Yingluck would be a good foreign minister

During Prime Minister Yingluck’s recent visit to Australia, she was interviewed by Jim Middleton, anchorman of the ABC’s flagship current affairs programme, “Newsline”. Middleton is a seasoned veteran of television journalism, and is known to be penetrating, tough and persistent in his questioning. He questioned Yingluck about reconciliation and compensation payments, about her relationship with her brother, who was really running the country and what she was doing behind the scenes to bring him home; about relationships with Myanmar and its future role in Asean; and about the general state of the Thai economy and Thai society. 

Yingluck did not miss a beat. She maintained a smiling demeanour and calmly took all the questions head on, turning some of them around to make the points that she wished to make, not those that Middleton was inferring. 

I have heard people criticise her English language ability, and while she certainly doesn’t speak textbook English, she has more than enough command of the language to make herself clearly understood. 

It was the performance of a professional and Yingluck would have left Australian television viewers with a very good impression of her prime ministerial abilities and the state of affairs in Thailand under her management. 

David Brown 

Rayong