Asian Government Secrecy To Blame For Fast Spreading Bird Flu

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

(IPS) BANGKOK -- From being one of Asia's most sought-after meats, chickens have now been assigned a new role -- that of a political symbol that underscores the need for an open, transparent society.

The fast-spreading avian flu across the continent is, of course, the reason for this feathered symbol of significance.

Thailand's handling of the bird flu -- 29 of its 76 provinces reported cases of the avian flu by Friday -- has exposed a glaring weakness in the harsh style of government by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The bird flu crisis has already prompted Thaksin to venture into a role unimaginable just over a week before. He admitted last week at the start of a crisis meeting involving 10 Asian countries affected by the bird flu that "errors" and "mistakes" were made in the way Bangkok had handled this escalating crisis.

The earliest cases of bird flu, which has now undercut Thailand's dollar-earning exports in chickens, were reported as early as October. But up until the flu became much worse, the Thai government had not been acknowledging the existence of the bird flu.

Besides such a mea culpa, Thaksin's speech for Wednesday's international talks contained language that went against the image he has created of himself since his party won a thumping electoral victory in January 2001.

"Transparency and disclosure of information are essential to bring back confidence and trust to the general public," he said.

This sea change not lost on his critics, who see the Thai premier as an increasingly authoritarian leader who brooks no critics and who they say has instilled fear in the bureaucracy and other institutions of government and believes he has all the answers to the country's woes.

"His style of government, where debate and constructive criticism is stifled, has backfired on him this time. It is a big blow," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, told IPS. "This episode should teach the government that running Thailand is different from running a corporation."

Newspaper columnists too are making the case that Thaksin's political philosophy -- that chief administrators like him should pursue their role like chief executive officers (CEO) of companies do for maximum efficiency -- has come back to haunt him.

"Almost all of a sudden, his political fortune, built up strongly over the past three years, seems to be losing significant ground," Thanong Khanthong said in his weekly column in Friday's edition of 'The Nation' newspaper. "People are beginning to question the credibility of the government in handling the crisis." Until last Thursday, Thaksin stuck to his usual script, denouncing the chorus of criticism that the rising number of dead chickens was due to the dangerous bird flu virus.

In dismissing those who have accused the government of trying to "cover up" the truth of the plague, Thaksin delivered lines such as: "Please put fantasy and imagination to rest."

But by last weekend, the government changed its tune, admitting that it had a problem on its hands. By then, Thailand was also forced to calculate the economic setback due to a worldwide ban on its 1.2 billion U.S. dollar chicken-export industry and its loss of credibility due to the Thaksin administration's failure to show transparency.

The dead birds have in fact achieved what the platoon of human rights activists and champions of democracy here have failed to do -- force the government into the defensive and bring into relief how lack of openness can have disastrous consequences to society.

By Friday, over 10 million chickens had either been culled or died due to the avian flu in Thailand.

In addition, two boys had died due to the disease and another seven-year-old was in critical condition. Further, health authorities are conducting tests on six others who died since the first signs of bird flu were detected in November to assess if they had succumbed to this disease too.

"The initial public reaction after the truth became known is not good for the government," Sunai Phasuk, an analyst at the Bangkok-based regional human rights lobby Forum Asia, said in an interview. "People are feeling that the government does not live up to its promises of wanting to help the public but is only working for its economic interests."

Like the Thaksin administration, there are other governments across Asia, too, that are paying the price for keeping the lid on the spread of avian flu in their backyards.

Vietnam, where eleven people have died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu as of Feb. 6, is among them. Among the charges that Hanoi is countering is that the first strains of the flu were detected in July last year.

Yet by the week's end, there was hardly a sign that the ruling Communist Party would be moved to see the virtue in a transparent political culture, even as it continued to struggle to contain the spread of the deadly disease.

China's communist leaders, on the other hand, appear to have recognized the need for transparency in quelling this rampaging virus.

Beijing's initial reaction after cases of bird flu were detected in China -- to admit that the problem exists and to keep the public informed -- was a stark contrast to the lack of transparency at the height of the Severe Acute Respiratory syndrome (SARS) last year.

However, this early record of good political behavior has been tainted by a charge in the latest issue of Britain's 'New Scientist' journal that the bird flu outbreak originated in China a year ago.

Beijing has denied both this revelation and also the accusation that it had covered up the early signs of the disease, which has now spread to 10 Asian countries.

Indonesia has also fallen foul of the internationally recognized standards to deal with the bird flu.

"Indonesia's lack of transparency and attempts to cover up has more to do with the problems in the bureaucracy and the political chaos that exists there. It is not like Thailand, where a strong party governs," Withaya Sucharithanarugse, an Indonesian expert at Bangkok's Institute of Asian Studies, told IPS.

"But whatever the political differences, what we see here is that the significance of transparency has been underscored by this crisis," he added. "Too much government domination, like we have in Thailand, can lead to the damage we are witnessing."