Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha often blasts his spokesperson team for failing to maintain the distribution of information to his standard.

At his weekly press briefing last Tuesday, Prayut even lashed out at the team for “failing” to clearly explain the ongoing controversy of the Krabi coal-fired power plant.

Shortly after the blast, the team set up three chat rooms via Line.

PM Prayut is known as keen Line user, as he always communicates to his subordinates, reporters, and peers on the application.

Thailand was the world’s third largest market for Line users in 2016.

According to an informed source, it is Prayut’s desire to not only integrate information management among bureaucrat sectors, which are often seen as inactively responsive, but seize space from mass media.

Starting at 9.30am each day, the first room called “Issue Discussion Chat” will monitor media currents and decide which topics should be elaborated or countered, and by whom. Government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, also acting director-general of the Government Public Relations Department, has both of his working groups in this room.

Then at 10.30am, conclusions will be forwarded to another room, “Issue Assignment Chat”, which involves the heads and spokespeople from various governmental agencies. In the group, they will hear selected topics, the topics’ sources, the agencies responsible for handling them, and expected deadlines delivered by the spokesperson team. They must also decide who will proceed with the orders.

Once the explanation jobs are done, the last room, “Issue Report Chat”, will be where agencies report their actions via a form bearing the names of the responsible officers and agencies, as well as an explanation of the respective issues, dates of action, and channels where explanations are made. Additional evidence must be sent via email two days after actions are taken.

The three rooms will be staffed by 316 people. These people are required to set up profile pictures only. “I don’t know” is a taboo response to an issue.

Whether agencies can perform in an expected timeline, whether they can get to the point when explaining issues, and how many channels the explanations are reported in will all be the evaluation criteria for each head officer, who may be shifted to another responsibility for failing to reach satisfactory outcomes.

It is now or never for civil servants in the communication game.