thomash

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On an earlier trip to Phuket in August last year Mr Maraldi had his passport stolen from a car rental agency.
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It would be interesting to know the name of this car rental agency that asks its customers to leave the passports with them and then has the passports stolen from them. I have a feeling that the FBI will be looking into this. How many passports were stolen? Did passport theft from that agency happen often? Is there any record of other passports stolen from this agency having subsequently been used for travel? Etc.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I guess what your saying there will actually be a proper investigation into a possible racket of stealing and selling passports something that obviously the Thai police have not done because they are most likely being paid off!

A big factor is the Thais are like the Catholics of Buddhism and this is one of the results of that on top of other scandals.

You also have to be certified crazy to get involved with politics here as a foreigner.

I like how the media and people like to side track the real issue by getting into some debate over global warming. While there is not debate concerning the extreme weather and climate changes we are having now along with the massive polluting of our air and water to such a degree that there may not be any clean water to drink or air to breath in the near future. These are facts that need to be looked at and dealt with instead of getting side tracked with global warming debates while the Titanic is heading straight for an iceberg!

or it begins with the ladies actually!

Western media assumes the government institutions, et al, in Thailand are on a par to their Western counterparts, and thus the uprising rabble must be in the wrong?

No it's just because of the request by the government of Yingluck:

Nadaprapai Sucharitkul

"To the international community and citizens of the world, ...

This letter is in response to the request by the government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra for foreign governments to denounce the peaceful and lawful demonstration against her government by the Thai people and to portray the actual situation in Thailand at the moment.

Following the various controversial, dishonest and unlawful acts of the government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra, the Thai people have united together to demand for righteousness and democratic practicality that such government had earlier promised. Let us now touch upon them in some details.

Discontentment of the Thai people

The various unlawful acts and corruption by the government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra have triggered the discontentment of the Thai people. Moreover, the Government used its overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives and influence in the Senate to move towards parliamentary dictatorship. The government also ignored the practive of good governance and had no respect for the rule of law.

There is no such phenomenon as clash of classes in Thailand. The continued demonstrtions do not stem only from the discontentment of the middle class in Bangkok alone but also from the nation wide demand for righteousness. The Puea Thai Party and the government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra boasted that they were infavour of the poor and used populist policies to win the elections of 2010. it is now clearly evident that such intention and policies are more apparent than real. Here are just a few examples.

1. The government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra has destroyed the rule of law by submitting an Amnesty Bill to white wash Pol. Lt. Co. Thaksin Shinawatra, former Prime Minister, from his corruption charges and his involvement in the violence during the years 2009-2010. Moreover, this Amnesty Bill which is now pending confirmation by the House of Representatives will also put a stop tofurther investigation in to Pol. Lt. Col Thaksin Shinawatra's involvement in extrajudicial killing and abuse of human rights in the three Souther Border Provinces as well as the killings during the "war on drugs". The Bill also aims to reimburse Pol.Lt.Col. Thaksin Shinawatra a sum of $1.5 billion which was seized when he was found guilty of corruption and other charges in 2010.

2. The Rice Mortgage Scheme which Pol.Lt.Col Thaksin Shinawatra explicitly and publicly claims to be his initiative had led the country to lose $13 billion. It also destroyed Thailand's competitiveness in the world rice market. Moreover, this scheme has many loopholes which enable public officials involved to embezzle some of the money.

3. The government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra has attempted ot circumvent budgetary practice by submitting a bill to enable it to secure a loan of $70 billion for infrastructure megaprojects. This bill is only 4 pages long and contains vague details of the projects. If approved, the country would be subject to 50 years of repayment.

4. The government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra had also implemented a number of populist policies. These include excise tax reduction for the first car, credit card for farmers, revolving fund for villages, and free electricity and water supply. These vote catching policies have caused irreparable damage to the country's fiscal situation as well as impregnating the "culture of beggars" amongst the people. Responsible politians and governments will never introduce such policies. Polulist policies produce votes for the government's party but rip the people of determination for self betterment and the value of work ethics.

Corruption:

The self exiled Pol.Lt.Col. Thaksin Shinawatra is still facing a number of corruption charges as well as malpractice charges in the Thai courts. Here are examples of corruption and human right violation charges against him.

-The conflict of interest case related to the $2.2 billion tax free sale of Shin Corp, his telecommunications company, to Temasek Holding, a Singaporean Company.

-Assisting his former wife to purchase land from a state agency at unrealistic price.

-Corruption in relation to the purchase/hiring of explosive detector and equipment for Suvannabhumi Airport from GE Invision Inc. causing a damage to the country of approximately $80 million.

-Abuse of authority in approving Exim Bank loan to Myanmar which resulted in benefit for Shin Corp.

