Govt raps WSJ criticism of PM's Thai-language speech

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the prime minister's personal spokesman yesterday defended her giving a speech in Thai during her visit to Japan, after an article in The Wall Street Journal criticised Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's decision not to address the audience in English.

Written translations of the speech in both English and Japanese were available to the media, according to Suranand Vejjajiva, Yingluck's personal spokesman. The Journal's story refers only to a Japanese translation.

Department of Information director-general Thani Thongphakdi, who is also the Foreign Ministry's spokesman, sent a letter to the editor of the New York-based business newspaper explaining that it was agreed in advance that the prime minister would deliver her address in Thai, while the Japanese side would do so in their own language.

In his letter dated yesterday, Thani wrote: "Due to the time constraint, both sides wanted to provide as much time as possible for the ensuing networking session between the private sectors of both countries. This is normal practice at such events."

Thani also questioned the reporter's motive in writing the article. "I sincerely hope this is not the direction to be taken by a respected newspaper such as yours," he concluded.

Suranand offered a similar explanation to reporters at Government House yesterday. He said written translations of Yingluck's speech in Japanese and English were made available to participants at a function at the Japan Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.

"It was agreed with the event organisers. The Japanese side spoke in Japanese and the prime minister in Thai. If the agreement called for her to speak in English, she would have done so. There are no reasons to think that the prime minister cannot speak English. The complete translations were available in print," Suranand said.

He added that it was not a case of the prime minister making a mistake or "blunder", although he acknowledged there might have been some flaws in coordination with the organisers.

Wall Street Journal reporter Eleanor Warnock wrote in a Thursday article headlined "Some Japanese still in the dark over Thailand's flood plan" that Yingluck made her seven-minute speech to the hundred-strong audience without any accompanying translation. This left many of the attending business leaders wondering quite what she was talking about and "awkwardly scanning their handouts for clues", the report said.

"With a Japanese-language copy of her speech already handed out to an eager audience, Ms Yingluck arrived to make her big pitch - in Thai," the report said, referring to the PM's bid to win back the confidence of Japanese businesses hit by last year's devastating floods.

It also quoted a representative from a travel company who said it was "a bit weird" that Yingluck's team did not provide a simultaneous translation.

The report also noted that US-educated Yingluck could have chosen to speak in English. "It could be, though, that Ms Yingluck wasn't entirely confident in English. A video of her greeting visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Thailand last year by saying 'overcome' instead of 'welcome' got heavy play on YouTube," wrote the reporter. Yingluck began her Japan trip on Tuesday and returned to Thailand yesterday.

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Edited March 10, 2012 by FarangFarang