Hello & Goodbye To What-Are-Their-Names-Again?: Thai Opinion

[webfact]

STOPPAGE TIME

Hello & goodbye to what-are-their-names-again?

Tulsathit Taptim

Jatuporn Prompan is still a Mr Tu.

BANGKOK: -- There are not so many countries where a sweeping Cabinet reshuffle merely means a little more work for newspapers' graphic artists. A foreign diplomat asked me last week whether he was right in reporting to his headquarters that Thailand's ministerial shake-up "is just a quota thing" that took advantage of the need to find a new interior minister after Yongyuth Wichaidit's departure. I told him he was spot-on.

The man heaved a cautious sigh of relief. "Hope the bosses buy it," he murmured. "Normally, such a massive Cabinet change requires some kind of an in-depth analysis. My people back home will be curious about whether Thailand is doing a policy U-turn or something."

You are mixing up our politics and the Obama-Romney presidential race, buddy, I thought.

His analysis, I offered, could run to one short paragraph; then he could relax and watch the US election and China's unveiling of a new - but old - leadership with an untroubled mind. Thailand has changed more than half of its Cabinet positions but the most significant thing about it is what remains unchanged: Jatuporn Prompan is still a Mr Tu, not His Excellency Tu, and that reflects the prime minister's and her brother's awareness of the red shirt leader's potential as a walking time-bomb.

The rest is about easing members of the "111 Club" back to the rat race, replacing Yongyuth and keeping the "musical chairs" going among other members of Pheu Thai and its coalition partners. And if excluding Jatuporn from the Cabinet line-up is a positive, the biggest negative of this ministerial revamp has to be the fact that, once again, the Education Ministry has someone new at the helm.

If a foreign embassy needs to be more analytical about this Cabinet revolving-door situation, it can add anything that does not contain words like "efficiency" or, more importantly, "here to stay". As for the prime minister, while some people have been quick to sing Yingluck Shinawatra's praises, saying that she had finally stood up to her big brother, it is unwise to jump the gun on this. Of course, the finance minister who is known to be her favourite has survived the traditional axe, and some new Cabinet names seem to carry her fingerprint, but something is seriously wrong if her "leadership" has to be hailed because of those trivialities. Every Cabinet is supposed to be hand-picked by the prime minister to begin with.

There it is. A political summary from Thailand after 12 Cabinet incumbents bowed out and 14 others either made their way in or got new pieces of the ministerial cake. This report probably should be signed off with a footnote saying "Don't bother remembering the names."

Well, perhaps just one name is worth memorising. If new Education Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana loses his portfolio in the next reshuffle, I will demand the dissolution of the Education Ministry. He is the 12th education minister since 2001 and third in just over a year. Whether the frequency of changes is a world record I don't know, but it's the unhealthiest thing about Thailand's education.

Pongthep is a decent politician, who may make a better education minister than his recent predecessors, but that's not the point. Another change at the top of the ministry reflects high-level ignorance of how the most important thing in the country should be managed. It also underlines a short-sighted political mentality that perceives education as something that does not yield immediate profits for them.

Here's hoping Pongthep stays long enough to convince Education Ministry bureaucrats that it's time they changed their gear from "N" to "D" and that there is a lot more to their responsibility than delivering computer tablets to schools before political deadlines. More importantly, maybe, he hopefully can convince himself he's not just another stop-gap whose main responsibility is to ensure that the deadlines on tablets are met.

That Pongthep is doubling as a deputy prime minister is not a good sign. If you are pessimistic about it, a "safety net" is already in place for him to land on. There's no better graceful exit if he is to leave the Education Ministry than to keep him "upstairs" in the next reshuffle.

Now that we are at it, writers of embassy reports may want to briefly mention another "double act". Foreign Minister Surapong Towichukchaikul has been given an added job as a deputy prime minister, his being the "first" of Yingluck's deputies - meaning that he will be acting prime minister in her absence.

People are saying he's being rewarded for a series of high-profile visa and passport stunts. Not so fast. I'm reserving my judgement until I know what happens to him in the next reshuffle.

Hope this helps the embassy report-writers more or less. If you also need help on the title, "It's just a quota thing" hit the nail on the head. "Easy come, easy go" doesn't sound too bad either.

-- The Nation 2012-10-31

[asiawatcher]

Khun Tulsathit is correct in all within this article. But the sad fact is, no minister is ever given enough time to understand his portfolio or do anything constructive prior to reshuffling. The ministers are just filling in time receiving a paycheck and consolidating contacts for more corrupt practices. Seems to me a touch of anarchy would not go astray right now.

Edited October 31, 2012 by asiawatcher

[waza]

Just what Thailand needs, less government and more corruption.