Return Of 111 Will Be A Test Of The PM's Management Skill: Thai Talk

[webfact]

THAI TALK

Return of 111 will be a test of the PM's management skill

Suthichai Yoon

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Last week, reporters asked Premier Yingluck Shinawatra whether a Cabinet reshuffle, her second since taking office, was forthcoming. She smiled and said: "The weather is really very hot, isn't it?"

Two days later, the same group of reporters, having heard specific names being mentioned as possible candidates for a new Cabinet lineup, asked her the same question. The premier sported another smile and said: "Let's do some work first."

That probably convinced the scribes that something was really afoot. And when Noppadol Pattana, former premier Thaksin's personal adviser, came out to warn politicians not to "start wearing jogging shoes" (a euphemism for lobbying) to seek new posts in the new Cabinet, he was more or less confirming that things weren't picking up pace.

And when he insisted that the premier and not her brother was calling the shots in whatever changes might be forthcoming to the Council of Ministers, Noppadol was in effect saying that there might be something to the speculation. The fact that he denied the story was tantamount to confirming it. At least, that's what the reporters were led to think.

We all have to sympathise with Premier Yingluck. She has tried very hard to be her own woman - to insist that she is really in charge. This is her Cabinet and she has every right to defend her choice of who should stay and who should be replaced.

For her, the "111" episode was something that happened long before she was born politically. The dozen or so leading politicians in the group (former executives of the Thai Rak Thai Party, which was dissolved by court order for election fraud) belonged to a period before she had any idea about this unexpected political role that was thrust upon her.

No doubt, Yingluck has shown respect for the 111 characters, but she obviously isn't quite sure what to make of them now that they are "reborn" and are poised to play some leading roles in the government. She has yet to get used to Pheu Thai MPs and ministers talking over her head to her elder brother directly. But sooner or later, she will come to the realisation that whatever the public perception about her real authority, she will eventually have to answer to the people.

In other words, she can't let the perception of "Team A" from the 111 replacing her "Team C" take hold. That would be politically disastrous for both teams.

Publicly, the core members of the 111 have said they will do nothing to rock the Yingluck government's boat. In fact, they have set a date when they will all meet the prime minister to display their loyalty and support, immediately after the May 30 dateline when their five-year ban expires.

But like the rest of the country, Premier Yingluck must have read reports in the press about how some of the leading 111 figures will replace the present Cabinet members as, among others, deputy prime minister, interior minister and others. One particular name has been cited in particular: Suwat Lippatapanlop, the unofficial head of the Chart Pattana Party, who, according to the unconfirmed reports published in some vernacular papers, may become the Pheu Thai Party's secretary-general, while his brother may take over the industry portfolio, known to be part of Suwat's "quota" all along.

One never knows how Premier Yingluck communicates with her roving brother. But even if she has held consultations with the former premier over the return of the 111 leaders to the Cabinet, it would be very unlikely that she would approve of the "leaks" about who's going to be in what position in the new lineup.

But if all these movements have gone on behind her back, the premier would certainly feel ill at ease. The issue, after all, isn't who has the right to choose the new ministers. The real question is, whatever the composition of the new "Yingluck 3" Cabinet, it's the premier herself who has to run the show and make sure that the old and the new, the loyal and the effective, the mavericks and the workhorses, can blend in as a "Yingluck team" and not an elite Cabinet within a Cabinet.

Now you know why Premier Yingluck was relieved that the scorching heat, if nothing else, at least helped her fend off the 111 question.

-- The Nation 2012-05-10

[Theboy]

reporters asked Premier Yingluck Shinawatra whether a Cabinet reshuffle, her second since taking office, was forthcoming. She smiled and said: "The weather is really very hot, isn't it?"

I could understand her strange reply had the reporter asked her the question in English but unfortunately it was a Thai reporter speaking in Thai !!

[OzMick]

reporters asked Premier Yingluck Shinawatra whether a Cabinet reshuffle, her second since taking office, was forthcoming. She smiled and said: "The weather is really very hot, isn't it?"

