Foul

The problem with autocratic leaders is that, as much as they might be able to claim personal credit for a country’s successes, they are also expected to take personal blame for failures.

The Thai delegation to this year’s Southeast Asian Games has, so far, performed poorer than expected. But instead of taking personal blame for the lackluster performance of his country’s delegation, Prime Minister Thaksin assigns the blame to us.

Instead of calling for an investigation into the quality of officiating, we should simply cry foul.

This time, Thaksin’s ego appears to have overwhelmed his statesmanship – not to mention his sportsmanship.

Over the past few years, Thaksin has taken personal credit for his country’s dramatic rise from the rubble of the Asian financial contagion. His newfangled Thai Rak Thai (Thai Loves Thai) party has followed his every whimsical experiment without question. He has seeded his grassroots base of support by condoning the loans of farmers and distributing money to every town under the guise of a "One Town, One Product" program for small enterprises. He has invested billions of dollars in showcase infrastructure project including a subway system for Bangkok and a new state-of-the-art airport.

For all his near-term successes, Thaksin is probably entitled to a bit of megalomania. He sees himself architect of the region’s newest economic miracle, captain of a rising regional power.

But the Thai delegation’s shortfall in medal harvest threatens to prick the bubble of megalomania. How could a nation with such a robust economy have so mediocre a performance in a regional sports event?

Thaksin is presently under siege. He has cracked down on some of his challengers. The voices of dissent are rising. The economic miracle he tries to project has been showing some cracks.

In a word, he needs an embarrassing SEAGames performance like a hole in the head. It is urgent for him to assign blame.

And so he was last heard complaining of spotty officiating at the Games – suggesting host nation Philippines was systematically helping its athletes along in a medal run that surprised everybody, including ourselves. He has not named us specifically and made no particular mention of any event where questionable officiating determined the medal outcomes.

He is just assigning blame in the abstract, even as he threatens to take the matter up in the next summit of ASEAN leaders.

I suspect his utterance was intended only for domestic consumption, to help soothe the bruised Thai ego and spare himself assignment of the blame. But in this world of borderless media coverage, he could not speak to his domestic audience without everybody else listening in.

I suspect, too, that it is not the Philippines that is causing the Thai ego particular discomfort. It is the superior performance of the Vietnamese athletes that must be disconcerting to the Thais.

Much like the French look down on the Belgians, the Thais hold the Vietnamese with some amount of contempt. It is a common phenomenon among nationalities that sit too close to each other.

Vietnam surprised everybody by sending a powerhouse athletic delegation to showcase that nation’s progress. The Vietnamese are a distant but firm second-placer in the medal count. The Thais are coming in a poor third – challenged in that location by the Malaysians.

Thailand has thrice the per capita income of the Philippines and, perhaps, ten times that of Vietnam. Their medal performance does not give conform to their sense of their place in the hierarchy of Southeast Asian countries.

And so, in Thaksin’s mind, something must be amiss.

But that is only in Thaksin’s mind.

Reality does not sustain his suspicions and his propensity to assign blame. The Games are officiated by a high-grade international contingent of jurors and referees accredited by their national Olympic committees. The possibility their would intentionally skew the outcomes is nearly nil.

Besides, a senior Thai Olympic official had already apologized for the inappropriate comments of his prime minister and the unfounded speculation about faulty officiating. That should settle that.

We would do Thaksin a favor by immediately putting him in is place rather than allow his ego too much room to roam. We do not deserve the smear he puts on our national honor.

The expectation of a gracious host nation is not just to ensure fair officiating but also to put in its best effort in the competition. We did both rather credibly.

The officiating is handled by professionals nominated by the national Olympic committees. The Philippine delegation, with generous support from our private sector, is probably the best trained we ever fielded. The crop of talent we assembled for the Games is superior to all our previous efforts.

Besides, with the Games held here, we have fielded teams for nearly all the events. As a result, our athletes are reaping medals even in those events we did not traditionally dominate.

Our nation’s impressive performance in the Games gives all Filipinos a pleasant feeling. We need the good news, the reassurance that we have it in us to excel.

This is a good day for the Philippines. Thaksin has no right to spoil it.

The Thai prime minister has spoken out of line. We should not take that too placidly.