Noppadol’ sees the Prime Minister reading statements from a script as normal, something that has been done all over the world for a long time. He would rather criticize the content. He still hopes that Thailand will play a leading role in the ASEAN Summit.
Mr. Noppadol Pattama, MP for the Pheu Thai Party and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that as for the criticism of Prime Minister Paethongtarn Shinawatra for reading the script while attending the ACD meeting, she must correctly understand the practice of international meetings, as it is normal for leaders to give statements at international meetings, which has been done all over the world for a long time. This is because they must give statements on behalf of their country, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Government House will help prepare. This is called a prepared speech, and it does not show that the Prime Minister is inexperienced. Therefore, we must understand and be fair to the Thai leader. If we are going to criticize, we should
look at the content of the statement to see if it is beneficial to Thailand or not, rather than criticizing that she read from the script. From what I have followed, the content of the Prime Minister’s statement is beneficial, whether it is talking about cooperation between Asian countries, creating an Asian financial architecture, creating peace and prosperity, and attracting investors to invest in Thailand, etc.
Mr. Noppadol continued that next week, the Prime Minister will attend the ASEAN Summit, which is a leaders’ meeting in Laos. Normally, he will deliver a scripted statement in advance, and he believes that the Prime Minister will prepare well to demonstrate Thailand’s role in this important regional forum. However, he would like to leave an issue for him to push forward, which is the creation of peace and stability in Myanmar, because the fighting is still ongoing. As long as peace cannot be created in Myanmar, Thailand will continue to have problems to shoulder, such as drug problems, immigration p
roblems, and PM 2.5 dust. Therefore, Thailand should play a leading role together with ASEAN and friendly countries in the region to push for a peace process with negotiations by all parties to end the fighting. As a country bordering Myanmar and a leader in humanitarian assistance, Thailand should be in a good position to push forward.
“Although the Prime Minister is young and new to the international arena, I believe that he will learn quickly and be able to perform well in foreign affairs, including pushing Thailand’s role on the world stage. Criticism should be more about the results and content,” said Mr. Noppadol.
Source: Thai News Agency