Media candidate hopes to internationalise city

NATTAYA CHETCHOTIROS

Nitiphum: Wants to be independent

Newspaper columnist Nitiphum Naowarat will internationalise Bangkok and its people but at the same time preserve their ''Thainess'' if he wins the Aug 29 governor election.

''I want our city and people to have an international heart but a Thai soul. My policies centre on promoting international wisdom in Bangkok people,'' he said.

Mr Nitiphum, 44, has been writing about foreign affairs for Thai Rath _ the country's largest Thai-language newspaper _ for seven years and also hosted two television documentary programmes and a radio show.

The only media personality among the 22 contestants in the race, Mr Nitiphum said he has gained valuable experience travelling the world and meeting with and interviewing global leaders. He has also learned from his role as director of the Asian and African Studies Institute of Assumption University.

He said he has a small budget of three million baht to run his campaign, so voters will not see many of his posters and billboards.

He said he did not want a financier because he wanted to be truly independent.

''Some of my competitors are designer candidates,'' he said. ''The people who pay for their campaigns also claim the right to design for them what they must wear or how they should smile. I don't want to be a fake like that.''

Mr Nitiphum said he was meeting voters face-to-face and selling them on his policies. Being a familiar face and well-known for his writing, particularly among the middle class, he believed a month of campaigning should be enough to make voters remember him when they go to the polls.

He said most developed cities with thriving economies were tourism hubs and their citizens were well armed with languages.

If elected, he said, he will reform all 433 schools under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) so they teach in Thai and English and some may also teach in Chinese.

Mr Nitiphum said teacher graduates in more than 50 countries he had visited, including the United States, England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, want to work overseas.

He said the BMA could negotiate with universities in those countries for cooperation.

Each school would have five foreign teachers, he said. The BMA would pay their air fare and they would be given free food and accommodation in the homes of teachers or parents during their two years in Bangkok.

They would not be paid salaries, but be given some pocket money, he said. On weekends, they could travel anywhere in Thailand with expenses paid by the BMA.

On health, Mr Nitiphum said he would improve all nine hospitals run by the BMA and have the more than 60 BMA clinics operating around the clock.

He said he would use traffic management plans and the feeder system, connecting all types of public transport, to solve Bangkok's traffic problems.