Bangkok governor election 2013
Everywhere I go, every TV channels I turned on, every newspaper I read, every
Thai websites I visited, all mentioned about the latest Bangkok governor
election 2013, which was ended on March 3rd. The latest result that
I heard from the television on the night of March 3rd revealed that Mr.
Sukhamband Parabitra,
from the Democrats won the election with more than 100,00 votes ahead of Pheu
Thai rival of the present Thailand Prime Minister Yinluk. Many of my thai
friends from Facebook seemed to be very happy with this result, while some others
were very shocked how this result turned out” !
A month before an
election, I noticed that Bangkok was very colorful with those posters of candidates,
their campaign promises’ signboard, and many flyers along the street. Each of
the candidate had been trying to convince people to vote for them by giving
many promises to solve the problems in Bangkok, such as flood control, traffic
jam, footpath, shelters, wastes and air pollutions, and so on. Some candidates
delivered very powerful and promising speeches on the television, and I think
it would be very difficult for bangkokians to decide who they really want to
choose. Some candidate promises are too fancy, and it might take a long time to
achieve the goal, for example, the ruling Pheu Thai party said that he will
bring back “happiness and smiles”, other candidates promise to turn Bangkok
into the Hollywood of the region, and so on so forth. How can we measure happiness
and smiles quantitatively? Why Bangkok has to be like Hollywood? These
questions have not yet been gotten the answers from me. Back to the time during 1995-2000
when I was studying in Thailand, I had heard similar promises from many Bangkok
governor candidates. Some promises have seen great improvement since then, for
instances, the air pollution, the public green spaces. Some promises such as
less flooding, fewer cars and greater safety seems to me a very difficult
target for the new governor to achieve within their 4-year period, unless they
inject large amount of money and have a clearer mission and goal.
This year Bangkok governor
election has seen many progresses in many ways. According to the newspaper,
nearly 64 percent of Bangkok’s 4.2 million eligible voters turned out on
Sunday, and making it the highest turnout for voters in the city’s history. This
tells something about how Bangkokians want to see some good changes happen in
their communities, and have a right person to be their municipal governor. The
successful of this election would be impossible, if not, for the cooperation of
all the media and organization concerns. The television channels broadcasted
the campaigns very often to encourage people to go for a vote on Sunday. What
surprised me the most was that all entertainment venues and restaurants in
Bangkok were prohibited to sell all types of alcohols a day before the election,
so that people will not get drunk, and can get up early to go and cast their
votes. Despite the fact that on Sunday afternoon, It was also raining heavily,
but somehow, the bangkokians could manage to make their ways for to the vote
booth across the city.
As a foreigner living in Bangkok, I would
like to congratulate the new governor of Bangkok for being re-elected, and wish
them to be successful in their missions. Although the team of this governor is coming
from the democrat party, but I wish they could work collaboratively with the
current government (Pheu Thai) to bring real benefits to the people. Four-year
mission for the municipal governor seems to be a long period, but very
challenging mission to accomplish many tasks they have promised. I will cheer
for you, and hope to see many new positive changes of Bangkok in a year to
come.
0 comments: