Thai Minister Anupong: No plan to scrap administration at local levels

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DECENTRALISATION REPORT
Anupong: No plan to scrap administration at local levels
THE NATION

Minister says there has been 'no talk' of centralising power; NRC would need to consider any such proposals

BANGKOK: -- Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda dismissed a report yesterday that provincial and district administrations will be scrapped to make way for municipal governments in a move seen as centralising administrative power.

"There has been no talk on the matter, and I wasn't informed about this whatsoever," he said. Nor did he know the source of the report.

It was the National Reform Council (NRC)'s responsibility to consider such proposals - not his, he said.

Chuer Hunjinda, deputy chief of Nakhon Nayok's Kao-Prah district, said such a proposal was possible, but it was just a prediction or opinion, not a proposal from the NRC.

Jarus Suwanmala, a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University and NRC member, said he had no information on the topic, and suggested that the report was "leaked" to create social dissent.

'Wait for the Reform Council'

People should wait for the NRC to begin its work and let the experts contemplate reform proposals in regard to local administration, he said.

There were many issues that had arisen in regard to local administration over the past 15 years. Ideas to solve those problems were suggested in the report he conducted with his colleague that would be submitted to the NRC for consideration, he said.

The decentralisation of power should be studied and analysed in light of the current condition of Thai society and new issues such as quality of life and environmental sustainability, he said.

The administration must consider such issues and respond to them, he said.

Udom Thumkosit, a political scientist from Nida, said abolishing district administrations would be "almost impossible" because this would hand all power to provincial governors.PM Prayut Chan-o-cha also denied any substance to such speculation, he said.

The report has been circulating for a long time, but no one knows the source, nor has anyone stood up to make such a proposal, he said.

Amnuay Khangpha, a former Pheu Thai MP, disapproved of the proposal, saying centralisation had various undesirable consequences.

Local administrations shouldn't be abolished because those elected officials were the closest to the people and the most effective in solving their problems, while public servants did not care about people's problems as much, he said.

"In the past we've seen that bureaucrats failed to meet the needs of the people because they do not have close associations with them," he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Anupong-No-plan-to-scrap-administration-at-local-l-30244902.html


-- The Nation 2014-10-07