rickirs

"they do not want any political party which serves capitalism."

This is the most inane statement by Suthep/PDRC that I have seen yet. Almost every governmental system on earth today has embraced capitalism as their economic base regardless of their form of government, ie., democracy, "modern" Communism, Olioarchy, tolaitarian, monarchy. Capitalism serves government, not the reverse. This is particularly true for resource rich countries who rely on a global market for their goods. The few excetions like Cuba and North Korea are notable for their closed societies, elitist class, state ownership for production of goods, and lack of significant domestic and international consumption that can eshew a capitalistic system by national pricing controls. Venzuela's shift towards a more "retro" form of communism is going to extremes to control prices of basic consumer products like toilet paper with a resulting shortage because of hoarding.

It is the type of government that will control the efficiency of capitalism. If it is Suthep's plan to completely deviate from capitalism because he views it as a populist economic system that he abhors (irrationally because he only relates populist policies to Thaksin who is "bad"), his reforms for the country will within a few short years crash the Thailand economy by making Thailand's exports too costly and cripple domestic consumption through high inflation.

Actually a bobby-head of Kim Jong-un might be very popular in the North.

Thank you Singapore for the free ad of why you should go to Thailand for Songkran.

Fourth day of the movement march? Which day was the Final Push or is it still to come? I wish Suthep would make his day of victory a little more definitive so we can mark it on the calendar.

Red shirts now acting like yellow shirts. Maybe this country does now have some common basis between opposition parties. snick.snick

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Freedom of speech where are you?

In which country is inciting violence and instigating unrest protected under the freedom of speech!

Thailand-PDRC protests in Bangkok

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

It was not known who fired at the group of people but Mr Abhisit and Mr Suthep were compelled to take responsibility for the result,


Now this has to be the most ridiculous jump in legal logic in the history or man.

It's a thai thing and faux democracy.

Thailand has raised protests to a whole new level where you can tell opposing parties by the color of the clothes they wear, by the whistles they blow, and by the Thai flag colors they wear. People in red shirts attack army checkpoint - those are the PTP party. People with yellow shirts, whistles, and/or Thai flag colors on their clothes attack people in shopping malls - those are the PDRC party. How simple it is to find blame in this country. (sarcasm)

But seriously.

What is the Army's authority now being deployed in Bangkok? Previously, it refused to deploy for the lack of a State of Emergency. When the State of Emergency was issued, the military refused to deploy as it claimed the police were responsible for protecting the public. When the police failed repeatedly to stop or deter violence, the Army unilaterally deployed using their concern for protection of PDRC protesters as its authority. But there is no martial law in effect and the military refuses to declare martial law. If one is concerned about the constitution, the continued Army deployment should be questioned as to whether it is violating the Consitution. Or is the Constitution really a discretionary tool that can be manipulated by those who hold real power in Thailand?

So is this Saturday Suthep's Final Push and, if by the following Moday Yingluck is still the Interim PM, Suthep is finished? Realistically, based on past events and PTP's political planning scheduled on the same Saturday, Suthep will not have his Final Push accomplished although he will claim victory in a popularity contest. We will hear from Suthep again on Sunday that he will have a Final Push on April 5th with hopes that a violent and bloody confrontation between the PDRC and PTP demonstrators will cause the military to declare marial law and take over the government. Failing a Final Push on April 5th, Suthep will then plan the Final Push at the next scheduled election, in ad infinitum.

Meanwhile, isn't Suthep scheduled (again) to appear in court by end of March to respond to murder allegations? No doubt he will not voluntarily appear as he is involved in his Final Push and will request another extension. And no doubt he will be granted another extension because of a sympathetic court.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

As one of Thailand's most notoriously corrupt politicians I guess he knows a thing or two about it.

Where is any evidence, beside empty blabla from PTP (or their previous parties) for his corruption?

On the land reform, it is already clear that there is no trace of corruption.

I doubt that any politician in Thailand is free of corruption, so I am sure there is something with Suthep, but nothing was ever found so far and by now Thaksins layer surely check everything. That almost daily they go to court with some new charges about murder in 2010, but can't find a single case of corruption to bring to court says a lot.

Maybe if Suthep appeared in court to answer to murder charges we might find out more about the man's honesty.

No! Why does NIDA keep repeating these kinds of misleading statements? It is a majority of those 1,255 people who were POLLED by NIDA or about 658 people who wanted to see national reform first. That hardly compares to the 49 million eligible voters! If Thailand, by whatever unelected committee(s) is/are going to make sweeping reform policy based on less than 0.001% of the eligible voters, reforms will never be accepted in a democratic society. And maybe that is the justification for the formation of a dictatorship.

Use of national referendums have been very useful tools by many democratic countries for gauging and gaining public support for major changes to constitutions, laws, and government administrative procedures. Why aren't referendums being used to gauge public intent? The problem for the PDRC is that in a referendum vote it would be held accountable to the general public to explain its opposition to populist policies, to one-man one vote democracy, to unelected public officials, etc. and I don't think it can stand up to that kind of transparency while it condemns the current administration for lack of transparency.

