Minister takes the bus and nearly misses his flight: Thai talk

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THAI TALK
Minister takes the bus and nearly misses his flight
Suthichai Yoon
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- "I am not joking," Transport Minister Chadchat Sittipunt said the other day when he announced that he wanted his ministry's senior officials from C9 rank and up to ride a public bus at least once a week for two months.

The minister wants the officials to have firsthand experience travelling by bus and report back to the ministry on all the problems encountered on the way.

He then tried to practise what he preached by attempting to catch a bus to Don Mueang Airport. And he discovered what every other ordinary commuter in Bangkok has experienced every working day.

According to reporters on the beat, at around 11am one day last week, having finished his duties at Government House, Minister Chadchat tried to catch the air-conditioned 509 bus. He had a flight to catch at the domestic airport. The minister did make allowance for the inconvenience of not travelling in his own sedan. He had spared two hours to get to the airport by bus.

Chadchat waited and waited at a bus stop outside the Education Ministry on Ratchadamnoen Avenue. About 40 minutes later, the bus arrived. The minister hopped on board, but it was a painfully slow trip. By about 12.20 he had got only a quarter of the way to the airport. He jumped off at the Victory Monument intersection to call his chauffeur-driven car to rush him to the airport. He didn't want to miss the flight. After all, he is the transport minister.

It would have been an even better story had the minister stayed on the bus so that he could miss the flight. That would have given him a real reason to launch a massive shake-up of the city's bus service. That, after all, was the whole idea behind his instruction for all senior officials to take a bus once a week - so that they could find out for themselves how horrible the bus service is.

The minister shouldn't be deterred by the experience, though. He should go back to the bus stop again, this time with the whole team of senior officials with him. Then they can really feel the daily pain and suffering of the average commuter, who has probably given up on trying to seek government help to improve the transit service.

If Chadchat is serious about shaking up the bus service, he will have to do more than just tell his subordinates to ride a bus once a week. It would be more effective to ask the whole Cabinet, led by the prime minister, to go to work by bus every Tuesday, and see what time a quorum of the Council of Ministers could be achieved to get the weekly session started.

Better still, try holding a Cabinet meeting, at least once a month, on an average bus - not the air-conditioned kind. And let the ordinary passengers observe how ministers arrive at the crucial decisions that affect everybody in the country.

Minister Chadchat's "get-on-the-bus" policy is a wake-up call for the whole government. His idea isn't exactly trail-blazing, but it should remind all concerned that a genuine populist policy is not one in which ministers use the people's tax money to get votes in the next election. It is one in which they feel the "popular pain" of everyday life, one that offers them the chance to solve people's problems on the ground.

If the government can't make sure that a Cabinet member who has spared two hours to take a bus to the airport can get there in time for the flight, then it can't claim to be serving the people. That's because most people, with the current standard of public transportation, rarely get to their destination at the appointed time. In other words, ordinary people miss their flights every day.


-- The Nation 2013-07-04

[NongKhaiKid]

The original story has been changed as he was supposedly trying to get to Swampy until it was pointed out he was on the wrong bus and that point was picked up by an on the ball TV contributor

He didn't miss his flight as his official car was a convenient phone call away no doubt shadowing the bus for the inevitable.need to get to the airport on time.

What's the bet that if this farce is repeated by him or other officials there will be special arrangements and magically there will be no holdups ?

[rkidlad]

Why's he getting the bus? He is high so, and riding the bus is ewwy!

[Ricardo]

So how long did they hold the flight for him ?

[Morakot]

It would have been an even better story had the minister stayed on the bus so that he could miss the flight. That would have given him a real reason to launch a massive shake-up of the city's bus service.

Ahh... was he supposed to shake something up with this PR campaign? Now that's really interesting than...

[greg71]

^{This is last weeks news}

[Morakot]

^{This is last weeks news}

Last week's old hat is this week's latest fashion.

[OzMick]

"..........senior officials from C9 rank and up to ride a public bus at least once a week for two months."

You can imagine what sort of farce this will turn into. Limo to the bus stop, waiting in the limo (engine and AC running, tumbler of JWB) until the bus comes, ride the bus one stop, back into the lime to the office to dictate a lengthy report on how efficient the bus service is lately. Repeat max of 8 times in 2 months.

If he was serious, he would insist the officials would travel from home to work and back once per week, and have their pay docked if they arrive late. A little taste of the real world.

[harrry]

Actually he has done a good job. Awareness has been raised that the bus service was not satisfactory. Two weeks later this is still being talked about.

[OzMick]

Actually he has done a good job. Awareness has been raised that the bus service was not satisfactory. Two weeks later this is still being talked about.

My definition of "done a good job" involves actual improvement. Those using the service were well aware that it was not satisfactory, and some nabob talking about it does SFA to change that view.

[retell]

bus ??? standing here and got i beard growing out of my ears i heard rumours that there would be a bus coming here

[belg]

so he proves

what he is boss of

is just crap

boss of crap

kob kun crap

[klauskunkel]

"Look at Me!!! I am Joe Average, this is going to be exciting!! I can't wait to tell everybody of my bus adventure."

[Jean Pierre Jacquot]

Of course they will take the bus but it will be a bus confiscated for their purposes, lead by two police cars making the traffic jams even worse!

[lee b]

Could of done it on the way back from the airport

[rbrooks]

"Look at Me!!! I am Joe Average, this is going to be exciting!! I can't wait to tell everybody of my bus adventure."

I say he got bored sitting behind his computer and going to meetings all day acting important and accomplishing little so he tried the grass roots approach for a little PR exposure and fun.

[harrry]

If he had caught the bus everyone would have said it had been all aranged. Like when the NSW politicians caught sydney trains and had all the carriages cleared. Probably cleaned too.

This way he got a bit of sun and fresh? air and got his message across that service was not great without having to put up with a bus.

[Farangdam]

wondering how he going to smoothen bangkok public traffic...

[khunron13]

You would hope a public official in his position would take this experience to heart and try to improve things for his constituents. 555, yeah right! I'm sure his response was "damn, I'm glad I don't have to do that again!"