Somewhat belatedly — but as promised! — here are my notes from the remarks Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra made to journalists and others at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) dinner here in Bangkok on Fri., March 23.
This isn’t an exhaustive list of what she said — see the links to news reports below for that — but rather my observations from the evening that stand out, several days on.
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First, a note on language: Yingluck choose to give the speech in English. As others have observed, she is a conversational English speaker, but she is not as fluent as her older brother, the exiled, former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. And of course, her English is not nearly as smooth as her predecessor, the British-born, Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva.
This meant that Yingluck’s speech lacked, perhaps, some of the nuance and technical details that it might have contained had she had delivered it in Thai, with an interpreter there to provide her remarks in English. (There was, however, an interpreter near the stage who helped her make sense of some of the more complex questions from journalists.)
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I heard one member of the audience refer to Yingluck as being “coquettish.” I wouldn’t go that far, but she did seem to make every effort to be charming. She smiled frequently and appeared to be quite humble. And, before beginning her speech, she asked the audience to “please be kind to me, na kap ka,” simultaneously claspping her hands together in a wai and bowing. (Corrected March 28. Thanks to a commenter for pointing out the error.)
Later, when one journalist asked a somewhat complicated question about whether she and Thaksin were playing a “double game” in which they pitted various establishment factions against one another, she responded by saying she didn’t really understand the question. But, she added, grinning: “…I never play games.” This produced some laugher from the audience.
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Asked why, following last year’s floods and the upcoming minimum wage hike, multinational companies should continue to invest in Thailand, Yingluck said that investors will continue to recognize Thailand’s long-term business potential, as well as its location in the middle of Southeast Asia.
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I spoke with some people who noted that some of Yingluck’s answers seemed somewhat vague or lacking in specifics. But these same observers said they felt that most professional politicians are focused on evading hard-hitting questions and sticking to their talking points.
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In his first FCCT speech, former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was asked about his musical tastes. He noted that he liked hard rock bands like The Killers, Oasis, and Metallica, among others.
So, on a lighter note, when asked what kind of music is on her iPod, Yingluck declined to note specific artists. But she did say, with pride, that she has some 5,000 songs on her device. She prefers “easy listening” music, she said.
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Ultimately, my sense was that PM Yingluck’s performance was unlikely to sway most audience members’ opinions of her. Those who already disliked her were probably not won over by her grace or good humor.
Similarly, those who already like her were probably not put off by any of her perceived shortcomings.
Elsewhere, you can find stories recapping the speech in more detail from AFP, The Nation, and the Bangkok Post.
For the record, my previous FCCT PM speech round-ups are here (2011, Abhisit); here (2010, Abhisit); and here (2009, Abhisit).
(Image: The Nation.)
A quick heads up that just as I did last year and in 2010 and 2009, I’ll be posting some notes from the annual prime minister’s speech to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT).
PM Yingluck will address journalists and others at Bangkok’s InterContinental hotel this evening. More details on the event are on the FCCT site.
I may be posting one or two snippets on Twitter, but regardless I’ll aim to put together a longer blog post that I’ll put up later.
All that by way of saying: stay tuned.
The video is here.
UPDATE: There’s also a Bloomberg text story to go along with the interview. It says:
Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed as Thai premier in a 2006 coup, said his sister’s seven-month-old government will avoid the same fate due to her good ties with the army and expressed hope he’d return from exile this year.
“As long as there is no issue related to the monarchy, as long as there is no issue about internal security, the military will stay in the barracks,” Thaksin, whose sister Yingluck Shinawatra became prime minister in August, said in an interview yesterday in Seoul. “My sister works hard for the people, she respects the monarchy very much and she can work with the military without conflict.”
Yingluck’s push to rewrite the constitution risks sparking violence like in 2008 when a similar effort by Thaksin’s allies led to protests by his yellow-shirted opponents who shut down parts of Bangkok and seized its airports. Yingluck, a political novice before standing in July elections, is seeking to reassure foreign investors after floods last year swamped thousands of factories and caused the economy to shrink for the first time since 2009.
