Good afternoon,

The main problem with avoiding making a decision and instead asking someone to make it for you is revealed for spineless PM Abhisit today. It is that dodgy bus deal again – in what is widely perceived to be a corrupt policy aimed at diverting money into the pockets of coalition party Bhumjaithai, ministers asked for a big new purchase or leasing of buses for Bangkok. Abhisit, as ever, tried to chicken out of making any decision that would reveal his lack of integrity and instead asked the NESDB to make a decision for him. The NESDB (National Economic and  Social Development Board) has spent a month creating a report which seems to avoid making any meaningful recommendations at all. Four suggestions are made: “One of the four suggestions was that the BMTA's improvement plan should not put a greater burden on the government and that it should improve the agency's performance.

The other suggestions are: using estimates of how many passengers would use the buses as a basis for considering how many new buses would be needed; the need to revamp routes to end redundancy; and devising measures to guarantee better and safer services.” Well, as I believe it was Hamlet’s pal whose name momentarily escapes me said, there needs no ghost come from Hell to tell us this.

But soft – what new refusal to make a decision is this? The Government Lottery Office is to have another month to decide whether or not to introduce the online lottery. That will end well.

What does it say about a supposedly democratically-elected government that it cannot host an international meeting without resorting to sinister, unaccountable military powers? Well, that’s what we have here. The army and the Secret Hand are invoking the Internal Security Act to cover a forthcoming meeting in Phuket. The powers the military can take for itself are provided for by the junta’s constitution, which was forced through under conditions of martial law. It is more appropriate for suppressing an armed Communist insurrection, which is when the Secret Hand first came to prominence and has had no incentive to change its opinions.   

Back tomorrow.

It’s not compulsory, of course.