APEC 2024 Peru. Biden shafted to a corner in the back row. Xi in front row next to Peru's President
6/27/2007
Temasek's purchase of telco is business
At least this is what Sonthi is saying. And his earlier grunt about protecting national assets, confiscating Temasek's assets, was to appease the ignorant Thai masses. "I don't think they did anything wrong. We don't have any bad feelings about that. We still have a good relationship with Singapore." He said.
This turnabout, from a hostile nationalistic bull charge to a sensible and friendly approach, would have toned down the temperature a bit. But how would it affect Thailand's reputation as a safe place for investors? Could they turn around again and start their chest thumping and war cry?
The policies and actions of national leaders will greatly affect the confidence investors have of the country. Like Malaysia, after all the restrospective and retroactive policies and decisions, every investor will be wary about investing there. The precedence has been set, that they can do anything, to change to laws, to the detriments of investors.
Thailand is heading towards this direction. The new posture is a retreat from plunging Thailand into a bottomless pit of no return. It will destroy Thailand's credibility and as a preferred country for investment if the Thai leaders did not adopt a rational approach to commercial issues.
Let's hope the turnaround is just the beginning to unwind the damage that it has done.
As the major deal involving SET and SGX looms they have no choice but to change the tune 180 degrees. Their domestic problems have gotten so bad that every little improvement is crucial to their political survival.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is not as if the junta got a choice.
ReplyDeleteThe difference between Thailand and Malaysia is that in Malaysia they never think that all tho flip-flops were wrong in any way. The only thing they believe is wrong is in the way outsiders interpret those flip-flops. That's what the Chinese call 'no medicine can cure sickness'.
ReplyDeleteyou are right. for thailand, there is still some hope.
ReplyDeletei agree with you guys, thai's problem will go away when the junta disappears or thrown out, but the malaysian's ones seem here to stay... in fact there are many things that can be observed to support this view...
ReplyDeletemalaysia's communal politics is too deeply entrenched. and when come to a roadblock, they are prepared to cut off from the world. they will ignore world opinion.
ReplyDeleteit is highly possible that malaysia could be another myanmar if things do not turn out favourably.
i know what you mean when they get more of those intellectual subnormal chatterboxes to run their place
ReplyDeleteif you look at the chinese leaders, u would notice the intellectual sharpness that makes our counterparts look like small boys, really. watch they way the chinese leaders carry themselves and you will wonder why we dun have these types of talents here. what we have are the talkers and thinkers that the universities pay $100,000 pa as professors. what we needed are doers! Doers that can up the economy from zero to trillion dollars in 10 years and be humble abt it. we certainly dun have that calibre, but talk like we have.
ReplyDeletewhen the people are concern abt taxi problems or runaway costs or property and rental increases, all these guys ever did was to say, dont worry!
And we are worried, and they shud be worried too come next elections! Becos these are legitimate bread and butter concerns which affected many of us who are not foreigners.
they are telling us to think out of the box.
ReplyDeleteso? how to solve road congestion problem? raise fees.
how to solve taxi problem? raise charges.
how to make hospital more efficient or make hospital beds available? raise fees.
how to keep talent? raise salary.
how to keep down demand for housing? raise the price.
how to cut down on water consumption? you guess it.
all the problems and solutions can be summarised in an out of the box magic formula. RAISE FEES! who does not know?
that's where the mee rebus man and thousands others like him took the cue... that this wont affect the super rich means it is trival?
ReplyDelete