Misterwhisper

Yellow or red or purple or green or... what a clown circus. Welcome to Thailand, the hub of clowns.

Unbelievable! Is she really so naive and actually believes what she's blabbering or have these words perhaps been spoon-fed to her by "someone"?

Ma'am, how many times have you insisted publicly in the past few months that foreigners had tremendous confidence in Thailand? Wasn't all your extensive traveling abroad over the past year primarily intended to further shore up that confidence and didn't you claim each and every time what a smashing success your respective trip was? And now this revelation? The mind boggles.

Ma'am, a coup that took place almost 7 years ago has little bearing on the confidence of foreign investors in Thailand. If you want to search for reasons that might actually shake that confidence, I believe you must be looking closer to home: institutionalised corruption with everyone getting their turn at the feeding trough, red-shirted thugs running rampage and even being offered cabinet posts, a government that is directed/played by a fugitive convicted felon from abroad, incompetent ministers who earned their posts due to dubious "loyalties" instead of capabilities; and the list goes on.

Most people on the streets (those who you claim you represent) are perfectly aware why your government is pushing so vehemently to amend the current constitution: because the current checks and balances must be done away with to enable more feeding at the trough, because the judiciary is deemed too powerful and curbs those feeding frenzies all too often, and of course as a first step to enable the glorious return of the messiah.

If they were looking for intelligent life, why oh why would they want to come to Thailand?

The article states Ashton was the victim of a fight between two gangs of "Thai youths". The alleged killer is 26. In many countries this age would no longer fall under the term "youth", but "young adult". Unfortunately, in Thailand all too many "young adults" display the mentality of 13-year-old school yard bullies.

It also may help to build an altar on which to sacrifice some of the more expendable ministers when things really go badly. Or how about having the entire cabinet circle government house 7 times accompanied by tribespeople beating drums each time an important decision has to be made? Even more effective may be a worshipping room adorned with a greater-than-life-size statue of Mr T and colourful murals along the walls depicting his spectacular life and magnificent achievements, and of course equipped with a direct phone line that can be used free of charge by every cabinet member (better make that two, because only one line might soon break down due to over-usage).

Superstitious hocus-pocus really does not belong into the seat of a government that constantly claims how accomplished, professional and results-oriented it is.

The only reasonable alteration made obviously is the addition of a first-aid room (which without doubt maintains a healthy stock of often-needed ear infection medicine). May I also suggest putting in a basement large enough to hold a dozen or so barrels of... well, ask Guy Fawkes.

"Asked to name the most creative government projects, the respondents cited the rice-pledging scheme (18.1 per cent), the first-car buyer scheme (16.4 per cent) and the Bt300 minimum wage (13.8 per cent)."

Why credit Yingluck with "creativity" for the rice-pledging scheme and the Bt300 minimum wage policy? If I remember right, those two at least were already touted during PTP's pre-election campaign. It's not like she's personally devised them either. And as per the first-car buyer scheme, I really don't know, although I doubt here as well that it was her personal idea.

However, she IS quite creative in constantly coming up with new excuses why she cannot attend parliamentary sessions.

The main loiterers seem to be groups of students. I don't know, but when I was studying or preparing school papers many, many years ago, I did so in a quiet environment where I actually could concentrate on my tasks, but certainly not in a noisy fast food joint with lots of distractions. Perhaps that is why I hold today a reasonable lucrative job, why my English (as a foreign language) is proficient enough, and why I still can do simple arithmetics in my head without the need for a pocket calculator.

I somehow can understand that measure. Running a shop comes with overhead, such as electricity for airconditioning and staff salaries. Last time I was at Mc there was a group of 5 students occupying 2 tables with satchels and tablet computers and sharing 1 Coke between them; or rather, one of them was drinking and the others were just "hanging out". When I had finished my own meal, they were still there, and the single Coke showed no sign of being nearly finished. McDonalds, like any other restaurant operation, depends on sales turnover.

I am getting a bit bored when Thai writers keep citing the Magna Carta and that it was drawn in 1215, and then move on to the blatant excuse how Thailand so far had "only" 80 years to develop a democracy. The Magna Carta surely cannot and must not be the yardstick by which to measure Thailand's democratic development. Besides, the Magna Carta was NOT a democratic constitution, but granted certain civil rights and liberties to the general population, while factual power continued to rest with the monarchy and the feudal lords.

If I'd use the same selective argumentation, I could state that Germany ratified and implemented a truly democratic constitution in 1919 (Weimar Republic), and then again in 1949 (Federal Republic of Germany). That was, respectively, "only" 93 and 63 years ago and blows the Thai argument that they had "only" 80 years right out of the water. Few will doubt that German society today is an epitome of democratic principles to which not only lip service is paid, but which are ingrained in and embraced by the population as a whole.

And this is exactly where Thailand's dilemma lies. "Democracy" in this country is just another over-used word, a bit like "hub" and "image". To make democracy work it needs a conscious population willing to actively support the principles that the word entices, not just using it as a kind of mantra, hoping that democracy will magically materialise if only the word is uttered often enough. Democracy does not only come with personal benefits, but it also demands certain duties and responsibilities from the individual, and this is where Thailand falls short. As long as a majority of people are selfish enough to play along with corruption because it serves their own purposes, blatantly disregard laws as long as it brings them some benefit, vote for political parties and individual politicians as long as they are rewarded with freebies, this country is not ready for democracy.

To spin this further (and revert back to the example of a very dark period in German history): Look what can happen if a large proportion of a country's population puts their trust in one single party, because that party promises them "golden times ahead". And that, dear Thai writers and so-called political analysts, happened "only" 79 years ago.