News Analysis
PHUKET: If all goes according to plan, this week could become a significant one in Phuket's history.
The Permanent Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Pracha Rasopdee, aims to open an office on Phuket and begin the process of weeding out fake land title holders.
And with all the documents signed on Tuesday, Phuket could well have the bus service it has needed for decades rolling by Friday.
Could it be that Phuket's two key industries, tourism and property, have finally gained the care and consideration they deserve?
Everyone knows that this kind of progress on Phuket has only come about by constant pressure for change. It does not come about because of the expat doomsayers.
These idle wastrels sit as they always have done, muttering into their keyboards and typing ''Phuket will never change. TIT.'' While there can be no guarantees, the doomsayers seem likely this week to be proved wrong.
Making the Phuket buses run efficiently from Phuket International Airport to Patong, Kata, Kamala and Karon will be a significant achievement for Phuketwan's Phuket Person of the Year, Phuket Land Transport Office Director Terayoot Prasertphol.
His innovative and bold approach should be heeded by other Phuket administrators. The key message remains blindingly simple: Do Your Job. Make Phuket a better place.
Even with rumblings of discontent or people who may be foolish enough to try to stop the buses, the principle is in place. Change has come.
The even bigger surprise for Phuket's property industry is well overdue. For decades, as everyone on Phuket knows, corrupt people on Phuket have done just about anything for money, especially when it comes to property.
Ten years ago, Pongtorn Hiranyaburana was shot dead by an assassin as he drove home from Phuket to Surat Thani. Khun Pungtorn was the Deputy Chief of the Phuket Provincial Land Titles Office.
He had been investigating the issuing of illegal land titles, and he knew too much. Cleaning up the Land Titles Office would be a fitting legacy for one honest man whose killers have never been traced.
The refreshing concept of developing a ''Phuket Model'' that can be use to simplify Thailand's complicated land ownership and usage system is a good one.
Phuket's doomsayers wouldn't have noticed, but change really is coming, and fast. Several years back, Phuketwan called on the then Prime Minister to make Phuket the province where corruption could be obliterated.
That clean ''Phuket Model'' could then be used as the template for change in all of Thailand. Just a year ago, then Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha revealed that anti-corruption authorities had been visiting Phuket for months in secret.
Authorities were considering a ''Phuket Model'' to end corruption on the island, he said. Phuketwan predicts the day will come when the clean Phuket Model begins to roll, just like the airport buses.
Phuket's doomsayers have never had it so good.
Well done , hope it works. a statue of pongtorn would be nice too.
Posted by fez on March 17, 2013 08:37