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Published on February 8, 2008

When he took office for the first time yesterday, the deputy leader of the Puea Pandin Party spoke his mind to the press. He said he never expected to be promoted the ICT post. Initially, he had expected to assume the post of deputy interior minister. Man's experience and background are in the fields of law, international relations and political science.

But given there are many Isaan party members in Puea Pandin, the party awarded the quota for deputy interior minister to the Isaan faction.

But once he learned he would become ICT minister, Man, 67, quickly outfitted himself with ICT knowledge. He said he called up an old friend in the National Institute of Development Administration and asked him to give him an intensive ICT course.

"And now I think I already know something about ICT technologies," he said with pride.

While public sentiment is rather negative towards the new ministers, they do seem better than expected, with long lists of plans to put into action.

On this page, you will see the visions of the five ministers for finance, industry, commerce, transport and ICT.

Want to know what non-economic ministers plan to do?

On his first day, Culture Minister Anusorn Wongwan visited the National Museum to observe the restoration of the royal chariot. His mission was to see if the budget allocated for the preparation of the cremation of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana was sufficient or whether he needed to ask the Cabinet for additional funds.

Public Health Minister Chaiya Sasomsap is promoting hygienic measures. His key policy involves promoting the use of serving spoons for all dishes of food at Chinese-style dining tables.

By this policy, he is optimistic the spread of infectious diseases like diarrhoea and tuberculosis - which tend to be more vigorous amid global warming - will be under control.

When announcing this policy, he emphasised that data shows more than 1.3 million people were infected by such diseases last year, up 23 per cent from 2004.

"We need to be stricter in terms of hygiene," he said. "The entire world is plagued with the effects of global warming and drought, and under these conditions germs are growing well."

With such scientific support, critics who say he and the other ministers have no brains may need to rethink that idea.

busdsk@nationgroup.com

The Nation