Thailand did well to fight back from the 1997 crash
Re: "On life support, and yet unable to die", Editorial, July 18.
Your editorial conclusion was for Alexis Tsipras to get all the help he could to untie Greece’s knot because he had “seen the crisis thus far”. Is this man indispensable?
The crisis was ignited by Tsipras’ election win on January 25. He promised an end to the vicious cycle of austerity that has been going on for five years. For a period of six months, starting with that euphoria, he led his people to a worse deal. His credibility in the EU is now in doubt. He is certainly no genius in finance, politics or negotiation.
On reflection, I am proud of Thailand’s recovery from the “Tom-Yum Kung” crisis in 1997. We had no help from anyone but the IMF. We repaid in full debts of US$14 billion, and left an unused credit line of $3 billion. Collectively, we were humble and took the hit in the shin well, despite many insults then levied against us. Our financial discipline is in better shape, as we sailed through the American “Hamburger” crisis in 2008 with flying colours.
Yours sincerely,
Songdej Praditsmanont
Cha-Am
