Bangkok Post

In case you missed it, here's what Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi had to say shortly before the Constitution Court delivered its ruling on the government’s two executive financial decrees on Wednesday:

Science and Technology Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi (Photo by Chanat Katanyu)

"If the Constitution Court rules that the two executive decrees are unconstitutional, it will definitely impact on the government’s water management plan because the government wants the money for investment in this matter.

"If the government does not have the money for this investment and if there is another flood, the blame will be on the Constitution Court and the Democrat Party which will have to take the full responsibility.

"(They) cannot make any excuses because what the government has been doing is the right process, because issuing an executive decree is within the power of the executive branch."

I am simply at a loss for words to comment on Mr Plodprasop's tirade. Readers can judge it for themselves.

Anyhow, the opposition Democrats and the Constitution Court will now at least be spared Mr Plodprasop’s further wrath. The court ruled that the two executive decrees are constitutional, especially the one which will allow the government to seek 350 billion baht in loans to implement all sorts of flood prevention projects.

With the court’s greenlight, the government can carry on with its water management plan without any worry at all that its work will be interrupted. The government, or to be more specific the Pheu Thai Party, has also taken other steps to ensure that it will have a greater say in the management of water resources. The abrupt transfer of the Royal Irrigation Department director-general Chalit Damrongsak to another job, and his instant replacement, is seen as one of those steps -- to wrest power away from Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Theera Wongsamut of the Chartthaipattana Party.

From now on the government, or Pheu Thai, will be on its own in dealing with future flooding. It must make sure there will not be another flood crisis like last year, because it can no longer blame the charter court or the Democrats, as Mr Plodprasop so clearly pointed out.

Nor can it attempt to place blame on the amataya clique the way it did last year through a conspiracy theory, accusing the elite bureaucracy of trying to subvert the government by intentionally storing too much water in the Bhumibol and Sirikit dam reservoirs and releasing the excess within a short period, thus causing the big flood.