BANGKOK – It was revealed yesterday that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s entire week answering phones for the government-sponsored “6-days, 63 million ideas” national-reconciliation hotline was used talking to one elderly woman who thought he was the Department of Water.
The woman, 64-year old Nattima Wongcharnak of Petchaburi, phoned into the toll-free public number at about 9am Monday morning on July 5, and was randomly routed to the phone answered by Abhisit. According to reports, the woman wanted to complain that her June water bill was unusually high and that she didn’t want to pay it.
The PM, who took valuable time from his executive duties to answer the phone, spent the next 4 hours trying to explain that she had the wrong number, and that he was powerless to change or even investigate her utility bills. However, when Nattima asked who he was, and Abhisit admitted he was the head of the government, she continued her demands with renewed vigor.
“Apparently she felt that Abhisit was not only capable of reducing her water bill, but also a potential help with numerous other issues she had with government services,” said an anonymous hotline manager who tried to help Abhisit. The manager claimed he offered to take over for the PM but that Abhisit insisted on staying on the line until Nattima was satisfied. “He’s a very polite man,” the manager said.
Over the course of the next 106 hours, the woman, invigorated that she was speaking to someone in authority, complained to Abhisit about her electric bill, the unusually dry monsoon season, the poor reception of Channel 3 on her TV, the lack of cushions in third-class seating on State Railway trains, the fact that her grown children never call, and the pain in her lower back.
Abhisit attempted numerous times to ask if she had any ideas for national reconciliation, but Nattima insisted that none of that mattered so long as her kitchen was infested with red ants.
The phone call finally came to an end at noon on Friday, when Abhisit finally promised Nattima that he would send someone to her house to look at a leaking pipe that may have been responsible for her high water bill.
When asked whether he believed that spending a week with single citizen was an appropriate use of his time, especially while the nation remained divided, the Democratic party was under investigation for corruption, and the nation was reeling from a damaged international image, the PM was unequivocal that he regretted nothing.
“We must show that we are in touch with real people’s lives,” he said. “And right now I know more about Nattima’s life than anyone on this planet.”
