If you want to air a grievance effectively, make up a large protest banner and a petition letter, and head on over to the Phuket Reporters’ Club when the provincial governor is visiting to help celebrate the club’s 20th anniversary.
Which is just what an informal group of local people who make it their business to preserve local arts did today.
Led by Sutha Prateep Na Thalang, the group presented a petition to Governor Tri Augkaradacha urging him to help reverse a recent decision by the Fine Arts Department (FAD) of the Ministry of Culture to transfer Ajjima Nookong, Director of the Thalang Museum, to Chumphon, in a straight swap with her opposite number there.
Ms Ajjima had been running the museum for six years when the transfer order came through last month, and the exchange has already been made. But the local custodians of the arts want her back.
“She’s an outstanding person, She’s a good government official, working very hard and closely with local people. She has done a great deal to develop the museum,” said Mr Sutha.
The Governor said that he knew Ms Ajjima, and agreed with the artists’ assessment. He would lobby the FAD and the Democrat Party to have the decision reversed, he said.
The reason given by the FAD for the move was that it would “increase the efficiency of the work in Thalang”. But the transfer was the only one in the entire country, giving weight to Mr Sutha’s belief that it had nothing to do with efficiency, but was the result of internal skullduggery at the museum.
Neither Ms Ajjima nor her successor could be reached today for comment.