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FEBRUARY 26, 2001

International -- Readers Report

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Thailand's New President: The People's Choice

 The Invisible Hand Needs a Leg Up

Thailand's New President: The People's Choice

 Your report on the election outcome in Thailand ("A man of the businesspeople," Asian Business, Jan. 22) is an insult to those who voted with independent minds. The electoral victory of Thaksin Shinawatra and his party is a new phenomenon in Thailand's politics. Thaksin is the choice not only of the country's business community but also of millions of middle-class and poor Thai people whose families have suffered long enough from the one-track policy of the Chuan Leekpai government.

Economic restructuring is undoubtedly needed, but short- and medium-term solutions are also pressing. Chuan totally failed on this aspect, and it should be noted that the economic crisis in Thailand originated from the reckless policy of the first Chuan government several years ago. We, the majority of the Thai people, have bet on a better future through Thaksin Shinawatra, who dares stand up to the old practice and anachronism of Thai politics in the wake of the new world order.

Warute Setsuwan
Bangkok

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The Invisible Hand Needs a Leg Up

 "The New Economy's cruel math" (American News, Feb. 5) proves that whatever might be considered good economics at the company level doesn't work on the macroeconomic level. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is just a myth disproved time and again. Yet the command-and-control economies of the Soviet and Chinese type were also no panacea for the ills of the capitalist market. What is needed is a combination of decentralized initiative of the producers of wealth and a centralized vision for the utilization of the resources of the world or particular nation-state. Unless this goal is achieved, the world will remain a place with capitalist raiders playing into the hands of a privileged few and socialist slogans leading to the masses' lack of initiative and participation in building a new world economic order.

D. Papa Rao
Hyderabad, India



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