and this paragraph is the best



http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=3783

So what's your point? Look at how Bush got elected? the guy didnt have any experience dealing with national and international issues but he got elected by a narrow margin because of his name. Once he got in office, he was surrounded by people with many yrs of experince in politics in his cabinet.

my point is actually not about the content of the article.
it is about the writer. it was written by a foreigner who lives there.
he tells the truth about the nature of thailand election
but he still is not able to answer or tell readers what really going on in Thailand politics.

if the recent coup was just a wrist-slapping gesture,
why charges against thaksin and co are not dropped?
why thaksin's supporters are doing every possible ways to discredit the justice system?

i think we are not going to see the happy ending of this political showdown.

either thaksin or his main opponents will lose horribly.
the loser will lose everything.

so it is not just a wrist-slapping gesture at all.

Did not Thaksin get a lot of votes from up in Issan, away from Bangkok. Would that have been the cultural error that saw his wrist slapped? Thai politics is something I've always tried to remember to stay neutral on - it's democracy, but very driven by the culture itself, and Western democratic principles may not always be applicable.

It's not easy to work out now, not having been there on the ground since just after the 2006 coup, but I think I see the point of the wrist-slapping remark. It may have been about things not really changing much after the coup, but not being there, I just don't know what the price of a Marlboro see-daeng sof' pak has risen to now. I hear that they are about to ban smoking in bars and nightclubs. This was the way the Thaksin gov was moving in the days before the coup anyway.

What is it like there now? Better or worse?

Better or worse? It depends on who you asking.

I prefer thailand without thaksin.

Most of, almost all of my time there was with the Thaksin gov, but as a working class farang, you're still a lot more comfortable than a working class Thai. I'm kind of lost for words with my limited experience, but I just hope that the magic is still there when I make it back. It has something much more special than peaceful military coups can destroy. I hope that the next coup is as photogenic and friendly as the last one. Nobody can conduct a graceful coup like the Thais!

I'm about out of words here. I don't have the knowledge to contribute much more on this topic.

I'd be more than happy for him to come back and take care of business/economics matters (even if he is corrupt and runs off with another few billions - in the long run, no-one else would be able to do what he did and he'd still do alot more for the economy overall than anyone else i can think of, even if he receives a few "bonus" payments) and yes, this coup was really just the old elite reminding everyone else who runs the show (an ex-cop from up north running the country? no way!!!). yes, officially its a democracy but come on, at the root of this, thailand is still a feudal society (like msot places in asia). people have risen against the oppression of their civil rights but as far as economic rights are concerned.... well marx always said the proletariat always held the real power and if the villagers once day united against those aristocracts in bangkok (which will happen eventually) there's going to be alot of big changes (probably why thailand took such an anti-communist stance..).

its really simple the way politics works back home works i think - keep the peasants ignorant and unaware of their rights and what they can do, rip off what is rightfully theirs whilst the top 2% just gets richer and richer. hence why they all voted thaksin since he offered them a way out (and as much as i dislike the guy i'd rather vote for a corrupt murderer who can get the country to reach its potential rather than a bunch of old men who probably aren't even aware of the fact that sadam hussein is dead or that john lennon has been shot - at least you know you're being ripped off left right and centre rather than unaware of it) but as soon as real people's power comes in what happens? they make themselves known. the problem is that as soon as the peasant realise they can rise up, there's going to be biiiig changes. good luck on keeping them repressed you aristocrats - its going to happen one day !

let's do it bit by bit.


Just Corrupt? and a few Bonus payment?
That's what you think?
What about thousands of innocent ppl who been killed?
fu-k it! He can take as much money as he wants. But, don't kill.
I 'm happy if he s killing those e-sarn ppl and they still electing him.
Because southern muslim ppl are very angry and taking their lands back.
Let Thaksin rule the country for million years. Just don't include the south in it.


What are you saying?
Are you saying that a ordinary villager cannot get to the top?
Most if not all of "thai" billionaires were not born rich.



i think you are losing your mind.
Are you talking about Thaksin the corrupt or Bush the idiot?



i'm out of words here. i don't know what to say.

im talking about investments being centred around the central region and i'd seriously appreciate it if you used more appropriate words since even if i don't agree with what you say i don't blatantly insult you. i have my views, you have yours, there's no need for that. Whether i'm right or wrong is another issue. if you don't understand what i say, tought luck mate.

obviously he did have a lot of experience when it comes to national and international issues. He's been in the office since 2000. Well, and that's 4 years of experience. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons too many to say, if someone wanna elect Bush. But the point is if americans were asked why they like bush more than any other candidates, none of them say it's because of his last name.

