Ending traffic woes just tip of the iceberg
Should Bangkok’s traffic gridlock serve as a test case to see who deserves our vote come the next election? Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha briefly touched on the capital’s infamous Gordian Knot last week when he was quoted in news reports as saying he wanted all traffic-related agencies to work together and produce tangible changes in three months.
It was a bold statement. With the number of cars and motorcycles eight times greater than what is considered suitable for the city’s road surface, and increasing at the rate of 700 new cars and 400 motorbikes a day, traffic jams are one problem that no politician, elected or otherwise, have ever solved.
If PM Gen Prayut could solve the gridlock, he would not have to waste time writing songs. He would become an instant icon, a real Bangkok hero.
Still, even PM Gen Prayut with his super administrative power seems to be no match for the capital’s formidable jams. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd later clarified that the PM did not vow that the city’s traffic will improve in three months. He only told concerned agencies to bring to him measures that they believe will ease the traffic within that time frame, according to news reports.
It’s completely understandable that the PM would seek to lower public expectations. The road to solving Bangkok’s traffic jams is littered with the casualties of powerful men before him who dared to try and failed. There was no glory at the end of the quest for those who went up against Bangkok’s traffic jams, only humiliation.
But do we have to succumb to this woe and accept the fact that we must waste three hours in traffic every time it rains during rush hour? Is the traffic problem created by us, by our policies and actions? If so, we should be able to put an end to it.
It’s true that Bangkok is not the entire country and even its problem of terrible traffic jams should not be singled out as a test bed for national policies.
But like other problems facing Thailand — rich-poor gaps, narcotics, land ownership or quality of education — Bangkok’s traffic gridlock is the sum of things that are structurally wrong when it comes to the country’s development. And like all those protracted, complex problems saddled with many legacy issues, hard decisions must be made. Or we will forever languish in this unsolvable, self-made mess and underperform as a country far into the future.
Before, the question of “when” has defined the next election as it was postponed many times. Now that the Election Commission has offered a more specific timeline of Feb 24 as the earliest and May 5 as the latest possible dates for the election, is it about time for us to move on to “what” this poll should be about?
After four years under military rule, the poll is much anticipated. Suan Dusit Poll revealed that more than 77% of eligible voters expressed an intention to vote in next year’s poll. When it comes to what these voters pay attention to before casting their votes, participants in the survey said it’s the candidates’ knowledge, abilities, the party’s policies and past performance respectively.
Politicking and the poaching of potential candidates to ensure that a party will have enough MPs to matter in the parliament, which essentially has been the only issue in the news, is evidently not what the voters care about. The Sam Mitr group of politicians may be on the move to ensure that PM Gen Prayut will have a chance to become PM again. But should people pay attention to these political gamers and others like them? Should we care about Pheu Thai politician Chalerm Yubamrung declaring that his son Wan will definitely become a minister once he retires from politics and that his party Pheu Thai will win by a landslide in the next election?
It’s time to say enough with politics as usual. After a long wait, and a chance to see what the military regime could do for us, we should seize the next election and make sure that it will make a difference. The next poll should be about substance and policies, about hard choices and a firm will to carry them through. Solving Bangkok’s traffic jams can be a start, since we as a country are likely to go nowhere as long as the capital’s primacy is not ended. And that is the root of many problems facing the country.
The road to solving Bangkok’s traffic jams is littered with the casualties of powerful men.