THAI TALK : The Suvarnabhumi mess: who's in charge here?

The Nation, February 15, 2007
Suthichai Yoon

Everybody talks about it almost every day, but nobody seems able to tell the public what exactly is happening at Suvarnabhumi International Airport. It also seems to me that practically everybody has an opinion about the new airport and how controversial it is.

However, I have yet to find anyone who could tell me who's going to make a decision on whether we are going back to Don Muang or not. And, if it is decided that we go back, when will that happen and what's going to happen to Suvarnabhumi?

Of course, we've heard a heated case made for closing down Suvarnabhumi totally to do complete repairs, while the country's aviation activities are transferred back to Don Muang. But then you also get an earful about how that's a terrible idea, because if that's the case then the whole world will be totally confused about what's up in Thailand.

If you stand on the one side, you would agree with those who strongly suggest that only a complete shutdown of the new airport would make a serious overhaul feasible. But if you happen to be on the opposite side, you would immediately jump in protest at such a crazy idea.

You would certainly argue that the whole story about the cracks in Suvarnabhumi's runways and taxiways has been badly overblown by an apparent political bias. You would beg the other side, which has perfectly good intentions for the country mind you, to calm down and to fix only what needs fixing.

What's the cause behind all of this brouhaha? Simply put, the ongoing cacophony at the airport has stemmed from the fact that nobody is in charge of this issue. Too many cooks, no matter how hardworking, devoted and zealous, spoil the broth.

On any given day, you get to hear interviews, press conferences, background briefings, and off-the-record discussions on this very hot topic. These are given to the press by officials extremely keen on impressing the public how repugnant and damaging the previous government's undue haste in forcing the opening of the scandal-ridden airport was, simply because one man, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, wanted it that way.

On any given day, you get hear passionate revelations about the flaws at the new airport (yes, and don't you forget about the first major scandal concerning bomb-detecting CTX machines) from all sorts of qualified authorities. The number of government agencies involved is simply too many to even contemplate.

To mention just a few agencies whose officials have been making almost daily "disclosures" about the appalling state of the four-month-old Bt150-billion international airport: the Communications Ministry, the Airports of Thailand, anti-corruption agencies, the House select committee and its various subcommittees, the Royal Thai Air Force, Council of National Security, etc.

And, of course, there are also the "experts" assigned to find out exactly what's wrong. They aren't quite sure either. The latest reports have it that the country's top engineers and architects aren't closer to understanding the problem themselves, much less implementing a solution.

Were the cracks caused by poor engineering in draining water from the soft swamp soil a decade or so ago? If so, go get the culprits from the old days. Or is the problem related to the current surface-water management? If that's the case, it's the present airport operator who has to be held responsible.

More to the point: is it technical flaws or a case of high-level corruption? And those are only a few of the controversial points among the hundreds of questions demanding clear answers which, as things stand now, clearly aren't forthcoming.

The obvious question in the wake of this confusion is of course: who's in charge here?

It was with a sense of relief then that Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont finally came out with a statement of his own: he isn't in favour of closing down Suvarnabhumi completely for repairs because that could tarnish the country's reputation.

But that didn't solve the big question. It's not the premier's personal view that is being sought.

What the country urgently needs now is a "crisis manager" who can coordinate all concerned parties and get them to come up with relevant and verifiable conclusions that can be updated for the public in an orderly, authoritative manner on a regular basis. We need this "crisis manager" to clearly distinguish between the probe into corruption charges related to the construction and operation of the airport and the need to get the new airport back to business as soon and as effectively as possible.

Of course, it would be the height of self-deception for anyone to jump to the conclusion that the prime minister's own conclusions one way or the other - just like the one Thaksin made to prematurely declare the airport open willy-nilly - would put the problem behind us once and for all.

But if things are going to be straightened out over this messy state of affairs at Cobra's Swamp, it's high time the prime minister realises he should take over this critical management role. As he told his Cabinet members recently, putting your risk-averse self in "neutral gear" for fear of taking responsibility is no longer an option.