Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
Hello I'm Mr. Jason and I'll be your host today.
I'm joined by co-hosts Premi and Rebecca.
In this episode, we'll be doing another alumni focused interview with a special guest who's
now a Thai diplomat.
His name is Mr. Harapoon Prasuchai or maybe some of you know him as Fei-Fei.
But before we get into our interview with Mr. Harapoon, let's hear our quote of the
day and get some positive headline political news.
Our quote of the day comes from Gandhi.
He said, In a gentle way you can shake the world.
This quote highlights the power of peaceful and nonviolent actions in effecting change.
This suggests that even the smallest act of kindness and compassion have the potential
to create a ripple effect and bring about significant transformations.
And that's our quote of the day.
And now moving on to our new segment.
Our first piece of political news comes from the United States.
Now that the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries are over, Donald Trump is the Republican Party
front runner in the 2024 presidential race.
Several other popular Republican Party candidates have already dropped out of the race in order
to give Trump the boost he needs to become the Republicans' primary candidate.
The next state Republican primary is close to the end of February and it will be held
in South Carolina.
And here's our second news piece.
Taiwan's general election ended on January 13th, with Lai Ching-Tiu being elected as
the new president of Taiwan.
It missed a fierce competition with the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Taiwan People's
Party.
Lai's party, the Democratic Progressive Party, was able to secure around 40% of the votes,
but fell behind the Chinese Nationalist Party by one seat in the legislature.
This means that while Lai has the top seat, there are still many obstacles when it comes
to addressing the party's agendas.
However, this election displayed Taiwan's democracy when it allowed the voice of the
majority to be heard.
And lastly, after 52 years of riding over Denmark, Queen Margaret II has abdicated the
throne, leaving her eldest son, Frederick X, to ascend to the throne.
It's also the first time a Danish monarch has abdicated the throne while still alive,
as the tradition has been to carry the title for life.
King Frederick's new motto is, United Committed for the Kingdom of Denmark, and currently
has a high approval rate amongst the people of Denmark.
Thank you for the quote of the day and the headline news.
In this first segment, we welcome Mr. Harapung, an ICS alumni who now serves as a Thai diplomat.
We'll be discussing his journey from high school to university, then France, and then
back to Thailand.
Premi will start us off with our first question.
Thank you so much for joining us again, Fei-Fei.
Could you please introduce yourself and let us know which ICS graduating class you are
part of?
Yeah, it's my pleasure to be joining you guys.
My name is Harapung, I'm also Chad, I'm a fan of ICS, and I graduated from ICS class
in 2017.
Thank you.
Can I ask a quick question?
Are you keeping in contact with your classmates who graduated in your year?
Yeah, actually, we meet almost every other week, I think.
We're pretty close.
I'm glad it's pretty close.
I would meet for lunch, dinner, whatever makes it, whatever's convenient for us.
Yeah, so we keep in contact.
Sounds great.
Our next Get to Know You question is, out of all the cities you've lived in, which one
has been your favorite?
It's very hard to pinpoint because all the cities I've lived in have positive qualities
and also negative qualities.
But if I have to choose one, that is probably, I'm going to say Paris, because the city's
so well designed, everything is so close to everything else, so you could just take the
metro to go from one place to another, it would take no more than 10 minutes.
And everything is just very, there's just so much art, so much culture in the city.
But of course, the negative side is that, as you might have heard, there is a lot of
theft.
The city is not the cleanest in the world.
And you do get some, as you know, as an Asian, as a Thai person in Paris, you do face a little
bit of racism there.
But I do love, I do love Bank Auk in Washington, DC as well.
Yeah, I think that's true, because like everything else, there's always positive and negative
qualities.
But I think definitely Paris, I'd love to visit one day, like I've seen so many beautiful
pictures.
Okay, now let's see, let's see where this favorite food comes from.
But from all the places you've lived in or visited, what's been some of your favorite
foods outside of Thailand?
I think it's you can get so many things in Thailand, like you can get so many things
everywhere in the world in Thailand.
So it's, I'm just, I'm going to go with something that you can't get in Thailand.
So one thing from Paris is there's this thing called Ganade de Saint-Azal, which means,
I think it's buckwheat pancake.
