virtualtraveller

Nice gesture but I really don't see how this is going to benefit those effected, other than to make it easier for Japanese to come and live for awhile in Thailand, for Japanese expats to have it a bit easier in getting visas for long stay. The vast majority of Japanese visitors spend less than a week in Thailand anyhow.

She could start by asking herself for some answers about what her father was up to in the first place to warrant an assassination.

What hope is there for the next generation of politicians when someone like this with no prior experience is made head of a new party, wants to run as an MP, but can't quite decide whether to do so under the banner of the party she leads, or under another party's banner.

I'm sure she's a well meaning and decent women, started out as a yellow shirt, but she needs a reality check.

Tomorrows headline.

Army urges Thaksin to stay out of Thai politics

Monday AM

I will if you will,

(said with fingers crossed behind back)

This is the crux of the matter, especially for all those pro Red farangs who aren't particularly in love with Thaksin but certainly want to see the military back off.

If you look here:

http://www.1stoppattaya.com/what_to_see/beaches

You'll see how one travel website is making it very clear that visitors SHOULD NOT rent jetskis at all. This is quite a popular site, if many of the others did the same, and you could take all the evidence to the operators they might change their tune.

On the other hand, they probably make more in a day collectively, from scamming one or two unsuspecting Russians or Iranians, than they do renting them out. So who cares if numbers dwindle, just swindle you one single customer a day.

Of course, the city council could solve this in a minute without police co-operation, by putting up big signs warning people, but they don't.

Show me the money! Of course they won't defect, they need the election war chest from the guy in Dubai.

How Ironic it is that the Peua Thai are so against military meddling in politics when it has 100 retired military men of rank as members and has more MPs with Police or Army rank than any other party.

I think Jatuporn Prompan is a hero and should be Peau Thai's party list candidate No. 1. JATUPORN for PRIME MINSTER!

(now, where that 'tongue in cheek' smiley icon?)

Sounds interesting, exciting even, another traumatic chapter in Thailand's recent tumultuous history is yet to unfold. I would like to ask these Peau Thai MPs just how exactly they plan to bring Thaksin home (on an airplane, in a coffin, by smuggler caravan?), particularly the rule books they intend to just 'tear up'.

Would someone also please remind them that the judiciary has more than enough evidence against Thaksin for breaking his ban on involvement in politics, and that their government will suffer a similar (farcical) fate as Samak's.

I do hope all the 'fence sitters' among the electorate are well aware of the ramifications of a Peua Thai government 'maintaining a firm stance on trying to bring Thaksin home to resolve national problems by any means necessary'.

The move by Newin to join an 'alliance' with Chart Thai was a shrewd move that could not have been good news for Thaksin. Barnharn will always go where the money is, whereas Newin would need to kiss and make up with Thaksin to avoid being in the opposition. With Barnharn on his side the two can avoid being played off against one another. Now Thaksin almost certainly will have to do deals with 23Newin which is going to be a tougher job than Abhisit/Suthep doing a do with him.

While the nature of this bill is essentially well meaning, to protect IP rights in a country notorious for copying, and to bring things up to speed regarding data theft (in a wikileaks era) it's typically poorly worded on the assumption the government would push it through and therefore given authorities even more power to willy nilly go after foe. As it stands, we have a country where the present computer usage act is completely ignored, police and authorities routinely pressure ISPs to block sites unlawfully, without going through correct channels or reviews, and the ISPs meekly comply. As a result we have tens of thousands of pages block ostensibly because they are pornographic or lese majeste, but in fact are neither, merely 'culturally inappropriate' or critical of certain politics. Usual story in Thailand.

As usual the indignant old ladies from the 'culture police' are evoking every silly law they can, which means the best they get the girls for is 500 baht indecency charge, whereas the guy who uploaded the film to the net gets stung for 10,000 baht from the computer crimes act. Once again Thailand's authorities make the country into a laughing stock

Thaksin needs this like a hole in the head, especially at this crucial time. I bet there's lots of phone calls from Dubai today, and you can bet there are men in uniform or whatever running around with big blank cheques for the defectors eh!