1. The problem is he didn't run off with just a few billion bahts. The guy ran off with 3 billion us dollars and probably more. How much government money was lost during years of his administration, let me just say it's a lot more than you could think.

2. When Thaksin was elected in the first place, thailand was still suffered a lot from the 90's asian economic break down. People of all classes, not just peasant, elected him because he was a very successful businessman. Rich people wouldn't cheat was like the slogan that went with Thaksin's campaign. So marx's idea that working class overthrown the aristocrat didn't work in Thaksin case. From my view it's Thaksin that keeps the proletariat ignorant through his propaganda and media. The poor are happy to accept 1000 bahts so that the elite 2% which includes himself can get away with billion of dollars.

3. Peasants were not that ignorant anymore. Today farmers in Thailand do farming through their cellphones. When it's time to sow or reap, they use their cellphone to call out illegal immigrants to finish the job. How many Thai farmers would actually go on the field to work? I don't know. But it's a lot less than what it used to be.

@ Skull I would guess u got some Thai news from the foreign source like CNN or the economist. Its more on the foreigner view on Thailand with the confuse view that things get worse after Thaksin gone. But for the people who live here its just always be like this twisted but before we try to hide its to the foreigner eyes for our own good.

However, these days it harder to hide it to the out sider start to see the true picture. And also things start to change since the country economic move to other scale but the Thai people still the same.Many foreigner come to invest and many Thai blue collar class learn how to be more effective when working more and more. Sothat the demand from the Investor and blue collar who made money and pay Tax to the country would demand Thai politician to be;
More effective
More organize
More disclosed
More straight forward
No more drama or soap opera

Unfortunately, After things start to change the classic Thai politician working style is start to reveal to an international eyes that the Thai management style is rely on the people connection instead of skills and its happen in almost every organization from the Thai restaurant ,financial organization ,till goverment. In the goverment or big organization or the goverment organization you would find the people from the well known last name in the high ranks. And its all like Anatta said its all about Monopolize sharing cake within their elite group and try to stop the new player to share it. The way of manage the goverment project is outsource to out sider or foreigner which give some percent to their pocket and keep the eyes on and lets them do the job. (LANDLORD attitude)

first things first i wanna thanks yokie and aeroforce for being civil about it!



1/2 - Well i think Thaksin is a crook and I know how much he went off with but at the end of the day he was developing the economy (and taking alot out at the same time) but i'm trying to think - if he could get the country fully developed whilst taking millions, which one benefits the nation as a whole. I was a die hard supporter until the corruption allegations but seeing how the old government handled things, I don't know. I'm in a state of limbo and I'm not sure what i think these days...Until someone comes along with ideas that can develop thailand to reach its/our true potential, i'm lost now....

3. Eh ???!?!?!?!?!?!?!




I usually get them from hte Thairath or Bangkokpost (and for thairath i have have to spend hours with a dictionary since my reading capacities are quite shoddy. plus alot of chinese computers can't read thai letters ). Maybe this also has to do with that "sabai sabai" mantra and nobody does anything until until the $hit hits the fan..

No one really knows if the development in terms of economy is the result of Thaksin political agenda. A lot of news about how Thai GDP is greater than other southeast asian nations during his days were done by his goons to promote the worthiness of his administrative skills. Today, if we look back and scrutinize the issue to some extent, we could see that the amount of GDP of different nations can't really be compared. This is because the basic power to produce product of different countries are very different. If you take laos and cambodia for instances, laos and cambodia can never have thiers GDP more than that of Thailand in actual dollar because they don't have much to begin with. But when you turn the amout of GDP into percentage of growth, the difference of GDP between laos, cambodia and thai aren't that much different.

The more interesting question is why would any countries wanna compare its GDP to its neighbors? And can we actually get something meaningful out of this attempt? Wouldn't it be wiser to compare GDP of your own nation and its GDP in the past to see the effectiveness of administrative skill? Of course, Thaksin would never do it. The reason is that back in the mid 80 to early 90, Thai GDP out performed Thaksin's GDP by very far. And that happened during the time of prime minister Chatchai whose GDP were attributed mostly by foreign investment. So in reality, GDP can be affected by many things other than administrative skill. Why would Thaksin leave this fact out in cold, well, we would never know? All we could hear from news and media, which mostly belongs to him, is that he is doing something great to the country.

"Bill's wife." But when asked, "Does she (Hillary) have the qualifications?" the locals(Cowboy) smiled and replied, "Who worries about qualifications -- she's Bill's wife!"