SPEAKING over a video conference former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, or Tony Woodsome, said there are many areas of this country that needs improvement in order for the economy to recover with a key one being the education system which weakens Thais because children are taught to memorize and not think with focus being on EQ (emotional quotient) not IQ ( intelligence quotient), Siam Rath newspaper said today (March 27, 2021).
The key flaw of the Thai education system is using law to lead it and while the world has moved far ahead and is now focusing on science, most people in Thailand focus on social science, he said in the video conference on the topic “Reimagining the Future of Thailand Economy: Rethinking the Future of the Thai Economy on the World Stage.”
The Thai education system has to be improved in order for people to compete well and learning has to be created without any ceilings or restrictions, he said.
Thaksin pointed to another weak point with this being laws that are far too tight thus preventing people from moving, anything they do is wrong.
As for the current constitution, which he said was written to hold on to power, this is destroying the country by damaging its credibility and the national justice system.
For this reason if the constitution is not amended things will be very difficult, he added.
Regarding the economy, Thaksin said the big issue is to pay attention to Big Data because otherwise the behaviour of consumers would not be understood. Once this is understood then strategies could be created to make people happy.
He is concerned about the current monetary and fiscal policies as there are now problems in developing the country with this weakening people’s purchasing power to such an extent that they can no longer compete with other countries.
As the country is carrying a lot of people without purchasing power this prevents it from moving forward with the problem lying in managing expenses but not revenues. This leads to the budget growing slowly and the economy not moving.
He suggested opening up the financial system and allowing people at all levels of employment and income to gain access to funding sources.
This is because if people do not have access to funding they will not be able to pursue a career. Funding must not just come from banking sources with the government too should be involved.
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Top: Thaksin talking airing his views via video conference today. Photo: Siam Rath
