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PHUKET: With enough evidence of poor administration for everyone in Patong to splash through up to their thighs, the crunch may be coming for Patong's wayward city council at any moment.

The precedent was set in neighboring Phang Nga today when the chief of the all-powerful Interior Ministry, permanent secretary Wiboon Sanajpong, threw out the Phang Nga tessaban council and left Mayor Choochote Kosakul in charge.

On Phuket, the weight of popular opinion is also stacking up against the old Patong Council as they play similar political games to the ones that earned the Phang Nga council the sack.

Phuket Vice Governor Dr Somai Preechasin will join the crisis meeting of Patong Council tomorrow, which appears to indicate that Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud has not reached the end of his tether as quickly as his equivalent in Phang Nga province.

To the north, 12 members of the Phang Nga town council opposed the mayor's plan to spend 114 million baht repairing the vital highway between Phang Nga and Surat Thani and proposed instead spending just 21,000 baht.

When it came to repairs requiring 502,000 baht in Phang Nga Old Town, the 12 members kyboshed the quote and suggested approving a budget of 21,000 baht again.

Now they are all out of a job and it may be the turn of the Patong council to face the sack.

Since Mayor Chalermlak Kebsub defeated Pian Keesin in an election runoff earlier this year, she's had to battle an adversorial council stacked with Khun Pian's cohorts.

Large ''Patong City'' signs and statues memorialising dolphins may not be seen again for some time, but Mayor Chalermlak must get the budget approved somehow.

The Governor has been asked to intervene to allow Patong Council's budget to pass, despite opposition from the old hands.

More will be revealed tomorrow but the hills are alive with the sound of rushing water, the streets of Patong are being constantly flooded, and that means the days of the old guard are numbered.

Repairing the damage done by years of development without serious attention to the needs of water flow through the west coast's prime tourism hub could take more money than the locals can manage.

Giving the island a water management strategy that provides a year-round flow through all taps and requires new resorts and condos to create their own water sources, whether through lagoons or tanks, would be a suitably lasting legacy for the governor to aim for before he goes.


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