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Thaksin can help reawaken the Thai tiger
South China Morning Post | Mar 8, 2008
By Sin-ming Shaw
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was gracious when he ended his exile in Hong Kong: "Thank you, Hong Kong, for having me here," he said. "Hong Kong is a place where I would always like to come."
If Thaksin is sincere, he could serve Thailand by bringing back a few of his host city's more admirable virtues. Two stand out: a largely uncorrupt, efficient, transparent and accountable government; and an open and competitive economy.
Hong Kong is, of course, by no means perfect: mainland China's politics and habits are slowly infecting the city. Nevertheless, Transparency International, the world's premier corruption rating agency, ranked it the 14th cleanest society last year.
From 2001, when Thaksin first became prime minister, to 2007 under military rule, Thailand's corruption ranking plunged from an already low 61 to 84, which puts it in the same league as Gabon and Swaziland, two countries notorious for violent and corrupt leaders who routinely trample on their citizens' rights. Thailand's public sector is historically plagued by frequent military coups, managed with rare exception by incompetent generals and civilians who rule with condescension towards the people who pay them to serve. Public accountability, government transparency and official integrity remain largely slogans.
Thailand was once touted as a future "Asian tiger". None of the four "tiger" economies - Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea - were as blessed with natural resources and fertile soil. And, unlike Thailand, all of them had suffered from war or internal strife. Yet, there is a vast gap in economic performance between them and Thailand in the past 50 years.
The cause is obvious: the inferior quality of governance in Thailand. While a relatively small business, military and political elite misgoverned Thailand, others in Asia, with more selfless and competent public servants, succeeded in finding their competitive niche in the modern world. Much of Asia, including China, focused on meeting the challenge of globalisation, whereas Thailand's elite has protected the country's economy to serve its parochial interests.
Thus, in the Heritage Foundation's annual rankings of countries by how free and competitive their economies are, Thailand routinely comes up short. Last year, it ranked 54th, compared to first and second place for Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively. China was at the bottom of the rankings 30 years ago but, at its present rate, it will soon overtake Thailand. In several key sectors, such as financial services and retail, it is already more open than Thailand.
Likewise, China has identified three universities as candidates to join the world's top 10 in the near future. Without quality education, there can be no quality workforce, without which no country can hope to compete. China is injecting public capital, while its wealthy graduates pour in private money in the style of American alumni donors.
By contrast, Thailand's government and local elite seem content for it to remain a provincial country shielded from global competition in science and technology. Foreign employers are appalled by the quality of Thailand's education system, whose graduates have little foreign language proficiency and possess scant analytical skills.
Competition is not a zero-sum game. The successes of Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China should serve as a powerful reminder that Thailand has great potential.
As one of the nation's rare politicians who understands economics, and how to put the government to good public use, Thaksin is in a unique position to serve Thailand well. As a "non-politician", he can tell many of his business and political friends to chart a new course for Thailand, to help it become a "near tiger". Or he can let history judge him even more harshly.
Sin-ming Shaw is a former visiting
scholar in history at Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and Oxford universities. Copyright: Project Syndicate
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