MunterHunter

"Even though we took a long time to handle the flood crisis last year, we still have a performance record," said a minister who asked not to be named.

*A* performance record, i agree... *A good* performance record, i wholeheartedly disagree...

It seems that Yingluck is likely to escape the censure debate by relying on her majority support in the House as well as the Pheu Thai MPs who will protect her from attack.

You can run, but you cannot hide... forever.

yes, indeed it is. As you see above, there are times when one can save their breath / typing.

As for this government, I personally think that several programs are / were poorly conceived - some more so than others. And I have different levels of interest in their policies, so I pay less attention to some.

The rice program, for example, doesn't concern me too much. It may also be formulated less effectively than alternative programs - at least it appears to be, but I hesitate to say too much since I don't have too much information about it. Having had good friends in farming in the US - real family farms - I do support the efforts that provide some additional security & stability to small farmers. It's not clear that this program achieves that as it is structured now.

The minimum wage and the corporate tax rate reduction : I support the min wage increase and given the resistance from business, I am surprised that the government got what it did. It may have been due to the corporate tax rate reduction (which I view as a bribe to get support from the business community). The corporate tax reduction was, IMO, and extremely crude tool for compensating businesses for the minimum wage increase - for that reason, I feel it wasn't really for that specific purpose but really was just corporate welfare to get the tiny amount of buy-in to the min-wage increase that the government received. As you can see, there are reports about compliance issues, so there is work to be done.

The tablet program... I come out of IT, so given the timeframe when they started the procurement process and given that this is the first procurement project of this kind and this size for the gov't, I think they are doing OK on the project so far - not stellar, but it could have easily been much worse.

Flooding : the communication from the government during the floods was so bad that it is hard to know what the did right and what they did wrong. Most here would say they did nothing right and everything wrong. I doubt that is the case. In any case, it wasn't just the PT government but also the local governments which were involved in the flood efforts.

Reconciliation & charter changes : not one issue, but linked in most people's minds (it seems). I find it interesting that (1) this was the last of the campaign promises addressed and posters here see it as the only thing the gov't has done. (2) The government is doing what they said they would do during the election, so it should not come as a surprise. Likewise (3) the reconciliation bills may not be for only one man, but they certainly will / would benefit one man to which I would just ask, "are you surprised"?

As for reconciliation itself, looking at Thailand's history in dealing with these kinds of issues, the amnesty proposal did not surprise me at all. Even the conflicts in the 70's - much worse than 2010 - were basically swept under the rug... This may or may not be the right thing for Thailand - I don't think so, but then I am not Thai...

Oh, yes, Leadership and YS - I think she has done OK. The cosmetic things like her English skills don't bother me and her English is better than most here give her credit for. Parliament issues ? Not critical in my view. Dodging questions? Sure, what politician doesn't? And to be fair, what some call "dodging" is afterall a less confrontational style of governing.

Thanks for taking the time to type out the reply.. in the spirit of discussion and debate, i will reply... just as soon as ive finished a task i gotta do brb

Not playing anything right now, taking a break from all gaming for a month in anticipation of the Epic GW2 coming soon

"To be honest I don't really care about your opinion."

bingo -

don't waste my time, please...

I'm interested in your opinion, i may not agree with it, but i am interested...

Isn't that the whole point of a discussion forum?

Are you satisfied with the performance of this government?

Regarding your question : do you really care what I think about this government? If you do, then we can talk. If you don't, then why should I spend more time on this?

That is no answer...

Never in the history of mankind has any woman been in such dire need of a good rogering than Thida. She is a sour faced, sour mouthed old bat, and it might just put a smile on her face. So, who's man enough for the job, are you Man or Mouse? squeek squeek, where's my cheese!

I'd do her... for all of Thaksin's seized assets, how many billions was it again?

Here's you chance to shine, Yingluck !

Go for it!

She will, just as soon as she gets to the office...

Should this not be enough to get her up there next time?

Next time? why wait...?

/Edit: I'm sure if it were a Democrat saying these words, the red mob would have been Judge, Jury and executioner already by now

Oh dear oh dear. And to spout such idiocy at the World Economic Forum.....

But don't worry, 70% of the people polled thinks shes doing a great job

70% think she should stay in the Job, when the idiot comes out with stuff like this?

(and yes, i use the word Idiot with purpose)

http://www.dvb.no/an...scontents/22272

Careful with your sources. Kavi Chongkittavorn is an experienced journalist, to be sure, but also a hardcore Dem supporter. He'll use every chance he can get to slam Yingluck, but you'll see nary a critical word from him concerning Abhisit. Of course, if you want to only read stuff that fits into your worldview, he's your man. But you might otherwise find this an interesting read:

http://kqube.com/en/...mbodian-affairs

Be that as it may, doesn't change the words that came out of her mouth, does it?

Quote" all together 10 countries contain half of population of the world"

Defend that then guys... c'mon

The red government will do anything to cause harm to a Democrat, it doesn't matter if it hurts the country and/or the public along the way, that's simply collateral damage.

This case is vindictive.

/Edit: If PTP/Reds win the Bangkok Governor election - watch this case get dropped faster than the proverbial hot potato!

It couldn't possibly be the potential for corruption then that has got the DSI interested?