With Peau Thai in such disarray at this stage in the game (no leader, no proposed PM candidate, no manifesto yet, defections and resignations) one wonders how on earth they can even dream of getting more than half the vote in the election. And they call themselves the most popular party in Thailand, ehem!

The winds of change have been blowing against Thaksin for quite some time now, he's just too obstinate to realise it, and the odds of him returning are becoming increasingly insurmountable. Yes, there's a realistic chance of getting his crowd back in power which will improve things for him but there remains a lot of hoops for PTP to jump through before Thaksin can return, leading no doubt to some compromising damage to the party spirit, and of course their legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The mistake this writer makes, like many, is to assume that a PT victory at the polls will be a freedom ticket for Thaksin, but that is to hold the justice system of this country in contempt. Once in govt, PT will have their work cut out for them to pave the way for his return causing all sorts of stress and pressure for their leader (Yingluck) and members. Expect further defections.

My guess is that the Puea Thai party will continue to whither and disintegrate, which is a pity for all the poor who placed their hopes in this lot.

Culturally this incident has sent forth a message that Thailand is a draconian state, no because you can't flash your tits, but because you can go to jail for 5 years simply for filming it and putting it up on Youtube. So, if I film some tourist sunbathing topless and post it online I'm a 'computer criminal', but there's no law really for the police to punish the 'toplessness' other than a meek 500 baht indecency law.

This censorship and abuse of the computer criminal act HAS GOT TO STOP!!

One further step down the path to irrelevance. NPP and PAD are history, apart from the odd sad under-attended rallies.

Pity, the country is going to need them if and when a Puea Thai Govt start making bold moves to bring back Thaksin.

Without disrespecting the dead in the April clashes, I think the most recent UDD rally is primarily pre-election posturing. The political calendar in Thailand is pretty crowded with 'anniversaries' which are ideal excuses for such gatherings. Aside from a show of numbers it was a chance to make clear their message 'be careful! the military are going to steal the next election from us'. As far as they're concerned, if they pip the other parties for the most votes, even marginally, and don't get to form a govt it should be judged as a silent coup, and the result not respected. This is their forewarning.

Let's be clear here, the strategy of the UDD leadership (with or without the knowledge of the masses) has been to shame the military, forcing them to spill blood and be damned by the public. Their first attempt didn't succeed, so they went for the farcical symbolic spilling of donated blood. After the first clash at Kok Wua the Black Shirts were revealed and the public saw through their ruse. Still no sympathy. Finally it took a massive street battle during the clearing of Ratchaprasong. Yet the government survived because the only outrage the public showed was against the blockade and burning of Bangkok. Now all the UDD can do is bang on about 'justice', and though they are right in insisting that (for once) an investigation and accountability been carried out in Thailand, secretly they know it will never happen and the army will be seen as resisting. In fact the truth is they prefer it that way, if there was a proper investigation it would point most of the fingers at the UDD leadership for instigating the crisis, harbouring armed vigilantes and inciting a violent response.

What they are now doing is their usual manipulation of public sentiment among the ill informed rural voters, so that if Puea Thai fail to form a coalition, they will all believe it was the work of the military behind the scenes. It will give them the 'legitimacy' to come back on to the streets demanding 'democracy'. What they fail to explain, is that their chosen party, Peua Thai, has yet to release a manifesto, has no obvious leader, and so far has said very little about how it might govern, other than to focus its energies on freeing Thaksin so that he can come back and 'work his magic'. They haven't explained exactly how this is possible, since it will involve jumping through numerous legal hoops, and likely to elicit an incensed response that may will bring 100,000s out on to the street. It will be like the Wongsawat farce all over again.

