Minor International urges PM, governor to further restrict public movement, temporarily closing Bangkok hotels 

By The Nation

 

William E Heinecke Chairman Minor International Pcl.

 

Thai hotel chain owner Minor International pleaded with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Bangkok Governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang in a letter to curb public movement and activities amid the rising number of new Covid-19 infections, warning the country is at the "tipping point".

 

Here's the letter:

 

Dear Prime Minister, Dear Governor,

 

Subject: Support for further strong measures in response to Covid-19 crisis

 

The rapid spread of Covid-19 is becoming the greatest threat to the global economy that we have seen in our lifetime. We applaud the strong actions that have been taken by the Thai government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to date, including restrictions on inbound travel to Thailand and the March 21 announcement by the BMA ordering the closure of malls and other businesses across Bangkok. We have seen similar action in Chiang Mai and other provinces across Thailand. We further applaud the important steps that the government has announced to support wage-earners and companies throughout Thailand during this period.

 

We are now starting to see an exponential increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Thailand and it seems (based on trends in other countries) that we now are at a critical point to intervene and stop the situation from getting much worse. We are at the tipping point!

 

Despite this, there is still a large portion of our country that does not seem to understand the gravity of our situation and is not taking the threat seriously enough. Boxing matches continue, weddings are taking place, pubs are still serving customers and parties/social gatherings are still happening. Moreover, following the Bangkok closure announcement, we saw a large movement of people upcountry, posing further transmission risks to the country at large.

 

I am writing to express my full support for any further strong actions that the government may now consider to ensure that Thailand not only stems the spread of the Covid-19 virus but emerges with a healthy and intact society and economy. I strongly support clear messaging from the government urging all Thais to stay home and restrict their personal movements for the good of the country, as well as any actions that the government may take to enforce any such order. Other countries have banned all gatherings of more than 20 or 30 people, which has proven to be an effective step. I believe that under your strong leadership, the message to stay home, limit personal movement and avoid interaction with others will be taken to heart and will help us overcome this crisis.

 

We at Minor International believe that the risk to hotels guests, our staff and the public remains very high despite the steps already taken by the Thai government and the BMA. This is because the virus has proven to be so highly infectious and because there is simply not sufficient testing capability at present to effectively stop its spread. As such, as of today we are closing our hotels in Bangkok, with a view to extending this to other high-risk areas in Thailand. We are urging our staff to stay home and to limit any travel or indeed any out-of-home activities at all. While this will be painful in the short term, we believe that strong short-terms measures are the best way to address this and avoid large-scale job losses and disruption. We consider this to be first and foremost a health and medical crisis and we are being guided by what the health experts are recommending, despite the short-term cost to our business.

 

We believe that others in the private sector support and are taking a similar approach and are willing to absorb short-term economic pain in order to best emerge from this crisis in a position to get the economy back to full speed and preserve jobs and livelihoods. We are acting, in this regard, in the best interest of our more than 37,000 employees in Thailand and our other stakeholders.

 

Thank you again for your strong leadership in these challenging times.

 

Yours sincerely,

William E Heinecke

Chairman

Minor International Pcl.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30384682

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-03-23

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

Well said Bill.  You are showing the leadership that the people addressed by your letter are not.

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

We applaud the strong actions that have been taken by the Thai government

Yeah, right.

 

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thank you again for your strong leadership

 

Well, I guess this "Minor" a** kissing at least ensures the letter gets through.

Edited March 23, 20206 yr by Misterwhisper

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

We applaud the strong actions that have been taken by the Thai government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to date

What strong actions? In my country we call this sucking up... but it may be what you have to do to get government attention in the LONSMS (Land of not so many smiles!)

Edited March 23, 20206 yr by bangkokfrog

by the time mr. prayuth will finish reading this letter the virus will be long gone.

yes, this virus is real, yes, many people will die,

but shutting down the whole economy will kill many more people.

it is that simple.

scary to see what is going on now around the world, and how

tens of millions of people are losing their jobs, their lives, and

even their sanity, because some WHO health organizations decided

to change the whole world into sanitary experiment.

it just does not work this way.

you can't kill a virus by strangling the patient.

Asking for Common Sense in a country where the Blind are leading the Blind ever further into the Abyss is rather pointless.  All they will do is gloat over his 'praise' for their 'efforts' and then.........Zzzzzzz

Well, at least Mr Heinecke believes in science. He also wrote a letter to the Bangkok Post during the military takeover supporting it. So Bill is just talking to people he wanted and put in power. I think Thailand is at the tipping point with this anyways so expect harsh rules for travel outside your home at least in the BKK area soon. Other nations are doing it so Thailand will follow as it usually does. But if the Thai leaders look around them, they see Laos and Myanmar still in the dark age without information. Those two nations like North Korea are not releasing any data from what I've seen and that doesn't help Thailand. On the other hand, Thailand is happy to have local foreigners working at this time. You can see trucks of constructions workers packed in heading to building sites in some places. Does Thailand care about these people doing their hard work? Probably not as they never have care about the people at the bottom.