And now for something completely different…
Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as you may know, is visiting India.
While the trip has geopolitical implications — especially for India — a couple of stories in the Indian media on an altogether different topic have caught my eye.
India’s Mail Online has run two dispatches — so far — on Yingluck’s sartorial choices. They’re here and here.
The most recent story, from today, is headlined “Thailand’s Prime Minister scales down glam quotient.” It begins:
Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra continued with her demure dressing style on Wednesday, the second day of her visit to India.
Already having received a lot of attention for her fashion choices and immaculate hair and make-up abroad, especially on diplomatic tours like this one – her dressing style was recently discussed in the Indonesian Parliament, making her blush profusely – Shinawatra has decidedly been low-key on her fashion quotient on this visit.
We saw a dash of glamour during her meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh early in the day – Shinawatra was dressed in a knee-length black skirt teamed with a dull ivory gold doublebreasted jacket. But she was quick to get into a boring pantsuit for her trip to Agra later in the day.
(All emphasis mine.)
(Image: Reuters/Mail Online.)
File under: Yet another post about interesting Bangkok English language newspaper occurrences:
The front page of today’s Nation newspaper features this strange image of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
It’s unclear to me if it’s a photoshopped image or an illustration.
The image accompanies what seems to be this story, which begins:
The Cabinet yesterday approved increased monthly cost-of-living allowances for civil servants and state employees – a time-buying tactic designed to cushion pressure mounting over an election pledge to raise the starting salary of civil servants holding bachelor’s degrees to Bt15,000.
(Via @Saksith.)
(Image: @isAMare on Twitpic.)
TIME has a story on Yingluck, women in politics, Thaksin, and more:
She delivers the line with a breathy purr: “The microwave is my lover.” Thailand may be famous for its incendiary curries and the tireless women who prepare them, but Yingluck Shinawatra is used to quick results — and not just in the kitchen. Last month the 44-year-old business executive was sworn in as the politically fractious country’s first female Prime Minister. It was her first-ever political race.
TIME reports on Thaksin’s visit to Japan and Yingluck’s new government:
Is Thaksin Shinawatra a criminal or a VIP? The question must have vexed the Japanese officials who considered a request by the former Thai Prime Minister to start a six-day tour of their country this week. Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup, then sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for corruption. Previous attempts by the Dubai-based billionaire to visit Japan and other major nations have been stymied by a hostile Thai government. Stripped of his Thai passport, he travels the world as a citizen of Montenegro.
But Thailand’s government has changed — Thaksin’s younger sister Yingluck, 44, recently became the nation’s first female Prime Minister — and so has the status of its best-known fugitive. He arrived in Tokyo on Aug. 22 to be greeted by Japan’s Financial Services Minister Shozaburo Jimi. “Coming to Japan is my own right,” he told reporters. “My sister has nothing to do with it.”
There’s also this, on anti-Thaksin forces and the military:
Any attempt to pardon or repatriate Thaksin could regalvanize anti-Thaksin street protesters, who in 2008 occupied the Prime Minister’s office and shut down Bangkok’s airports.
It would also antagonize Thailand’s powerful military. Its generals have remained silent of late — conspicuously so in the case of Prayuth Chan-ocha, the gaffe-prone army chief. General Prayuth helped topple Thaksin in 2006 and his loathing for Pheu Thai is one of the country’s worst-kept secrets. But with October’s annual military reshuffle approaching, Prayuth is currently preoccupied with resisting attempts by Yingluck’s government to promote pro-Thaksin officers. “Prayuth and others are waiting until the reshuffle is complete,” says Chambers. “Then I think they’ll become much more vocal in their opposition to this government.”
I'm Newley Purnell, an American journalist in Bangkok. I report for Bloomberg BNA, ABC News Radio, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and more.