Bureaucratic purge is a coup

The dumping of capable civil servants is fraying the Thai social fabric and opening the road to greater corruption

Transfers of senior bureaucrats under a new government are nothing new in this country. But what is different under the Thaksin government is not only the unprecedented number of top- level transfers but also the quality of the officials who have been shunted out.

These are bureaucrats with long experience in public administration and a broad understanding and sensitivity to the big picture at the national level -- something which Cabinet members of this government sorely lack.

"CEO" Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has applied corporate management style to the governance of the country. But a country has a system of checks and balances ... overseeing that things are carried out properly and under legal guidelines.

Premier Thaksin has not given due attention to the exercise of moral authority. He may or may not realize that his government is setting the country on the road to greater corruption because he wants to run the country like a corporation, without understanding -- or refusing to understand -- some of the ingredients of public interest and honesty in the Thai social fabric.

-- The Nation, Bangkok