I could understand her strange reply had the reporter asked her the question in English but unfortunately it was a Thai reporter speaking in Thai !!

I believe she forgot her script again. The line was supposed to be "The weather is really very hot in Dubai, isn't it?"

[WhizBang]

Test Of The PM's Management Skill? What management skills? She has none and has demonstrated none since day one.

If anyone actually thinks she will be in charge of selecting the new cabinate, they are delusional. ALL decisions will be made in Dubai, and maybe even announced first in Dubai if the timing is wrong (timezones can be a bitch).

[Thai at Heart]

I think it is more likely to be a test of her event management skills.

How to get so many people into the cabinet meeting room, where to sit, who to sit next to, will there be enough chairs, will the table be big enough, cars, sandwiches, accommodation? So much to do, and so little time.....

Edited May 10, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[otherstuff1957]

She has yet to get used to Pheu Thai MPs and ministers talking over her head to her elder brother directly.

I rather suspect that she is already quite used to this.

[spidermike007]

Did someone mention management skills? What were they referring to? Certainly not Yingluck. She has shown a disastrous degree of incompetence. Even my die hard red shirt friends in Issan, now shake their heads, and roll their eyes when her name comes up. I ask them if they still support her, and they can barely muster an answer. When the core supporters start behaving like that, what is her future. I suspect she has killed any hope that Mr. Toxic has, for a future in thailand. Yingluck to the Thaksin brand, is a bit like little george was to the Bush brand. Not particularly favorable, though as much as I disliked him, he was competent and effective by comparison.

[David48]

Much more preferred when she wears her hair down

...

[David48]

Always at the cutting edge of political comment!

[sparebox2]

Test Of The PM's Management Skill? What management skills? She has none and has demonstrated none since day one.

If anyone actually thinks she will be in charge of selecting the new cabinate, they are delusional. ALL decisions will be made in Dubai, and maybe even announced first in Dubai if the timing is wrong (timezones can be a bitch).

Time for another meeting at the Four Seasons (no, not the duck restaurant in Soho).

[theblether]

Always at the cutting edge of political comment!

You know your comment has as much effect as every other comment on this thread. So if it makes any difference I agree, and if anyone gives you stick about it just duck out of the conversation and talk about her effervescent smile instead.

[h90]

reporters asked Premier Yingluck Shinawatra whether a Cabinet reshuffle, her second since taking office, was forthcoming. She smiled and said: "The weather is really very hot, isn't it?"

I could understand her strange reply had the reporter asked her the question in English but unfortunately it was a Thai reporter speaking in Thai !!

I think the question is even stranger. Why do they ask her? No one believes she has anything to say about it. Even the Red Shirts who visit Thaksin in Lao and Cambodia spoke about Prime Minister Thaksin there, not about that cute lady, what was her name?, that is on the picture above.

[volk666]

Sutthichai, just like Abhisit, is pushing the old hogwash about "parliamentary democracy" bla bla bla. Stuck in the paradigms of their youths they are completely out of tune with the contemporary Thai society.

No one expects Yingluck to manage anything, all she has to do is to look pretty and smile a lot, that's all her supporters need of her. She gives them the warm feeling of having a nice lady Prime Minister, all important decisions are left to men anyway, and after half a decade of electing one nephew or sister of someone important after another they don't really care who carries the official title as long as their elected politicians belong to well known clans.

Yingluck has already comfortably accommodated dozens of people far more important than her making all her decisions and writing all her speeches, what's another face or two in the Cabinet?

Old folks like Sutthichai, however, are completely flabbergasted by this setup, they want the PM to the leader making all the decisions and managing the country, accountable to the public etc etc. None of that matters and Sutthichai is wasting everybody's time by discussing effects of reshuffle on Yingluck. He should be informing people of power play between politicans who really matter and what effect they would have on government policies.

What's this rumor about new Finance Minister? Does it mean Kittirat is asked to make room? Can we expect policy disagreements between him and the newcomer?

Whatever Yingluck feels or says is not a news, unless it's another gaffe for everyone to have a good laugh about.

Edited May 10, 2012 by volk666