Does The Thai Government Really Want A Better Thailand?

[Gone]

With the new PM and Government MP’s etc. it seems that they are trying to better Thailand problems with things such as: Infrastructure, war on drugs, corruption, Gambling, Bar closures, English language proficiency etc.

There was a recent submission to the PM from “Drew Noyes
Managing Director, PAPPA Co., Ltd. Law Office regarding ways the Government could help change things for foreigners etc. and would also help Thailand’s revenues. This was a very good start and well agreed upon by most foreigners here.

With Thailand having “Developing Country” status for many years now and no longer seen in the eye of the world as “Third world status”, it seems to me that one of the top priorities would be his mention of the inability for most Thai’s to speak English. His mention of ASEAN:

“In 2015, when the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) Community forms Thailand will NOT be in a strong position to compete with Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines without these experienced foreign teachers. The official language of ASEAN is and will be English.

This is very true but the degree to which Thai peoples proficiency of the English Language also brings more “Trouble in Tourist Thailand”. Television advertisements mention that Bangkok’s airport receives well over 20,000.000+ tourists per year entering Thailand for vacation etc. I do not know the actual facts of how many expats there are actually residing here on retirement visas, work visas, marriage visas etc. but would guess well over 2,000,000.

For most of us who reside here “permanently” so to speak, I am sure that well above 80% have had to deal with the Governments Authorities in one way or another; Visas, Marriage, Complaints, Buying/Selling Vehicles or Condominiums etc. This is not an easy task if you do not have a Thai speaking person with you for translation.

With places such as Pattaya which has the most English speaking people/workers, per capita or even Bangkok and Phuket, there is no real way of a foreigner do deal with Government officials in English. Pattaya’s main police station in Banglamung has literally NO English speaking police so people are left with having to find a Thai to accompany them to the station for whatever reason. The “Tourist Police” number 1155 rarely answers their calls and if/when they do, they are not the help that one would expect.

For some examples of how this can be “anti-efficient” for Thailand’s future goals I will say this:

I called the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok (IT Dept. (Internet Police)) to report a very serious scam on Craigslist where one of the ads was requiring that people pay 6,500 baht into an account in order to join an upcoming “Swingers party”. I thought I was doing my due diligence by reporting this however to find an English speaking member of the RTP was near impossible. When I did speak with someone who could speak English a little bit I was suddenly “disconnected” and called back. I spoke again and reported my findings and told him if he had an email that I could forward him the emails sent from the criminals and then they could catch them. I was given a “Hotmail” account NOT a .co.th email.

When I sent the email to him it came back from the mail server, as “this email account does not exist”.

On another occasion I called the “NACC” line to report Police Corruption and simply could not find ANY speaker of English.

I assume that most people who have tried to use their due diligence here in Thailand have run into the same problems. This means that over 22,000,000 foreigners in Thailand have no way of reporting important issues to the proper authorities and get so aggravated that they just forget it and carry on. Anyone who has had problems here in Thailand most likely go back to their countries with a negative story to tell to future tourists.

I believe that not only will Thailand suffer from its inefficiency to speak the international language of English in order to compete on an International scale business wise etc. but continues to turn a blind eye to the foreigners that are here or coming here to be able to let the proper authorities know what’s going on.

With the billions of baht being brought into Thailand each year via tourists and expats I think that they could set up some sort of website or hotline furnished with proper English speakers who are actual Government officials within certain departments who could actually make the proper reports to the proper departments.

This of course would have to be monitored and taken seriously along with follow ups to let us know that it is actually worth being a part of our existence here in Thailand and that someone is listening.

Even though I can speak Thai fairly well, I for one will NOT be trying to make any legitimate reports to ANY Thai Government Officials any more. That means that crime as WE see it will go un-reported.

If Thailand really wants to change its appearance to be a good place to live and Tourist/expat friendly then it not only needs to deal with its own people and problems but also needs to deal with its main revenue; TOURISM.

PS: If a crime is committed in most 1^st world countries even by tourists or immigrants it is dealt with on a very serious basis even if they need to find an interpreter.

[Lizard2010]

Very interesting observation, true of false, that is in the eyes of the beholder!

[Gone]

Very interesting observation, true of false, that is in the eyes of the beholder!

Actually it is all fact.