Can PM Yingluck Win Over A Foreign Audience?

[Skywalker69]

Yingluck should not speak in front of international audiences. I love that this article addresses the obvious problem of the "face-saving"/reinforcement issue. Thais bring a whole new meaning to the term "lackey", but that's more of an aside. Yingluck's administration demonstrated clearly that she is NOT in control when the floods happened. There were so many mouths spewing incomprehensible nonsense that government incompetence became as much a concern for the public as actual flooding. But there have been other instances as well, such as when Yingluck tried to tell the public that she wasn't aware of her own Foreign Ministry's plans to provide her brother with a passport (even if that's a bold-faced lie, it just shows how stupid they think the public is/how stupid they think they can be and get away with it). The fact is that successive Thai governments don't stand up to international scrutiny at all. This isn't just Yingluck; it's the entire system and it's been this way for a decade, at least. Thailand has essentially disconnected from global economic and political progress and integration. Thais are scrambling to prepare for the 2015 ASEAN integration because the citizens of other ASEAN nations have shown themselves to be much more aggressive and willing to learn. Bold, adventurous, confident, well-educated ASEAN investors will likely trounce their Thai equivalents in the global race towards prosperity. Thai academics and officials already know this and there have been numerous articles touching on the issue. Ultimately, Thai cultural pride (they were not colonized, something they really, really want everyone to know) and complacency have left the country with a government that reflects it's populace: oblivious and unskilled. Most Thais, it's been demonstrated, cannot find their own country on a map.

The Thai government is chock-full of proxies, puppets and known criminals. The international community knows this. Take a look at Yingluck's meetings with foreign officials in Davos: she met with no one of importance. It's very easy to see why. No serious government official, with little time and huge challenges before him or her, would sit down with someone who so clearly doesn't have her cards in order. There is every reason to believe that her brother would have to rubber stamp anything she happened to agree upon. She is so clearly incapable of leading a country and government (and that's not completely her fault; Thai political culture isn't merely a topic for study, it's a disaster) that it wouldn't truly make sense to spend any time discussing anything with her. When I stand her up next to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Indonesian PM; great interview with Charlie Rose), Barack Obama, Wen Jintao, Angela Merkel, or even Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, I can immediately make sense of the fact that Yingluck attracts little attention from foreign diplomats at major international political gatherings. She isn't a PM/President like any of them are (they all are leaders and are truly looking out for the long-term health of their respective countries). She can barely manage things in her own language, let alone in English.

Do you think Merkel speaks anything but German ?

Or Kirchner anything but (Argentinean) Spanish ?

What's your point?

Angela Merkel is fluent in Russian.

Yingluck is fluent in Thai.

[pastitche]

Yingluck should not speak in front of international audiences. I love that this article addresses the obvious problem of the "face-saving"/reinforcement issue. Thais bring a whole new meaning to the term "lackey", but that's more of an aside. Yingluck's administration demonstrated clearly that she is NOT in control when the floods happened. There were so many mouths spewing incomprehensible nonsense that government incompetence became as much a concern for the public as actual flooding. But there have been other instances as well, such as when Yingluck tried to tell the public that she wasn't aware of her own Foreign Ministry's plans to provide her brother with a passport (even if that's a bold-faced lie, it just shows how stupid they think the public is/how stupid they think they can be and get away with it). The fact is that successive Thai governments don't stand up to international scrutiny at all. This isn't just Yingluck; it's the entire system and it's been this way for a decade, at least. Thailand has essentially disconnected from global economic and political progress and integration. Thais are scrambling to prepare for the 2015 ASEAN integration because the citizens of other ASEAN nations have shown themselves to be much more aggressive and willing to learn. Bold, adventurous, confident, well-educated ASEAN investors will likely trounce their Thai equivalents in the global race towards prosperity. Thai academics and officials already know this and there have been numerous articles touching on the issue. Ultimately, Thai cultural pride (they were not colonized, something they really, really want everyone to know) and complacency have left the country with a government that reflects it's populace: oblivious and unskilled. Most Thais, it's been demonstrated, cannot find their own country on a map.

The Thai government is chock-full of proxies, puppets and known criminals. The international community knows this. Take a look at Yingluck's meetings with foreign officials in Davos: she met with no one of importance. It's very easy to see why. No serious government official, with little time and huge challenges before him or her, would sit down with someone who so clearly doesn't have her cards in order. There is every reason to believe that her brother would have to rubber stamp anything she happened to agree upon. She is so clearly incapable of leading a country and government (and that's not completely her fault; Thai political culture isn't merely a topic for study, it's a disaster) that it wouldn't truly make sense to spend any time discussing anything with her. When I stand her up next to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (Indonesian PM; great interview with Charlie Rose), Barack Obama, Wen Jintao, Angela Merkel, or even Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, I can immediately make sense of the fact that Yingluck attracts little attention from foreign diplomats at major international political gatherings. She isn't a PM/President like any of them are (they all are leaders and are truly looking out for the long-term health of their respective countries). She can barely manage things in her own language, let alone in English.

Do you think Merkel speaks anything but German ?

Or Kirchner anything but (Argentinean) Spanish ?

What's your point?

Angela Merkel is fluent in Russian.

Hardly surprising since she was raised and educated in the DDR before the Wall came down

[metisdead]

Posts off topic in nature have been removed.

[oggie911]

she should vist the rep of ireland or get ex pm bertie ahern he could teach her a few tips in corruption and learn her how to to it in a nice way or ask him over for a vist,i would say he would like pattayahe wold learn her the and if she will be ok but he might get the off some bar girl

Edited March 24, 2012 by oggie911

[Buchholz]

Thai wage hike hit Japanese firms

A drastic hike in Thailand's minimum wage, implemented April 1 to correct income gaps, is causing difficulties for companies operating in the country.

As many Japanese companies, mainly automakers, have production bases in Thailand, they may be forced to reconsider their production lines. The minimum wage in Thailand is determined independently in each of the 77 provinces in the country. In the latest hike, the minimum wage in Bangkok went up about 40 per cent, from 215 baht per day to 300 baht.

But many companies are strongly opposed to the move. The Saha Pathanapibul group, a leading domestic household goods and food maker, announced it is considering relocating one of its instant noodle plants to Myanmar. Labour costs in Yangon are about one-sixth of those in Bangkok. Some Japanese companies in Thailand are very concerned over the change.

According to a survey by the Japan External Trade Organisation, the labor costs of Japanese manufacturers in Thailand will rise by an average of about 26 per cent due to the wage hike. To deal with the hike, about 9 per cent of the companies surveyed said they are considering relocating parts of their production lines to nearby countries.

Continues:

http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=29435

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan) / 09-04-2012