Like other legacies of his that have been expunged or amended to erase their connection with Thailand's most notorious businessman-turned-politician, Ban Ua Athorn, the name of a project covering, among other things, low-income housing estates, may be due for a change.

Some at the National Housing Authority, which is in charge of the estates, are thinking about it, given that the name is a reminder of corruption and all those good things. They are considering "Ban Phuea Phu Mi Raidai Noi" (Houses for Low-Income Earners). I should certainly prefer Ban Ua Athorn

if I lived there: who wants to

be branded a low-income

earner?

And indeed re-branding comes at a cost. Last week Electricity Generating announced that it had set aside a budget of Bt100 million to accommodate the change in its stock-exchange trading symbol from Egcomp to Egco. Many banks have also spent hugely on name changes, such as Thai Farmers' Bank, which is now known as Kasikornbank. United Overseas Bank (Thai) underwent a series of re-brandings following changes in its shareholding structure.

Hmm, one wonders how much the re-branding of Ban Ua Athorn would cost. Given the scale of value, let's say Bt10 million, which is very conservative given that when the scheme was launched a lot more money was apparently spent on promoting it.

As Ban Ua Athorn unit prices vary from slightly above Bt300,000 to nearly Bt1 million, the Bt10-million budget would build a number of cheap houses. Why, then, spend hard-earned money on nothing when it could be used in a more productive manner?

And anyway, is the re-branding really necessary?

Ua athorn in itself is not a bad word, meaning "empathy" or "compassion". It has overtones of society taking care of its underprivileged. Not every society can come up with an excellent scheme giving the underprivileged the chance of one day having their own homes. Isn't that a thing Thai society yearns for?

The move for the change suggests the authorities' distrust of the old Thai saying that good water drives away bad water.

What I wonder is why, if ua athorn has acquired a bad connotation from bad politicians, people in power now who consider themselves conscientious leaders cannot exercise their power to reinstate the true meaning of the word.

achara_d@nationgroup.com