PM's plan to end gridlock is pie in sky

In three months, the angels will return to the clogged thoroughfares of Lost-Angel-ist. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, one who's never shy of making the impossible still impossible, has set his sights on, gasp, fixing Bangkok traffic, which is like untangling the Mobius strip or finding the end of Ariadne's thread. The soundbite-ready part of the PM's order is that he wants to see "tangible results in three months", which promptly sent related authorities scurrying in all directions to make it real.

Usually careless with his words, the PM this time has chosen them wisely: "tangible results" could mean anything, such as the completion of one tunnel or flyover, which would be sufficient to fulfil his claim. Twenty-one years ago, we heard something similar, only more forceful, more cocky: Thaksin Shinawatra, then a deputy PM in the government of Banharn Silpa-archa, thundered a promise that he would fix Bangkok traffic in six months. Like the current PM, he went around and made a show of knowing how to solve the Sphinx's great riddle, which he didn't. He worked with policemen, inspected roads, went up in a helicopter to look at the gridlock from above, and vowed that for a CEO who had solved many other problems, this one would be easy peasy.

And then?