rickirs

Yingluck should send Suthep. I'm sure the other ASEAN countries would love to hear about his ideas on insurrection, overthrowing an elected government, replacing it with an unelected, personal people's committee, suspending elections and the constitution, etc. After that Thailand will find itself on the outside looking in.

The Navy has got itself involved in a slander lawsuit against news reporters. I wonder if the Army is trying to "Keep up with the Jones" and getting ready to file its own lawsuits of slander. Maybe that would be the best for all, keep the military in court and off the streets.

The Demorcats/PDRC have said repeatedly they have the majority on their side, so why fear an election now? Join in the elections and get Thailand moving once again as a country!

Well, because the PDRC cannot trust a majority electorate at the polls because the majority, according to PDRC, are mostly uneducated and easily fooled by populist "promises." PDRC is not willing to curry favor with the majority by modifying its radical conservatism and knows PTP will win once again. PDRC needs to craft first a "majority" that it can trust and the only way to that success is to delay voting until it can become the caretaker government and enact reforms to assure its success at the polls.

So long as the PDRC maintains an armed guard force of 2,500 peace will be threatened. Even the military has been subjected to gunfire and beatings by PDRC guards. There needs to be a complete disarmament of all civilians in protest and voting areas at least until the election is completed. But we know from past experience that the police are incapable of enforcing the rule of law EVEN WHEN UNDER ATTACK. At least we can trust some quick response from the military. They need to stay until the National Assembly has been elected.

Seeing as Russia never admitted it invaded Crimea, it can honestly say it will not invade the rest of Ukraine. Oh, some 60,000 Russian military elements might get lost and find themselves deployed in Eastern Ukraine, but no one should be concerned. Putin always tells the truth, always abides by Russia's international agreements, and has never invaded any countries after the collapse of the USSR.

Phra Buddha Issara will ask for five PDRC guards who allegedly attacked a military intelligence officer last week to turn themselves in. Colonel Pongsivapai will charge 10 guards with attempted murder.

For an organization that promotes itself as respectful of law and order, it is disconcerting that PDRC's guards will not accept their own arrests. Five were asked by Issara; guess Issara is giving a free pass to the other five accused guards. But you really can't blame the PDRC for its disrespect for the law when its leader Suthep refuses the arrest warrants against him for premeditated murder.

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Phra Buddha Issara said he would use the title deed of Wat Onoi, where he is the abbot, as surety when seeking bail for the guards.

Temple land deed will be used to bail out criminals?

They are only suspects or defendents. They become criminals if and when convicted.

But I am surprised the Wat title can be used legitimately for a bail bond from a legal viewpoint. The purpose of collateral for bail is that the collateral can be confiscated in the event the defendent breaks bail. When a wat is the collateral there are two possible issues.

1) Value of the temple. Value is usually determined by the marketplace with arm's-length sales of similar properties between unrelated parties having no common economic relationship. There may be few comparable sales to establish value with any certainty that would substantially lower the value of the collateral.

2) Transferrability. If ownership of this wat is limited, ie., can only transfer to an abbot, its value will be limited. If title cannot be transferred except back to a central buddhist organization or the HRM King, a wat has no value as collateral.

3) Tax exempt property. If the wat is tax exempt property, but transferrable, payment of back taxes may be required in the transfer and reduce the overall value of the property.

4) Use of property. if the wat is tax exempt and/or deemed heritage property, adaptability to another use may be restricted and limit its value.

A very deceptive article. When I first read "Abhisit has backing from supreme commander" I had thought that he had Suthep's backing. Because without Suthep's approval, Abhisit is "talking the talk" but he is not "walking the walk." In other words, Abhisit's actions are "Much ado about Nothing." - William Shakespear (1598)

CAPO has invited Suthep for a meeting at CAPO headquarters so that CAPO may "embrace" Suthep. Suthep will get a free lunch and a quiet place for a nap.

There were 30,000 people affected in four months of this year with 50 dead and only now the ministry will start providing vaccinations against H1N1 to the most at "risk groups?"

Influenze is seasonal and the timing of its cases can be reasonably predicted. The susceptability of Risk groups to influenza is no secret. H1N1 is spread by bodily contact and inhilation so that it becomes a threat to the health of the general population as well. Perhaps the Minister of Health should direct more of his attention to disease prevention and less to politics.

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"The Election Commission (EC) needed to issue a regulation to limit or ban excessive populist policies, as they would lead to irresponsible election campaigning."

Seems a little odd for the EC to go around telling people what platform they can or cannot campaign on. What would be the point of elections if the politicians were unable to present any ideas? Why would anyone go vote? Perhaps this is his intent?

So you think political parties should be allowed to make promises they can't deliver in order to get votes?

For example (and just to pick one), how many votes did PTP got from their promise to set a flat 20 Baht fare for Skytrain and Metro for Bangkok, only to never, ever mention it again after winning and "realizing" that they didn't have the power to do such thing?

