimate but its foundational political commitments militate against democracy. This also explains, I think, why Malaysian politics displays ambiguous patterns that make it difficult to know whether the government will or will not allow a peaceful transfer of power.
This is why I think there is no clear answer though I certainly hope that Marzuki is right.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
OK! There is no such a name called Rohingya in the history of Arakan. British has recorded Muslims in Arakan as Chittagonians. So, in everyone’s opinion, this is the rightest term Biritish used for the Muslims in Arakan. So, British’s records are most correct. If so, what term did the British use for Buddhists in Arakan? Rakhine? Obviously not! If yes, is there any evidence for the fact that British refered the Buddishs in Arakan as Rakhines? British are right and honest because they refered Muslims in Arakan as Chittagonians. The same British are wrong and dis-honest because they refered Buddists in Arakan as Maghs. Why double standards?
Screw both religions, Islam and Buddist, and both names, Rakhine and Rohingya here. Let us put some logical arguments. Everyone will agree if we say that there were the periods called Dhannyawadi and Vesali in the history of Arakan. No one will deny this. OK, then. Can anybody tell us that the kings or rulers in these two historical periods, which dated back to more than 2000 years, belonged to which stocks of human race, Indo-Aryan (i.e. Indian-look-alike people) or Mongoloid (Mongolian look-alike people)? What are the meanings of terms Dhannyawadi and Vesali (Vaishali)? From which language these terms were derived from? In which stock of human race did Siddartha Gautama Buddha and most of earliest follwers, because of whom Buddhistism had spreaded throughout the region, belong to?
We know there was a people called Rakkhasha (in Pali meaning Cannibals) who used to eat even human beings who are stragers to them. The word has varied through historical periods from Rakkhasha to Rakkha to Rakkuain now to Rakhine. According some other people, Rakhine was derived from Pali word Rakkhita (meaning people who look after and take care of their race). Yet, it doesn’t matter to us. In accordance with the historians, the place was called Rakkhapura (again in Pali). Has the whole region of Arakan including Chittagong area been called so? Have the cannibals used to live throughout the whole region? How did these Rakkhasha people look alike, mongoloid, aryan, caucasians, negroid? Why was a Pali word “Rakkhasha” used to address cannibals? Who named these cannibals as Rakkhasha by using a Pali word? Wasn’t there be a paralell people to Rakkasha, who named them so using Pali word? Or have they named them “Rakkhasha” (cannibals) by theirselves using a Pali word? Was Pali the language of cannibals? Wasn’t Pali an Indian literature and language? Isn’t it originated to India?
Burmese Junta and some extremist Rakhines don’t want to recognize the name “Rohingya ” not because they want their real identity so as to give them “Nationality” but because once they become successful in branding them as Bengalis, it will become easier for them to drive them out of Arakan land. Ultimately, Junta’s dream of making Arakan into purely Burmanized Bhuddhist region will come true. Junta wants neither the people called Rakhines nor the people called Rohingyas. Thus, Juta has been setting up modal villages by bringing Bamars from central Burma. Rakhines are well aware of that. Some of the Rakhines simultaneuosly want to fight Junta on one side and Rohingyas on another side in order to have an independent land. It is a very wrong tactic. History has proven that. Hitler lost in the war because he fought Soviet Union on one side and English and French on another side.
Furthermore, we think everybody knows Mexico and Argentina, people there are of spainish origin and speak spainish language. Why don’t people call them Spainish instead of Mexican and Argentinian? Americans speak English language and most them are of English. Why don’t people call them English in stead of Americans? The word “Rohingya” is a slight variation of the word “Ruahonga” (in Rakhine meaning “from old village”) because the place where Rohingyas used to live was called Ruahong. Rohingyas have the habit of calling someone by the place name where they live. For example, if somebody is from Man-Aung, he will be called as Man-Aunggya, if from RatheThaung, then RatheThaungya and if from ButhiTaung, then Buthi-Thaungya etc. The word Rohingya has formed exactly the way Rakhine has formed from Rakkhasha.
