Bangkok’s Me First Attitude Damages all of Thailand
Tags: Bangkok, Business, SRT, Thailand
For the last week or so the headlines across Thailand focused on the recent railway strike. The daily rags and blogs were filled with anti-labor union rants and fervent nationalistic appeals to avoid any foreign involvement regarding the rail system. Calls were once again made to end the government monopoly, solve some of the corruption issues, land allocation issues and to end the blatant mismanagement of SRT. We also saw some suggest that Thailand should start some form of international cooperation with more developed countries that have experience running efficient, economic and safe railway systems. Despite all of the recent talk on this matter, I think we can all rest assured that nothing will change within the SRT. Why? Because the rich in Thailand don’t travel by train and not much happens in Thailand, unless the elite approve. Sounds fairly cynical, right?
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