They swindled the votes out of people with promises like that, and then they have the chutzpah of starting the "Respect my vote" Astroturfing campaign.

What the Abhisit/Suthep/PDRC/Democrats want to do is legislate "promises" on the excuse that it will protect people from making the wrong, uneducated vote (aka not vote for Demorcat/PDRC party). Some "promises" will be allowed and some will not in order to deliver the proper or educated votes. Apart that such legislation will not only violate the Constitution "six different ways," but Thailand will probably have a real political war that will make Suthep's Final Victories look like oatmeal.

In a democratic society it is the opposition parties' (Thailand has 63) responsibility to bring to light (what some call 'fact-checking') the falsehoods of campaign promises to turn people's support to the opposition and gain their vote legitimately. That is the nature of freedom of speech and personal responsibility. But everything I hear about Abhisit/Suthep's reforms indicates that they don't want to make that kind of effort because they will have to move away from their Radical Conservative policies to more Centralist policies to gain the majority support of the public. They would rather force public support outside the electorial system through "reforms" initiated by unelected committees and Independent agencies for which the People would have no recourse.

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I see the PTP keyboard warriors are up early this morning, giving the usual,

we will not listen to any one who does not agree with us

Our Way or No Way

"I'm realistic. I don't think everybody will win everything he or she wants," he said.

I thought this is what we finally want to hear, a compromise, but that will not suit the PTP Keybosrd warriors

He was ready to talk to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra if his sister Yingluck was not able to make her own decision as head of the government.

This put Yingluck straight into defensive mode as she now must admit who is running Thailand, her or her brother

It my not be the perfect solution, but way ahead of what any one else has put foward

Fact:

Miracles can happen

My Thai Wife has never liked Abhisit, as we live in the North

But this morning I fell off my chair when she said to her mother

He is a good man and loves Thailand

haha so it's ok because your wife says "he's a good man and loves Thailand" lol

Fact:

he doesn't have the support of the vast majority of Thais - don't believe? hold an ELECTION

me GF has never liked Abhisit, as we live in Thailand

This morning my GF still doesn't like him and said so to our cat

"he's still the same sneaky, self-centered and self-serving guy and loves himself first, second and last" - the cat smiled and nodded knowingly

he doesn't have the support of the vast majority of Thais - don't believe? hold an ELECTION

And the only reason for that is because the majority of the population in Thailand is dirt poor and uneducated, and believe in populist policies rather than an economic policies.

People who have been educated should know that populist regimes never work and have failed all over the world.

The Constitution under Chapter V, Directive Principles of Fundamental State Policies, Part 7 - Economic Policy supports populist policies. So will the limitation or banning of populist policies be another amendment to the Constitution, ie., made by the People's Committee?

if the Thai people believe in populist policies to improve their lives and oppoisition parties believe such policies are doomed to be failures, then it is the responsibility of the opposition to educate the people to support a different policy. That is what campaigning is all about. Not to jam ppolicies down people's electorial throats with laws and constitutional amendments made without their consent, and forbiding them to vote until, as Suthep has stated, they become educated according to his standards.

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"The Election Commission (EC) needed to issue a regulation to limit or ban excessive populist policies, as they would lead to irresponsible election campaigning."

Seems a little odd for the EC to go around telling people what platform they can or cannot campaign on. What would be the point of elections if the politicians were unable to present any ideas? Why would anyone go vote? Perhaps this is his intent?

The EC has no such authority to create organic law under the Electorial Law known as the "Organic Law on the Election of Members of the House of Representatives and Senators." The limitation or banning populist policies by regulation is not covered in Part 2

Constituency, Polling Station and Polling Place and is not speficially identified in Section 44. But rather lawmaking is the authority of the National Assembly, The Constitution under Chapter VI, Part 1, Section 90.

Giving the EC such powers of "reform" would require at best an amendment to the Electorial Law and at worse a drawn out constitutional amendment. Suthep has indicated he would suspend the Constitution in order to rewrite it for his reforms. Furthermore, who would define "populist" and make the determination that whatever someone proposes as legislation constitutes populist policy - a People's Committee?

If Abhisit wants to draw attention to election behavior I suggest he review the Electorial Law at Section 62 that states, "No person shall commit any act without an authorization to prevent an elector to cast a ballot or obstruct or to delay an elector to go to the polling place, to enter into the place for casing a ballot or to reach such place within the polling time." and the Constitution at Section 72 that states "Every person shall have a duty to exercise his right to vote at an election.

"When you listen to the debates, your thoughts change all the time as you are convinced by the arguments of both sides. That is really eye opening and gave food for thought,"

Sorry, but Suthep is on a diet. He is only convinced by his own arguments. I hope some of Itim's insightedness rubs off onto his uncle.

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Bangkok post says she was arrested at her home in Hang Dong.

Still within the jursidiction of Chiang Mai isn't it?

"...number-one plea to those concerned, 43 per cent want all sides to have a sense of unity and compassion for each other so peace returns to Thailand..."

