Abhisit on Thai Economy
05:57 AM Jun 23, 2009
by CHANNEL NEWSASIA
Thailand’s recession-hit economy should move back into positive territory by year-end and, depending on the global economy, hit 2-per-cent growth by next year, said Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at a Thomson Reuters dialogue session with business leaders and media during his one-day visit to Singapore.
Protests in recent months have taken its toll on the country’s key tourism sector and have kept foreign investors away, but Mr Abhisit was positive about Thailand’s core economic strengths.
“We’re determined to keep our base production hub for auto industries, part of the electronics industries and hope to increase the services portion in the economy, as a whole. Potential and strengths are there. The politics has to be reformed to support that,” he said. A second major stimulus package, now before the Senate for approval, would allow the government to borrow almost US$12 billion ($17.5 billion) and create up to 2 million jobs.
The funds will be used for irrigation and infrastructure projects, but should not put a strain on domestic liquidity, Mr Abhisit assured. “We won’t draw liquidity away from the private sector … We’re determined to crowd in investments, not crowd out.”
He added that the Thai government will not restrict foreign businesses and was working to liberalise the financial sector as well as stimulate the development of capital markets.
Burma’s famous opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, spent her 64th birthday Friday at a high-security prison outside Rangoon. The pro-democracy leader has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest by the military junta and is currently awaiting the re-opening of her trial on charges of violating her house arrest. Yet for all the government’s attempts to silence Aung San Suu Kyi, her resilience has become the symbol of the movement to bring democracy to Burma.
Human rights advocates around the world renew their call for the release of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on her 64th birthday, 19 Jun 2009
Human rights advocates around the world are commemorating Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday. It is a time of little celebration for the pro-democracy leader, who spent the day in Burma’s notorious Insein prison outside Rangoon.
Aung San Suu Kyi is charged with violating her house arrest by providing shelter to an American visitor who trespassed on her property in May. Human rights groups consider the trial a pretext for keeping her detained before the country’s 2010 elections.
Rusty Dalizo is with the Free Burma Coalition Philippines, whose group staged a protest Friday in front of the Burmese embassy in Manila.
“We are calling on the brutal and bloody military dictatorship in Rangoon to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,000 political prisoners still detained in jails all across the country today,” he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of a prominent figure in Burma’s independence who was assassinated when she was just two years old. She was educated abroad and upon returning to care for her ailing ther in the late 1980s, became politically active in the National League for Democracy party.
She went on to win a landslide victory in elections held by the military regime in 1990. But the military junta, which has run the country since 1962, refused to hand over power and put her under house arrest, where she has spent 13 of the last 19 years.
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With all due respect to Daw Suu Kyi, I think she’s quite wrong about ASEAN countries not being able to reap any benefits from Myanmar by trading with the generals. I happen to know folks in Thailand and Singapore whose companies have literally made millions trading with Myanmar. Some even praise the generals as the most trustworthy and undemanding business associates they ever had.
However, Daw Suu Kyi is absolutely right about the moral and ethical issues invoved when one deals with the generals. But since when were morals and ethics prerequisites for business success? Don’t get me wrong. The junta’s dirty tactics have never been honourable. I wish the best for Daw Suu Kyi. I hope the junta releases her. But letting her take over the reins? That might just be what the junta needs to do to destroy her popularity. The people of Myanmar will certainly feel good about a more benevolent leader taking over. But unless she is business-minded and able to control all the unreasonable and sometimes violent dissent going on in the country, the lives of the Burmese people will not be any better with or without the lady.
Not every Aung San agrees with Suu Kyi. Just take a look at her brother Aung San Oo.
He’s a close ally of the junta and an American citizen to boot. Is it possible to believe in freedom and democracy in America while supporting the junta in Myanmar? I’m not sure about that, but Aung San Ooo certainly gives us some food for thought. If the great Bogyoke himself were still around today, whose side would the great general who fought against British imperialism be on? Would he be fighting against the army he founded? Or would he be supporting his daughter from behind? We’ll never know but great heroes don’t always think alike.