The truth is, Peua Thai comes with such heavy baggage that the medium sized parties will be loathe to join it for a coalition unless they are given an offer they can't refuse, and even then Newin (and probably Barnharn) will not support any parliamentary vote that paves the way for Thaksin's return.

It should be made very clear to the electorate that in many elections in healthy democracies around the world the party gaining the most seats or votes regularly fails to form a coalition due to ideological differences. And if only 35% of the electorate or constituencies chose that party, then that's only a third of the country who's will has been denied. Perhaps the party list results should be used in deciding who gets first dibs at negotiating, as some academics have suggested.

It's very important that the UDD stand up to the meddling of the military in politics (though I sometimes think that they overstate the army's true involvement), but equally the PAD have a similarly important resistence to the country being run by proxy by a fugitive exiled criminal. A man in Dubai writing out a blank cheque, and a man in miilitary fatigues leaning on party leaders to chose the 'correct' side are equally evil realities of Thai politics.

The main thing is, there are rules applying to this election, including the parliamentary vote, and those choosing to participate are agreeing to respect the outcome and leave it to the EC to judge. When all is said and done the eventual formation of a government should be respected by all parties, unconditionally, and only when they fail to undertake their duty to the constitution, should protestors have an legitimacy to take to the streets.

Part of the problem is that there is a lot of cheating going on, but by the time the red cards have been dished out and bi-elections held the 'winning party' has already landed the right to do the negotiating first by virtue of numbers. In the past election 70% of all yellow and red cards were dished out to the PPP, it was irrelevant because they won convincingly and the bi-election all return their siblings or offspring anyhow. This time around it's going to be neck and neck, and if the PT inch it they will consider themselves the winners even if it materialises later that 10 or so of their victories were disqualified.

The flaw with this is that bi-elections are held, when in fact the candidate coming second should be declared the winner, otherwise you could go on buying votes ad infinitum and still control the constituency no matter how many times your candidate is disqualified. PT know this, and this is going to be a 'win at all costs' election.

Thaksin went ahead and divorced his own wife of 20+ years to pursue his comeback wholeheartedly. He's putting his sister up to an enormous task. He might have a cock-eyed ambition regarding his chances of getting whitewashed, but it's not that easy and the pressure will be on Yingluck to perform miracles. Even if they do pull it out of the hat, I doubt the Bangkok public will accept it, she'll face a similar standoff to that of Somchai.

She's attractive, a fresh unsullied face in politics, perhaps inexperienced but wholly unsuitable for the dirty job that her brother has in mind for her. Does she realise that bringing back Thaksin to Thailand without any accountability is going to be a very traumatic experience for the whole country with her in the centre of it all. Just ask Abhisit what a stressful job this is.

This is Thailand. Law enforcement is lax, you only go to jail if you are too poor to pay your way out, Thais don't expect to see justice served, what matters more is the financial compensation. The families of those killed are mostly concerned with the loss of financial support over the years and since the guilty party is from a rich family, their chances of getting fair compensation are high, they'd rather this than have the satisfaction of seeing her sit inside for years. Since she's rich she'll have to fork out a lot to preserve her freedom. The families of the dead won't complain, as long as they get their money. They don't believe in an 'eye-for-an-eye'.

One way or another this family will suffer dearly for her mishap, they will likely lose a large part of their fortune, resulting in a slide down the status ladder and inability to 'buy further status' through 'acquired opportunities'. Add to this the merit they will probably try to make over the years to satisfy their superstition of a poor next life resulting from the deaths.

This girl wasn't exactly driving recklessly, and she was perhaps more confident and capable of driving on the highway than many older people who have recently acquired a licence, where she screwed up was to driver under age, and being from a rich family has drawn attention to herself, when an accident occurs it can result in a bashed car or by ill fortune, a deadly crash, as in this case, amplifying the case.

By due to the arrogance of being a young rich kid believing she can get away with anything, she now has to get her daddy to pay through the nose to avoid her having to do any uncomfortable punishment. Where she loses out is that she stands to inherit far less wealth from her family when all is settled.

