Pita calls for end to Thai brain drain

Pita Limjaroenrat, adviser to the chairman of the Progressive Movement and People’s Party (PP) campaign assistant, is vowing to make Udon Thani the city of opportunities so that locals do not leave their homes to find work elsewhere.
He made the remarks on Sunday during campaigning for the PP candidate, Kanisorn Khurirang, for Udon Thani Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO) chief in Phen district. The election will take place on Nov 24.
Mr Pita said while travelling abroad he met Thai workers from the Northeastern region who said they had been reluctant to leave. Although they receive high wages, they face difficult lives. Many of them wished to return home.
For this reason, Mr Kanisorn has a vision for the administration of Udon Thani PAO to develop Udon Thani into a city of economic opportunities within 4–8 years.
“Mr Kanisorn will use a budget of 1.2 billion baht per year to improve the quality of life of Udon Thani residents in all aspects, including the development of transport systems, education, and public health, as well as attracting high-skilled Udon Thani workers to return to help develop their hometown and Thailand as a whole,” Mr Pita said.
Mr Pita also mentioned the PP is still pushing the ideology of the now-defunct Future Forward and Move Forward parties, emphasising that politics is for everyone and anything is possible.
“Defeat will only occur when you stop moving forward. As long as you keep moving forward, victory is not far away,” he said. He also hit back at former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the de facto leader of the Pheu Thai Party.
“He [Thaksin] said during his recent canvassing for Sarawut Petchpanomporn, the Pheu Thai candidate in Udon Thani, that Thais are still poor because the military has seized power twice. He was right, but why did the Pheu Thai Party join hands with the party [Palang Pracharath] that came from the coup group?
“It’s a shame that our two parties did not work together. If we would have done so, Thailand wouldn’t have been the same,” he said.
Chaithawat Tulathon, a Progressive Movement member and a People’s Party campaign assistant, said the party has learnt a lot from its experience in local politics.
Mr Chaithawat confirmed the PP is ready to work immediately and will do things that local politicians in the past did not do, or said they could not do by claiming that the budget was too small.
The PAO chief election on Nov 24 is an opportunity for the people to decide the future of the country and the lives of all Udon Thani people, he said.
Prompong Nopparit, a former spokesman of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, defended Thaksin’s remarks. He said he was presenting the party’s policy. Whether it can actually be done or not must be left for the people to decide, not the politicians, he said.