Pracharaj

[Mid]

Pracharaj party leader Sanoh Thienthong ........... cite

The Royal People Party leader, Mr. Snoh Thienthong ............ cite

Royal ?

[sbk]

Funny, that isn't my staff's translation of the party name.

Party of the people is what they thought.

[taxexile]

ประชาราษฎร์

prachaaraadt ..... subjects , people , population.

[DavidHouston]

The party's name is from ประชาราษฎร์ [N] people; citizen; populace; inhabitants

The word is composed of two words: ประชาราษฎร์

ประชาชน "[N] people; inhabitants; residents; populace; mass; citizen; crowd"

and

ราษฎร์ (raat[F]) or ราษฎร (raat[F] sa[L] dorn[M]]) meaning "population, people"

The second portion of the word word is not ราช (raat[F]) "[N] king; monarch; royal; sovereign"

[meadish_sweetball]

'raj' is a faulty transcription based on that both words are pronounced the same, and the 'Royal' is a mistranslation based on the same type of fault.

However, the longer form of this particular 'raad' as taxexile shows, is from 'raadsadawn', the people.

[sbk]

Odd that MCOT--Thai news translated it that way tho.

[Mid]

merci , ladies and gents

now who wants to tell the : Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department

[taxexile]

samnak kaaw grom prachaasampan

not too sure of the spelling though !

Edited October 8, 2007 by taxexile

[DavidHouston]

samnak kaaw grom prachaasampan

not too sure of the spelling though !

สำนักข่าว กรมประชาสัมพันธ์

http://www.thaisnews.com/

[Mid]

samnak kaaw grom prachaasampan

not too sure of the spelling though !

สำนักข่าว กรมประชาสัมพันธ์

http://www.thaisnews.com/

http://www.mcot.net/index.html

original here http://thainews.prd.go.th/newsenglish/prev...id=255010080023

Edited October 8, 2007 by Mid

[DavidHouston]

Actually, I now see that I was incorrect as to the name. This is from Thai Rath today:

"นายโสภณ เพชรสว่าง สมาชิกกลุ่มมัชฌิมา กล่าววานนี้ (7 ต.ค.) ว่า สาเหตุที่กลุ่มมัชฌิมาแยกตัวออกมาจากพรรคประชาราชเนื่องจากเหตุผลสำคัญ 2 ข้อคือ 1. นโยบายไม่ตรงกัน เพราะกลุ่มมัชฌิมามีนโยบายสำคัญในเรื่องโครงการโคล้านตัว โครงการขุดบ่อน้ำให้เกษตรกรหรือน้ำแก้จน ที่เป็นโครงการแก้ปัญหาความยากจนให้เกษตรกร แต่โครงการเหล่านี้นายเสนาะ เทียนทอง หัวหน้าพรรคประชาราช ไม่เห็นด้วย 2. เรื่องการส่งตัวผู้สมัครลงเลือกตั้ง ที่เมื่อกลุ่มมัชฌิมาเสนอตัวผู้สมัครไป นายเสนาะมักจะบอกว่าให้เอาไว้ก่อน เพราะอยากรออดีตผู้สมัคร ส.ส.จากพรรคอื่นมาลงสมัคร

"Mr. Sophon Phetsawang, a member of the Matchima Group today (October 7th) stated that there are two important reasons that the Matchima Group has broken away from the Pracharaj Party. First, our policies are not aligned. The Matchima Group supports an important program, "One Million Cattle"; a policy to drill water wells for farmers, or "Water for the Poor". These are programs to combat poverty among our farmers. However, these are policies with which Mr. Sanoh Thienthong, the head of the Pracharaj Party does not agree. Second, is the issue with respect to chosing candidates to stand for the election. When the Matchima Group recommended a set of candidates, Mr. Sanoh stated that we should set this candidate list aside for a while because he wanted to give first preference to former Members of Parliament form other parties."

My penance for error is to translate the entire paragraph. I am surprised that a party can imply royal support in their name. Maybe there is more to this story than meets the eye.

Here is a portion of the Wikipedia entry:

พรรคประชาราช (Royal People Party) ชื่อย่อ ปชร. เป็นพรรคการเมืองที่ก่อตั้งโดยเสนาะ เทียนทอง เพื่อที่จะดำเนินงานทางการเมืองหลังลาออกมาจากพรรคไทยรักไทย ได้รับอนุมัติจากคณะกรรมการการเลือกตั้งให้ตั้งเป็นพรรคเมื่อวันที่ 10 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2549

"The Royal Peoples Party . . . is a political party created by Sanoh Thienthong to become involved in politics after he resigned from the Thai Rak Thai Party. He received permission from the Election Commission to form his party on January 10, 2549 (2006).

Edited October 8, 2007 by DavidHouston

[meadish_sweetball]

Good catch David.

Guess I shouldn't have been so quick to jump on the bandwagon. Sorry about that.

[Mid]

I'm confused , yes it's easy .................................

are we saying the translation is correct ?

aka Royal Peoples Party ?

ps DH can you give me the winki link pls ?

Edited October 8, 2007 by Mid

[DavidHouston]

I'm confused , yes it's easy .................................

are we saying the translation is correct ?

aka Royal Peoples Party ?

ps DH can you give me the winki link pls ?

