Citylife:
You have now been governor of Chiang Mai for four months, what was your mission and do you think you are satisfied with your performance so far.
M.L. Panadda:
When I went to pay my farewell respects to the minister of interior, he asked me to make sure that I worked hard to help unify the people of Chiang Mai and bring harmony back into society. It was such a great honour to be given this posting. There is so much more for me to do. I am not satisfied with what I have done. If I said that I was then I would not only be deluding myself but I would be patting myself on the back and what does that achieve. I am not here to look after anyone’s interest, I am here to help work for the common interest, the country’s interest.
Citylife:
What were the initial challenges you faced?
M.L. Panadda:
There were rumours that I was here to subdue the mobs. That is not me, that is not who I am or what I believe in. I believe in unity, love, dialogue, working together as a whole, as one. I had to really work hard to get people to believe and trust in me, to not see me as a stranger, an outsider, a simple bureaucrat. I am here for one reason and that is to serve. I am always worrying and thinking, when I go to sleep, when I eat, driving to work, all the time. I have also listened. I have talked to many people, I don’t tell them what to do, I listen to them. So for the past four months I have visited numerous local administration officials and have learnt a lot. We have many meetings with various civil servants and while we talk about projects and agriculture and the economy and all the things that is our duty, I make sure to put time aside to discuss social issues. I am trying to encourage them to be creative, to come up with solutions. It has taken some time, but I believe that they now understand that I don’t have any other agenda. I was so alone and solitary at first, but now I am gaining support and understanding. I am not representing any ministry but the ministry of Chiang Mai.
Citylife:
Apart from abstract concepts, what goals have you set?
M.L. Panadda:
Governors don’t actually have much power anymore, we are not the elected Provincial Administrative Organisation and therefore our main job is to liaise, to create harmony and balance. We try to get various sectors to cooperate with each other. My job is to help encourage various organisations to work professionally and get back on track. I am also very concerned about corruption and we have implemented many checks and balances to encourage transparency. In fact, in three months the National Anti-Corruption Commission will be opening an office in Chiang Mai with investigative operators and guaranteed anonymity for those who report corruption crimes. I urge your readers and the citizen of Chiang Mai to make full use of this service.
Citylife:
What are you doing about corruption?
M.L. Panadda:
To be honest I am shocked that people still dare to be corrupt these days. You have to have a large group and power behind you to do this as many people I know are very afraid of the law now. The enforcement is getting tighter. The Thai psyche may breed nepotism, the krengjai trait may lead to corruption, but these are things we need to fix. We need to look at some foreign countries for inspiration. They give flowers and cards to each other, not big presents and monetary awards; not gifts as bribes. Why do we give gifts for services which should be provided for free? We need to rethink our identity as Thai people. Code of conduct in bureaucracy needs to be enforced. We need models to work by, guidelines, rules and of course even handed enforcement. Things are changing, and some things which we thought would never change, have already changed. For instance the annual Red Cross fair was always sponsored by alcohol companies and was fueled with drunken behaviour. This year it was alcohol free and the event was peaceful. Who would have thought!…though next year we must tackle the littering problem at the fair.
Citylife:
What other issues are you tackling?
M.L. Panadda:
Pollution is a huge concern of mine. Not only residents, but great numbers of tourists, check into hospital every year with respiratory problems. This is not acceptable. Unfortunately this is not a Chiang Mai problem only, but a regional one. All 25 amphur have now set up mobile units to raise awareness and other alternatives to burning. It is still problematic as burning is still the most efficient and easy method for farmers to clear brush. We have to offer alternative incentives to those who burn. We have experts from many fields working on this to give information to farmers about compost and other solutions. Saraphee and Chaiprakarn districts have both been model success stories in recent years showing vast reduction in burning, these are good practices for us to study and adopt in other areas. Apparently in Chiang Mai we have 22 days a year where the pollution is officially at unacceptably dangerous levels. Some officials tell me that other provinces have more days and that we should be satisfied, but I tell them that even one day is not acceptable, 22 days is 22 days too many. It is funny that when I read the statistics, I discovered that Phrae Province was the only province without dangerous levels of pollution. I was so impressed I wanted to see what they were doing right…but when I looked into it, I realised that it was because they didn’t have a machine to measure levels there!