Public spending to stimulate Thai economy - isn't that the kind of "populist policy" that Suthep wants to ban as part of his reforms for the Government? He would probably more favor policies that would shift more wealth to the elite and upper income classes from the middle and low income classes. Otherwise populist prgrams might raise the standard of living and educated of the middle and low income classes to an extent that the political power of elite and upper income classes would be diluted. When you're number one in society you have to be vigilant to keep it.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Suthep has clearly embraced Abhisit's proposal for a live TV debate with Yingluck. The country wants to see it. In fact, they're thirsting for it. Even the Thai TV dramas would lose their ratings in the event of that. Everybody wants to see it - everybody, of course, except Pheu Thai, who know Yingluck would be a positive, national embarrassment. Pheu Thai will undoubtedly shoot it down, or suggest Suthep debate Ko Tee, but the Thai people would absolutely love to see it. A snap poll should be taken on this suggestion alone. I can't imagine a Thai person anywhere who wouldn't want to see it. Abhisit's suggestion also for a referendum to give public ascent for moving forward on reform discussions could be the very breakthrough we've been looking for. PDRC want reform, and Pheu Thai " claims " that it wants reform. Put it to a public test. A referendum is the middle way, and the clear solution to bridge the two sides. Pheu Thai will shoot that down too, of course. Why ? They really don't want reform - unsurprisingly. And the last time they promised it in 2011 was followed by you know what.

I know - let's hold an election if you want national engagement. Oh, wait, Suthep needs to gain control of the Government first through his People's Committee to implement his "reforms" so that he can gurantee election of Democrats to control parliament.

"Suthep has clearly embraced Abhisit's proposal for a live TV debate with Yingluck." It was Suthep that first made this proposal. Having now Abhisit repeat the proposal as his own is just a poorly disguised effort to distance Suthep from controlling the meeting with Yingluck. If Suthep seriously wants a meeting with Yingluck for the sake of reforms, all charges against the government and Yingluck need to be dropped in order to provide a nuetral basis for discussion; and perhaps the Government might be willing to reciprocate.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

The fact Investors are leaving the Economic space of Thailand, doesn't overly concern those who are intent on destroying Electoral and Parliamentary democracy.

Their history shows, they are not above dismantling the country, in order to rebuild it in their own image.

The Airporters were evidence of that.

When their power hunger cannot be satiated through elections, they will do what is necessary, never mind what needs to be broken in the process....

So convinced are they in their arrogance about both their unhindered governing entitlements, and their political wisdom, as if it was divinely inspired.

But they underestimate the forces that are building by the day, to prevent another stage in this never-ending cycle of depriving an electoral majority of their votes and the Govt. they selected.....

The operative concept here, is that forces are building to counter these anti-democrats.....This will not be 2006 over again.

Your points are reasonable. Thailand could easily follow the same deterioration of democracy into a semi-dictatorship that has occured in Venzuela. With that transition came economic crises, inflation of the currency, inflation in cost of imports, flight of investors and citizens out of the country, stagnation of economic growth, etc. But the dictatorial government has put retention of its political power as its highest priority above the country's well being.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Grenades thrown at the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Wow.
Can the message be any clearer?



Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Until we know who the attackers are, I'd say No. PDRC might want to force the NACC to hurry its investigation and find against the Government by covertly attacking it in the guise of PTP supporters. And what is the message for the attack on GLO? PDRC claimed that the Government has corrupted the GLO to manipulate lottery numbers; so the PDRC might be the attackers.

It is more telling that the American Government from the President's Executive branch to all the 535 members of the US Congress have not done really anything in regard to the Thai political conflict. No fact finding visits, no proclamations of support for any Thai political party, no condemnations of any party actions; only call for calm, resolution, and peace. Even the 315 million American public at large seems to hardly even notice Thailand's poitical conflict. All sides of the conflict, including the whole of the governing system, are toxic to the sustainability of a democratic system supported by the rule of law. Following the "rearrangement" of the entire Thai governing system by the 2006 coup, Thailand has been going down a one-way street of political dysfunction that could well in a sovereign dead-in for its citizens. Only its citizens will decide the direction of the country.

If PDRC once again blockades poll places, the Government might try to call the elections finished. The Court ruled that followup elections cannot be held for those polls not allowed to open if not on the same day as the rest of the election polls. So it might be interesting to see if the Court will also rule the election is still nullified because the election was not completed due to some the polls not being open on election day. If the Court still nullifies the election, then clearly the Court is operating in a disfunctional manner that is not in the best interest of the voting public, contrary to the spirit of the constitution, and supportive for the termination of the PTP government.

The Government should also get a ruling on whether advanced voting is valid as it is not held on the same day as scheduled national elections. So one expect the Court to take the opportunity to either nullify advanced voting or the regularly scheduled elections since they are not held on the same day as the advanced voting.

Getting the stalled sales back on track with Iraq is worth doing whatever is necessary to generate needed revenues for the Thai rice farmers. If apologoes are needed to the Iraqi's, that's a cheap proce to pay for the trade. You can be vindictive towards the government but let's not lose site of the people who best benefit from rice sales and that's the farmers, both rich and poor.

How can the public not overlook his superior efforts to turn the city over to the PDRC for the last five months? He has made the streets safe from traffic by protesters blockading traffic, he has provided important public services and areas of rest to the protesters, and given local businesses the opportunity to put their employees on vacations as business dramtically dropped off due to Occupation Bangkok. No, the survey does not give Sukhumbhand enough credit for how much he has really over performed.

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

What does this reform they insist on consist of? the only thing I have seen is getting rid of the shins and an end to corruption. But Suthep was filling his pockets with state money before the shins came to power, will he have to go too?

The reform is to get PTP out and Democrats back into power with the same dictatorial powers they had in 2007. Then the Democrats can pass a law to make populist polices and laws illegal, thus preventing PTP from ever getting political support.

"the EC was working on the matter on a clandestine way and has no need to inform the public every step it was doing."

Oh good grief, transparency and accountability is for someone else, not for the EC. They must operate in secrecy lest anyone think they are incompetent or worse. I bet if Yingluck had said something similar she would be instantly derided with abuse of power and corruption. Does no agency operate in Thailand without double standards?