Locking down construction camps and sites to stop the spreading of the Delta variant makes sense because most of the clusters in Bangkok were found at these venues and most of the Delta cases were found at these places.
However, the government should make sure that the workers are taken care of or they will try to leave or as we saw on Sunday, their employers will just dump them on the side of the road because there are no repercussions.
Exodus of #Cambodian workers after #Thai government ordered one-month- lockdown of all worker camps in #Bangkok and neighboring provinces in an attempt to curb #COVID19 outbreak. Many were dumped on roadside by employers and left to find their way home without help. pic.twitter.com/IZKt7Pzhsw
— Sunai (@sunaibkk) June 27, 2021
The companies that have kept on their workers are cutting 50 per cent of their wages at some sites, condemning people already stuck in poverty to destitution.
Not bad enough
If forcing companies to shutter work camps and workers to concentration camp like conditions was not bad enough, the government decided this weekend to announce at 1 am that they were severely limiting restaurant hours and operations.
Imagine if you have a restaurant and you were stocking up on Saturday in preparation for next week and then all of a sudden and without warning, the government told you at night after your shopping is done that there will be no dining in for a month.
What would you do now?
Yes, they can do delivery and online sales but that, as restaurateurs know, is just a drop in the bucket.
Oh, to make matters worse, the government said that this was not a lockdown which meant that there would be no government compensation coming their way.
All this is pretty bad but to see the prime minister and his cronies laughing and joking around when they made the announcement on Friday ticked off the entire nation.
People are laughing and Prayut wants to be cute.
เขาหัวเราะกันได้ยังไงวะ ในขณะที่คนในประเทศนี้กำลังจะตายเพราะเศรษฐกิจ และโควิดที่มีวัคซีนไม่เพียงพอและไม่มีประสิทธิภาพ ควรสำรวมและรู้สึกผิดที่มีส่วนในการบริหารจัดการได้แย่ขนาดนี้ ยิ่งอยู่นานก็ยิ่งแย่ ออกไปสักทีเถอะ #ประยุทธ์ออกไป
— หุบปากซะนังตัวดี (@Peacefullllly) June 26, 2021
pic.twitter.com/7MGs4XDRD1
They should have spent less time laughing and lying and spend more time explaining to people about their decisions and how they will be compensating those who will be impacted by them.
This latest move by the government has doomed many small businesses, restauranteurs bracing for a rough month have now given up completely.
All the loans, all the money spent on the defective vaccine known as Sinovac, where is the money all going except to mega-corporations who wine and dine the cabinet behind the closed doors of gentleman clubs.
Maybe the government has had enough, maybe it is time more competent adults were left to run the show.