Published on January 20, 2006
The prime minister’s road show in Roi Et is the very definition of ‘surreal’
My colleagues and I, who are employed to help Thai students improve their English language proficiency, have much to thank PM Thaksin for his contribution to the teaching/learning of English in Thailand through his creation of and starring role in the current “Backstage Show: Prime Minister” reality TV programme.
The show has helped our Thai students to understand a little better the different meanings of “real”, “unreal”, and “surreal”, the last-mentioned being the most difficult concept to explain to our students. After a lively debate on the nature of PM Thaksin’s reality TV show, the students understand that the show is “real” in the sense that the phenomenon exists in Roi Et, which is part of the physical world and not just in someone’s imagination. However, it may also be defined as “unreal” because the highly publicised event is extremely unusual in a way that does not seem to be part of the normal world in which we live. Some students are of the view that the TV show should be described as “surreal”, rather than “unreal” because it is so strange that you cannot believe it is real. We owe PM Thaksin a great debt of gratitude for making available to us gratis the valuable audio-visual learning aid to help our students increase their lexical knowledge. In the process of learning they have also come to understand more deeply PM Thaksin’s practice of political surrealism as a means of shoring up his declining popularity. Teacher of English Bangkok --------------------------- Surakiart sabotaged himself in bid for top UN position Re: “Critic of Surakiart’s bid for UN position has been making ludicrous allegations”. Letters, January 16. Likhit Dhiravegin was hitting at the wrong target when he accused me of fabricating Surakiart’s attempt to enlist Taiwan’s support in his quest for the United Nations secretary-general position, since the story of this scandalous lobbying was revealed to the Thai public by “Bangkokian” of this independent newspaper some 2 years ago (“BANGKOKIAN: Surakiart’s secret connections”, News, April 10, 2004). And when the Thai Foreign Ministry routinely denied it, The Nation stood by its story. No one should be blamed for “causing diplomatic misunderstanding with China” except for Surakiart himself. China knows this and the damage has been done, while the Taiwanese are laughing their heads off. As an MP, I am surprised that Likhit failed to properly understand “accountability”. Why should Surakiart be accountable to the global public, when he has not been elected as UN secretary-general, nor will he ever be. Surakiart right now is accountable to the Thai public because he is wastefully spending millions of baht of Thai taxpayers’ money for his surrealistic campaign, including several million baht for David Kennedy, Surakiart’s former professor and now adviser. Under these circumstances don’t we Thais have the right to know about his mostly secret activities and expenses? In addition, as Surakiart is the official candidate of the Thai government, we also have the right to know and question his thoughts on various issues pertaining to his election. We Thais deserve to be represented by a first class candidate and not by a clumsy politician. Those who have followed the secretary-general’s race will agree that Surakiart has been getting away far too long with incredible assertions which were possible only because he always managed to have one-on-one interviews. It is thus time for him to face the music with those who can ask him pertinent questions. Finally Likhit asked the question “who is Khun Asda?”. If I may return the favour and ask “who is Khun Likhit?”. Is he an academic or a politician? He could not possibly be an academic because he did not check his facts before putting them in writing. He could not be a politician because he does not understand what accountability means. However, he modestly claimed to be a “decent” fellow. From working with him in the House Foreign Affairs Committee for a year, I have to disagree with this self-praise and self-admiration. So who is Khun Likhit, or what is he? I would say he is simply one of Surakiart's Johnny-come-lately pencil pushers, who, despite his rank and title, needs to upgrade his knowledge of politics and Surakiart's politics in particular. Asda Jayanama Bangkok --------------------------- PM’s policies sink Kingdom’s poor further into poverty By rushing into FTA negotiations and agreements with giants like China, Australia and the US, the Thaksin government has allowed a flood of foreign subsidised farm produce and farm technology into Thailand, badly hurting the Thai villagers who depend exclusively on traditional farming. In other words, our poor farmers got poorer partly because of Thaksin’s own doing. Now he wants to use our tax money to help the poor villagers in his quest to “eradicate” poverty, which seems to be a short-term solution. Also, this same government has been dragging its feet on educational system reform, improvement of labour skills and provision and protection of markets for our agricultural produce as these are long-term remedies and tasks mandated to be carried out by this administration as stated in the Constitution. Suffice to say that Thaksin Shinawatra’s qualifications as prime minister of Thailand leave a lot to be desired. Chavalit Van Chiang Mai --------------------------- Enough grandstanding, it’s time to empower rural people The underwhelming “Let’s Pretend” Backstage Circus is nothing but another grandstanding ploy. The promo smacks of faked sincerity, flashy freebies and overkill farce. Why do the majority of Bangkok taxi drivers hail from Roi Et? There are simply no jobs for them back home. Most Thais justifiably take pride in doing whatever is necessary to provide for the wants and needs of their loved ones and willingly take the initiative to accomplish their goals. The poor struggling to make an honest living crave considerate hope, not contrived hype. The starting point for eradicating poverty is empowering self-reliance through the creation of jobs, vocational training opportunities, grassroots cooperative ventures, financial management skills practices and progressive educational reform, emphasising the importance of IT “catch-up” in up-country schools that have been too long neglected. Long-term solutions require hand-in-hand participatory decision-making rather than manipulative stopgap freebie handouts. The slow but sure cooperative process to ensure true community development sustainability must be “with” not “for”. Most of the proud but poor would prefer to be responsible and accountable for making their own personal choices, thereby gaining self-respect and humble dignity through integral involvement in determining their own futures. Pax vobiscum Bangkok --------------------------- Airport blaze reflects lax attitudes to on-site safety Re: “Hundreds flee airport blaze”, News, January 19. This reflects a very tragic phenomenon taking place in many Thai construction work sites. Even if several safety instructions have been provided and an insurance assessment conducted, once the work begins, it is the style of many workers to think mai pen rai, that safety is a small matter. However one worker without a sense of responsibility concerning working conditions and lacking proper supervision can create huge damages. It is a problem that is really hard to crack in the Thai construction community. You can get them to follow the rules one day, but the next day they will neglect them again. VJ Bangkok --------------------------- US preys on weaker economies in its FTA blitz Re: “Free trade: Top FTA official throws in the towel”, News, January 18. Free-trade agreements (FTAs) are normally about reducing or eliminating barriers to trade such as excise duties, subsidies, quotas, and exclusionary technical specifications, but not so with the Bush administration. They see FTAs as tools for the implementation of their peculiar political and economic agenda highlighted by intellectual property rights (IPR) and the war on terror. In their new economics, wealth generation in the post-industrial world comes not from making widgets, an activity now mostly ceded to the Third World, but from information, services, and technology protected by IPR. In its global FTA blitz, America is picking on small and weak export-oriented economies who view the American consumer as the holy grail of economics and who see their wealth in terms of access to that market. The American trade negotiation follows a carrot-and-stick format. Access to the American consumer is the carrot. The stick is actually a shaft that is used to implement America’s war on terror and its version of the new world order. One needs only to study the US-Chile FTA to see what’s in store for Thailand. One of many fantastic features of that FTA is that the Chilean taxpayers have agreed to absorb all political risk for American firms doing business in Chile. These negotiations are conducted behind an opaque veil for good reason. Cha-am Jamal phetchaburi
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