Thait Spot

Soon the Taxi drivers will take to the streets demanding fare hikes. Why not everybody else wants something. Populist policies backfire!

Exactly. The government seems to be hell bent on creating chaos

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If there's one thing the red shirts love more than the red shirts its money..

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Choc dee

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The ban on relatives holding a senate seat has always been questioned as a denial of basic electoral rights.

Is it right to say to someone, sorry you cannot run for Senate because your brother is an MP?

Really? One person is denied his/her right to participate. That in itself is a denial of basic rights.

It is a flawed law and fundamentally uinjust.

Yingluck is there because she is Thaksin's sister - for no other reason.

Somchai was there because he is Thaksin's brother in law.

That is NOT democracy - it's ab abuse of the system.

It is also denying the rights of others to be elected.

"The intent is to destabilize and to embarrass the government under the guise of a legitimate protest."

Wrong ... it is a truely legitimate protest. Why should rice farmers get paid way above market value for their crops but the rubber farmers get nothing?

The rubber sector is to receive 20 billion baht.

You must be quite the wealthy chap to dismiss it as "nothing".

Compare it to the Trillion odd baht thrown in the rice scam

"THE RUBBER FARMERS' protest in Surat Thani is causing a loss of at least Bt10 million a day to the domestic tourism industry in the South"

It has absolutely nothing to do with all the bombings, shootings and killings! Blame it on the protesters.

The fact is that despite the violence in the south there is almost no impact on tourism on a year to year basis. Do you know of any tourists that were actually planning a trip to Pattani who have since cancelled their trips? The terrorism has left the southern destinations of Samui, Krabi, Phuket alone.

The southern rubber grower protests are political. In this region, the Democrats ae the dominant force and there can be no doubt that the Democrats are the enabling political group behind the protests. The intent is to destabilize and to embarrass the government under the guise of a legitimate protest.

The Democrats have miscalculated, because the people who will immediately suffer are its constituents. Despite the valiant attempts of Democrat supporters such as the Nation to "blame" the government, the lack of a national protest and the restriction only to a Democrat dominated region says it all.

Tourists will still come to Thailand. However, they will just pick a different destination. The Surat Thani airport is a local airport serving mostly Thais. The main Koh Samui airport is still operating as is Phuket. Ok, some land routes are blocked. It's not a crisis. Yes, some tourist business in the region is impacted. Good. Let the Democrat supporters feel the pain. If the tourist operators have a problem they should direct their anger at the Democrats who have backed these protests. Foreign tourists are not buying salted eggs. Local Thai tourists are. Those local Thais will visit another region. let the tourists spend their money in Prachuap Khiri Khan, Pran Buri , Chiang Mai, Pattaya etc.

You keep blabbering on about these protests being "political" and that the Dems arfe behind it.

Can you offer one item of proof? Or is this more hot red air?

Looks like the rice farmers have rejected the new rice deal too

They want 14,000B per tonne instead of 13,000

And higher limits

The perfect storm

PTP intend to borrow 2.2T baht to finance the high speed rail.

With interest this will amount to around 5T over a massive 50 years.

If the cancelled the rice scheme they could have paid half already!!

Sheer madness

Madness indeed. But, just who are actually personally profiting from this scheme? The ones profiting won't think its madness, but another very clever enrichment scheme.

Madness is in the eye of the beholder

I guess!

PTP intend to borrow 2.2T baht to finance the high speed rail.

With interest this will amount to around 5T over a massive 50 years.

If the cancelled the rice scheme they could have paid half already!!

Sheer madness

Surin is not a fool. He may not be implying that Thai democracy is different, but that it is defined differently, i.e misunderstood by Thais. And when he says:

 

"The problem is not a conflict between the government and the opposition as it is in many other countries but also comes from outsiders who have fuelled misunderstanding and mistrust" 

 

he may well be referring to Mr. T. 

In the context of his sentence I think he is talking about people outside the government and opposition. Reds and Yellows perhaps

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Blair and the other invitees all made sensible statements about reconciliation and peace.

None of them will be followed.

Wow. what is this, a gathering point for the Tony Blair haters?  