It's very, you need like a special equipment to make it, but it's very simple.
It's basically like a pancake and you put like egg, ham and cheese on it.
It's very hard to find in Thailand, but it's very common in Paris.
That's something I've been wanting to have for a very long time, but haven't gone back
to Paris since I left, left Paris.
So I do miss it and I do want to, well, want to eat it again.
And probably the other thing is Napskivers from China, from Beijing particularly.
It tastes like, tastes like Middle Eastern food.
It's very hard to get it here too.
And it's something I've been wanting to eat for a long time.
That sounds delicious.
Actually, I'm from Beijing.
I think I've tried it before.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
So you know, Yangrou Chua.
I know that, I know that in Chinese.
It's very hard to find it here.
It's very hard to find.
Like Chinese barbecue.
Could you talk about your time here in ICS?
How many years did you attend ICS and what were some of your favorite classes and activities?
My time here at ICS, so I joined ICS in 2012.
So I spent almost a little bit over five years at ICS.
My favorite class.
I really liked, I really liked AP Environmental Science.
I don't know if you still have that.
I was the first class that took it.
It was the first year there was this class.
Oh wow.
And it was really, it was, it was very interesting because like we had to, we had to go out,
go outside and go to the calls and kind of take a sample of the water and see like how
dirty it actually is.
So that was pretty interesting.
And I think it's just like, you know, you have so much talk about sustainability, about
the environment, about, you know, climate change and to be able to know, to know what
people are talking about today.
It's so important.
So I think that's why like AP.
Yeah, we do still call it APES.
It's one of, it is my favorite class here.
And the teacher was great.
Dr. Steve, ICS legend.
Okay.
After ICS, where did you study and what did you study?
And what was the transition like?
I went to school, I went to college in Washington, DC at Georgetown University.
I studied international political economy and French.
The transition, it was a little bit hard because even though I went to ICS international school,
very American, actually being in the United States with some actual Americans, the culture
is still different.
Like, even though, you know, all your friends are, all my friends here at ICS are Thai,
Asian, and mingling among Americans, well mostly Americans, like it does take a lot
of adapting.
You know, you have to change the way you talk.
You have to be more, you have to be more outgoing, even though like I think I consider myself
an introvert, but you still have to put yourself out there, kind of be more expressive, be
more assertive because that's like how the culture is.
You mentioned studying international political economy in French at Georgetown.
What was the experience like and what does political economy cover?
I think it's very diverse.
It's a very diverse subject.
You do need to know about politics, about social studies, history.
You have to know a little bit about everything.
And there's also a little bit of math.
So I think that's what I like, but you don't get too deep in A or F. It's like you're not,
you're not too, you don't spend too much time on history.
You don't spend too much time on social studies.
That it gives you like a complete picture of why each country does what it does.
I think one question that we ask in political economy would be, okay, why are some nations,
why are some countries poor and why are some countries rich?
And is it because of decisions that leaders make?
Is it because of the political system?
Is it because of the policies that they choose to pursue?
And that's kind of what political economy entails.
Like you look at the economy and you go back and you look at the main reason why the economy
is what it is.
What is it like living in Washington, D.C.?
I liked it very much.
But I'm going to say it's not for everyone because I just said it's the center of the
U.S. or even like global power.
So everyone's there for a reason.
Everyone's there because of that.
No one's, no, it's actually, well, very few people are from Washington, D.C.
So if that's what you're interested in, if you're interested in international relations
and politics and things of that nature, you will enjoy Washington, D.C. because you'll
rub on rough shoulders.
I haven't met Joe Biden, but people always say they'll meet Joe Biden for ice cream.
That's crazy.
Or they would, you know, see Michelle Obama jogging.
Like that's the kind of atmosphere you get.
If you're not interested in that, that it's not that fun and during Thanksgiving or during
like Christmas, no one is there.
It's a dead city, essentially.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I visited Washington, D.C. like over the summer, too.
And I think over the summer, like there were less people.
And then I got to see like all the different places like Library of Congress, White House.
And so it was interesting.
But yeah, I can definitely see like that's the vibe there.
Yeah.
But the fact that you're like a few a few meters, a few miles away from that, it's a
privilege.
