Khon Kaen up in arms over ‘stupidity’ letter

Army says official may have been set up

KHON KAEN: Second Army Region commander Tharakorn Thamwinthorn believes Khon Kaen deputy governor Suchai Butsara may be the victim of an unlucky accident or a deliberate set-up as a letter reportedly signed by the official causes controversy ahead of a visit to the province by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

The letter, issued by City Hall on March 9, calls for provincial authorities to work on a mission to “end people’s stupidity” as they prepare for the PM’s upcoming cabinet meeting and tour of Khon Kaen.

It was signed by Mr Suchai, acting on behalf of the provincial governor. The letter was meant to be delivered to the president of the Khon Kaen Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO).

In the letter, City Hall assigned the PAO’s promotional office, provincial education officers and the public health office to work on a mission to “make people end their stupidity”.

Officials were also asked to meet at City Hall on March 13 to figure out how to do this.

The letter, which has been widely shared on social media, has sparked criticism from netizens as well as local people in Khon Kaen.

Lt Gen Tharakorn said yesterday he would contact Mr Suchai and ask him to explain the incident.

It remains unknown whether the wording used in the letter was a technical error, a deliberate attempt to smear the acting governor’s name, or a form of contempt, he said.

An inquiry is needed to find out who drafted, printed and reviewed the document, he said.

“I believe someone may have framed the deputy governor. The drafter, printer or reviewer should have known that using the word ngo (stupidity) was not appropriate, and the letter should not have been brought to the deputy governor for signing,” said Lt Gen Tharakorn.

He said the deputy governor, who is urgently preparing for Gen Prayut’s visit, may have failed to check the details of the letter before signing it.

Meanwhile, Mr Suchai has conceded the letter is legitimate and not a forgery. He said he issued a follow-up letter on March 12 that amended the wording used in the first version.

“I have to offer my apologies to the public as they may have been confused by this,” said Mr Suchai.

He said he received the letter from the PAO and signed it right away on March 9. He did not check it thoroughly as the letter merely called for a second meeting at the province’s City Hall and he was pressed for time.

“Afterwards, some people complained that the letter contained improper wording, so I quickly fixed it and issued a new letter to be sent out to various agencies,” said Mr Suchai.

He insisted the amendment had been made before the controversial letter was shared online.

Mr Suchai said the governor has ordered a panel to look into the incident.

He said he was informed the letter had been leaked from the PAO and that the PAO president has been asked to look into the matter.

Pornthip Khamchuen, chief of the Local Administration Promotion Office in Khon Kaen, admitted to writing the original letter yesterday and apologised for the inappropriate wording that was used.

The Interior Ministry has also apologised to the public.

How do you feel if the state says it wants to hear about your plight in order to offer you help, but still holds a view that you are too “stupid” to think for yourself and continues to strictly forbid you from expressing your grievances unless it approves of the platform where you have your say?

Insulting and hypocritical, you may say. Clouded by their bias and egos, I may add.

“How to end the people’s stupidity” was the disgraceful mission stated in a March 9 letter, issued by the Khon Kaen Local Administration Promotion Office and signed off by the province’s deputy governor.

It was circulated to other local government agencies ahead of their March 13 meeting to prepare for a planned visit by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.

One day prior to the meeting, Khon Kaen deputy governor Suchai Butsara circulated another letter, saying the name was inappropriate and so it was changed to “How to equip people with knowledge of the changing world”. The two letters were later leaked to the media over the weekend.

To be fair, not all officials hold such an insulting attitude. But many of them do, especially when they think of the “grassroots” people who elected the governments which were later ousted by the military in the 2006 and 2014 coups. These governments were popular in the provinces, but opposed by the majority of Bangkok and other urban voters.

Like their peers in other provinces throughout the country, these local government offices have been collecting information about the needs and plight of local people as part of the military government’s scheme called Thai Niyom Yangyuen or sustainable Thai-ism. They work with security officials with support from local scholars and volunteers.

I am in doubt whether the money and time spent on this information collection exercise will enlighten the government about the problems of the people.

How could these officials in Khon Kaen and elsewhere understand the real needs of locals as long as they think the people are stupid? Will the information they collect reflect the locals’ views?

The Khon Kaen deputy governor yesterday apologised for his carelessness saying he did not intend to insult residents of his home town.

But the fact that he signed off the letter even though it included the insulting wording, noticeably expressed in quotation marks, means he might approve of such views in his subconscious. And his subconscious may reflect the notion of average government officials (the military included).

While officials believe grassroots folks are not smart enough, the military regime still restricts people from speaking out. Public gatherings have either been forbidden or closely monitored.

More recently, a 62-year-old native of Maha Sarakham, Udon Kurajinda, was detained at a police station for 30 hours last week for joining four friends in a small protest in his hometown in late January, according to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group.

They merely stood in front of a bus terminal and shouted out loud about how much they were suffering under the economy.

His friends then were summoned to meet the police and fined 1,500 baht. Mr Udon was on the run for more than a month fearing the consequences, prior to turning himself in to the police. He was fined for the same amount and released.

Another case erupted on Friday. A lecturer of Silpakorn University posted on the campus’s Facebook page that her academic debate forum faced threats by police and soldiers. They planned a public discussion on the need for a general election, but her supervisor received a visit from a group of security officials a few days ahead of the event.

At the forum, plainclothes security officials walked around recording the session using their mobile phones, she said. At the end, a senior figure among them came to tell her that the event was “inappropriate” and violated the regime’s political ban, but no legal action has been taken against the organisers. It is clear that people are only allowed to voice their plight through platforms initiated and controlled by the state such as the Thai Niyom two-billion-baht information gathering mission.

With 99.5 billion baht allocated for the whole scheme, I wonder how the project will meet the people’s needs if the government keeps shutting the people’s mouths and closing their ears, while officials think they are smarter than the locals. It will end up being a Thai-ism mission orchestrated by the blind, leading the blind.