In October 2011, as flood waters began to enter the Bangkok
Metropolitan Area, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand, also a prominent opposition
Democrat Party member, issued an urgent warning to the capital’s residents,
urging them to evacuate despite the government’s official position that Bangkok
was relatively safe, remarking “Listen to me and only me. I will tell you when it is safe.”, seemingly
in an attempt to discredit Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra who has only been
in power for less than a year and is looked upon as a political novice.
At the same time, the government has been criticised harshly
for mismanagement and lack of coordination in flood relief and prevention
measures. The Flood Relief Operations
Centre (FROC) delivered conflicting reports and flood maps, largely due to
inexperience. A poll conducted by the
ABAC Poll Research Centre based in Assumption University of Thailand via
telephone interview showed that about 87 per cent of the public do not trust
information from the FROC. According to
the same poll, more than seven out of ten people would rather get information
about the flood from relief workers actually on the ground or from the
evacuation centres themselves, as opposed to getting the information from the
government. Due to the chaos, municipal and
provincial relief centres have appeared, under the jurisdictions of different
ministries and officials, further tangling the chain of command.
Blatant politicking and bitter partisanship between the
central government and the opposition Democrat Party among other factions has
upset and hindered coordinated efforts at flood relief; opposing information
and conflicting advice from different departments has confused the public as to
the status of the floods and their own safety.
This has both been caused by and has fuelled an intensifying divide
between the urban elite and rural population, their interests apparently
supported by powerful politicians in the military together with the monarchy and
the Shinawatras respectively, along with their political parties and factions. The failure to protect and relieve the rural
population, even in important agricultural and industrial zones, contrasted
with the extensive efforts put into keeping the capital and the urban
population dry, has been seen as an example of how national policies cater
mainly to the urban elite. At the same
time, wary of yet another coup, Yingluck Shinawatra has refused to declare a
state of emergency and hand more control to the military, despite the boons of
army discipline and personnel mobility.
Instead, she has used a natural disaster law to place herself at the top
of the chain of command.
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| Utilising sandbags to redirect flow within Bangkok |
This apparent divide began to appear long before any natural
disaster plunged Thailand into chaos.
Earlier in the twenty-first century, then-Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra, brother of the current Prime Minister, put in place extensive
policies to alleviate rural poverty and improve healthcare and infrastructure, established
the rural population as a strong power base.
After his 2005 re-election victory, though, he was overthrown by the
Thai military due to controversy surrounding his policy toward press freedom
and alleged “policy corruption”, instituting policies to benefit companies run
by his family, effectively engaging in nepotism. While polls showed that in general the public
supported the coup, the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD),
a group opposed to the coup and the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), a
group formed to lead demonstrations against Thaksin was formed in response. Tensions exploded into conflict with the 2008
Thailand Political Crisis. The violent
suppression of protests led by both the UDD or “red shirts” and royalist PAD or
“yellow shirts” and conflict between the two may have already been a sign of
conflict between the rich and poor. The
UDD is composed mainly of the rural population and allegedly has Thaksin’s
support, while the PAD is composed mainly of the upper and middle class, gets its
support from various factions in the Army and urges the elites and the military
to play larger roles in politics. While
the most of the chaos died down by the 2011 elections, the recent floods have
re-ignited the conflict and given political opponents plenty of reasons to
criticise their rivals, to the point that Yingluck seems to be struggling to
keep subordinates under control at certain points.
The rivalry between the UDD and PAD and other factions
remains violent. Even as late as 2009,
an assassination attempt on the PAD leader occurred. As such, even though there may be times of
normalcy, times of stress, including the recent floods and other crises, turn
Thailand into a battleground of a civil cold war.
//Still referencing to sources and checking for factual errors. Any comments or corrections are greatly appreciated! Thanks.
