EDITORIAL
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is about to lead her fourth cabinet to be sworn in. The latest reshuffle brings 12 new faces into the cabinet, while several ministers get new positions and 13 head out the door. This new attempt to match capable people to important posts comes as polls show a drop in the popularity of both Ms Yingluck and the performance of her government.
The new cabinet and its new ministers have several priorities. The government clearly faces public scepticism over several high-profile issues. One of the most vital is at the Commerce Ministry, where the inept Boonsong Teriyapirom has been replaced by Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan.
There are numerous issues that were bungled by Mr Boonsong. Mr Niwatthamrong must clear up political relations with farmers and financial affairs with the budget office, as well as restore Thailand's position as the world's top rice exporter. He must also assure the public, preferably with action, that he intends to clean up the massive corruption in the rice-purchase scheme.
Even more importantly, he must quash rumours and restore public confidence in the purity and safety of the rice we all buy and eat.
Another political-financial mess is the 350-billion-baht project to build a nationwide flood-control network. Just last week, the Central Administrative Court told the government what many citizens and the media already had advised. Public hearings and environmental studies are necessary before the projects get under way. Now the government has egg on its face, and its project is stalled.
These are weighty and important problems, to the nation and to the political future, success and reputation of the premier and her government. But arguably the most important, continuing problem is the insurgency in the deep South, which is the country's biggest security threat by a long shot. Ms Yingluck has not said why she took the post of defence minister, along with her deputy Yuthasak Sasiprapa. One must hope that moving Chalerm Yubamrung from deputy prime minister to the labour post will start a policy of depth and true continuity towards the deep South.
Successive promotions awarded to Mr Chalerm had been counter-productive. Rather than grabbing the responsibility required of a deputy prime minister, Mr Chalerm far more often appeared to use his post for personal aggrandisement and show-off appearances.
The Yingluck 3 cabinet, now moving off stage, had several misfits. None, however, was so obviously off-key as the dreadful decision to give Mr Chalerm responsibility for the conflict in the deep South. At the time, and again today as he leaves the position, one wonders what the prime minister was thinking when she announced that Mr Chalerm would head the long-winded Committee to Mobilise Policy and Strategy to Solve Problems in the Southern Border Provinces. The southern problem had no need of another committee, let alone one headed by a man with no expertise in the region, anti-insurgency operations or peace negotiations.
Mr Chalerm is a tough politician, a survivor and a good companion in a parliamentary debate. He was, however, out of his depth, and the wrong man for the job. He never was taken seriously by people in the South or even, as he now charges credibly if angrily, other government units working in that area. Ms Yingluck, combining her authority as prime minister with the gravitas of the defence minister's portfolio, can make a difference to events in the South.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/07/01/yingluck-must-help-south/
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