It’s a nice video, but it’s also a rather simplistic representation of what’s really going on in Myanmar. Yes, there is plenty of suffering, but poverty in Myanmar has more to do with trade sanctions than with the regime. It’s simply not true that tourists and foreign investments do not benefit the Burmese people. It would be nice to have some freedom and democracy in Myanmar, but at the end of the day, it’s unfair to nail every problem in Myanmar on the generals. The country is vast, diverse and plagued with ethnic tensions. If Daw Suu Kyi ever takes over as head of the Union, she had better have lots of support and cooperation from the generals.
Two months ago, if a patient needed general anaesthesia, I could have booked a session with Day Surgery International at Paragon, called my anaesthetist and had the surgery completed without much waiting. Besides that, the facility fees at the day surgery centre were much lower than that at the hospitals. Surgeons and patients could have benefited from the lower costs and convenience. For a moment, it seemed that the couple who came up with the brilliant concept were on their way to buying up their very own private island in the Bahamas. Except that business wasn’t brisk for almost 2 years.
Late last month, it was reported in the news that the day surgery centre at Paragon has folded along with the other centre at Camden. The failure of the centres was attributed to high operating costs, slow business and the relative novelty of facilities devoted to day surgery. Most of the procedures the centres offered are normally handled in hospitals and doctors were slow to refer patients. Even good ideas may not work out when put into practice. Why? Let’s begin with me.
I have my own clinic and I’m already paying rental for it. If I have a surgery, I would certainly prefer to do it under sedation in my own clinic. In the case of children who must undergo general anaesthesia, I may have no choice but to use the day surgery. Apart from these rare cases, I wouldn’t need the facilities at the day surgery.
What about surgeons who routinely operate with their patients under GA? For the minor surgeries, they can certainly consider using the day surgery centre, but many patients who need surgery under GA happen to be cases serious enough to require hospitalisation post-op. The day surgery would not be suitable in these cases. If we trim all these cases down, the percentage of each surgeon’s patients suitable for treatment at the day surgery centre may actually be quite low. What seemed like a good idea initially turns out to be not so hot when one goes into the details.
I remember that not too long ago, another doctor has the brilliant idea of bringing medical specialists into the heartlands for the convenience of heartlanders. A polyclinic of sorts was set up. Instead of GPs, specialists like endocrinologists, cardiologists, ENT surgeons, onchologists, orthopaedic surgeons …. waited to see patients who not only knew exactly what was wrong with them but also knew which specialist they ought to see. It was like a consortium of medical specialists sitting in a neighbourhood mall, waiting for patients who knew who to see to pop in.
The originator of this concept assumed that heartlanders are well-educated enough to be able to walk directly into the correct specialist’s office and get treated. The centre recruited an impressive “menu” of specialists. Many people who passed by the neighbourhood mall and read the menu were very impressed. They were equally lost.
“Got stomachache see who huh?”
The receptionists may be able to get him into the right consultation room, but can the ailment not be easily and quickly treated at the much more user-friendly GP clinic downstairs? Traditionally, specialists get their cases through GP referrals. Successful specialists often have a very good rapport with GPs. Yet recently, more and more specialists have been trying to get walk-in patients direct from the streets. Some have been very successful. Apparently some wannabe thought of skipping the “middleman” too. Sounds good to the specialists, sounds good to the patient, but when the latter needs a doctor, he is almost certain to start off with a primary healthcare provider. The only exceptions could be gynaecologists and paediatricians.
Not surprisingly, that consortium of specialists failed miserably. There are many lessons to be learnt from others’ mistakes. It’s better than to make them yourself. In these difficult times, I need to keep reminding myself not to get too ambitious and carried away by another “brilliant concept”. Between success and failure, it’s not too bad to just stay put until the storm is over and directions are clearer.
