Riding a tiger no problem for Prayut?
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Re: "PM promises bright future", News, May 29.
Former US President John Kennedy once said, “Those who seek power by riding on the back of a tiger usually end up inside.” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has offered a different theory. “I can dismount the tiger safely by either killing it or getting it chained up first.”
The reference has been widely seen as reflecting his thinking about the political quagmire in which he finds himself.
His remark came hot on the heels of the long-awaited decision to strip Thaksin Shinawatra of his Thai passport and the launch of an investigation into whether Thaksin violated Article 112 by allegedly insulting the monarchy, which is the gravest crime in Thailand.
But whatever worry one might think Gen Prayut has, it’s certainly not about Thaksin. He made it abundantly clear to the reporters with whom he had lunch yesterday that this was no big deal.
Thaksin’s problems, Prayut said, could have been solved a long time ago if he’d turned himself in to the authorities. By now he would have been out of the legal woods.
Earlier he’d sent a message to the “man from afar”, saying in no uncertain terms, “You can’t win against me.”
Prayut’s real tiger is instead to get Thailand out of the economic quagmire called “stagflation”. That same day he made a strong statement at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific, that he was confident of a “bright future” for Thailand.
To me this is a far tougher challenge than Thaksin. But it is nice to know that, with that kind of confidence, General Prayut has finally transformed from an ordinary soldier into a statesman. I really like that, and I think all Thais do.
Henry Kissinger once wrote, “The task of a statesman is not only to lead and lead well, but also to take his people where they have never been.”
I hope the General is the statesman Thailand has been waiting for.
Prachyadavi Tavedikul
