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The End Of A Fairytale: Thai Opinion


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Posted

STOPPAGE TIME

The end of a fairytale

Tulsathit Taptim

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When Yingluck Shinawatra was crowned Thailand's first prime minister about three months ago - a romantic political inauguration of a common, albeit very rich, girl - she must have been dreading what the future might hold.

But deep down then, there must also have been some sense of comfort. With things being just short of perfect, they couldn't turn so sour so quickly, could they? And even if change was inevitable, how bad could it be?

Princes Charming are always there to rescue Cinderella or Show White from their bad dreams. The bad news for Yingluck is that while nightmares are possible in a fairytale, there is no vice versa. Surreal as it seems, the flood disaster is the ultimate reality, probably the worst of its kind for a new, inexperienced political queen. In this unfolding nightmare, there is no knight in shining armour, only useless and mostly clueless advisers, many of whom are driven primarily by bad-blood politics. In fairytales, the heroines are often isolated first, only for everyone to come together later for them. Where is the help when Yingluck really needs it?

During her first few days in office, Jatuporn Prompan made a joke of himself by attacking the military on a daily basis, apparently unaware how menacing the floods would turn out to be and what role troops would play in relief and rescue operations. When the magnitude of the disaster became obvious, none of the other key red-shirt figures stepped forward to offer substantial technical assistance. The male ministers have also been all but worthless. The interior minister has been in the news less than all of the water "experts", who have become last straws for a drowning populace to grab at. She was left to rely on a science minister, who obviously has problems with his timing, and a justice minister, who isn't even quoted anymore.

Make no mistake. In a crisis of unprecedented scale, any government would face public wrath, volunteers would naturally win the people's hearts and journalists who arrived first at scenes of distress would be accorded hero status. Yingluck's misfortune, however, has little or nothing at all to do with the predictable. In fact, it's good for her that relief mobilisation by the social media and conventional media has cushioned the blow of the life-threatening emergency. She also has the soldiers to thank for their swift response, discipline and endurance when problems seemed to be getting out of control.

In our nightmares we are in the wrong place at the wrong time, surrounded by wrong people. That's Yingluck's situation. Is she also "wrong" for Thailand in this crisis? Political leanings will influence the answer one way or the other, but the fact that this question is getting louder and louder must be a big part of her ongoing bad dream.

Opinion polls point at her "indecisiveness" or "lack of leadership". What the pollsters have not mentioned is that such a public perception followed the disappointment caused by her government's rush to vindicate her big brother. As northern dams showed the first signs they were in danger of overflowing, the government's first few weeks featured Thaksin Shinawatra's visa and passport affairs, the ruling party's flirting with the amnesty and charter amendment ideas, and a controversial soccer game with Cambodia. A police chief was purged within days and replaced by a close relative of the ruling family.

A good relationship with the military would have toned down the "leadership" issue. The armed forces' discipline, manpower, equipment and soldiers' strong sense of public service and dedication have come in handy in this crisis, and any other government could have shared credit for it. To the Yingluck administration, the better the troops look, the more it boomerangs against government politicians.

She has shed some tears, as many would. Her brother displayed his soft side more than once while in office. Yingluck's critics may not like it, but crying is not the serious issue here. The real problem, as one female blogger has tried to point out - and subsequently drew red-shirt fire on herself - is the misconception that for being a young female prime minister she deserves different treatment.

One veteran Government House reporter has commented that, in his 20 years on the beat, he has never seen a prime minister handled with so much care and respect. It is all right for the media to treat her differently from her male predecessors, but when this attitude thrives wherever she is and no matter what she does, dangerous distortions can occur.

The floods are washing away any illusions many people might have had about how good her "team" is, or about how a government can still function if a not-so-tough prime minister - a nominee to be exact - is backed up by an expansive and well-organised political apparatus. The waters have brought to an end a fairytale and exposed a nightmarish reality that promises to at least outlast its opposite number.

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-- The Nation 2011-11-09

Posted

[

When Yingluck Shinawatra was crowned Thailand's first prime minister about three months ago

I know Thailand had a " fledgling democracy" but......

Posted
Opinion polls point at her "indecisiveness" or "lack of leadership". What the pollsters have not mentioned is that such a public perception followed the disappointment caused by her government's rush to vindicate her big brother. As northern dams showed the first signs they were in danger of overflowing, the government's first few weeks featured Thaksin Shinawatra's visa and passport affairs, the ruling party's flirting with the amnesty and charter amendment ideas, and a controversial soccer game with Cambodia. A police chief was purged within days and replaced by a close relative of the ruling family.

