Join the new world

Dear citizens of Thailand!

As announced, I intend to run for President in the upcoming elections. This article is dedicated to my programme, and at first I want to say that it is not only my programme. Several Thai leaders have contributed directly or indirectly by discussing different things with me - first of all Jeff Hamilton, my designated Vice President. Travis Byrd, Albert Neurath, and our current President Vincent Garibaldi will for sure recognize their ideas or strategies and others may, too - please forgive me if I did not mention you. Of course not every idea or position will suit everybody. That's what discussions are for.



This is an important part about my style: I do not want to "rule" but to lead discussions and to encourage group decisions - very much in the style of Vincent Garibaldi and the former President Albert Neurath. Sometimes events are calling for quick decisions, but in most cases we can have the luxury to go for quality decisions.

That said, I am also quite flexible in the measures that shall be taken during the next month. However, I am not flexible regarding the high-level goal: an independent, peaceful, prospering Thailand. If you elect me, you elect peace and no other battles than training battles.




What's our position in the world?

Thailand is one of the smallest countries by population, and Thailand is located in a quiet corner of this world. Only one of our regions borders other countries. We are not big enough to play an important role in world politics, and we will not be for quite some time. We are not strong on the battlefield either. Before we can start bigger endeavours, we need to take care of ourselves. We need to stabilize this country that has so many times been the victim of foreign aggression. First things first.
In order to have a peaceful life in our corner of this world, we need to avoid two things:
1. Being part of world wars or similar conflicts.
2. Being an easy victim for PTO groups.

Proposed solution to 1.: Negotiate with neighboring countries
(and contries that could become neighbours soon).
The priority is to achieve long-term non-aggression pacts with all neighboring countries. Other parameters are again flexible.

Proposed solution to 2.: We must grow.

How can we achieve growth?

We have two major assets that complement each other:
* eThailand is a multicultural society. Nearly everything is done in English language. Thus we can easily attract similar-minded people from all over the world.
* RL Thailand has over 60 mio. inhabitants. Our neighbor Malaysia has not even half of this number in RL and got 1600 inhabitants in eRep. This gives us a potential of 3000 new citizens.




How's our economy doing?

Our economy is not doing bad. Several companies are competitive on the world market, and our population can purchase a lot of goods at low prices. Thailand, small as it may be, is a net exporter of manufacturing goods and houses. Of course we import raw materials. Having no high resource area, operating own raw material companies is inefficient.
The further development of our industry towards high-quality manufacturing and construction goods is one of the logical goals that every government should have. Another goal will be to develop a strategy to grow the economy in accordance with the desired population growth.




What about foreign relations and defense?

We want to stay members of Sol and help our allies when needed. Sol is a defensive alliance that fits very well with an independent, peaceful country.
Having our daily training battle is the top priority, though, as this is the basis for attracting new citizens and for everybody's personal development in Thailand.




Other tasks of the next weeks include:

* Finalise the implementation of the recent tax reform.
* Make the decision for or against a government training company.
* Keep the currency stable.
* Evaluate joining another alliance besides Sol.
* Encourage higher forum/chat activity.



The latter is vital. In a small community like ours, every small contribution counts. Don't hesitate to move yourself into the spot light. It may never again be so easy to get heard or even to get assigned to a government position in eThailand.