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is preparing a report to clear any questions about its decision to award a Bt190billion contract to the current operator of Skytrain system, BTSC, without calling for any bidding or consulting with the central government.

http://nationmultime...l-30182189.html

It seems as if the DSI have been fair about providing all parties involved with time to back up their claims

DSI Chief Tharit Pengdit said that the DSI move follows the Pheu Thai party’s petition to probe the BTS’s contract renewal with the BMA, and also comes after the Minister of Interior’s affirmation that the BMA is not authorized to renew the contract. He said the DSI’s investigating panel agreed that all parties involved which include the BMA, the BTS Group and Krungthep Thanakom should be provided with an opportunity to clarify reasons of the contract extension.

Mr Tharit elaborated that the three agencies have been asked to submit their clarification in writing to the DSI by June 18. The statements will be forwarded to the DSI committee for further deliberation.

http://thaifinancial...f-bts-contract/

Let's not beat about the bush, if a "coup enabled rule" is legitimate enough to convict a former PM, a "coup enabled rule" is legitimate enough to prove the BMA were acting illegally. You don't get to cherrypick the situations. So I presume we'll hear no more about "vindictive" cases..............

I stand corrected... the PTP team are jelous they didnt get a stab at the money... gotit

I'm almost 2 weeks into my quitting smoking, just reaching the stage where i feel like i've smoked a pack of fags yesterday and coughing up 'lung butter' hehe - all that cr@p i was putting into my lungs gotta come out sooner or later i guess

Its nice i can breath again, i can taste my coffee and i can smell things again (Bangkok smells err... great!!!)

Care to answer your own question, Nurofiend?

What has your painted lady done for the good of the country?

Can the PTP coffers afford another General Election? i was under the impression K. Thaksin's fortunes were not as healthy as he would like... hence desperate push recently for the Thaksin National Reconciliation Bill

For a functioning democracy, you need (at least) two strong party competing each other.

Today you have one, PT.

I disagree - entirely.

PT isnt a party, is a poor excuse for an.. err.. excuse... a cover story for Thaksin.

Unfortunately the democrats are not willing to play their part. Abhisit is a leader of the past, a civil servant with the emphasize on "servant".

And how, exactly, isnt PT a servant (to Thaksin) in every way?

As long as the democrats can't find a strong leader there will be an unbalance in Thai poliltic.

Actually i think Abhisit could be a strong leader, had he been given an opportunity to govern the country without the red shirts hounding him (illegally) every step of the way, using terror tactics and intimidation, threats and actual violence, he would have stood as one of the better Thai leaders (IMHO) - of course there are shady elements of the democrat party which need to be culled (there are in all elements of Thai politics and you would be a fool to think otherwise, regardless of which side you support!) but i think he would have been one of the better ones.

Unfortunately so far they haven't make much progress.

Let's not split hairs here... neither has the elected government.

Yingluck was only made PM candidate for PTP to "impress" a part of the uneducated electorate to win.Its no surprise she fails to impress anyone else

Sent from my LG-P350 using Thaivisa Connect App

people here like to talk about the "uneducated electorate" in Thailand.

Besides noting that uneducated and uninformed are not the same thing, and maybe KKV meant gullible instead...

Does anyone (Farang) really think that Thai voters are less informed that the electorate in their own countries?

Does anyone recall the youtube video at the height of the Iraq war where Americans were asked to find Iraq on a world map?

Get real... The Thai people I know, even the uneducated, are better informed about current events in their own country than a representative sample of Americans.

http://www.dvb.no/an...scontents/22272

Worst of all, she thought that the citizens of the 10-ASEAN states, estimated at 600 million, represents half of the world’s population.

70% think she should stay in the Job, when the idiot comes out with stuff like this?

(and yes, i use the word Idiot with purpose)

http://www.dvb.no/an...scontents/22272

Worst of all, she thought that the citizens of the 10-ASEAN states, estimated at 600 million, represents half of the world’s population.

I guess the opposition is right to be in "panic mode" - how can they possible compete with such a person?

I wonder if the Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism debates will help the likes of Thaksin and Jutaporn in anyway whatsoever???

Obviously they will help them or their ilk along the way, otherwise these topics would not be deemed important enough to get priority over the Thaksin National Reconciliation bill

70 per cent of the public still want the premier to continue her work, according to an opinion poll released on Monday.

What work?.......

Its a translation mistake, the actual text was

70 percent of the public still want the premier to actually do some work, according to an opinion poll released on monday

... if you do throw the phone.. next time buy an android... may I suggest a nexus or a galaxy s2 or s3

Yes, they will break much easier ;-)

If you get easily confused and frustrated with Apple products your f*cked with a driod...

I've got an old Dreambox that was used before with a cable connection... what are my options now? I don't have a Sat dish... to be honest, the option for HBO/Discovery and a few news channels sounds about right for me, can anyone give me simple instructions/advice/help on what i should look into/do for that?

Sometimes doing nothing is good.

Sometimes doing something is better than nothing...

Well i bit the bullet and enrolled in a stop smoking program with one of the Bangkok Hypnotherapist guys, John K, just finished my second session with him today (half way thru the program) and i've gone from a 20/40 a day smoker (20 normally, 40 if drinking) to 2 cigarettes last week with a target of none next week

I was skeptical in the hypnotherapy thing at first, still am a little if i am honest, but something is working... this time around has been much easier to give up, less cravings that have been significantly easier to brush aside when they do come... i feel confident i can kick this habit this time around and it doesn't feel as scarey/impossible as it seemed a month or two ago when i thought about quitting.