Daily Lesson from Life 03 October 2008

"Fri, Oct 03, 2008 The Nation, ANN

Thaksin 'a good man' : Grateful PM

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat yesterday insisted he was not an ingrate and praised his brother-in-law and ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra as a good man regardless of what had befallen him.

"San Kamphaeng is the birthplace of Thaksin and I have made my mark in life because of San Kamphaeng support," he said to a crowd of cheering villagers during his visit to Chiang Mai, the hometown of his wife Yaowapa and her brother Thaksin.

He said he owed Thaksin a debt of gratitude for helping him get a head start in life and that he shared the home town's sentiment of having good thoughts about Thaksin.

The prime minister took the trip to pay respect to the Shinawatra ancestors and had a busy day attending several functions."

Indeed in this world, what is a 'Good Man'? It seems to depend on who is saying it and for which audience and for what particular purposes! This is where it become very difficult to really understand what is being communicated between people.

Ex-PM Thaksin is a good man to many of his supporters who have benefited from his policies. There are also many people who opposed some of his policies and some of his antics e.g. trying to buy Manchester City Football Club with Thai's government money when he was the PM (he subsequently did bought the Club only to flip it to some Middle Eastern Oil Sheik or corporation!).

Lessons for me:

1. be prepared to be misunderstood if you are a leader who had visions that others may not understand! Also be prepared to invest a lot of time and efforts to try to persuade the doubts with your points of view highlighting the pros and cons, the why we should do it, the what help can you provide so the doubters can see some light of achieving it, and the emotional connection to link the visions to the doubters!;

2. when you read about great leaders do your own sum. Do not go overboard as all leaders have weaknesses of their own. If you only read about the good things, then it is probably not true. This is something we have to continuously remind ourselves!;

3. when do you so-called 'draw a conclusion' on the good and bad deeds done by leaders? Well at their deathbed. If he can say: 'I have done as best I could and as much as possible deeds that do not violate others' basic right and brought more benefits to a greater number of people than just myself'. You have done well!!

Recent postings have been on 'death and what legacy is being left behind'. I guessed that is what human being will contemplate when he passed the big 50 and going into his 51st existing on the world! ;-))