IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The Thaksin government has invested a lot of money to improve the efficiency of civil servants during the past five years. Modern technology was applied to create e-government and online bidding for state projects. However, human resources development is still lacking, as witnessed by the recent news about a woman in Nong Khai province who was issued an ID card that bears the wrong date of birth.

She contacted the officials concerned at Ban Muang District Office, but they refused to correct it. She was told to bring her birth certificate, which she does not have. The poor woman is in distress because she cannot open a bank account or do any legal transactions without a new ID card.

If the officials were really concerned about the plight of the poor woman, they could have found a way to help her. The official who issued the ID card was obviously at fault by keying in her birth date as ''30 February 1967.'' Everybody knows that February only has 28 or 29 days.

Civil servants must change their attitude towards the people whom they must serve. The availability of modern equipment and technology should not distance them from the people or make them heartless.

Why, for example, do the police have to tell banks and gold shops to install closed-circuit TVs so they can have more time to attend to other assignments? It is their duty to protect the lives and property of the public.

In the deep South, people get killed every day despite the deployment of a large number of soldiers and modern equipment. Surely, human capacity to deal with problems is very crucial even in this day and age when everyone is talking about an e-society.

Quelle: Bangkok Post, 09.11.2005