In history, Rohingya didn’t feel to call them as Rohingya because the situation and the time had not forced them to call so. It doesn’t mean that this people didn’t exist before. So, if someone says there is no word as Rohingya in the history of Arakan, then there is no word as Rakhine either. I have just put a logical argument here. Anyone who is interested to reply to us is warmly welcome as long as he or she doesn’t go abusive. We, hereby, unconditionally apologize to anyone who is conciously or unconciously offended by the argument here. Our intention is not to create divides but unity. And webelieve that as long as two or more groups of people are not equal in everything, there will be no peace and unity. We need peace and unity in order to make our nation into a developed nation. No one can benefit from fights! So, enough of fights!!
Will UMNO give up power?
I would encourage New Mandala readers to explore further the following issues:
(1) Find out the reason why an Emergency was declared in Sarawak in 1966? And why the Alliance government (precursor to Barisan Nasional) used the Emergency to overthrow the Chief Minister.
(2) Find out the reason why Emergency was declared after May 13, 1969?. The race riots (or more correctly put a massacre of the Chinese as the numbers of Chinese who died were disproportionate to the Malays) was largely in Kuala Lumpur, and to some extent Penang and Johor. Yet a nationwide Emergency was declared. Isn’t it ironic that security forces that had successfully battled the communists could not handle a race-riot. It was the only other time than 2008 when the ruling party could have lost power.
(3) Find out the reason why in 1977, an Emergency was declared in Kelantan as Barisan Nasional toppled the popularly elected PAS government.
(4) Find out the reason why in 1994, Anwar Ibrahim would lead UMNO’s efforts to overthrow the popularly elected PBS in Sabah extra – constitutionally.
(5) Find out the reason why in 2009, Najib Razak would lead the overthrow of the popularly elected Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak extra-constitutionally?
(6) New Mandala readers with expertise in analysing texts and sub-texts, should analyse the speeches given in Malay by the Prime Minister and his Deputy at home (to their party & Muslim supporters) as they single out “DAP Christians” as their bogeyman and compare that with the language used by Nazi’s at the end of the Weimar Republic against the Jews, the Hutu’s against the Tutsi before the massacre in 1994 and if you have the time, how Slobodan Milosevic’s regime against Bosnian Muslims and Albanians.
Tell me if you see any parallels.
Maybe then Malaysians and the international community will understand why I asked for a guarantee from the DPM to respect the rule of law and the democratic rights of all Malaysians – not just UMNO.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Holding a cabinet meeting and acknowledging a flood disaster brewing . . . then doing nothing. The novice woman delegates and forgets about ‘major matters’ discussed in her cabinet meeting.
Oh well. Certain Reds believe in their fairies, until they drown to their necks.
BTW Sanyo Thailand had decided today that it will be closing down their semi-conductor operations permanently. Sanyo President
Mr Tetsuzo explained that prolonged flooding at Rojana Industrial Park caused so much damage to the company’s machinery and buildings that the cost of renovations would be too high to bear.
So far the Yingluck government has NOT done anything to restore the faith of the Thai (and business) people in their government to prevent a repeat of the crisis, and, render them the necessary assistance to get back to their shattered lives.
Mallika Boonmetrakul: an appalling Thai Politician
More from Mallika….. Transcript of Channel News Asia’s interview with her (interview at Democrat Party HQ on 6 December):
http://blogs.channelnewsasia.com/anasuya-sanyal/2011/12/09/transcript-interview-with-mallika-boonmetrakul-deputy-democrat-party-spokeswoman-and-activist/
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Come now Vichai, you are exaggerating. You say: “. . . because succeeding Yingluck cabinet meetings suddenly went silent about the floods, until too late.” Your note refers to the 11 Aug cabinet meeting.