Good summation of the wasted weeks that were critical to the resulting disastrous results now.

.

Posted

Is it me, or is that a completely pointless article?

H.

I thought it was a pretty well written opinion article tbh

not that i fully agree with every point made in it.

Posted

Is it me, or is that a completely pointless article?

H.

Well, apart from the horribly mangled metaphors (on which the whole premise hangs), unfortunate typos, and flailing attempts to appear even handed, its you.

whistling.gif

Posted (edited)

Ahh, another negative opinion from the nation. It's as predicatable as the the dog pooping every day.

at least it showed a somewhat compassionate and sympathetic view towards yingluck, which is far more than most nation articles give

it made at least some fair admittances i thought, ie "Make no mistake. In a crisis of unprecedented scale, any government would face public wrath"

as i've said, i certainly don't agree with the hardline 'they're all completely useless in PTP' viewpoint but the main point of yingluck being dealt a somewhat short hand upon her entry as PM is something i agree with.

believe me, a lot of nation articles make me wanna pull my hair out.

Edited by nurofiend
Posted

Ahh, another negative opinion from the nation. It's as predicatable as the the dog pooping every day.

As usual, for you anything the Nation writes is negative / wrong.

What you fail to recognize (read - don't want to recognize) is that there are plenty of people who basically agree with a lot that the Nation writes.

And on this forum, and others, many have clearly substantiated why they have their views.

Your recent stance to strongly trample on freedom of speech says it all.

Perhaps you'd like to share what parts of this opinion piece you believe are incorrect?

Posted

Ahh, another negative opinion from the nation. It's as predicatable as the the dog pooping every day.

It's impossible to write something positive about the government - not only how they handle the floods.

I didn't expect something 'good' from the red-pack. But the Thais voted them, now they have them - som nam naa!

Posted

Ahh, another negative opinion from the nation. It's as predicatable as the the dog pooping every day.

GK, the truth hurts! It's negative, because, basically, the government has done a sucky job, and put a puppet in place thinking that she would be "endearing". F that, if she can't stand the heat, she needs to get out of the kitchen....same with the rest of her barrel of monkeys.

Posted

She has been badly advised by people she installed and believed that they could do the job. Soon she will need to root out these incompetent people who brought so much distress to the the Thai people. The honeymoon is over!

Posted
Opinion polls point at her "indecisiveness" or "lack of leadership". What the pollsters have not mentioned is that such a public perception followed the disappointment caused by her government's rush to vindicate her big brother. As northern dams showed the first signs they were in danger of overflowing, the government's first few weeks featured Thaksin Shinawatra's visa and passport affairs, the ruling party's flirting with the amnesty and charter amendment ideas, and a controversial soccer game with Cambodia. A police chief was purged within days and replaced by a close relative of the ruling family.

Good summation of the wasted weeks that were critical to the resulting disastrous results now.

.

It is quite clear as the days grow into weeks, that this flood problem was going to happen and the politicians magnified the problem 10 fold by trying to defeat Mother Nature and protect it's political supporters.

Worse rainfal in 50 years thanks to Mother Nature. The natural way was to let the resulting flood wates flow south as quick as possible. This would have shortened the time the flooding would have been a problem.

But the politicians through political actions for their voter base and ineptness, created a flooding proble that is far worse than it should have been and has prolonged the period of time that the flood has and is a problem.Blocking the flow of water to the south, a natural pathway to the sea, was a major mistake. Some necessary areas needed to be protected such as hospitals and emergency housing and food supplies etc etc, but making effots to jsut stop the waters from heading south and trying to divert the direction of the water was a major mistake.

Posted
Opinion polls point at her "indecisiveness" or "lack of leadership". What the pollsters have not mentioned is that such a public perception followed the disappointment caused by her government's rush to vindicate her big brother. As northern dams showed the first signs they were in danger of overflowing, the government's first few weeks featured Thaksin Shinawatra's visa and passport affairs, the ruling party's flirting with the amnesty and charter amendment ideas, and a controversial soccer game with Cambodia. A police chief was purged within days and replaced by a close relative of the ruling family.

Good summation of the wasted weeks that were critical to the resulting disastrous results now.

.

It is quite clear as the days grow into weeks, that this flood problem was going to happen and the politicians magnified the problem 10 fold by trying to defeat Mother Nature and protect it's political supporters.

Worse rainfal in 50 years thanks to Mother Nature. The natural way was to let the resulting flood wates flow south as quick as possible. This would have shortened the time the flooding would have been a problem.

