Paetongtarn denies ignoring southern flood victims
PM says she assigned some Cabinet members to take immediate action to help victims
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Sunday denied that she had ignored the plight of southern flood victims, saying she had assigned some Cabinet members to take immediate action to help the victims.
Speaking to reporters while making an inspection trip to the Mae Sai Customs checkpoint in Tambon Mae Sai of Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district, Paetongtarn said her government treated southern people the same as other regions’ residents.
She said she could not travel to the deep South to oversee flood mitigation herself because she had to attend mobile Cabinet meetings in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and those meetings and subsequent visits were planned ahead more than a month in advance.
Paetongtarn held her first mobile Cabinet meeting on Friday.
Critics alleged that Paetongtarn, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, ignored the floods in southern provinces because Pheu Thai’s political base was in the North and Northeast, not in the South.
After days of heavy rain, floods started to hit several southern provinces from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Phatthalung, Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat from late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
Paetongtarn said she decided not to visit the provinces now because she wanted local agencies to focus on operations to help flood victims, instead of being distracted to make preparations to welcome and take care of her.
She said she assigned Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul to lead efforts to help southern flood victims once the government learned of the flood disasters late on Tuesday.
She said she had been in contact with Phumtham and Anutinover the phone all the time, so it was untrue that had ignored the southern flood situation.
The prime minister said she would have to consider the appropriate time to visit the flooded-hit areas in the South.
Paetongtarn added that it was not true that she hated southerners as alleged by her critics.
“My husband is a southerner and his family lives in the South. If I ignored southerners, I would not have married a southerner,” Paetongtarn said.
