Reading and understanding newspapers. Пыж А.М. - 44 стр.

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If Surakiart goes, so should all the rest
So, we are told, Finance Minister Surakiart could be the first cabinet
member to
face the axe. We are also told, but from other sources, that the
assumption could be too
hasty. Even if Prime Minister Banharn is willing to
replace Dr Surakiart, finding someone trusted by both Mr. Banharn and the
public will not be easy, especially since that someone will have to face the kind
of
antagonistic attention that Dr Surakiart has faced.
Whatever happens, whenever it happens, the torrent of criticism directed at
the former University law dean is unfair. Dr Surakiart has not really made many
mistakes. The
spotlight should be on other ministers who could do the country
far more damage. He can be criticised for being too weak in trying to
stamp out
inflation. Many economists have done so. But he is backed by the Bank of
Thailand and it is still too early to judge
conclusively who is right.
But he cannot be blamed for the
slump in the stock market. Any lack of
confidence has to be blamed on the entire government whose members came to
power with such a negative image that restoring confidence is bound to be an
uphill struggle. Instead of trying to do that, many ministers have pressed ahead
with controversial actions that might just impress their
constituents, but not the
nation as a whole.
The only mistake Dr Surakiart took with regard to the stock market was to
allow himself to be panicked into providing a rescue package. Some stock
speculators might be pleased; taxpayers in general should be worried about the
package's implied message that the government will always take the risk out of
gambling on stocks.
In all other respects, Dr Surakiart has been as good as we could expect
from any finance minister. Not so the rest of the Cabinet, and that is why the
media's focus on Dr Surakiart is not only unfair to him, but also to the country.
In economic policy, for example, just take a look at Commerce Minister. In
he
embraces the cause of free trade in the name of tackling inequalities, and he
pledges not to allow the bureaucracy to
hinder business.
In another he orders the precise opposite: he
throttles tapioca exports
through the unjustifiable practice of
allocating quotas, costing
b
illions in export
earnings, and
depriving the country’s poorest farmers of a large chunk of hard-
found income. No one picks up the issue because millions of farmers struggling
in poverty in remote areas cannot command the same media attention as one
stock investor who shot himself in the middle of Bangkok. The Commerce
Minister is not even
obliged to give a coherent explanation, and so he rambles

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