Leadership is about people, not protocol

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha threw open the long-connected yet much-ignored door to the neighbouring country when he invited Suu Kyi for a state visit, which included the signing of two agreements on labour cooperation.

Suu Kyi’s trip was solidly focused on the well-being of more than 2 million Myanmar migrants working here, legally and illegally. The Nobel laureate’s stance was evident in this excerpt from her speech on Thursday at Samut Sakhon’s Talad Talay Thai Hall: “Myanmar people are like guests in Thailand, so we should speak to the hosts honestly. It’s normal that problems will occur, so we should cooperate to successfully solve them together,” Suu Kyi said.

Who was she speaking to? Some 300 Myanmar workers chosen from factories selected by the authorities, who were told to keep their etiquette “neat” during the session. No laughing, no cheering, no video recording or photography of the event was allowed for the managed workers. “Stand up when she comes in, clap your hands, and sit down quietly as she speaks,” is what officers told the workers to do.

In the managed quietness inside the Hall, one could hear the ecstatic roar of the crowd outside as Suu Kyi arrived. Thousands of Myanmar workers had gathered outside, many of whom had come since early morning to see Suu Kyi in the flesh.

Not only did they come to admire their revered “Amay Suu”, but also to voice their grievances as aliens, usually considered inferior to the native Thais. Non-governmental organisations were getting ready to file a petition on concerned issues to Suu Kyi.

There were some profound exchanges inside the hall, for example about overcharging by passport middlemen. Suu Kyi’s compatriots outside also wanted to tell her how they were underpaid, how they could not arrange proper education for their children in Thailand, how they struggled with the identification process, and so on.

For a while, the selected workers seemed to have nothing else to say. It was dead air before Suu Kyi eventually said she also intended to meet the workers outside the hall. But heavy rains dampened her plans.

All that the crowds outside could do was shout: “May Mother Suu have good health!” as they caught a glimpse of her entering the car. None of them could do more except one British human rights defender Andy Hall who managed to get Suu Kyi to promise on labour rights before she left.

Thai authorities persisted with the same sanitised protocol for the rest of Suu Kyi’s trip. Selected students listened to her at the Foreign Ministry on Friday. There was no official early notice of her visit to Nakhon Pathom’s Sam Phran on Sunday.

But eventually, in Nakhon Pathom, she managed to touch the hands of more than a hundred of her compatriots when she stepped out of her vehicle before reaching the destination on the itinerary.

Evidently, this is what truly democratic leaders do.