Thai Prime Minister Seeks Public Support for his Policies. So He Writes a Song.

Governing the 67 million citizens Thailand can be a tricky thing. An entrenched monarchy, polarized political parties, demonstrations that often turn violent, terrorist groups, bombings, sex tourism–it can’t be a lot of fun for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Finding effective ways of communicating his fragile government’s position to the electorate is difficult. In what must be a first for national politics anywhere in the world [citation needed], the Thai PM has decided that music is the best way to drum up support of his policies.

His first hit (if you want to call it that), “Returning Happiness to Thailand,” was released in 2014 and was designed to quell dissent after General Chan-o-cha and his military staged a coup on the reigning government in May 2014. It was pretty much required listening.

His latest opus, “Because You’re Thailand,” is part summary of his government’s accomplishments and part plea for Thais to keep moving the country forward. Some sample lyrics:

I have only two hands and breathe alone.

There may not be enough power to make a dream come true.

But if we join hands and breathe together,

The day we hope for will not be far away ….

Naturally, there’s a video.

https://youtu.be/C8mi5uSvkK0

You also might be interested to know that a couple of General Chan-o-cha’s daughters were once in a pop group called BADZ.

Hey, I’m all for reaching out to the people. Maybe Justin Trudeau can drop a dubstep track with some heavy skwees and wubs. Obama seems to be an R&B kind of guy. And didn’t Vladimir Putin once have some of his singing posted on YouTube?

(Via Christopher and The Bangkok Post)