First of all, a little interview of a 70-year-old cab driver who only had 200 baht left was in tears thinking of how to pay his taxi rent and spend on meals. This news struck my heart hard, knowing that many are suffering due to the slow economy and then the lockdown. My friend mentioned it that very night when we talked on the phone with the similar feelings and our wishes to help.
The next morning, news about him was on, reporting that he's been given donations of over 8 million baht to his bank account while having lots of donation of food and supplies......Thai people's namjai is beyond any description ka.
The second story was about a mistake a food deliverer made and was crying because it cost him to pay from his very little money left. He then posted the story along with his bank account number.
Many stories are shared and heard these days and these two stories make me think that there needs to be some reliable and effective centralized platform(s) to manage such issues to make sure that the real needs are met appropriately.
My friends and I discussed this survival issue quite a bit and there are two approaches we have been doing ka. One is for us to serve as a reliable platform to raise funds within our circle(s). We checked the sources to make sure there's need before we call for donations from our friends. The other is to contact ปอเต็กตึ้ง through our personal contact, asking the foundation to identify families in most need. My friend has already helped 5 families.
With a mini centralized platform, help can be generated though in a smaller way ka.
I also think about the good ('positive' seems to have negative connotation saa laew!) side this COVID-19 ka. Several I've been thinking of are:
- Our nation's decentralized approach for provincial governors to manage their provinces (wish to see more non-political role of all the อบจ อบต as well!) This not only lessens the burdens of the government, but it heightens strengths of each locality to care more for community issues and call for real close cooperation for their own health and safety. In addition, I think this is the hands-on experience for all about the merit of decentralization which has been around and sort of driven for decades.
- On basic education, this decentralized approach should be observed and picked up for further learning and actions (sandbox is needed since it could be more easily done with least rules and regulations!) by the central authorities at the ministry of education ka. Decentralization principle has been promoted for so loooooong and it isn't a success....the central body could seem to take far too tight a grip while the provinces tend to wait to hear orders/instructions......far too top down oriented with high central authority!
- Higher education is however, totally different as it's already decentralized based on institutional autonomy and academic freedom, meaning national policy level offers financial and key technical support, standard and supervision, not centralized orders and rules on what the universities can well manage on their own. I've seen with happiness the strategies our public universities have been using for their online learning, for disadvantaged students, and for the overall health-watch and financial stability of their universities. MHESI could jointly brainstorm short-term strategies yet keep being future forward-oriented (while listening to the Secret Sauce at the moment....a suggestion from Mckinsey&Company to have a 'Plan-Ahead Team' on the selected scenario(s) we think could be most possible....which sounds so interesting to think further, collect key data and information, share practices and detect gaps to help bridge, etc.
Decentralization or centralization only to help us be more ready for the Next Normal ka!
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