The synopsis of the following meeting (16 Aug) is here: http://media.thaigov.go.th/pageconfig/viewcontent/viewcontent1e.asp?pageid=472&directory=1943&contents=59452
Floods seem to be no. 1 agenda item for that meeting and comments on the PM’s visit to flooded areas.
The next one (25 Aug) is here:
http://media.thaigov.go.th/pageconfig/viewcontent/viewcontent1e.asp?pageid=472&directory=1943&contents=59731
Again, floods are not missing.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
Re:- 30….
True….
Not just that… what are we supposed to think of Thai’s (and Thai society) who tell us ‘not to fall into the trap of being sentimental about the old guy… he sent the messages for sure, and is now playing the sympathy card… the court evidence and the mobile phone logs etc… prove that… ‘ and then send these kinds of messages out to everyone in their e-mail contacts list…
It’s as if Ar Kong’s 20 year jail sentence wasn’t enough for these people. They need to destroy whatever feelings of sympathy still exist for him too…
But, just suppose Ar Kong had been set free (vvvvvv unlikely I know…) If the judge had dismissed the case, or given a not guilty verdict, it would have been a huge loss of face for the prosecuting police force, as, after persuing the case, the evidence they presented in court didn’t prove, with certainty, that the accused was the actual person who carried out the ‘crime.’
The democrat politician would have lost face too, for pressing charges, over something as ‘trivial’ as a rude SMS, and for expecting the police/courts to spend time and money investigating it.
Unfortunately in Thailand, face saving, whatever the cost to others… is everything… probably why some people out there (like whoever wrote the comments in post no. 16) are so determined to justify the verdict, and destroy what little face Ar Kong’s has left…
Flood flavours
Regarding New Mandala’s coverage of the floods, early on when the floods reached Bangkok’s vicinity i made a picture post showing heavily inundated areas – http://www.newmandala.org/2011/10/23/flood-images-from-nick-nostitz/ . This post received four responses, which was not exactly encouraging to make any further posts on this subject matter. My impression was that people did not care too much about the subject matter.
Flood flavours
“Arthurson”:
Usual promises by governments trying to attract investors do not relieve anyone of performing due diligence, which obviously was not done.
The industrial estates were built on natural flood plains. This was a known fact. Occasionally there will be floods that no human engineering can stop.
Many of the inundated suburban housing estates were built on flood plains. Just because these flood plains were concreted over does not mean that they are not anymore part of the flood plains.
Thais in the past, without any education, knew that there are occasionally massive floods. Their houses were built on stilts, they were adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. Boats were part of daily life.
We may live now in the “modern age”, in the industrial world. But we cannot ignore environmental factors, either as governments, or as individuals. Past governments are to blame for failed urban developments, for insufficient water management, but manufacturers and individuals are to be blamed for not educating themselves before investing.
Back in ’95, during the last flood, Bangkok more or less ignored the flood, and did not learn the lesson. The only areas affected were low class areas, and rural neighborhoods in Bangkok’s vicinity, one such in which i lived then. Now not just the great unwashed have been affected, but also the affluent (the “i told you so” comment jumps to my mind…). But back then, in my neighborhood, we did not fall into hysterics. Maybe because people knew that this happened in the past, and will happen again. And you just cope with it. And we then did not have the great armies of volunteers, large scale military operations, regular food donations, etc.
So, excuse me, i am very tired of the whining by manufacturers, foreign investors, etc. When you tell them that not all is nice and shiny in the Land of Smiles, they get all superior, and refer to their army of consultants that told them what they wanted to hear, b – that Thailand is stable, that Thais are happy folks, that Thailand is safe, etc. They don’t want to hear of political problems, of social of problems, and of what environmental biologists have said two decades ago already: that Thailand’s environment as a whole is damaged beyond repair.