But the politicians through political actions for their voter base and ineptness, created a flooding proble that is far worse than it should have been and has prolonged the period of time that the flood has and is a problem.Blocking the flow of water to the south, a natural pathway to the sea, was a major mistake. Some necessary areas needed to be protected such as hospitals and emergency housing and food supplies etc etc, but making effots to jsut stop the waters from heading south and trying to divert the direction of the water was a major mistake.

Spot on. Bad water management from the start. Years of building on flood plains. Who's interests were being protected I wonder with all the "knowledeable" bad advice?

Posted

It is quite clear as the days grow into weeks, that this flood problem was going to happen and the politicians magnified the problem 10 fold by trying to defeat Mother Nature and protect it's political supporters.

Worse rainfal in 50 years thanks to Mother Nature. The natural way was to let the resulting flood wates flow south as quick as possible. This would have shortened the time the flooding would have been a problem.

But the politicians through political actions for their voter base and ineptness, created a flooding proble that is far worse than it should have been and has prolonged the period of time that the flood has and is a problem.Blocking the flow of water to the south, a natural pathway to the sea, was a major mistake. Some necessary areas needed to be protected such as hospitals and emergency housing and food supplies etc etc, but making effots to jsut stop the waters from heading south and trying to divert the direction of the water was a major mistake.

Most areas north of Bangkok would have flooded even if Bangkok wasn't here.

A good example of how quickly the flood would have moved if there was nothing to stop it is at Don Mueang. It flooded there to two metres, and it's still there 2 weeks later. What was stopping it from moving on? It had the full drainage system of an international airport ... and yet, it is still flooded. And it didn't even get the full brunt of the floods ... just the amounts that were able to get through the vandalised flood protection.

The water wasn't stopped from heading to the sea. The Chao Phraya wasn't blocked. It's just that the natural pathways are not enough for a 50 year flood.

What is the point of only protecting hospitals and emergency housing if there was no way for people to get to the hospitals and emergency housing and no way to get enough supplies to these places if they're under 1-2 metres of water. And how much "emergency housing" would you need for 10 million people?

Saving Bangkok was not a political decision. It was an economic decision. And a logical one, at that.

Posted

Yingluck and PTPs support hasnt dipped at all where it matters and comments like this only harden the support in those places. This is written for a certain audience that reads that newspaper and wants to hear things like this

Posted

She has been badly advised by people she installed and believed that they could do the job. Soon she will need to root out these incompetent people who brought so much distress to the the Thai people. The honeymoon is over!

Remember that the elected ministers have been encouraged to vacate their seats to maintain the majority. If they are sacked as a minister, unlikely they could regain their party list seat, so pressure will be applied to keep them or find another position for their useless Rses.

Posted

Yingluck and PTPs support hasnt dipped at all where it matters and comments like this only harden the support in those places. This is written for a certain audience that reads that newspaper and wants to hear things like this

Both The Daily News and the Thai Rath have published columns criticizing her lack of leadership skills. A glaring example was the public argument between Chalit of the Irrigation Dept and Sukhumpan. Yingluk was chairing the meeting and just looked embarrassed.

This crisis has cruelly exposed her limitations and whilst the Issan faithful may still remain loyal, the hundreds of thousands laid off by the floods may not feel the same way.

Posted

She has been badly advised by people she installed and believed that they could do the job. Soon she will need to root out these incompetent people who brought so much distress to the the Thai people. The honeymoon is over!

The purpose of this government was not to govern Thailand it was and is to bring back Khun T.

End of story.

Posted

Yingluck and PTPs support hasnt dipped at all where it matters and comments like this only harden the support in those places. This is written for a certain audience that reads that newspaper and wants to hear things like this

Both The Daily News and the Thai Rath have published columns criticizing her lack of leadership skills. A glaring example was the public argument between Chalit of the Irrigation Dept and Sukhumpan. Yingluk was chairing the meeting and just looked embarrassed.

This crisis has cruelly exposed her limitations and whilst the Issan faithful may still remain loyal, the hundreds of thousands laid off by the floods may not feel the same way.

Actually, this may be just another eye-opener. Just as Jatuporn was slammed by the locals themselves for meddling in local politics in the north, many of those Isan factory workers will have returned home with tales of incompetence of the current government. Maybe the message will get out that this lot really aren't as good as expected.

Posted

Just go's to show , what a useless bunch they realy are, self serving , I'm alright jack , stuff you , attitude, well the chickens have truly come home to roost, the next best thing this mob of slows can do is either resign or come up with a flood plan that will actually work and last a 100 years, now I'd like to see that.:lol:

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