Lee Kuan Yew would never survive Thailand

A good outline on why Singapore has been successful, but missing one crucial factor. Without Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore could never have achieved such success. The vision could not have been stringently followed if it were not for the authoritarian rule of this highly principled and morally correct man. There is no compromise for corruption – downhill you go. He is a man of mixed culture who simply picked the best of the Chinese and Western world.

So why can’t Thailand be like Singapore? The answer is simple – because we were cultivated long before Singapore gained independence as a society of mai pen rai (never mind), over-proud of our independence and boastful to the point of blindness. Our social attitudes are not clay that can be reshaped overnight or even in 10 years. Transparency and fairness are slowly creeping in to iron out our conflicts, because of social networking and better education for Thais. Cameras, Twitter and Facebook help. Our society has started to believe that “it pays to be right” and not to be wrong.

I am hopeful, not because of our civil servants and politicians, who are still as out of touch as ever, but because of the private business sector, which is the true dynamo of our economy irrespective of the coups, conflicts and other nonsense. Even if you could borrow Lee Kuan Yew in his younger days to govern Thailand, this serious man would never have survived in our Land of Smiles.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok