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36ConclusionsTHE ASIA THINK TANK DIALOGUE REPORTRebuilding Confidence, Restoring LivelihoodsSummary by Dr. Thaksin ShinawatraCommenting on the digital divide, Dr. Thaksinnoted that more and more countries inthe Asian region had collaborated inundertaking research on education usingIT. For instance, the one laptop per child initiative byThailand was the first of its kind, but the project waspostponed because of pricing issues. However, pilotprojects in villages in those countries with free softwareand powered by solar energy, had seen progress.In tackling poverty eradication, it was his view thatgovernments and politicians sometimes found thechallenges insurmountable. Many would resort tolistening and not take up the baton themselves tobring about change. He urged such governments toturn the burden of the poor by helping them to helpthemselves.Citing issues of human trade, trafficking and child labour,he said there was a need to present these to governmentofficials in a manner understandable to them and toshow how neglect of these matters could impact onthem. Managing such issues effectively called for a lotof mobility and interactions between stakeholders fromthe private sector and government agencies to ensurethat human rights are protected and this would notescalate to become a social pandemic.With regards to literacy, he believed Asia should notconsign itself to be merely English-oriented. He referredto a study which found that the brains of children whosurfed the internet for a certain number of years hadbrain cells which had changed for the better. Thisevolution was due to the amount of information fedinto their brains which was much greater comparedto those without access to the Internet. The study alsofound that those who used the Internet frequently andat the same time maintained their communications withpeople in real life were better able to manage humanrelationships. This generation will be future leaders and(L-R) Sam Moon, Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra & Dr. Michael Yeohmore of them were needed. Clearly governments oughtto work towards building this generation.Asia also needed to reduce its dependence on the rotestyle of teaching and learning. There remained a graveneed to change the teaching style from rote learning(teacher teaching) to learner learning. The problemnow was that whole generations had spent their livesin rote learning to the extent that they were unable tothink. Rote learning lent itself to students memorizingeverything without understanding the fundamentalmeaning of knowledge obtained. Asian countriesneeded to address this immediately. The technologywas in place to assist but a systematic educationalmodel was required to overcome the obstacles.On the plight of tribal communities in Thailand, hedescribed a previous initiative where teachers would staywith the community and provide them with education.He believed regardless of whether children were bornrich or poor, and no matter which part of the world theywere born into, what mattered was that they got thesame opportunities in life, including education. It wasalso important how they were nurtured and groomedto better prepare them for the future. It was not tenablethat the children of the poor should continue livingpoorly for generations. It was the responsibility of all tobring the children of the poor to be good citizen, ableto produce and contribute to their countries.
THE ASIA THINK TANK DIALOGUE REPORTRebuilding Confidence, Restoring Livelihoods Conclusions 37In regards to healthcare, Dr. Thaksin applauded theinitiative of GSK and hoped it would be followed byothers. Besides being a good marketing strategy, it wasalso devised with good intentions as well. By extendingits tentacles deep into the village to reach the people,margins would naturally be sacrificed but this wouldbe worth it in the long run. He hoped that as a resultof leaning towards more ethical business practices,such initiatives of healthcare companies will become acommon practice in the future.Commenting on the issues around migrant workersand the export of labour, he said migrant workers doprovide their home country with a form of incomethrough remittances. Both labour providing andreceiving countries, however, needed to work closelytogether to ensure the public, and especially interestedand potential migrant workers, knew what to expectso they were not exploited. If the labour force did nothave access to the vital information required, there wasa need to educate and inform them.in terms of investment. However, the money investedshould be returned in due time as many rural families onlyrequired small margins to turn around their livelihoodsand improve their lifestyles. Providing budgets tovillagers and allowing them to manage the money asthey wish based on the needs of their projects would beone of the most effective ways to achieve success. Forinstance, some villages which grew rice was able to usethe budget given to purchase a small rice mill, based onthe consensus of the community. Because of this smallstep, the village would not need to sell paddy cheaplyand buy rice expensively as they were now able toproduce rice from their own paddy harvest.Dr. Thaksin concluded that there were many solutions tothe problem of poverty. It was just up to the individualgovernments to seek the answers and find the politicalwill to implement programmes and monitor theirprogress. He believed that for a country to flourish andprosper, it needed to have its citizens healthy in threeareas:As for social enterprise, he believed this was a smallinvestment to small communities. Social enterprise wassomething that could be done easily as there weremany success stories and case studies. For instance,Thailand’s OTOP was a case in point – projects likethese would soon expand and grow links to become acommunity of entrepreneurs. In some social enterprises,government may need to provide funding assistance• Physical health,• Mental health• Intellectual healthIf these indicators were strong, that country would havecitizens of vitality and quality and this would allow thecountry to grow, not just economically but also socially.Standing: L-R: Ms Jean Wong, SVP of ASLI, Dr. Omkar Shrestha, Dr. Josef T. Yap, Dr. Aris Ananta, Mr. Benjamin Quinones, Mr.Low Tuck Seng, Dr. Raymond Atje, Mr. Partha Rudra, Mr. Adrian Foo, Dr. Thomas Tang, Dr. S. Manivasakan. Sitting: L-R: VinodB. Sekhar, President & Group Chief Executive, Petra Group, Dr Denison Jayasooria, Ambassador Jiang Chengzong, Dr ThaksinShinawatra, Mr Sam Moon, Dr Partha Rudra, Mr Michael Switow.
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