The fact that soldiers were shot at and killed from the so-called 'Black Shirts' hiding among the protesters removes their legitimacy as a peaceful movement, they crossed that line, so it becomes a war, armed resistance, they no longer can expect 'justice' as a one-way process. The Army would now have the right to protest as well on this same date against terrorism or treason. It's just another excuse for this mob to gather in a show of numbers ahead of the election. The deaths are regrettable, in terms of numbers they are minor compared to, say, drunk driving on any given night due to police negligence. Soon we'll run out of anniversary days to protest on at this rate.

How about a protest on the anniversaries of; the beginning of the war on drugs, the day of the mis-verdict against Thaksin's asset concealment case, the burning of Bangkok, the raid on the ASEAN conference in Pattaya.

I'll be interested to see how this continues, for example, if PT comes to power in the next election, will the martyred dead suddenly stop, will they pressure THEIR government for a full investigation (which includes an investigation into the UDD leaderships complicity)?

When it comes to lying and general bullshitting Jatuporn is in a class of his own, Suthep looks decent by comparisom, come what may in the election it will turn out differently to that which Mr Prompan suggests and it won't be long before he's covering it with more lies and BS, I'm surprised he hasn't be slapped with multiple lawsuits for defamation, libel and more. The sooner he loses his seat in parliament the better to silence this complete moron. My local village idiot would be more appropriate as an MP.

If things were normal in this political party, the party members would favour Mingwan as the most 'sellable' leader to gain them success in the election, since he comes with no baggage, even if he is a bit of a 'wet fish'. He has the largest faction of support and isn't wielding it in a dodgy manner. Have a vote in the party exec tomorrow and he would emerge as the the party's most merit based PM candidate.

BUT, this is a one-man party, where all decisions are made by Thaksin remotely, and he would have nominated his sister and kept the big gun of Chalerm happy, if it weren't for the dissent in his own party that realise that Thaksin is becoming the baggage. Yingluk lacks political experience (which doesn't matter since she will have her brother directing her), and her apparent success at AIS and elsewhere can be attributed to her 'leg up' into executive management since her family owned the company.

Thaksin has only been playing along with the Mingwan suggestion to placate the large faction of concerned MPs, and probably gave him enough rope in the censure debate to hang himself. It's going to be interesting how he persuades this faction to back his sister.

It's all such a joke (the Dems must be smarting from this) and in spite of all this apparent chaos in their leadership and utter lack of direction or legitimate ideology there is a real chance this party will get to form the next government, demonstrating just how hopeless Thai politics can be.

As long as you have a party with plenty of potential and grass-roots support but hobbled by factional in-fighting and an ultimate aim of whitewashing their exiled, fugitive leader, they are always going to under perform. Eventually the party is going to have to face up to reality and will probably split again for the third time since it's TRT heydey.

Just what we need, a political leader telling us all when we can drink, where and how much, because he alone thinks it's best for the country.

Should Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, run for the premiership, the party would have to form several teams of qualified individuals to back her in order to demonstrate the party's readiness to govern the country, she said.

Would someone please point out to Khun Sudaret that only when Peau Thai comes up with a proper manifesto and chooses a leader who is experienced and legitimate and not the relative of a convicted criminal that the party aims to spring, will they have a chance in Bangkok where voters generally see through all the BS.

It is not that the red shirts are unable to see through this hypocritical arrangement. It is just a matter of political convenience that such a union has to take place. And like the yellow-shirt-Democrat Party alliance, the Pheu Thai-red shirt pact will eventually crumble after the alliance has outlived its usefulness.

Well said!

What it will come down to is Newin and Barnharn sitting in a backroom with two blank cheques on the table fielding frantic calls from men in uniform, ladies in waiting, the guy in Dubai, all sorts of banned politicians and go-betweens, all offering the earth. The stakes will be high. What happens in the campaigning and polls and the people's selection between the Dems and PT will ultimately be irrelevant in this election.