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Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been held up to ridicule over her inexperience and her inept management of the country - not to mention her poor language and communication ability.
But make no mistake, under her clumsy mismanagement and seemingly innocent drama over the past four months, Thais have been treated to a series of "shock and awe" events. It sounds like a Hollywood movie.
Shock and awe 1: The floods, built up since late July through nine major storms, have paralysed the whole country, killing more than 600 people, damaging more than 20,000 factories and plants, sending 1.5 million people into unemployment, creating damage to the tune of Bt1 trillion, inundating millions of rai of farmland and creating unprecedented hardship among the people.
The 2011 floods are less severe than the 1943 floods. The volume of water in this year's floods is about the same as that of the 1995 floods. The damages caused by the 2011 floods could have been minimised or managed better. But the government allowed the floods to get out of control through a series of mishaps and mistakes.
Shock and awe 2: The floods were allowed to shut down Don Muang Airport. This is unprecedented. No country in this world would allow one of its major airports to be inundated like this. All this time, we have been kept guessing about the safety of Suvarnabhumi Airport from the floods.
Shock and awe 3: The floods have decimated the manufacturing capacity of seven to eight industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces. Japanese investors were shocked and awed by the Fukushima tsunami. Now they are treated to the shock and awe of the Thai floods.
Shock and awe 4: The floods have created further social conflict among the people. Those who live within the flooded part of the dyke barriers, or "big bags", fight against the authorities and those who live outside them, because they want the water to flow out of their communities. They are opening up the water gates and removing the barriers. This community conflict has created ugly scenes that shock and awe all of us.
Shock and awe 5: Even before the floods became more threatening, the government announced the New Thailand Project, worth almost Bt1 trillion. The announcement of this big-time spending scheme shocked and awed fiscal conservatives and the like because the figure is equivalent to 10 per cent of Thailand's gross domestic product. The New Thailand Project will sow the seeds of a Greek tragedy for Thailand.
Shock and awe 6: At a time when millions of Thais are still suffering from the floods, the Cabinet held a secret meeting last week to deliberate on a royal decree to give ousted ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra a pardon. This was part of the shock-and-awe strategy to bring Thaksin back and allow him to regain official control over the country.
Shock and awe 7: The United States last week also launched a shock-and-awe game plan in the Asia-Pacific region by attempting to create a Nato-like alliance. It signed a military pact with Australia, expanded naval cooperation with the Philippines, sold a fleet of 24 F-16 fighters toIndonesia and looked forward to dealing with the Yingluck government over security arrangements. The Asia-Pacific region has so far enjoyed relative peace. But abrupt tension between the US and China has created an uncertain outlook in this region. The government's dealing with the US for its use of U-Tapao and Don Muang as part of the broad alliance to contain China has shocked and awed us.
Shock and awe 8: The former permanent secretary for transport was alleged to have Bt1 billion in cash stacked up in his house. This followed confessions by a gang of robbers, who acted like Robin Hood to tell the police of the massive amount of cash allegedly held by the rich bureaucrat. This surreal incident has turned into the biggest shock-and-awe crime of corruption in recent memory.
Shock and awe 9: A 61-year-old man was given a 20-year jail sentence for sending four text messages on his mobile phone, which the court considered as being defamatory to Her Majesty and the monarchy. The court sentenced Amphon Tangnoppakul, via video conferencing due to flooding, after it refused to accept his claim that he did not know how to use the text-message function on his phone. This case should have been quickly dismissed but the severe sentence has shocked and awed us ahead of the His Majesty the King's birthday next month.
Shock and awe 10: A shock-and-awe plot could lead us to witness the rewriting of the Constitution by the so-called Nitirachadorn Group to create a "New Thailand" by early next year. Thaksin can only come back under a new Constitution. That would be a real shock-and-awe event awaiting us.
Yingluck has managed to shock and awe the public on several occasions during her four months in office. Let's see how many shocks and how much awe is in store until the end of her term.
Antal indlæg: 1773 Tilmeldt: 11.09.09 Status: Offline
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra eller taksin r to personer som thailand kan undvære
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