The man did some good for the UK and he helped get past the deadlock in 2004 in Northern Ireland. Some of that experience is applicable  to Thailand.

As  Middle East Peace Envoy, he  is privy to a great many political issues that devide people. Again, he can share his experience on bridging differences.

Reading some of the comments it appears that some supporters of the Scargill insurrectionist movement are still bitter that Blair didn't  dismantle the Thatcher era   reforms that challenged the blackmail of some big unions. Well boohoo.

Others  offer up the useless blame immigrants line because they need someone to blame. Boo hoo again.

The UK wouldn't need those immigrants, if a great many UK nationals were not so  bloody lazy living it up on the dole.

He's as much.use as Ian Paisley would be

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Tightly guarded from a distance of 10km.

Splendid

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf is alive and living in Thailand.

I've never been one to judge a woman by her baubles. Hell you can make a few pounds of fat look good by sticking a couple if nippples on it.

The big question is who bought it for her.

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How about her loving husband, after all, he's considerably 'poorer' than her.?

 

I might be wrong but I believe her gimcrackery to be worth more than her common law husband's net balance sheet.

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I've never been one to judge a woman by her baubles. Hell you can make a few pounds of fat look good by sticking a couple if nippples on it.

The big question is who bought it for her.

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This is the dark side of Thailand, the one TAT would not like tourists to hear about or the  Thai business council likes to ignore ,so business will invest in Thailand, this kind of disappearance,  the murders,  has been going on for eons, until this is rectified, nobody is regarded as safe in Thailand, people who speak loudly against the current Government , like the murdered millionaire , some weeks back or the human rights lawyer, a few years back, everything  becomes vague in the detail ,when DSI becomes involved , until legislation is introduced to help stamp out this type of crime and I say help stamp out state crime, because in Thailand, you have a seedy culture that extends from the top down and it is doubtful that you will ever stamp state crimes out , it's too convenient.

   

The DSI are far too busy investigating the doctoring of a joke photo of Yingluck to look into a hit job murder of an opponent of the government that the red police want swept under the table

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The government still have not explained why rice farmers get 40% above market price, but rubber farmers have to settle for much less???

 

Infact he did. He reasoned that the government of Thailand is not in the position as a major player in the world market for rubber while the country is a major player in the world market for rice affecting world prices.

 

 

30% of the world's rubber is not a major player?

 

The 2 largest producers of rubber? Thailand Malaysia and Indonesia

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_rubber

 

http://top5ofanything.com/index.php?h=7738a992

 

 

That's what they said~ I found his reasoning out of context too, wonder what other lame excuses are next.

If they had any brains the government would probably say that the market will bounce back.

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"Gen Pracha said only 30 per cent of protesters were rubber growers, but that the rest were not local residents. Some belong to anti-government groups, he said, but so far arrest warrants have been issued for less than a dozen protesters. He claimed that a political party was behind the rally."

Government propaganda or fact?

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Stupid strategy.

If someone illegally blocks a road, you can't use legal force to move them?

Ask a red shirt

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Political correctness gone mad.

Take the Gollywog off the marmalade jar? Sure, it was offensive.

Paint your face chocolate colour for an advert? Why the hell not!!

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New York Times story:

 

Rubber Farmers Block Road After Prices Plunge By THOMAS FULLER

After falling rubber prices drove many rubber farmers in south Thailand into debt, hundreds of them blocked the region’s main north-south road and railroad in protest.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/30/world/asia/thai-rubber-farmers-block-road-to-protest-prices.html?emc=edit_tnt_20130829&tntemail0=y&_r=0

" Ms. Yingluck said Thailand would not be able to influence the global rubber price because “with regards to the quantity of rubber, we have a small amount compared with other countries.” Thailand has been the world’s largest rubber producer since 1990, when it overtook neighboring Malaysia and today produces just under one-third of the world total."

Says a lot about how much YS knows

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The southern protestors are being manipulated by the Democrats. The south is a  Democrat stronghold and this  sort of thing is to be expected as the Democrats are pulling out all stops to  get their way. The desperation is palpable.

Emptying your bilge tanks again?

Let's see how the protests shape up nationally this week.

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