Dr. Iain Corness &
Sue Kukarja
HE Asif Ahmad had initially appeared an unlikely choice
for the British Ambassador to Thailand, and had been drafted in at short
notice, but has ended his two year tenure as probably one of the more
popular in the position.
HE Asif Ahmad makes his
farewell address.
With three weeks to go before he left Thailand, he
addressed a dinner held in his honor at the Holiday Inn and as always,
charmed the guests with his verbal eloquence and humorous delivery.
He brought up the major bone of contention between
British pensioner ex-pats and the British government - the freezing of their
state pensions, particularly as there are countries where the British
pensioner does get the indexed pension, as opposed to Thailand. HE Asif did
say that the cost of raising pensions world-wide would be 655 million
pounds, and if the payment was back-dated the global cost would be 5 billion
pounds. Appearing as an ‘excuse’ he said that Ministers are not going to
give overseas Britons priority over what they see as more pressing needs at
home. Of course overseas pensioners will point to their own “pressing
needs”, and it could be argued that the back-dated 5 billion pounds
represents not a saving for the UK, but a pinching from the pockets of its
pensioners.
In his farewell address, he mentioned passport services,
the Immigration police detention cell, his admiration for Mayor Itthiphol
Kunplome, British cons attempting to turn Pattaya into another “Costa del
Crime”, the perceived inefficiencies of the Thai Police as being “slow and
half-hearted”, tourist scams such as the jet skis, the (mis)treatment of
Burmese laborers, the poor English language skills in the indigenous Thai
population and other items where he could see Thailand was lacking, but
completed his address by saying, “And yet this country keeps bouncing back,
the people keep smiling and life goes on. And that is what I leave this
country with. A great admiration for the resilience of the people.
Admiration for the way in which families hold together. An admiration for
how old people are treated here. With care and respect.”
Former BCCT Chairman Graham
Macdonald (right) presents a gift to the departing British Ambassador to
Thailand HE Asif Ahmad.
He finished by mentioning his successor Mark Kent, who
has spent two years learning to read and speak Thai and finally expressed
his thanks to the British Chamber of Commerce for arranging the evening (and
its sponsors) and a tribute to the Royal British Legion “who have done their
part to make a little part of Thailand, a land fit for heroes.”
HE Asif Ahmad chats with PMTV
On the same evening H.E. Asif Ahmad spoke to Sue Kukarja
of PMTV. Below are excerpts of the interview:
Sue K: Are you leaving any unfinished business
behind?
H.E. Asif Ahmad: No, it would be self-flattering for
ambassadors to identify periods of a country’s history through their own
term.
Representing the Royal
British Legion, Derek Brook presents a plaque of appreciation to HE Asif
Ahmad, British Ambassador to Thailand.
We are immaterial, the country’s life goes on for people
who live and work here, the British who invest here … those are the real
issues, not me who has been here for a short period or what I have done. I
hope I have achieved something on the business side, for the welfare of
citizens, and (hope) I delivered on the government’s priorities … recovering
our economic prosperity.
I go back from here to the UK to learn a foreign language
for 12 months, and then I’m back again in Asia to a country not far from
here… for 4 years. So in a way I’m really not going to be saying goodbye.
Sue K: What’s the biggest achievement during your
time as the UK Ambassador here?
Stalwarts of the BCCT, (l-r)
Greg Watkins, Executive Director BCCT, Dr Iain Corness, Pattaya Mail Media
Group, Nigel John Cornick, Chief Executive Officer, Kingdom Property Co.,
Ltd and Simon Landy, Executive Chairman BCCT, C.I.T Property Consultants.
H.E. Asif Ahmad: One of them is, the single biggest
investment last year in the UK from anywhere in the world was from Thailand.
Sahavirya Steel invested in the Teesside Redcar steel plant. That deal
itself will save 1,500 jobs, and it means the UK will export 1 billion
pounds worth of steel into Thailand each year. That will wipe out the trade
deficit we have so our total trade from 5 billion a year ago will go up to 6
billion. That is massive.
And then there are other things. Our own embassy is
growing. When I came here there were 120 staff, by the time I leave it will
be 150. That is because we are investing people in many areas: immigration,
Home Office, the fight against crime, security issues, as well as Thai and
regional politics, and lastly on our consular activities. Basically, while
we are in a situation where we have to make cuts in other parts of the
world, in Europe in particular, in Thailand we are actually expanding, which
is a real sign where we think the British future lies.
Sue K: Any frustrations, such as things that you may
have wanted do your way but not going as you would have hoped?
Bidding the ambassador a fond
farewell are (l-r) Chris Thatcher, Director, BCCT, Stephen Tierney CeFA,
Senior Client Advisor, Simon Philbrook, Sales Director, MBMG International,
Mark Butters, Director, RSM Advisory Thailand Ltd and Lyndsey Rowe, Senior
Client Advisor, MBMG International.
H.E. Asif Ahmad: Our job is to overcome frustrations.
We’ve got to be resilient, and some things take a long time. What you’ve got
to do is work with your contacts and I have spent a lot of time here dealing
with members of the Royal family, the military, the Privy Council, the
opposition politicians, and indeed the Government.
The fact that as I leave, I can invite the entire top
team of Abhisit’s last cabinet to my house for lunch the other day, and next
week I’m going to have eleven of the government’s ministers and former
ministers.
It shows that we have this working link that I can pass
on. I recently had an encounter in our house with Thailand’s most wealthy
business person and he’s looking at substantial investments in the UK.
For me, it will be frustrating to think why these deals
can’t come to fruition right now, because as I sent my last message back to
London about the opportunities here, saying we’ve got 5 billion pounds worth
of business we could be dealing with now. I get enough satisfaction from
knowing that these deals are warmed up and ready to go and it’s for others
to follow through. So in my job I don’t think we can personalize
frustrations the way others might do.
Sue K: In which direction do you think Thai politics
is going?
H.E. Asif Ahmad: If I really understood Thai
politics, I’d be a very rich man. I think what is good is that all sides
have tried extreme measures and they haven’t’ worked. So hopefully, they’ll
see sense and revert to what I call normal politics. Win an election on the
base of what you have promised to the people; be accountable for what you
promised to the people, then if you haven’t delivered them, the people
should vote them out.
Line up of the sponsors of
the special farewell dinner (l-r) Simon Landy, C.I.T. Property Consultants,
Joe Cox, Defense International Security Services, Sue Kukarja, PMTV
Director, Pattaya Mail Media Group, HE Asif Ahmad, British Ambassador,
Isaraporn Kongchana, Finnair Plc, Graham Macdonald, MBMG International and
Tony Malhotra, Pattaya Mail Media Group.
