With our govt, it’s the hope that’ll kill you

According to Greek mythology, hope is the last thing that remains in Pandora’s box after sickness, death and other evils were released into the world. Scholars have argued about how to interpret this. Is hope our last saving grace even in the midst of misery and malevolence? Or is it the worst form of evil, a false expectation that could lead us into an even deeper state of wretchedness?

The government’s 5,000-baht cash assistance is looking a lot like that deceptive hope.

The cash handout was conceived as a part of the government’s stimulus programme to ease the suffering of informal workers affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Now, due to its unclear criteria of who is eligible for the fund, supposedly unclean database and ineffectual AI system, a programme that should extend hope to people in hardship is causing many of them heartbreak and desperation.

Millions were rejected or faced delays in receiving the money. The frustration, and despair, of trying to get help from the seemingly ill-conceived system has driven people to complaints and protests, even suicide.

Still, the Finance Ministry responsible for the scheme appears unperturbed.

There have been no apologies, nor vows to fix the system. There are attempts to modify it, adding buttons for people to resubmit their requests and for authorities to review wrongly rejected ones, which do not seem to help.

The 5,000-baht cash handout scheme was wrought with confusion from the start.

Launched in late March, when the Covid19 infections graph was just rising up into the hundred-per-day range, the aid was intended for three million or so informal workers who weren’t covered by the social security system, according to Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak.

Why three million? It’s never been made clear why the government used this figure when a 2018 survey by the National Statistical Office estimated that more than 21 million informal workers were not protected or covered by social security provisions.

The scheme, sentimentally entitled “Nobody will be left behind”, was expected to make the payments for three months from April to June, according to Mr Somkid.

But in early April, the cabinet decided to extend the cash-relief programme from three to six months.

The definition of those who would be eligible for the scheme seemed to have morphed from temporary workers, contract employees and the self-employed to include those put out of a job by the Covid-19 outbreak.

The number of people targeted for the scheme seemed to have grown from the initial three million to eight or nine million. Meanwhile, more than 20 million people had already registered by that time, almost three times more than budgeted.

In mid-April, as people protested for being wrongly rejected by the so-called AI which labelled some as farmers when they were not, Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha added to the fray saying the government had yet to finalise the period for the handout as the existing fund only covered one month.

He offered an apology for the confusion the next day, saying the government had enough in the pot to cover the relief but it just had to wait for the one-trillion-baht emergency loan decree.

Even now, controversies over the 5,000baht scheme rage on. Last week, a 59-year-old woman swallowed rat poison in front of the Finance Ministry apparently to protest against a delay in receiving the cash aid.

She was rushed to hospital and survived the suicide attempt. But several others did not. A dozen or so cases have been reported over the past month as being linked to desperation over hardship brought on by the pandemic.

What does the Finance Ministry have to say? Finance permanent secretary Prasong Poonthaneat last week told the media not to be fooled by “dramatic” protesters who either want more money than they have received or are part of a political game to stir up chaos.

According to him, the Finance Ministry should have handed out the cash to all 16 million qualified applicants by the middle of this month. Why has the number of eligible people gone up from nine to 16 million? There is no explanation.

Among the government’s many relief and stimulus schemes, the 5,000-baht cash handout is the most-hoped-for one. It’s tangible and direct, putting money into the pockets of people who are probably in the dark about how to pay for their next meal.

Unfortunately, the “present” has proven to be a bane as millions are destined to fail to receive the assistance and it remains unclear why. The scheme should be thoroughly reviewed and done over because of its fundamental flaws. But no one seems to want to take responsibility.

Worse, no one seems to care.