-Unlawful change of telecommunication concession fees into exise tax which allegedly benefited Shin Corp while causing an equivalent loss of $230million to the country.

-Malsfeasante in granting loan of approximately $400 m from state owned Krung Thai Bank to a company owned by his cronies and son.

Malpractice:

-Abuse and violation of human rights on Muslim population in Sounthern Border Provinces which caused 108 deaths at Krue Sae Mosque, and 35 deaths at the Tak Bai incidents. Furthermore, during the first government of Pol.Lt.Col Thaksin Shinawatra, 18 human rights defenders were assasinated and one disappeared.

-Involvement in extrajudicial killings of over 2,700 individuals during the "war on drug" campaign between 2003-2005. Pol.Lt.Col Thaksin Shinawatara subsequently admitted that such campaign was a mistake. It was also found to be qualified as case of crime against humanity by independent investigative committee.

All of the above cases were investigated by a special taask force set up after the coup of 2006. The proceeding was nonetheless in accorrdance with the Thai criminal code and not special law.

It is well known that Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra is a proxy of Pol.Lt.Co. Thaksin Shinawatra. She has no political experience before assuming the office of Prime Minister. Similarly the Puea Thai Party is under a total control of Pol.Lt.Col Thaksin Shinawatra. Thus all significant appointments have been made by Pol.Lt.Col. Thaksin Shinawatra and not by Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra who is neither leader of the party nor member of its executive committee.

At present nepotism is spreading widely in the Thai society and has crept into the civil service and law enforcement agencies. The government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawata had shown its "true color" in contrast to its promised manifestos and this has brought the people to the street and join the current demonstrations.

Finally and most significant is the fact that the government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawaatra had destroyed the "true democratic value", which Thai people hold dear.

The Thai people value transparent and accountable government as well as politicians who respect the rule of law. On the other hand, the government keeps on insisting that it was elected through democratic process but it avoids mentioning that the election was full of fraud and vote rigging. Pol.Lt.Col. Thaksin Shinawatra used his enormous wealth to bribe local politicians, government officials, the press and academicians in so doing. Check and balance is absent in the House of Representatives while Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra seldom answered questions and rarely attended the sessions. Censure motions were regarded by the government as joke.

The principle of rule of law, check and balance and separation of power was further eroded when the Puea Thai members of the House of Representatives filed rebellion charge against the Constitution Court judges on its ruling on the draft constitutional amendment regarding the composition of the Senates. That was because the Court ruled that the move was unconstitutional.

Some Puea Thai members of Parliament committed fraud by proxy voting. Discrepancies were also found in the draft submitted to the Parliament and which was used for deliberation. So, how could the Thai people place their faith and trust on the government that used every possible means to abuse the executive and legislative power given to it for vested interest rathere than national interest.

John Locke once stated in the Two Treatises on Government "that "....when people are made miserable, and find themselves exposed to the ill usage of arbitrary power…..will be ready upon any occasion to ease themselves of a burden that sits heavy upon them". And ".....if a long train of abuses, prevarications and artifices, all tending the same way, make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what they lie under, and see wither they are going, it is not to be wondered that they should then roused themselves, and endeavour to put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for which government was first erected and without which, ancient names and specious forms are so far from being better, that they are much worse than the state of nature of pure anarchy; the inconveniences being all as great and as near, but the remedy farther off and more difficult.

It therefore goes without saying that the Thai people hold legitimate and lawful rights to protect their country from corrupt and unlawful government and to remove it from power. Such government had caused irreparable damages to their beloved country and the Thai people cannot allow it to hold on to power so as to further abuse the nation.

On behalf of the Thai people, we ask for your understanding of the true situation in Thailand and to support the patriotic and selfless Thai people in exercising their rights to protect their country from the tyrannical government of Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra who is a puppet of her brother Pol. Lt. Col. Thaksin Shinawatra.

All Thai Citizens"

All Thai Citizens? All 65 million plus, really? I actually know a few Thais in the room I am in right now who would not be included in that number. Even if everything you say is true you are not speaking for all Thai citizens that is pretty arrogant to state that you are to say the least., And actually democracy in Thailand has been hijacked from the very beginning over 80 years ago it did not start with Shinawatra. And even though you make it sound like that all Thailand needs to do is get rid of his influence and everything will be fine then Thailand will have reform and there will not be anymore corruption in Thailand is a joke. But then who will be next after you get rid of Shinawatra influence? Anyone who dares to speak out against "All Thai citizens"? Maybe you need to read up on the history of 1930 Germany as like most Thais you probably do not know much about this time period but this so called anti-government movement is starting to sound more and more like 1930 Germany everyday!