Former Deputy Prime Minister says current Thai Government needs to stop threatening further lockdowns, bans and curfews and focus on helping people get back to work

Bangkok-

Former Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisang posted on his Facebook account and other social media yesterday that the Thai Government was spending too much time focused on threats versus solutions in his opinion during the current Covid-19 Coronavirus.

The post was widely shared and garnered much attention on Thai language media.

Mr. Chaisang, who was also a former Minister of Education in addition to being a Deputy Prime Minister during the government of now exiled former politician Thaksin Shinawatra, has long been an opponent of the current government.

His post stated that he believed that the government should not be reminding people every single day that if infections rise or people misbehave they will return to strict lockdown measures, longer curfews and more rules. Chaisang believes that this makes businesses and employees hesitant to return to work and does not allow them to have confidence in the situation regaining some sense of normality.

Chaisang said using the threat of closing businesses and impacting people’s livelihoods and source of income should never be used as punishment as he feels it is being done so currently. Instead, he suggested that the government work on solutions and strategies to help the people and sustain them during this difficult time period, ensuring that they have confidence not only in the government to control the virus but also to be able to allow them to return to their place of employment and work and take care of their loved ones.

Chaisang also stated that rather then focusing on “punishments” as he referred to them, of further bans and lockdowns, the government should focus on how to overcome the obstacles caused by the virus and allow the Thai people to return not only to their source of income but also their happiness, of which Thailand generally ranks as one of the happiest nations in the world, according to Chaisang’s statements.

Finally, Chaisang also said that he encourages the government to be even more transparent. Statements like “If the numbers of Covid-19 infected rise from the single digits nationwide we will have to have further restrictions” only serve to scare people, he claims, versus being clear about certain items such as if cases rise, but are from imported cases or one specific area, why should the entire nation be punished? He also questioned why areas that had no cases of the virus for a month, or ever, were being punished and under the same general restrictions as areas of the country with the largest number of infected and outbreaks.

All of the opinions Chaisang stated are his own, The Pattaya News notes.

Source: https://www.naewna.com/politic/491715

Photo: Wikipedia and more info on the speaker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturon_Chaisang