Drinking and driving is also something we are working on. Stats are already getting lower for festival times, but the problem is day to day enforcement when we may not have enough resources. We are also trying to make Chiang Mai a helmet-enforced province. This is going to be a challenge, and some may call us naive, but because of limited resources we are going to start on main roads like Nimmanhaemin and Huay Kaew. The hope is that people won’t take their helmets off once they turn off these roads and perhaps even get into the habit of wearing them…over time we will expand the area of enforcement.
Citylife:
As Chiang Mai grows we are faced with the dichotomy of preservation versus development, what is your view on this?
M.L. Panadda:
Infrastructure is something that we have to seriously tackle. I don’t want to destroy anything, I don’t want to ruin Chiang Mai’s character, so we must preserve while we also do the groundwork for infrastructure and logistics which will sustain all of us into the future. I am working very closely with the central government on three bids from private companies in Germany, Japan and China to get a fast train up from Bangkok. Hopefully this will be finalised in about a year or so. The baggage claim area of the airport must be expanded. We are encouraging schools to use songtaew to transport children to school so fewer private cars are on the road during rush hour. And while we already have ajarn at Chiang Mai University teaching English to songtaew drivers, and are giving them help on cleanliness and maintenance of vehicles, we will need to make sure that each vehicle has someone responsible on board who parents can trust their children’s welfare with. There is a strategy group I work with weekly who deal with this and many other matters, there will be reports published in the future. The new conference centre being built along the Irrigation Canal Road will be finished early next year and will be the only one of its kind outside of Bangkok. The government will do heavy marketing internationally and we believe that this will bring a huge amount of business to Chiang Mai. Of course we have to make sure that traffic along the canal is not as bad as it was over the new year when we held the fireworks. Talk about fireworks, on March 12th Asahi beer from Japan will sponsor a huge fireworks musical extravaganza on Nawarat Bridge. Japanese residents are encouraged to wear kimonos and locals traditional clothes. It will be amazing. March is a low month with no festivals so this should be a big draw.
Citylife:
Unity and harmony are all well and good, but how do you think you can achieve it?
M.L. Panadda:
Firstly I am really involved now in a project called Chiang Mai Model where we are using Chiang Mai as a showcase study to work with school children for a zero dropout rate target. Not only that I have visited many schools and talked to many students and teachers to instill their pride in their Lanna culture, to work hard and to strive to learn, to be good people, to love and respect their elders and parents. I really do believe that it is important to instill these values in our children, when I die, they will be the ones taking over. Unfortunately these kids look at adults and see us as bad role models. Adults are corrupt, disunited, argumentative and society is divided like never before. We want Chiang Mai Model to allow the children to be the role models, to be the messenger and the conscience so that they can go home and perhaps even influence their parents. Children can be our ambassadors. They need to understand that like teeth and tongue which are often at odds with each other, they still have to work together as one.
Citylife:
You talk about code of conduct, what is your personal code?
M. L. Panadda:
At the end of the day our society must abide by the rule of law. However absurd or old fashioned the law, I believe in the law and the process of the law. The rule of law must be respected by all members of society. People don’t respect that enough here in Thailand. It is in our nature to think that anything goes; to do what we want when we want. But we can’t do that anymore. We have a parliamentary system and that is a framework which we must work within. I am a firm believer in procedural democracy.
I don’t believe in bringing problems and arguments onto the streets. Street debate is wrong and proven to be non-productive. It is hard when people have lost faith in the system, and I can empathise with that, but that is why I believe we need to build up that faith again, to work together to make the system work, to fix it where we can, but you can only make the system work if you respect it. I don’t blame people or communities for what is going on, I blame the officials, the organisations, the entities who have corrupted and taken advantage for so long. Those who have failed the people in the past. Here in Chiang Mai, we are OK now, divisiveness is healing and mob rule subsiding, we have less trouble, more dialogue. Democracy is not about making people divided, it is not about arguing, that is not democracy.
