'Thais may not want to be ruled like S'poreans'

No other government commands its people to smile like Singapore has done, but Thais will soon learn whether they can also prosper under a leader like Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister Anand Panyarachun said yesterday.

"Human relations were delicate and different in each society and culture," he said, adding that every country has its own weaknesses and strengths.

"There's a joke that asks, 'could Thailand prosper if we were ruled by Lee Kuan Yew'? The answer is 'no way', because Thais are different to Singaporeans," he said.

"But we will soon know what it is like to have a man like Lee Kuan Yew in charge. Will the country prosper under a Singapore-style government that orders its citizens to smile? There's no other country that could initiate something like 'National Smiling Week'," he said.

Anand did not directly mention Thaksin, who has often been criticised for being intolerant of critics.

"I'm not sure that Thais would like to be like Singapore, or be ruled by a man like Lee Kuan Yew."

But Anand told the seminar, called "Managing People: Anand's Style", that the former Singapore leader was a competent and honest leader, who was familiar with good management practices.

Anand played an instrumental role in drafting the Constitution, which is widely recognised as one of the best the country has had.

--The Nation 2003-10-29

Allmost on topic.

Speaking to my Thai friends , they are quite comfortable with the corruption in the police force.

After all its only people that things wrong that have to pay bribes.

Its quite budhist the way they look at it.

thai people have their own charm, they don't follow order to good, they do what they please, they will kich your-as if you try to rule them, they stay quiet but deadly

singapore should learn a thing or two from thailand, the first one is get a fuking manner, and tell them to please take a bath twice a day, dam-n they stink