Thailand health minister calls foreigners dirty.... again!
This guy made a real mess for himself when he did this the first time and was encouraged / forced to step back his comments but just a few weeks later, he did the same thing again and this time on his personal Twitter profile.
Irritated that foreigners in Thailand are not wearing surgical masks he made disparaging remarks again this time saying exactly this.
In case you don't know, "farang" is a semi-terrible term for all white people that is used only in Thailand. This health minister, who was appointed, not elected, chooses to use it frequently. He has been identified as a xenophobe before in other comments he has made that have no basis in reality and apologized for it, although it seemed as though he was forced to apologize.
His name is Anutin Charnvirakul and for the most part people wouldn't even know who he is. Given the current state of things as far as the Coronavirus is concerned he gets a lot more attention than he normally would and this is twice now that he has put his foot in his mouth.
Something that people need to understand about the hierarchy in Thailand is that this guy is so far up on the totem pole that almost no one will call him out and the only thing that can make him change what he says is the few people that are above him in the current administration in the country.
Personally, I find it fine that he wants to blame foreigners for the current state of things in Thailand... most every other country is doing exactly the same thing. It just seems a bit silly that the person who is meant to be the highest medical authority in the Kingdom seems to think that if someone was wearing dirty clothes or not showering (which isn't even the case) would somehow contribute to the spreading of the Corvid virus.
In other countries, for comments like this, he can be stripped of his position and face charges. Obviously this is not the case in Thailand as this puppet is still in office. I just hope these people won't have room in any public position in the near future.
This is the 21st century and there must be respect towards people.
I'm wondering how long his behavior will be tolerated.
I'm trying to be open-minded about this and not just lash out at him. I am sure he is frustrated and it isn't unusual for governments to point the finger at other nationalities when they have internal problems but he certainly could be dramatically more professional about this.
There is suspicion, based on the timing of the Tweet and his schedule that he was "drunk-tweeting" and I don't know if that makes it better, probably not. He quickly deleted the Tweet but the internet doesn't forget!
I'm sure there could be repercussions (and there should be) when Thailand and everyone else starts begging tourists to please come back.
Drunk-tweeting? That is even worse. When you're a public figure, you don't get to do that. I may be harsh but this is very bad. He is representing the government after all.
in a funny twist that probably means he was reprimanded internally, all of his social media accounts personal and public disappeared from the internet yesterday :P
Lol, he doesn't deserve to have them as he can't behave 😁