EDITORIAL
The parties are over, the holiday is a memory, and it's a new year. A lot of people use that occasion to make resolutions. New Year's resolutions are a way of getting organised, bringing in small changes for the better and promising to use time better to focus on what is important. Did anyone notice the plans the government put out to improve its performance? Neither did we.
On several of the key issues, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her ministers have clearly been winging it for months. This would be an excellent week for our political leaders to lay out an agenda _ clearly and with accountability.
It would be both a good idea and cathartic for the country if Ms Yingluck lets us know where the government stands on amending the constitution. Once again last weekend, the country was given an earful of confusing and contradictory messages. The premier said charter change is important. Then she said there was no hurry in going about it.
Ms Yingluck has also stated that her most important policy is national reconciliation. That sounded great as a political slogan, but that was almost two years ago. Since then we have had a bill in parliament, although it turns out again that there is no reason to hurry. There have been fits and starts over reconciliation, but all have died down. A policy statement on what the prime minister means by "national reconciliation" and what she intends to do this year to achieve it would be music to everyone's ears.
There is also the pesky matter of the rice purchases. On this, admittedly, the government has been straightforward about its actions. Next month, there will be another crop, another series of purchases _ and the country and taxpayers will be deeper in the hole. Even the great populist Thaksin Shinawatra said that the rice-purchase programme can only last a short while. So as we sink further into debt over this terribly divisive issue (reconciliation anyone?) it would serve the prime minister and her economic schemes to lay out her plans a little better. When she does, she should inform the nation, preferably soon.
Last year, it was somewhat understandable that the government lurched from one policy to another, responding to issues rather than planning for them. The government was relatively new, and like the country, was recovering from those massive, expensive floods.
But it is a new year, and past the time for a proper national agenda to be formed. Events in the South are out of hand, and there is no known, coherent plan even to protect teachers, let alone deal with this bloody, escalating terrorism and warfare. The management of tourism has been sorely lacking. The country has suffered serious setbacks in justice and public relations _ and a lost tourist reputation will never be recovered.
Ms Yingluck and many of her cabinet colleagues come from business backgrounds. They all know the value _ indeed, the necessity _ of having goals, plans and a strategic agenda. Successful leaders in government, as in business, advance the advantages, surmount the disasters and weaknesses and move ahead. The start of a new year is an excellent time for political leaders to explain to the nation what their resolutions are, and what they will do to keep them.
Share this article to friends
0
0
- Republishing permission
- Print this
Bangkok Post online classifieds
Try buying selling goods and properties 24/7 in our classifieds which has high purchasing power local expatriate audience from within Thailand and around the world.
Source: http://www.news.thethailandlinks.com/2013/01/02/things-to-do-for-new-year/
0 comments:
Post a Comment