EDITORIAL
Passing the buck on power
- Published: 26 Feb 2013 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: News
There is a clear line of responsibility for the current panic and the coming crisis in the shortage of electricity. Accountability flows directly to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her cabinet. Even before it took office in 2011, the government knew it needed a national energy policy. Until now, ministers have danced around the issue to the point where they have now put the country at risk of a power shortage at the worst time.
The most recent decision came in June of 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. Coming to the climax of a hard election campaign, leaders of every political party took a stand: No nuclear power plants. It was not without detractors. Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, then a Pheu Thai Party spokesman, warned that if electricity shortages loomed, the public should not complain.
Politicians have that unique property of turning shame into the blame of others. The public not only has a right to complain, it has a legitimate case. By his own words, Mr Plodprasop knew that an energy shortage would occur. Blaming the public for his own and his government's shortcomings is both shocking and disappointing.
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