But yeah, that's all what you like to spend.
It doesn't mean anything to you.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense.
OK, how about this?
What did you pursue after completing your degree at Georgetown?
So right before I graduated, I did an internship at a firm called Reason Partners.
And that's because I spent my senior year back in Bangkok because of COVID.
So after I graduated in Bangkok, I returned to the firm and started my work as like a
consultant for consultant and government affairs.
And what it basically is, is we would have clients, customers who are from the private
sector or like companies, huge out in multinationals who would want to build a positive relationship
with the Thai government.
And we would kind of hold their hands, tell them like, OK, what's right and what is what
they should do, what they should say or who they need to know about in the Thai government
so that they don't make any stupid mistakes because they're forerunners.
That's kind of the gist of it.
So that's what it did.
All right.
Thank you so much for sharing.
And that ends our first main segment.
And with that last question, we'll be right back to hear more right after this short announcement.
Because of Thailand's large Chinese population, it comes as no surprise that the Chinese New
Year is a major festival in Thailand.
It is a lovely time when different communities come together, break bread and wish each other
good fortune for the year ahead.
Streets are decorated in bright red with gorgeous Chinese paper linters hanging from above and
dragon dancers along the road.
The day of the Chinese New Year varies each year depending on the Chinese lunar calendar.
It generally falls in the month of January or February.
This year, the Chinese New Year will be celebrated on the 10th of February, Saturday.
You don't have to be ethnic Chinese to celebrate Chinese New Year.
This holiday indeed holds great significance as a time to celebrate and unite with family.
The festive traditions, delicious food and joyous atmosphere make it a wonderful occasion
to cherish moments with loved ones.
We are back with part two.
In this segment, we'll be getting some insight into Mr. Harapong's duties and responsibilities
in his current role with the Thai government.
Premi will get us started again.
Welcome back everyone.
We left off with your internship and you've mentioned living in Paris, right?
Could you tell us a little bit about that or what you did after that internship and
what brought you back to Thailand as well?
So the internship I did, it was actually in Thailand and what brought me back to Thailand,
it's actually just COVID.
It's 2020, I was in France in 2020 during my exchange year there and when COVID started,
no one was sure what to do, no one was sure what it was.
And basically my school just emailed me, say, you need to leave Bangkok, you need to get,
sorry, you need to leave Paris, get out of there within 48 hours or else your credits
won't be transferred back to, and especially I wouldn't be able to graduate at that time.
So that's why I had to book the next, I think the next two flights back to Bangkok.
And that was kind of a shame because I had a lot of things planned to do in France.
That sounds stressing too.
What was it like coming back to Thailand?
What was that transition like for you personally and professionally?
What was it like coming back to Thailand?
I think first is my Thai got really bad.
Okay, my Thai was already not that great.
I was in ICS, like as you know, like because you don't do a lot of things in Thai, so your
Thai really just goes to the toilet.
So coming back to Thailand, like having to write things in Thai, having to talk in Thai
was a challenge, but I think it's gotten so much better now after four years back here.
But I think it's the same for me personally, professionally that I have to work in Thai
now.
And it's still like, it's still a learning process for me.
And coming back to Thailand, I think it's just how things, you can't, a lot of things
are still very unpredictable in Thailand.
So previously, like you can plan, you can plan your trips, you can plan your trips very
meticulously.
Okay, I'm going to take 20 minutes to go there.
And it's pretty accurate.
But now like nothing is, nothing, it's better now, but nothing was predictable.
So I had to live with a lot of like uncertainties in my daily life when I'm back in Thailand
in Bangkok.
Yeah, honestly, I think that makes sense who would like somehow like transportation, like
sometimes you don't know if there's traffic or there's no traffic.
You could get there in like 20 minutes or an hour.
So I think but also like just like transitioning usually to it's like from like maybe like
a Western culture to like an Asian culture.
So there's that too.
We're super curious though, what's it like working for the Thai government now?
Could you walk us through a day in your life as a Thai diplomat?
So it's an exciting time to be part of the Thai government today.
Because you know, I don't know how close you follow Thai politics, but we just had a new
government, new prime minister.
And we're actually very eager to put ourselves back in the on the world map and basically
telling the world like, okay, we're back on track.
