Prayut courts PR disaster as floods devastate Ubon
Does Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha have communications strategists? If so, they should be fired after a week of nonstop miscommunications. The level of conceit that PM Gen Prayut has displayed through his interactions with the public recently is unprecedented.
Past prime ministers may have “lost it” from time to time, bursting out raw emotions, anger or resentment. But no other prime ministers have been so distressingly inept with words as PM Gen Prayut has been over the past week.
The communication fiasco kicked off with the opening of the Samui Festival in Surat Thani on Sept 14. The event marked the first time the PM has been seen in public with former leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) Suthep Thaugsuban.
The PDRC was behind mass protests against the Yingluck Shinawatra government in 2013-2014, culminating in the coup on May 22, 2014, led by Gen Prayut.
The festival visit gave birth to a new meme as the PM was caught wearing a chef’s hat, upside down. What followed was not as cute. As photos of the PM showing his cooking skills and partaking in the festive atmosphere down south spread, criticism came down heavily.
What was he thinking going to chill out on the resort island when folks in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani were almost drowning in tears because of heavy floods?
While #SaveUbon trended up, discontent swelled at the government’s snail-paced speed of assistance. To dampen the government’s sodden image, actor Bin Banluerit posted a video clip telling people he was donating a million baht out of his own pocket as seed money to be distributed to flood victims. He asked those who wished to join his campaign to give 5,000 baht to each affected family to wire money to his bank account.
Was the government too busy shopping, the actor asked.
Bin received more than a hundred million baht in donations overnight. As questions became louder about why the PM went to the South when Ubon Ratchathani was underwater, all that PM Gen Prayut had to say was that he was fed up with these queries which he viewed as being designed to stir up divisiveness.
“Everywhere I go, people ask for money, more budget, salary raises. I feel extremely uncomfortable ... When it rains, when it floods, people blame it on the government.”
The PM’s grumbles in the face of floodrelated suffering did not go down well. Donations to actor Bin rose quickly to 200 then 300 million baht. As the private citizen became an accidental hero, the real leader of the country became grumpier.
At one point, the embattled PM, visibly riled from flood-related criticism, backlash against his “sinister and degree-faking minister” and parliamentary debate about his incomplete oath, simply asked whether people want him like this or like before, alluding apparently to his being an “elected” premier or in his former role as a coup maker.
What the prime minister said made people think he was more bent on venting his frustration than finding ways to help people in Ubon Ratchathani.
If the PM had a communications strategist, he or she would be able to tell him that in the face of a natural disaster what people want is empathy.
As they struggled to find refuge from the rising water and take care of their loved ones amid the misery, they would be comforted if they knew that their leader was with them, if not in person then in spirit.
People would like to be given the impression that PM Gen Prayut cares.
Sadly, that proved too much for the grumpy PM. After hosting a TV programme to drive donations for flood victims which was viewed as too little too late, the PM and his team made another mistake by bringing actor Bin back from his work in Ubon to appear on the show.
For this stint, the government did not just appear incompetent and slow but seemed to obstruct other people’s good work for its own triviality. What a publicity disaster.
The trail of humiliation did not stop there. When PM Gen Prayut finally went to visit the flooded province, the first words out of his mouth were an attack against politicians from a rival party. “Where are Pheu Thai MPs?” the PM asked. “If they don’t show up, don’t vote for them.”
That is childish and petty. He was supposed to be there for Ubon people yet he turned the occasion into one about himself, and his perennial discontent.
An anti-Yingluck celebrity once sent out a tweet that has since become a classic part of Thailand’s political tome. “I am not afraid of floods. What I am afraid of is a stupid leader as we could all be led to ruin.’’
Still ringing true?