Govt's response to crisis fails to meet the mark

Govt's response to crisis fails to meet the mark

After following news about how Thailand and countries in Europe have been tackling Covid-19 over the past few weeks, I notice a big difference.

In Bangkok, a number of soldiers in full protection gear took to the streets on Wednesday morning to clean and disinfect the streets parallel to a campaign to donate face masks to health staff. Meanwhile, in Europe, countries have been locked down as their leaders appeared on television to declare war against the invisible enemy.

I came across a survey conducted by the Suan Dusit Poll between March 10-14 on the five factors that have kept Thais strong amid this outbreak. A total of 1,164 respondents were asked to list the factors attributing to their strength during the outbreak and 55% of them answered family support. This was followed by self-support, almost 49%, income at 40%, and friends and religion at 22%. I find it interesting that there was no mention of state support or trust in the government. Is that because people know they can't really trust the government? Like most Thais, I always questioned the low number of infections in the country which was under 100 until late February as told by our government.

The case for low infections came to light when a friend of mine asked to do a Covid-19 test at a private hospital as she was worried about being infected. The hospital turned her down but recommended that she alert the people she had met in the past weeks to be on the lookout for symptoms. I understand the supply of test kits might not be enough and the hospital wanted to keep them for people at high risk of infection, but what does it really mean when one isn't allowed to get a test but is required to alert others who have come in contact with them? Could this result in the case count being low?

In the two months since the first case was reported, our government has been reluctant to impose strong measures fearing the impact on the economy and tourism. However, more than anything, we know they only feared losing face for not having the situation and country under control and for the questionable Thailand 4.0 initiative which has never really been practical enough to even allow a work-from-home option.

Instead of taking breaks which would have allowed the country to bounce back once the disease was under control, policymakers have decided to solve problems at the wrong end by dragging the situation out and making both the people and economy weary.

While it may appear policymakers in Europe took the outbreak lightly at first by giving no instructions to wear face masks, it's not that they didn't care but because these masks are meant for health personnel whose work puts them at high risk. And unlike Thailand, there was no case of mask hoarding. In fact, face masks are not a necessity because a number of private companies have switched to work-at-home mode without boasting of being a digitalised country.

So some Thais think European governments are inefficient? Well, they probably didn't realise the seriousness of the situation soon enough, but when they knew they had to take action, they just did what they had to do.

To curb the number of cases and death toll, strict measures were immediately taken and many countries were locked down within a day or two. Non-essential shops and services such as cafes and restaurants have been closed, leaving only supermarkets and pharmacies open. People can only leave their home for absolutely necessary reasons or probably face fines in some countries. Big events have been cancelled and a ban on a gathering of more than five people -- a practice we had in Thailand for a different reason -- was in place in many cities.

Italy, with soaring infections and death tolls, didn't seem to show any reluctance to lose 63.2 million tourists who generate more than US$40 billion (1.3 trillion baht) a year.

The Netherlands decided to shut down the whole country on Sunday after the government held an emergency meeting on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron declared "we are at war" against the invisible enemy after imposing a 15-day lockdown on Tuesday. The president didn't care how much Parisians love their coffee as all cafes were forced to shut down. A budget of 45 billion euros has been allocated to help small businesses and employees struggling with the Covid-19 outbreak. In Germany, Angela Merkel sincerely admitted the outbreak is the biggest challenge since World War II but reassured that the unity of the people will overcome this crisis.

Back to Thailand, the government decided to cancel the traditional Songkran holiday and other measures that many feel are not strong enough. Instead of telling people the truth and fixing the problem at the root cause, the government proposed a public prayer to expel the virus. Well, I can't say it's a bad idea, but I hope the virus is religious enough to fear bad karma for killing so many people worldwide.

Sirinya Wattanasukchai

Columnist

Sirinya Wattanasukchai is a columnist for the Bangkok Post.

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