Not read yet. They are scrambling to find qualified Thai English language teachers to translate. Done by 2021!

Expect a war of blame to start from this countries numpties.....

Does that include the short time hotels?

5 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Does that include the short time hotels?

There is a narrow alley behind Soi 7/1.

And, it is free. ????

On 3/23/2020 at 5:04 AM, snoop1130 said:

Thank you again for your strong leadership in these challenging times.

 

And on a personal level you can bend me over a table any time great leader.

 

 

So, closing hotels is, you think, the way to go.  Well, there are other hotels for those that need a place to sleep.  The folks that you put out of work by closing just will have to find some other way to make money to feed their kids.  You object to them leaving town to live with their up-country families.  Where are they to go?  How are they to live?  YOU DON'T CARE, do you?

As I've mentioned before, yes, sounds sensible but it's all very well for these well-off types to just sweepingly say this and then drive home in their Mercedes to their mansion/bunker and just swan around in luxury with a shed load of food/supplies. What about the people you put out of a job? What will they do? What about people who rely on taking things to the market to sell everyday? What about all the SMEs that will collapse so very fast that families rely on? What about even the guy selling ice cream from a motorbike? It's just not as simple as some rich simpletons think.

1 hour ago, Somtamnication said:

Not read yet. They are scrambling to find qualified Thai English language teachers to translate. Done by 2021!

 

I am sure the original letter would have been written in Thai.

 

Bill is Thai isn't he?

 

46 minutes ago, Brigand said:

What about the people you put out of a job? What will they do? What about people who rely on taking things to the market to sell everyday? What about all the SMEs that will collapse so very fast that families rely on? What about even the guy selling ice cream from a motorbike?

What do you think would happen to those (and more) if this turns completely out of control, with millions getting infected, tens of thousands dying, hospitals breaking down, and people starting to panic? Do you really think those you mentioned would be selling ice cream and going to the market? Considering what we can see in other countries, I’m surprised that some still don’t seem to understand why such measures are necessary now, and...

 

46 minutes ago, Brigand said:

It's just not as simple as some rich simpletons think.

...so I’m wondering who the simpleton is. 

13 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Well said Bill.  You are showing the leadership that the people addressed by your letter are not.

His hotels are empty... closing them will save money. read through the BS

49 minutes ago, JungleBiker said:

 

Bill is Thai isn't he?

I thought he was an American ?

And when you are living on the street because you can,t find an open hotel, remember to dial 1112 for a pizza when you get hungry. Yeah, Bill, right on ????

15 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

We further applaud the important steps that the government has announced to support wage-earners and companies throughout Thailand during this period.

This is the first time I've heard this. 

What support is being offered to wage earners and businesses? 

 

What were the measures introduced to help wage earners? 
Drop them in the Mosh.it?

blabla, he could write to ask IMMIGRATION to see EXPATS as humans and not 3rd class ATM's

13 hours ago, Misterwhisper said:

Yeah, right.

 

 

Well, I guess this "Minor" a** kissing at least ensures the letter gets through.

I detect a bit of irony in his letter!

Another virtue signaling rich guy trying to shore up revenue by closing nearly empty hotels while acting like he's some sort of savior. 

Quote

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6815659/

 

https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year

 

 

3 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Expect a war of blame to start from this countries numpties.....

Yeah, isn't the army the owner of that stadium which is was the epicenter of the current spread of infections? Should've shut it down.

Panic stations. Utterly pathetic. What none of the numbers are telling us is how many of those allegedly dying of the corona virus would have died anyway from other causes. 

Heinecke at his very best, always blowing his own trumpet. As a naturalized Thai he believes in being super Thai. Wondering if he would carry on paying 37'000 staff for, say, six months without working in one of those many hotels. 

Stay home, yes, ease the pain of zero income by tapping those honey pots they all filled to the rim in the past but - done in style - you let others praise your efforts. 

Closing everything, by the leadership government, has been the proverbial shot into their own foot; hundreds of thousands are moving out of central Thailand to where they have basic shelter and some basic food - which is called home. You may expect explosive figures in the poorest corners of the country.

Purposely kept uneducated, they will never understand, what is wrong in not sharing food, drinks, glasses and why personal hygiene such as continuously washing hands. The Thai boomerang is on its way back and the only thing we read is Heinecke's horn of plenty letter ???? 

3 hours ago, welovesundaysatspace said:

 

What do you think would happen to those (and more) if this turns completely out of control, with millions getting infected, tens of thousands dying, hospitals breaking down, and people starting to panic? Do you really think those you mentioned would be selling ice cream and going to the market? Considering what we can see in other countries, I’m surprised that some still don’t seem to understand why such measures are necessary now, and...

 

...so I’m wondering who the simpleton is. 

It could be like the Tv show -the league of gentlemen,episode-Anarchay in Royston vasey,get legs akimbo theatre company over here now!