Our weak spot is also our point of genius. This was certainly true of Thaksin Shinawatra, the fallen Prime Minister of Thailand. His genius was public relations and marketing and in the end, it led to his undoing. Seven years ago Thaksin, who had hitherto had a lackluster political career distinguished by his failure to “fix Bangkok’s traffic problem within six months,” began his spectacular rise to power as leader of the Thai Rak Thai party.
The name he chose - Thai Rak Thai or Thais love Thais - was the first bold public relations move – staking out a clear position as a populist nationalistic party. The mood was timely. Thailand was suffering from the ignominy of the Asian Financial Crisis – which was sparked off by the devaluation of the baht. The international media blamed it on the crony capitalism of Asia and the careless lending of the Asian bankers – a view which was both insulting and untrue from the point of view of the Thais.
Not that Thaksin’s targeted audience bothered much about that. His power base was the people in the villages and the factories, the taxi drivers and the street side vendors and his message for them was simple. Cheap medical care, relief from debts, money for the villages and pride.
And of all these pride was the most important.
Thailand is a strongly class-bound society, divided between the wealthy denizens of Bangkok and the poor people from “upcountry” – a term often used in a derogatory fashion. Up until Thaksin, most political leaders came from the wealthy urban elite. Thaksin was certainly wealthy – the richest man in Thailand – but he came from the North, one of the poorest regions in Thailand. This was something that he would play up. His actions and gestures suggested that he was proud to be a country bumpkin, a self-made man, and he called himself by his nickname Mao – meaning a man from the hill tribes.
Thaksin’s provincial origins coupled with his business success struck such a chord among the populace, it became his political manifesto. A full page advertisement by the Thai Rak Thai party just before the election in 2001 included these words, “Brothers and sisters, I come from the countryside….I went to an elementary school…as a rural kid, the son of a coffee shop owner, I helped my father with his orchards, newspaper delivery and mobile cinema…as someone from the countryside, I’d like farmers to have a life that can be self-reliant, without debt, and with enough money to educate their children.”
Thai Rak Thai romped to victory in the election, with Thaksin becoming the first leader in Thailand’s short democratic history to win an absolute majority in the parliament.
Over the next few years Thaksin frequently toured the provinces and held mobile cabinet meetings in the far flung regions of the Kingdom, leaving behind him images among the people – doing a stint on a noodle vendor’s stand, serving ice creams to small children, going to the communal bathroom at a temple with a towel around his waist.
It was an extraordinary performance in a country in which people of high rank are greeted with deep bows, not addressed directly unless they speak first and referred to in respectful words equivalent to Lord and Lady. As one person from a poor rural village put it, “we were important for the first time. It was the first time that one of the big politicians had ever come to visit us.”
Thaksin was able to support his popular appeal with a number of accomplishments. The country emerged from the crisis and paid back its debts to the IMF. His government introduced cheap health care and a village fund, developed a successful Thai brand for selling village crafts, One Tambon One Product (OTOP), and took a tough line on drugs. In the election in 2005 TRT was returned with an increased majority; the opposition parties reduced to a small parliamentary rump.
After the election, Thaksin’s plans became grander – free trade agreements, a revitalized ASEAN, Asia bonds, a new international airport. His popularity remained strong in the countryside, even though there were worries about the cheap flood of agricultural products coming in from China, but he made powerful enemies elsewhere. Allegations of corruption became rife and a former ally, the media magnate Sondhi Limthongkun began organizing “people’s power” demonstrations with the aim of forcing Thaksin out of office.
At first Sondhi had limited impact. The trigger that led to mass opposition was the sale of Thaksin’s telecommunications empire Shin Corporation, to the giant Singapore conglomerate Temasek. If this wasn’t bad enough, it was done exploiting various loopholes in the law – the use of a nominee company to hold the shares and a tax haven to avoid paying tax on the biggest single deal in Thailand’s history. This was a long way indeed from Thaksin’s early promises of Thais love Thais and even his staunchest supporters began to have some wobbles in their faith. For his opponents it delivered a perfect weapon – all the criticisms of Thaksin wrapped up into one symbolic whole.
