The government appears to have lost the support of one vocal and loyal supporter, former Thammasat University lecturer and marketing guru Seri Wongmontha.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Ajahn Seri admitted he had lost the energy to support the government because some ministers have hidden agendas for their own vested interests while some other ministers are either incompetent or have been put in the wrong jobs and refuse to give them up.
He accused the government of being lax in law enforcement and lacking moral courage when dealing with bad ministers who escape scot-free. Dr Seri accused the government of not being decisive enough in dealing with the returning illegal Thai workers from South Korea, allowing some of them to flout the self-quarantine rule, resulting in public panic.
He also made a point of highlighting the shortage of face masks, accusing the Internal Trade Department of sitting idly by and allowing hoarders to sell them online at exorbitant prices.
I couldn't agree more with his frustration and sarcastic summation of the performance of several cabinet ministers who were given their ministerial posts not because of their competency, wisdom, expertise or vision, but because of the parliamentary seats that they have delivered and their brotherly connections with the prime minister.
Let us focus on the Covid-19 issue and take a close look at how the government has been handling this emergency which, I believe, will test its capability to contain the disease and prevent it from becoming an epidemic.
Outstanding virologist Yong Poovorawan recently made a doomsday prophecy that, in the next 1-2 months, the Public Health Ministry will stop counting the number of new coronavirus infections because it does not matter any more as the disease will have spread out of control.
About two weeks ago, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases was 21 without a single death. The number remained stable for more than a week. But, in the past few days, the ministry has been updating the figures which are growing every day by 2-3 new cases, apparently, coinciding with the return of Thais from high-risk countries who did not show any flu-like symptoms upon arrival at airports and were then not subjected to self-quarantine. This is, indeed, not a good sign.
From the beginning, the government did a fairly good job in ignoring calls from the opposition and many other critics to send a plane to bring back Thais trapped in Wuhan as several other governments had done. The delay has proven, later on, to be the right decision as almost all the 138 returnees who were quarantined at Sattahip naval base were cleared of the virus and have now returned home. Most confirmed Covid-19 cases in the initial stages were elderly Chinese tourists from Wuhan. But now, new cases are mostly Thais who have returned from South Korea and a few other high-risk countries such as Iran and those who were in close contact with them.
The first mistake is that we attached more importance to the human rights of the returnees from South Korea than the issue of public safety as these returnees were not subjected to mandatory home quarantine after arrival screenings cleared them of infection although, in fact, the virus may still have been in its incubation period.
One interesting case was a Thai student from Iran who was cleared of the disease and returned home to Nakhon Si Thammarat by bor khor sor public bus. A few days later, he had a fever and tested positive for the virus. By that time, he had already been in close contact with about 60 friends and relatives, not counting the bus passengers.
All the 60 were later invited to the Tha Sala district hospital for quarantine for 14 days to observe their condition.
Now you can see the impact of just one man who was cleared by an arrival screening. Imagine the workload on medical personnel to take care of the infected person and 60 others. What if there are 10 or 100 like that student from Iran? Human rights issues regarding the Thai returnees should be set aside as a 14-day mandatory quarantine would stress public safety and not hurt them or deprive them of their freedom in a meaningful way.
Belated though it may be, mandatory quarantine for all returnees from high-risk countries, such as South Korea, at state-sanctioned facilities is the right decision.
The Foreign Ministry's proposal for South Korea to keep the illegal Thai workers who have expressed a wish to return home under observation for 14 days, which was reportedly accepted, will help ease the burden on Thai medical resources.
But I wonder how 200 Thai workers were allowed to fly back on Sunday and be bused to Sattahip naval baseto determine whether they should be quarantined at state facilities or at designated facilities in their home provinces. Have these workers been quarantined in South Korea as promised?
Another big question is the shortage of protective gear such as face masks, and gowns and gloves for medical personnel. This should be the responsibility of the Commerce Ministry and, so far, the ministry, particularly the Internal Trade Department, has failed all of us. As Ajahn Seri said: "You guys suck, hopeless."
It is unthinkable that they cannot do anything while face masks disappear from the market, but are openly offered for sale online.
I am not an alarmist using the virus as an excuse to discourage student protests, but if we are to avoid Dr Yong's doomsday forecast and or falling into the same situation as South Korea, Japan and other high-risk countries, we should cooperate with the Public Health Ministry and heed its warnings.
Veera Prateepchaikul is a former editor, Bangkok Post