So yes, the land we bought, of course and naturally with my wife as the owner, is as safe from flooding as any plot of land can be – it is in a valley in the mountains (with almost intact forests), on elevated plateau (highest point in the valley) on a slope falling towards a khlong. We looked at three different plots of land before deciding for this one – deciding factor was that this plot was not prone to be flooded.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Exquisite irony that Vichai N doesn’t (can’t?) see that quoting at length a report of the 1st cabinet meeting dealing with the flood issues flatly contradicts his renewed claim immediately afterwards that “…PM Yingluck and her crew WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION.”
Still, at least it drops backs to a mere “…my suspicion lingers…” etc after that. As with opinions, all are entitled to their suspicions – though one has to determinedly ignore all reports of subsequent cabinet meetings dealing with the flood issues to even begin to place any value on this one.
BTW, Thaksin’s famous Skype conference call with ministers took place after the full cabinet meeting was concluded. One can take a view about the merits/wisdom of the exercise – but it’s (yet more) gross distortion of reality to call it “Thaksin (not Yingluck) holding the cabinet meeting”.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
Thanks for the link Kerrie.
Reds, a failed star and an activist freed, and an assortment of hi-so murderers as well.
No word on Amphon, Joe Gordon, Somyos, Surachai, Darunee….
What are we to think of HM the King if he is not able to free Thais made political prisoners in his name as well as “reds, a failed star, an activist…” and an assortment of hi-so murderers?
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
“Definitely very bad judgment . . . Yingluck made a terrible call”. My assessment of the novice incompetent PM Yingluck stands.
The worsening floods and devastations at the North of Thailand was actually raised and considered at the first Yingluck cabinet meeting on August 11, 2011. It was the ‘second major item’ of Yingluck’s cabinet at that meeting.
http://media.thaigov.go.th/pageconfig/viewcontent/viewcontent1.asp?pageid=472&directory=1944&contents=59327
“The second major item on the agenda that the Prime Minister stressed was the flooding from the effect of tropical storm Nok Ten. The Cabinet Secretary-General stated that the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit some of the affected areas in the Northern region including Uttaradit, Phrae and Nan provinces respectively. The Prime Minister also instructed relevant Ministers to visit the affected areas and directed the Ministry of Interior to be the focal point in coordinating the relief effort with the Policy and Agricultural Assistance Standard Committee as well as citizens affected by the flood. At the same, the Prime Minister instructed the Office of the Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office to setup an Emergency Call Center 1111 to compile a list of complaints as well as provide information for people wishing to make donations to areas and people affected. The Government’s Public Relations Department has also been instructed to provide updated information and warning so the public can be aware of latest developments at the same time allowing relevant agencies to assist those in affected areas.
In addition, the Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Finance to consider revising regulations concerning emergency reserve funds that can be used to assist provinces so that they are more efficient and thus be able to provide more timely assistant to people in affected areas/ The Prime Minister also instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to oversee and inspect areas damaged by the floods especially agricultural areas in order to provide necessary assistance. The Government has in place projects that will assist those affected in the medium-term that includes rehabilitation. In this connection, the cabinet is not able to use the budget set aside for rehabilitation as it has yet to make its policy statement and will use funds from the current budget.
At the same time, the Government has established a Working Group to find a long-term solution to the problem. It has invited relevant agencies including the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment to setup a meeting and lay out a long term plan as well as review and integrate previous water management plans for better efficiency in terms of dealing with the floods.”
But PM Yingluck and her crew WAS NOT PAYING ATTENTION. And my suspicion that the Yingluck cabinet was criminally negligent by failing to address the threats/dangers of the bursting dams/monster monsoon lingers . . . because succeeding Yingluck cabinet meetings suddenly went silent about the floods, until too late.
By September2011, Thaksin even butted in, with Thaksin (not Yingluck) holding the cabinet meeting via Skype.
Distracted, ill-prepared, and excessively obedient to her brother Thaksin’s priorities, Yingluck blundered her way towards the tragedy of the Thai Big Flood, which resuled in lives lost and sufferrings and misery to every Thai.