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Saturday, 05 May 2007 |
 Since stealing power, the current government has done everything they can to make sure Thailand’s international reputation will be damaged for a long time to come. The first thing the junta failed to realize is how it looks from the outside when a democratic elected government is overthrown by the military. While complaining that Thailand is held to a higher standard than Burma and similar countries, the backers of the coup made sure Thailand will be perceived being a bit closer to those shiny examples of accountability and democracy.
As if the business community was not already alerted to the political developments, the new government decided it had to stop the baht from appreciating against other currencies and ordered capital controls under which foreign investors were required to put an additional 30 percent of incoming funds in reserve for one year. The reserve funds would not earn interest and would be subject to a 10 percent tax if the money was withdrawn before one year. The result was a plunge in the stock market and more damage to the nation’s image and economy, with no baht depreciation. Responsible for the measures was the, now fired, Thai finance minister Pridiyathorn Devakula, who said after the market crashed "This was not a mistake, measures always have side effects. Once we knew the side effects, we quickly fixed it."
General Sonthi made Thailand look even more nationalistic and backward thinking by claiming that satellites sold to Themasek in the Shin Corp sale was a national resource and raising the fear of Singapore eavesdropping on Thailand's military communications system. Fortunately none of Sonthi’s vows to reclaim the satellites have materialized.
But the main price of damaging the country’s reputation goes to Thailand’s Information and Communications Technology Minister, Sitthichai Pookayaudom. First he gave unnecessary publicity to an offensive video clip on youtube by banning the entire site, and then admitted that he is not information savvy and makes minimal use of the internet, as it is not an “exciting” tool. At least I have to give him credit for making me laugh. His latest coup is a plan to sue Google, the owner of youtube in the United States, apparently for lese majeste. He was further quoted in the Bangkok Post: Though non-elected, the government was more democratic, he said.
I read recently that the government is now planning to hire a PR company in the US (like Thaksin did) in order to improve Thailand’s image. Well, even the best public relations in the world can’t help if the government continues to screw up like that. Maybe they should start by explaining that Thai people are not as stupid as their government, which is evident in the fact that they didn’t elect them.
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