Locals sidelined during PM's visit to flood-prone areas
Most local people I spoke to this week during Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's fiveday floodprevention and relief trip, which ended yesterday, said their participation in drawing up the flood plans was virtually nil, and that they in fact knew very l
Most said they were unsure about whether last year’s devastating floods would revisit their homes and provinces.
“Not sure,” said 57-year-old Sunisa Maneekit from Ayutthaya province, which was badly flooded last year.
What about participation? “None,” was her answer.
Her friend added that only the wellconnected or those with status have access to people like the provincial governor. I was not too surprised by this comment, having watched provincial City Hall clerks spend over an hour fussing and tweaking the props for Yingluck’s first and only proper press conference of the trip, ensuring that it looked nice while the men’s toilet for ordinary citizens on the ground floor was shamefully dirty and rundown.
Up and down the rivers in nine other provinces the answers were strikingly similar.
“Nobody asked us anything,” replied Somjit Chantanchart, a coowner of a local automobilerepair shop, Charoen Sri UThong, in the Rangsit area of Pathum Thani. Her neighbourhood, overlooking Chulalongkorn Watergate, was under a metre plus of water for over a month from November 17 onward last year. “We need to help ourselves.”
When I asked Yingluck about the apparent lack of participation and information among local residents regarding the various plans and projects by the government, the premier said nothing about participation but promised that the media and the public would be informed of all plans three months from now.
“We will conclude in three months and will inform both the media and the people,” Yingluck said.
Another reporter asked when the amount of compensation to be paid to those who own land in areas to be designated watercatchment areas would be announced. Yingluck said the government first needed to talk with these people to create “understanding”.
It’s not just the majority of ordinary citizens who are not being properly consulted as the government rushes to introduce more plans and budgets in the hope of preventing another disaster. Even people like Sombat Premprabha, a general manager at Minebea, said factories in Ayutthaya that are outside the major industrial estates are vulnerable and not properly cared for by the government.
Given the situation, it’s not surprising that, when asked whether they think the government’s efforts will be adequate and effective, the answers from many ordinary folk in those provinces depended on the person’s attitude towards the prime minister and her older brother, ousted and fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