Thus began months of political instability with mass demonstrations and a snap election which left the country without a legitimate government. Although an election was scheduled for later this year, the unrest continued.
On September 19, 2006, the army led a coup d’etat – the 18th in Thailand’s history. The public breathed a sigh of relief – although the demonstrations had been peaceful so far – it was feared that they would turn violent, as had happened previously in Thailand’s history.
The day after the coup the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Bangkok was packed as it hosted a panel discussion on the coup. The panelists included Dr Thinanan Pongdudhiarak, a professor of politics at Chulalongkorn University, Senator Kraisak Chonhavan, former head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Kasit Piromya, Former Thai Ambassador to Germany and the US.
None of the panelists expressed any sorrow at Thaksin’s departure. The problem, according to Dr Thinanan, was that if another election had been held (as was scheduled for November 19) Thaksin would have been re-elected. And what was wrong with that? If re-elected, Thaksin might have used his power and popularity to impose one-party rule and become entrenched. After all, Thaksin had already abused his power to crack down on the media. Dr. Thinanan admitted that democracy in Thailand was still weak, which meant some people had difficulty in accepting the idea that the most popular party should form the government. His point? Democracy isn’t just about getting the most votes: “Democracy has to have checks and balances,” which means respect for institutions such as the judiciary, the media and parliament. And Thaksin didn’t. His cabinet meetings had been simply ruling by decree. His decrees. Dr Thinanan went on to say that Thaksin made the mistake of “challenging the establishment in Thailand.”
Kasit, a former friend of Thaksin, elaborated further. “The establishment in Thailand is composed of many groups, including the army, the judiciary, business, and the monarchy. For Thaksin, there was just one group – Thaksin.
Kasit, who still seemed to have some affection for his former friend, said that when he was an ambassador, Thaksin was a frequent visitor and back then he and Thaksin used to dream of Thailand becoming as successful as South Korea and spent many hours planning out a growth strategy.
“Thaksin was a rich, affluent, successful man. People thought he would use his success to assist Thailand.”
Indeed, at the request of Thaksin, Kasit, came back to Thailand from his overseas postings to assist with the new government in 2001. But he was disappointed with what he found.
“The people surrounding Thaksin were public relations/marketing people. There was nothing real on the ground.” Among Thaksin’s advisors were Somkid Jatusripitak, who had a doctorate of marketing and business from Kellogg University and co-author, with Philip Kotler, The Marketing of Nations, and Phansak Vinyaratn, a former journalist who worked for Sondhi’s Manager Group.
Kasit, who thought Thai Rak Thai would be focusing on developing a robust economic programme, left in disgust, and like so many other former Thaksin allies, he became a vocal opponent.
Thaksin did implement brilliantly at least some techniques of public relations – a simple clear message, expressed in an imaginative and compelling way. But in the end, he failed PR 101, namely, communicate effectively with ALL your key audiences, build a constituency of support and be consistent in your brand values. He repeatedly made promises that he didn’t keep ensuring that in the end, he lost his credibility.
The coup on September 19 was bloodless. Apart from an ineffectual statement on a sole television channel by Thaksin declaring a state of emergency there was no resistance. Soldiers on the streets were showered with flowers from well-wishers and people posed for photos with smiling soldiers, as their children played on the tanks. It seemed that the military chiefs were rather skilled at PR themselves!
An opinion poll by the Bangkok Post revealed that more than 80 percent of the population supported the coup. Thaksin’s popularity had completely evaporated. What began as an extraordinary rise to power of a marketing genius ended in embarrassment and failure. A reminder that empty promises are worse than none at all.
To learn more about this author, visit Bronwen Evans's Website.
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Bronwen Evans
(Visit Bronwen's Website)
Bronwen Evans is a senior public relations
practitioner based in Bangkok with more
than 20 years experience in public
relations and journalism. She is a
director of the Bangkok Chapter of the
International Association of Business
Communicators. You can see more of her
articles at www.faasai.com
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