Local "communists" and the feud between Tesco Lotus and Rajabhat Institute -
December 20, 2002
Here's something you won't find in the English-language press. Wisarut
Bholsithi gives some background on the anti-globalization mood. 2b's
comments are in brackets.
Wisarut writes: There is TPI ad on TV Channel 11 with an anti-globalization
message (or propaganda). [This is in reference to the campaign by a local
tycoon to maintain control of his bankrupt company by bashing
globalization.].
Many columnists in local Thai language newspapers have frequently bombarded
readers with either anti-globalization or anti-western messages. [Many
foreigners base their perceptions of Thai public opinion on the calm and
sanitized editorials in The Nation and the Bangkok Post which are only read
by a minuscule percentage of the population. They would be surprised at
strident and extreme rhetoric that often shows up in the Thai-language
press.]
Local communists also write poisonous and venomous messages relating to news
about the strained relationship between Tesco Lotus and Rajabhat Institute
(Kanchanaburi campus) since Tesco Locus refuses to hire students from the
college due to the fact that many teachers and students protested against
the British retailer. Many small business owners have protested against
Carrefour
and Tesco with very extreme messages. They have also protested against
government ministers who have vested interests in European retailers. No
national flags have been burned yet, but the mood is very tense.
One of the poisonous messages that's appeared in leaflet form posted around
the National College of Defense, as well as to the public places says that
[a rough translation from Wisarut]: ...The Foreign retailers force local
retailers to sell their products to them and have to wait AT LEAST 3 months
to get cash. For local retailers, such waiting is too much for them... it
pushes their families closed to live in poverty and starvation...
....Then when the local retailers died .....They (the foreign retailer) will
choke our farmers to sell their products at a fire sale price .... or refuse
to buy at all since they can get products from somewhere else .... even
worse ... many foreigners have stolen our grain,
or fruits and other agricultural product of us to produce in their tropical
plantations, and
...they can literally dump their products to kill and murder our farmers ...
... When foreigners force our farmers to become jobless, forcing the
government to sell
state enterprises to capitalists at fire sale prices .... by those
brainwashed Democrats [the political party] who sold out our country to the
World Bank and IMF ... similar to what they have done to 56 defunct
financial institutes but on a much larger scale .... This will spark civil
unrest and civil wars in our country. After that, the imperialists will send
the troops in
Australia
and Pacific to literally chop our country APART ...
with the traitor
generals who work with US Peacekeepers ... dividing our country into sphere
of influences ... in the same way as their grandfather had done to
China
.
The first to go is the
Deep South
[4 Muslim-dominated southern provinces]
... second is the rest of the Southern provinces ... the Eastern seaboard is
the next on the list of those imperialists ... They even aim to erect the
signs that say "No Dog or Thailanders Can Come into this Park!", "No Dog or
Thailanders Can Come into this Beach!" Those imperialists will perpetuate
their regime by brainwashing our teens with their media, trendy fashions,
and by picking out lapdogs to study in their countries with scholarships.
When British giant Tesco joined up with a local Thai retailer to create
Tesco-Lotus, now with 33 retail outlets, success was initially spectacular.
The sprawling megastore chain however has suffered two in-store bombings,
most recently with severe casualties. Thai papers point the finger at
disgruntled security guards, many recruited through a Thai army downsizing
scheme. Army-sourced guards were then summarily laid off, risking loss of
military face and related patronage. Tesco-Lotus's multinational management
had abruptly switched their security-guard contract to a competitor service.
Thai papers have described this with common Thai-language explanations such
as 'khuu' to threaten and 'khaen' to take revenge.
Whoever caused the blasts, the case will be followed closely by
Thailand
's
other internationally-capitalised megastore chains such as Dutch Makro (20
outlets) and French Big-C (29 outlets).
Targeted also have been certain foreign financial consultants investigating
failing or failed Thai firms. Readers may be aware that an Australian
accountant who was about to reexamine the books of an upcountry sugar mill
was shot dead in 1999 ('khaen'?). Recent threats ('khuu') have been reported
by some overseas consultants hired to restructure other industries facing
bankruptcy.
But violence is exceptional in Thai business culture and generally indicates
that an invisible line of accepted practice has been crossed. More common is
regulation-free rough-and-tumble competition ('khaeng-khan'). A recent
pizza-parlour heat-up between Minor Food Group,
Thailand
, and Thai Fast Food
International (TIFF) is illustrative. Minor, in fact a major player in Thai
hospitality and fast food with links to Marriott International, recently
lost the Pizza Hut franchise to TIFF. TIFF is controlled by Central Retail
Corporation, the hoary dynastic conglomerate of the Chirathivat clan. The
200+ members of this retail and hospitality empire run department stores and
Accor's Novotels and Sofitels in
Thailand
. They have gone on to open the
Central Maritime Hotel in Dili,
East Timor
.
Tricon Restaurants, Pizza Hut 's (PH) American parent, gave PH to TIFF after
Minor put fried chicken on the PH menu - a clever cultural strategy, given
Thai eating habits. Note that Tricon also controls Kentucky Fried Chicken
and has given much of KFC to the Chirathivat's TIFF as well. Minor has
retaliated by rebadging its shops as 'The Pizza Company', flaunting the
poultry option, while Chirathivat/TIFF is attempting to win market share
with free toppings and other promotions.
On the cooler side, Minor's hundred or so Dairy Queens are about to face
competition from 'the Colonel's' red-and-white ice-cream kiosks. Meltdown
for DQ is unlikely but expect whipped-up marketing as Minor and the
Chirathivats vie to fill the after-school cones.
WATCHPOINT: As post-crisis foreign interests encounter local Thai business
practice, will vengeance ('khaen') and violent threats ('khuu') turn
investors elsewhere, or will Thai-style competition ('khaeng-khan') secure
overseas capital, bringing prospects of general recovery and generating
profits for those with cross-cultural savvy?
Dr Anthony Diller
National Thai Studies Centre Faculty of Asian Studies The
Australian
National
University
,
Canberra
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