This is a sad statistic and underlies the political problem for Thailand.

Who wouldn't want a sense of unity and compassion? But on th eother hand Dictators who rule with an iron fist can bring unqualified peace to a country. Look at how "peaceful" and unified North Korea is. No, it will take more for the Thai people to arrive at peace that having senses of unity and compassion. What Thailand needs is compliance with the rule of law and unqualified transparency and accountability in its governmental system and in all its Independent Agencies. Corruption and political pandering fears the light of knowledge.

Thais need courage more than they need unity and compassion if they want peace. From Mahatma Gandhi: “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet,” and "Be the change you want to see." Thai people need to be procative to solve the political conflicts.

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Wish this PDRC morons would just let people vote and put an end to all this political nonsense.

from a poll taken of Thais, not TVF members

10 per cent want the majority voice to be respected,

so why did 90% think that elections at this time will not solve the problem

Is that a poll from your family? Recent poll reported in the Nation showed (aside from any statistical validity issues) that 49% of those polled want the elections to take place now.

You want to see the "majority voice" respected? The Yingluck administration represented the Thai majority of voters in the 2010 election. Where was the Democrat/PDRC respect for that majority voice? The PDRC now claims it has the majority behind its political program - but it FEARS participation in an election that it cannot control.

After its creation in 2007 seven years ago, it's good to see that EC has solutions for 13 election problems. Hopefully any new problems won't take as long. The EC might also consider some amendments to the Constitution that provide a future framework on rulemaking for election problems. Such framework would provide Parliament to establish laws to memorialize some of the more basic solutions such as unavailability of voting stations on election day (such as weather, national emergency, insurgency, etc.) so that the people don't have to wait months for the EC to enact responsive procedures.

The EC will be meeting with Abhisit. Will this be televised seeing as Suthep and Abhisit want to see all meetings with the Government televised for purposes of transparency? Will there be a full disclosure of the meeting to the public? The EC must maintain the APPEARANCE of political nuetrality despite some members failing to do so, and having full public record of ANY meetings with political representatives will promote EC transparency and nuetrality.

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Seems a bit strange that if they shot at him they hit his feet.

Yep.... very fishy goings on indeed.

A few things not right about this story.... Or indeed this entire incident.

Yes, the truth is often stranger than fiction.

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Hopefully she is taking 3,800,000,000 bt to give back to the EC which was wasted on the election on 02 February that PT was told by the EC that should and could legally be delayed, but they refused to listen to EC

Yes, the election could have been legally delayed AND it could have been legally held on Feb. 2, 2014. The Constitutional Court held that the election date need only be agreed upon by both the EC and the Government. The Government and EC did agree to the Feb. 2, 2014 date, so why should the government give back anything?

Rather it was because of Suthep/PDRC's blockade of 10% of the voting stations that caused the EC in agreement with the Government to schedule a followup election date for those 10% voting stations. The Democrat/PDRC/Suthep should have been made to reimburse the Government for the subsequent nullification of the election. Holding the election was constitutional; PDRC/Democrat/Suthep's shutdown of voting stations was unconstitutional.

Why did the buffalo cross the road? Because it wasn't chicken.

Its pain and suffering though is no joke and I hope it manifests into a better life.

Putin is puttin his cards on the table. He knows the US will not interfere with his schemes. Sad days are coming. NATO Allies need to show solidarity. I think it is their ballpark, not ours. Please call when it gets out of control...

The US is a member of NATO. A threat to any one of the 28 country members is a threat to all. However, neither Russia or Ukraine is a member.

In 1994 In Ukraine, the United States of America, Russia, and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, pledging to respect Ukraine territorial integrity in return for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. Russia has with its invasion of Crimea aborgated that agreement. So maybe its time to put back nuclear weapons in Ukraine. That will give Russia a very warm and fuzzy feeling.

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I shouldn't worry too much about the EU..

The legislation and trade deals are constantly changing anyway.

Also, once UK pulls out of the EU, it will likely collapse as others will follow suit.

Then you will be left to negotiate trade agreements with all the independent nation states.

According to the EU Commission's economic report issued in February 2014, overall GDP projections for the EU in 2014 and 2015 will positive, exceeding 1%. The stalwarts of the EU economic engine are Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in terms of size. If UK pulled out of the EU, the impact on EU growth would certainly have impact but certainly not result in the EU collapse. UK's withdarwal from the EU however, will more likely cause its own GDP growth rate to decrease because of its reliance on substantial exports to the EU that will no longer be entitled to exemptions from EU excise and import taxes. UK's best strategy for sustained GDP growth is with the EU.

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Erm, so he was arrested coming back into the country. However, he was able to leave without being stopped? Is there not an alert put out to airports about people wanted by the courts to prevent them leaving the country...........

What better policy can you have from the current administration than to LET anti-protester leaders leave Thailand? Suthep should take notice not to leave Thailand until he is installed and leader of the new government.