Dogmatix

But we are banned from politics under the constitution. Any those who are Thai from birth are eligible.

Nevertheless it is a question that many people ask which is not surprising, given the level of corruption in Thailand. In fact, if you ask many lawyers and brokers, they will tell you a substantial bribe is essential which they can arrange discretely for you. Then they will proceed to pocket the whole lot for themselves and spend the next 3 years coming up with excuses as to why the client's citizenship wasn't expedited as promised. I know someone going through this at the moment. He ignored my advice not to pay the expressway fee to the lawyer who is now claiming that the Chinese have bid up the bribes so much that he needs to make a top up payment to be taken seriously. 555

I like this approach because, although it is not very practical, it would place enormous pressure on the senate which has created this impasse. The 7 MFP coalition partners had no trouble with MFP's section 112 policy as it was omitted from the MOU and they were expecting to be given cabinet portfoliosby MFP they could make money out of. But now the tide has turned they have all suddenly realised they can't give their support to a coalition that includes MFP.

There will be another batch of appointed senators without the right to vote for the PM.

You are right. It was planned all along with Thaksin but the unexpected MFP victory threw a spanner in the works. With a majority in the lower house and the current senate controlled by Prawit sitting till May, they will have the numbers and time to re-write the constitution and organic laws.

There were rumours long before the election that negotiations had been ongoing about Thaksin letting Prawit (or Prayut) be PM in return for letting him come home scot free when Thaksin was fantacising about a landslide PT victory. Since Prawit controls most of the senate vote, there is logic to that. Sretha is not considered reliable or likely to survive long by the old guard and Thaksin will have to pay billions to get the senate to vote for him. One look at Sretha tells that he is not cut out for the dirty world of politics and, since he lacks his own faction in PT, he is attractive to Thaksin as he cannot be his own man.

There are still a lot luxury watches he doesn't own, or have on loan, yet and the best way of avoiding prosecution for his past misdeeds is to stay in power for the rest of his life.

Prawit has a lot of bargaining power with his old boss Thaksin prior to the vote because he controls the senate vote without which Thaksin can't shoehorn in his nominee. After that I think we will a folding of UTN back into PPRP whence it came which will make PPRP bigger than Anutin's BJP and the second largest party in the new style Thaksin led pro-dictatorship coalition. Then we will see Prawit coming into the cabinet in person, if not before.

One point never mentioned by police re gun crackdowns is how many of the guns turned out to be legally registered and had to be returned to their owners. In photographs of this latest cracckdown from another source there were a large number of .22lr rifles visible which are hardly the weapon of choice for most criminals and usually used for plinking at 50 metre ranges.

Looking at the stray dog problem I took my 2 year old son to bet rabies pre-exposure vaccination.

July 16th has been and gone.

PT is rapidly backtracking on its agreement to form a coalition with a party that had a policy to amend 112. This is despite Thaksin being quoted in Wikileaks telling the US ambassador the law had to go, as it was incompatible with democracy, and Sretha apparently saying on Tik Tok that it was OK to amend the law but not abolish it.

Yes. It was PT campaign policy. Thaksin has always had a hard line on drugs, as in his murderous war on drugs. It will be interesting to see, if Anutin puts up a stand, as Thaksin is going to need his 71 seats soon.

Rumours that Anutin is being offered the foreign minister job where there is little money to be made. Perhaps he has to bite the bullet and abandon his cannabis policy as Thaksin is dead set on recriminalising it. Otherwise he will demand the public health ministry but I can't imagine him settling for the foreign ministry.

Interesting question. I think it would because the speaker and deputies were legitimately elected in parliament. Since these are supposed to be neutral positions, there would be no good reason to pressure the MFP deputy to resign, although that might happen.

The program "Jo Deep Thaw Thai" interview with Chuwit talking about Sretha Thavisin. Chuwit mentions real estate firm that sells land by avoiding hundreds of millions in taxes, saying that if the millionaire rose to a prime ministerial candidate, he would "reveal" such a thing. Can't wait for this show to get started.

Undoubtedly MFP will be dissolved and Pita banned for 10 years and maybe even imprisoned. But the movement has shown the ability to regenerate and come back as something stronger and more coherent. Dissolving two Thaksinite parties also had minimal effect.

Given another 9 years he would fulfill his broken promise to restore happiness to the Thai people.

I don't think so. Don't forget the Chinese zero dollar tours that add a lot of bulk to the numbers and huge numbers of legal and illegal foreign workers are needed to staff up the tourism industry, simply because the Thai education system is too inefficient to teach even basic English speaking and aural comprehension skills to Thai kids. Export manufacturing is more important to the Thai economy, even though it requires enormous imported inputs.

Burma 1988.

Re level of Thai required it is intermediate level Thai. You need to be able hold a reasonable conversation and answer questions. If you are applying without a Thai spouse, you need to be able to sing the National and Royal anthems unaccompanied and handle an interview of about 10 minutes by yourself at the MOI- if married to a Thai your are interviewed with your spouse who may help you. Reading and writing is not required but you may offer to do the reading and writing tests to get more points. Knowledge of the Thai language is only an absolute requirement, if you don't have a Thai spouse but it is hard to get through the process without being able to communicate in Thai at all and you may need the points allocated for Thai language.

Russian national Mr Sirorkin has already been crated up along with other Russian criminals for loading on to Lavrov’s plane to go back to Russia to take up well paid positions in meat factories in a neighboring country.

Obviously he can’t get elected while the scoundrels in the junta appointed senate still get to vote. But the question is does MFP really want to remain in a coalition that will be constantly manipulated by Thaksin, if Sretha gets elected as a seat warmer for the airhead Thaksin daughter. They have already ceded the speaker job to make way for a notably corrupt former Thaksin flunky posing as an independent in order to get a chance of the premiership. They will not be able to get any of their major reform pledges done and will be tainted with PT corruption scandals. Far better to slip gracefully into the opposition and let Thaksin alienate his red shirt supporters by teaming up with his old pal Gen Watchman.

He is here to offer the sudden influx of long term male Russian tourists well paid jobs in canned meat factories in a neighboring country. With great pension and life insurance benefits.

This is madness. Obviously the majority required should be the majority of those that cast votes.