LEE KUAN YEW was the benevolent dictator who founded Singapore, just the kind of leader that Phuket needs right now to preserve its natural attributes, obliterate greed and corruption, and ensure that the island has a future for generations to come.
So a Phuketwan team recently went to Singapore in search of a mechanism for rescuing Phuket. We found someone who is no savior, but who is a Thai, who has some excellent ideas, and who is willing to help Phuket find its own answers.
At Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy we encountered Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, who undertook to see if she could give Phuket what it needs.
The upshot is that LKY will consider sending senior students - only masters degree and post-graduate scholars study at the school - as interns to Phuket for up to one year to investigate specific issues, and to offer solutions and ways of looking at helping Phuket achieve what it needs.
On returning to Phuket, we put the concept to the chief executive of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, Paiboon Upatising, who welcomed acting as the client organisation to oversee investigations.
Over the coming days, Phuketwan will be publishing excerpts from our conversation with Ajarn Ora-orn, bringing readers on-board with the scale and scope of what's involved, and what the gains could be for Phuket.
Phuketwan has always insisted that its journalists have no shortage of questions. In the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, we may just have found an organisation that can sensibly provide some answers.
To go to Singapore is by no means intended as a slight to those people in Thailand who probably have some of the answers that Phuket needs, too. The issues on Phuket, though, are particularly complex and growing more intense as pressures mount, especially on the environment, and especially on administrators.
Our aim is to relieve some of those pressures, and to seek practical solutions to the crisis of management of Phuket's future.
''The issues are just huge and complex,'' Ajarn Ora-orn said as we talked in her office at the faculty. ''If enough effort was put in, Phuket could be a model city in the sense that it has a good balance between tourism and environmental protection.
''Phuket would be a challenge, yes, but it does need urgent attention. And because it is adored by the international community, in that sense Phuket can gain help from the international community more easily.''
Look for the transcript of the Phuketwan conversation with Ajarn Ora-orn.
The Planet Phuket Project: Hunt for a Lee Kuan Yew SolutionSo a Phuketwan team recently went to Singapore in search of a mechanism for rescuing Phuket. We found someone who is no savior, but who is a Thai, who has some excellent ideas, and who is willing to help Phuket find its own answers.
At Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy we encountered Ora-orn Poocharoen, the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, who undertook to see if she could give Phuket what it needs.
The upshot is that LKY will consider sending senior students - only masters degree and post-graduate scholars study at the school - as interns to Phuket for up to one year to investigate specific issues, and to offer solutions and ways of looking at helping Phuket achieve what it needs.
On returning to Phuket, we put the concept to the chief executive of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation, Paiboon Upatising, who welcomed acting as the client organisation to oversee investigations.
Over the coming days, Phuketwan will be publishing excerpts from our conversation with Ajarn Ora-orn, bringing readers on-board with the scale and scope of what's involved, and what the gains could be for Phuket.
Phuketwan has always insisted that its journalists have no shortage of questions. In the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, we may just have found an organisation that can sensibly provide some answers.
To go to Singapore is by no means intended as a slight to those people in Thailand who probably have some of the answers that Phuket needs, too. The issues on Phuket, though, are particularly complex and growing more intense as pressures mount, especially on the environment, and especially on administrators.
Our aim is to relieve some of those pressures, and to seek practical solutions to the crisis of management of Phuket's future.
''The issues are just huge and complex,'' Ajarn Ora-orn said as we talked in her office at the faculty. ''If enough effort was put in, Phuket could be a model city in the sense that it has a good balance between tourism and environmental protection.
''Phuket would be a challenge, yes, but it does need urgent attention. And because it is adored by the international community, in that sense Phuket can gain help from the international community more easily.''
Look for the transcript of the Phuketwan conversation with Ajarn Ora-orn.
The Search for Answers Phuket and its melting pot of people and problems may become a study case for some of the brightest public policy students in the region. We'll tell you what happens next.
The Planet Phuket Project: Hunt for a Lee Kuan Yew Solution
Planet Phuket Project: How Phuket Went Wrong
The Quest for Answers Clarity is being sought to solve Phuket's problems with some help from scholars at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
Planet Phuket Project: How Phuket Went Wrong
The Planet Phuket Project: Crunching Island Corruption
The Quest for Answers Phuket has the offer of expert help now to prepare the island for a corruption free future, necessary to achieve fairness and balance for future generations.
The Planet Phuket Project: Crunching Island Corruption
Planet Phuket Project: Making Tuk-Tuks, Taxis Fair
The Quest for Answers Phuketwan's Planet Phuket Project, with Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, aims to find ways of solving corruption and other problems on the holiday island.
Planet Phuket Project: Making Tuk-Tuks, Taxis Fair
Dear PM, Please Make Phuket Corruption-Free
Latest Happy Birthday, Mr Prime Minister. Here's a gift to you, an idea that could make Phuket and perhaps Thailand better places. Start your fight against corruption here, on one small island.
Dear PM, Please Make Phuket Corruption-Free
Phuket Corruption: Enough, Say Patong Victims
Photo Album A public seminar on Phuket has senior officials revealing the scale of existing corruption among 14 government bodies - and attempts by more to join in.
Phuket Corruption: Enough, Say Patong Victims
LKY might have been the first Prime Minister of the Singaporean republic, but Thomas Raffles is recognised as the founder of Singapore.
Posted by AntzPantz on March 6, 2011 12:19
Editor Comment:
Yes, we're talking about the country, not the colony.