Want to get people to come to like spend money to visit Thailand for tourism or even like
invest in some factories in Thailand.
So it's an exciting time.
And it's great that I happen to be in the Department of International Economics.
So we're directly on kind of in the front line.
A day in my life as a Thai diplomat, I'm still a backup.
So it depends day by day.
So my main job would be to kind of synthesize aggregate information from all over Thailand
and bring the information to say like ambassadors or our political leaders to meet with foreign
leaders.
So they have a picture of how Thai economic knowledge is and what we're allowed to sell
to the world.
So we want to tell the world how, as I said, how we are open to business, how we're like
open to tourism, what we're doing to make sure that the life of tourists are easier
in Thailand, other like business people in Thailand are easier.
So I do a lot of writing in Thai and English and I do a lot of researching the news and
meeting people who are doing actual work in business or in driving the digital economy,
for example.
How do you think your educational experiences have shaped what you're doing today?
It's very interesting that SES, back when I was in school, it kind of annoyed me that
I have to do a career service.
Like we're always talking about capstone, community service, it's an assignment, right?
It's just something you need to do.
But looking back, I think it adds a lot of impact on me because I think it's very important
to think about what and who you are doing these things for, like physical service, right?
And I think that kind of mindset really shapes how I chose my career and how I'm doing things
today.
Like I always think about, okay, who am I doing this for?
And how is it impacting people?
And it might change, it's in the government, how it is not helping the people or the Thai
businesses or whatever you want to say.
And I don't mean that you have to work for the government, that there's always something
like you want to ask, like, when am I doing this for?
When am I serving?
If it's like customers or the people or your shareholders, whatever.
I think that's really important.
And at Georgetown, pretty much the same, we ask ourselves a lot about service, about making
the world a better place, but also think about things from a lot of perspectives, from your
own perspective, from a national perspective, but also from a global perspective.
Yeah, it's really important to know others as well.
Do you work with others in the Thai government with similar educational backgrounds like
yourself?
What's that working environment like?
Yeah, I think so.
I guess because you work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, right?
A lot of people have graduated on international relations or political science.
A lot of discussions are very lively.
We talk about current events, we talk about all of the conflicts that are happening in
the world are affecting the Thai economy or how we need to proceed with our policy or
our strategy, for example.
Oh, that's really cool.
So similar educational experiences, then it would seem like international.
Yeah, we did.
Some did IB, some did AP, but it's still pretty similar.
That's really cool.
And that sounds like really fun, having discussions about current world events with everything
happening.
And now, to close this segment, we like to ask each guest, we like to end each guest
interview with advice.
So what advice would you give to those who desire to get into the government work?
First, I do want to broaden government work.
It's not just like working as a civil servant.
In a lot of cases, I think you know a lot of friends who want to be doctors, right?
So at some point in life, if you want to be a doctor, then there is a chance that you're
working for the government.
And I think one mindset that would be really helpful to make your life slightly more livable,
less miserable, is that there's always an aspect of public service.
And if you don't have that in mind, then it's going to be tough.
Because say if you're a diplomat, a lot of things are things of national importance.
And it is going to happen regardless.
It's non-negotiable.
It is going to happen.
So it requires a lot of working outside of regular hours.
And it's the same if you want to be a doctor.
You do have to work around patients, emergency, things that are outside of control.
So it's really helpful if you do have a mind of like, well, you're helping people.
This is something that you need to do.
Or else it's going to be very hard.
It's going to be emotionally toiling and physically tiring as well.
So yeah, having the right mindset of what you're getting into.
And if that's not what someone wants to do, then it's fine.
It's just that maybe government work is not right for you.
Yeah, absolutely.
I agree.
It also depends on what you want, but also to restate what you said earlier, knowing
what you're doing and who you're doing it for is definitely important.
Yeah, well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Harpung, for your time and insight and for sharing your journey with
us.
I go back to our quote of the day from Gandhi who said, in a gentle way, you can shake the
world and getting into politics and government work may allow you to do this.
As we end this episode, we are reminded that everyone's path is different, that we can
learn from each other's journey, especially from those who've come before us.
And as always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
Be your student incorporated because your voice matters.