Formar Thai Prime Minister

Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra

Getting To Know Formar Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra

The present Prime Minister of Thailand is affectionately called as Pu.  She is a Thai businesswoman and politician.  Yingluck Shinawatra is the first female Prime Minister and at 45 years old is the youngest Prime Minister of Thailand in a span covering 60 years of Thailand’s existence after its name was change from Siam to Thailand.  Prime Minister Yingluck was born to a rich Chinese family and has earned a bachelor’s degree from Chiang Mai University in Thailand and master’s degree at Kentucky State University of the United States of America, both of which were in Public Administration.

She holds an executive position in her brother’s business.  She later became the president of SC Asset, a property developer company and the managing director of Advanced Info Science.  After her brother Thaksin was overthrown by military coup for abuse of power as a Prime Minister, she was chosen as Prime Minister in the general elections of 2011.  Yingluck is the youngest in a family of nine by Lert and Yindee.  Her father was a member of the Chiang Mai parliament.  Yingluck is married to Anusorn Amornchat and has a son Supasek.  Anusorn was an executive of Charoen Pokphand Group and Managing Director for M-Link Asia Corporation.

Her early career started as a sales and marketing intern at Shinawatra Directories Co. Ltd which has tie ups with AT&T International Telephone Company.  From this position she was been promoted as the director of procurement and operations.  She then became the general manager of Rainbow Media.  She left this company and became the CEO of Advanced Info Service (AIS).  This company is Thailand’s leading mobile phone operator.  She has been embroiled in a scandal being accused of using her inside information to sell shares of AIS for a profit prior to its sale to the Temasek Holdings.  All charges were later dropped by Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission.

She claimed that her family has been a victim of political persecution.  There were still other scandals that hound Yingluck’s name, like being accused that her bank account was used to fund Red Shirt Protesters in 2010 for their public demonstrations.  Yingluck has risen to Prime Minister through her campaign that carries the theme of reconciliation.  She envisions that by 2020 poverty shall be eliminated in Thailand under her.  She also proposes to reduce the corporate income tax from 30% to 23%.  It is her goal to reduce this tax further by 2013 cutting it down further to 20%.

Yingluck proposes to raise the minimum wage to 300 Baht per day for an average Thai worker and 15,000 Baht a month for university graduates.  Her policies include a proposal to improve the cash flow to farmers providing agricultural loans up to 70% of the farmers’ income.  She plans to provide free public Wi-Fi access and tablet PC’s to every school child.  The results of her proposed policies produced a landslide victory for her.  She (her party) has won 310 seats out from the 500 seat parliament.

A week prior to Yingluck’s appointment as Thailand’s Prime Minister, the country has experienced the highest level of rainfall not seen after 50 years.  Yingluck did not waste her time and has established centralized flood monitoring and relief operations.  This prompted her to promise that she will invest in a long term project of constructing drainage canals to avoid flooding in the future.  She was being forced to declare a state of emergency but she refused and instead she invoked Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2007.  This gave her government greater authority in managing the floods through management control.

Yingluck, according to Forbes, has succeeded in keeping peace between her country’s political enemies.  It is to her credit that the law against Thailand’s domestic ivory trade was imposed during the World Wildlife Fund summit in March 2012.  Forbes further states that across Asia, woman like Yingluck have managed to climb the ranks of playing a huge role in their respective country’s business and politics.  Yingluck has officially joined the ranks of the world’s most powerful women.  In 2012, Yingluck reshuffled her cabinet.  She assigned six new cabinet members to new posts.  This regrouping was a result of the government’s efforts to increase loyalty to the government especially the citizen’s frustration about the handling of the Tsunami disaster in Thailand.  At present, Thailand continues to develop closer ties with different countries of the world.  Just this December, when President Barack Obama visited Thailand on his three day tour of Southeast Asia, he appeared to flirt with this attractive Thailand Prime Minister.

Recently on May 2013, Prime Minister Yingluck met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bangkok.  Both prime ministers have promise to keep communication lines between these two countries as close as ever.  It is to Yingluck’s credit of being the first Thai premier to sue a person for posting his cartoons on social media.  This refers to the defamation lawsuit against Thai Rath cartoonist Chai Rachawat for comparing her to a prostitute.  The cartoonist had placed a caption giving reference to Yingluck as a prostitute selling her country.

Political observers say that Yingluck has managed to keep her promise of preserving this fragile peace between her nation’s various interest political groups.  The key players in these groups belong to the Yellow Shirts which are wealthy and the Red Shirts which is not so wealthy.  These observers further noted that Yingluck has failed to address the education system of her country despite of her promise to provide Wi-Fi and tablet PC for every school child.  There is still harsh punishment under her leadership against citizens and foreigners who are locked up because of their free speech.  Recently, Yingluck is actively promoting the chance for people with disabilities.  She wants to establish public buildings and facilities that will make it easier for people who are physically challenged.  She wants to complete this service before the ASEAN Economic Community conference by 2015.  Prime Minister Yingluck bends to accommodate Japanese investors wish to introduce new regulations that will suit these investors and future investors on Thailand.