Here is the link: http://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%9E%E0%...%B8%B2%E0%B8%8A. Sorry, but that's how it comes out on the url.

But I went one step further. I called several people I know in the education establishment. If I remember correctly, in England, an institution or company must obtain permission from the Queen in order to use the word "Royal" in its name. (One of you British folks can confirm or correct my impression here.) Apparently, in Thailand there is no such requirement. (So much for the western vaunted "Freedom of Expression" and the supposed Thai lack thereof.) Both teachers told me that Thais would not be confused by having the word "Racha" or "Royal" in the political party's name and would not assume that the Royal Family had given imprimature to the political party because of the use of the word "Racha" in the name. Rather, they said, the use of the term would imply a form of เฉลิมพระเกียรติ [cha-lerm prá gìat; note: the roman transcription in thai2english is incorrect] ("[V] to glorify; extol; honor; exalt; celebrate" the King.)

So, there it is in a nutshell; sorry for the confusion.

[Mid]

many thanxs DH ,

the fog has lifted

[mangkorn]

Well, Khun Snoh is certainly full of himself, and will wrap himself in pious monarchy worship every time it serves his own purposes. He is, after all, known as "the political kingmaker."

[DavidHouston]

Mr. Sanoh explained the meaning of his party as follows:

พรรคประชาราช มีตราสัญลักษณ์เป็นรูป 'เปลวเทียนสีแดง' หมายถึง พลังอันบริสุทธิ์ของประชาชน มีคำขวัญของพรรคว่า 'ไทยวัฒนา ประชาเป็นสุข' นายเสนาะ เทียนทอง เคยอธิบายความหมายของชื่อพรรคไว้ว่า ชื่อพรรคประชาราช หมายถึง 'ประชาชนผู้จงรักภักดีต่อราชบัลลังก์'

See http://www.nationweekend.com/2006/04/21/NW12_221.php

"The Royal People's Party uses as its symbol or logo a picture of a 'red flame' which indicates the pure strength of the people. The motto of the party is 'Thailand's development and evolution will bring happiness to the people'. Mr. Sanoh Thieng Thong explained the meaning of his party's name as follows: "The Royal People's Party means "Peole who are loyal to the Throne."

Therefore, it seems that the party's name connotes it's member's loyalty to the King, rather than the King's imprimatur of the party.

[stateman]

But I went one step further. I called several people I know in the education establishment. If I remember correctly, in England, an institution or company must obtain permission from the Queen in order to use the word "Royal" in its name. (One of you British folks can confirm or correct my impression here.) Apparently, in Thailand there is no such requirement. (So much for the western vaunted "Freedom of Expression" and the supposed Thai lack thereof.) Both teachers told me that Thais would not be confused by having the word "Racha" or "Royal" in the political party's name and would not assume that the Royal Family had given imprimature to the political party because of the use of the word "Racha" in the name. Rather, they said, the use of the term would imply a form of เฉลิมพระเกียรติ [cha-lerm prá gìat; note: the roman transcription in thai2english is incorrect] ("[V] to glorify; extol; honor; exalt; celebrate" the King.)

Re: พรรคประชาราช (Royal People Party)

David. To use "Royal" in the name to mean the King's entity does requires Royal permission. However, the correct order to use the same is like ราชกรีฑาสโมสร for "The Royal Sports Club", or สำนักพระราชวัง (emphasize ราชวัง)

Bureau of the Royal Household or สมาคมราช อะไรสักอย่าง for "The Royal so-and-so Association" (I made this up as an example), etc. In Thai it would be listed as ราช-followed by something, to signify this as the Royal something.

Here Sanoh Thienthong, being a wily politician who knows the value of associating with the King, intentionally place the word ราช in the wrong place - i.e. at the end. So he could get by with the term royal or king, but yet not getting into trouble.

To the Thai eyes, the placement of the word ราช at the end is recognized as being in the wrong place to be of the King's. So this doesn't really catch any flag.

It is also very unusual. Lots of Thai probably would have thought the spelling was ประชาราษฎร์ just as it was at first misunderstood in this thread - until one sees it in writing. ประชาราษฎร์ does sound more natural as both ประชา and ราษฎร์ refer to the people. So they would have gone together well.

I take issue with the English name being used as "Royal People Party", which apparently was chosen to their advantage by the political party. This is because "Royal People Party" in English connotes something like the King's People Party, when in Thai it doesn't. In Thai it is a hodge-podge of putting 2 words together without a clear meaning. But the meaning would probably be closer to The People-King Party and certainly not "Royal People Party". I believe the Thais who repeat the name "Royal People Party" does it without giving much thought to what that connotes.

----

Funny, that isn't my staff's translation of the party name.

Party of the people is what they thought.

sbk:

Apparently your staff thought the spelling of the party was ประชาราษฎร์ as logically one would have thought. Read above for more.

---

Perhaps mangkorn says it well about this:

"Well, Khun Snoh is certainly full of himself, and will wrap himself in pious monarchy worship every time it serves his own purposes. He is, after all, known as 'the political kingmaker.' "