Eric Loh

46 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Reasonable comments.

 

But democracy is more than the ballot box. Once you have an elected government refusing to obey the law, threatening judges, refusing to accept court decisions unless they're favorable ones; then you loose any claim to being democratic.

 

Being elected does not bestow the right to do as you please. To pretend it does is flaunting democracy.

 

There is nothing democratic about a Junta appointed government whose only avenue to legitimization is to be seen to be whiter than white, unblemished. And as we see, that ain't likely either.

 

Unfortunately real democracy is a foreign concept here to be paid lip service too. As it is in many other nations.

Don’t disagree much. The first stage of a democratic process is participatory election. Then after the government will have to safeguard political rights and civil liberties.  A free press important and so is rule of law. The junta failed all that. Thaksin allowed himself to be held accountable by the people but he also failed in many aspects.

Most Asian countries only subscribed to democracy relatively recent. All these countries had very turbulent past whether they were colonized or by military dictatorship. Democracy have given them a voice to involved in decision making and most have become better developed and better standard of living. Yes, agree it’s still learning curve but compare to the past, democracy is still the right system for them compare what they experienced in their past. 

1 hour ago, Ozman52 said:

Given the Nation's editorial stance, I suppose that only negative news re PPRP's coalition is to be expected. The other paper leads with the news that PPRP has agreed to the Democrat's requests for ministerial positions, making this topic rather stale and irrelevant.  

If you pay attention to the publishing date and time, this news seem to be the latest development and thus relevant.

15 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

Is he nuts or suicidal? If a large number of Thais read George Orwell's "Animal Farm", just imagine all the things that could happen! There is a good reason why it was banned in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, and why discussion about it is banned in China. - If that novel ever becomes popular in Thailand, the semi-feudal system of the 5% will be threatened...

You do know that he is not that bright. He just mistook this book to be a children book about animals.  

5 minutes ago, seajae said:

this could be interesting, what happens if we end up with a pro junta govt but not the general as the pm, hmmmm

Really nothing change as long as the crooked military drafted constitution and the 20 years national strategy are still in placed as well as Prawit and Anupong remained as Defence and Interior ministers respectively.  

51 minutes ago, robblok said:

Of course your 100% right to point that out, the generals should be investigated too. But I would like to point out that YL did all she could to resist an unbias investigation in the rice program (intimidating the person who brought it up.. stalling doing her own fake investigation). She just did not have the same pull as the generals but otherwise she would have done exactly the same. I guess all crooks (yellow and red) would do the same. Thailand has a long way to go and I would have preferred the PTP in power but only because they would have less chances to get away with corruption now in their weakened state the generals have too much power.

 

Fair comment Rob. We both dislike corruption and like to see all corruption investigated by independent enforcement agencies and adjudicated by a fair court without being influenced by political expediency.  

2 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

I see a link, but no reason to click it.
Maybe you can try to convince people why they should follow this link, or even give a short summary of the information one can find with this link?

Thats more helpful than just posting a link with no further text.

You right. Just ignore the facts.

41 minutes ago, Ozman52 said:

Because stashing the ill-gotten gains with family is SOP. They don't have to prove anything, it up to the asset holders to show how those assets were obtained. Double jeopardy, you have to do that without falling foul of tax or money laundering laws. 

What if someone with the rank of General tell you that it is none of your business to question his family wealth. Double jeopardy don't apply to all Thais in general. 

The junta coalition is falling apart even before they could collate. Meechai's grand scheme up in flame. 

https://www.government.se/articles/2017/02/facts-about-migration-and-crime-in-sweden/

6 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

How do you know what the rice scheme cost when PTP refused to publish any actual accounts?

 

Exchange rates are not linearly related to a county's fiscal policies and monetary policies which are moderating factors.

Read. It's all over in public domain #rice scheme cost. Stop being ignorant just because you lazy to search. 

There is a nice video on How fiscal and Monetary Policies affect exchange rate. Try searching. Much to learn.

6 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Which economic issues didn't it solve?

Try reading the topic for a change.

7 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Admit it Eric, PTP were corrupt to the core, their leaders and owners especially.

 

Stop trying to deflect their crimes by saying others also do things. Man up to reality.

I do admit there were corruption with the PTP government. Now do you also admit that there were corruptions with other non PTP government and the junta government. Man up to reality that all are corrupted but the dispensation of justice are highly skewed

58 minutes ago, Ozman52 said:

Wrong. The value of the baht dropped at the time of the coup; since then it has climbed steadily to be rated higher than it was through most of the Yingluk PTP government period. In the year before the coup, the value of the baht vs US$ had dropped from 31 to 33.5. And that is despite the junta being left the massive stockpiles of rotting rice, and the loss to rice farmers as the value of their crop dropped as it was cleared.

 

Baht values mid range as supplied by XE.

And I thought that economic problems are normally solved by the right fiscal and monetary policies which influence exchange rate. You also over simplified the reason for crop price fluctuation. Think global not local. By the way, the rice scheme cost less than 3% of the GDP and 6% of overall country debt which include previous inherited debts from past governments.  

Is this the only rice scheme that is corrupted or the only crop that link to corruption. Probably the lesson here is to stay of rice policy. Rubber, palm oil etc are ok. 

56 minutes ago, Oziex1 said:

"Thailand may have a new Government"

I'd like to see that, unfortunately I  only see the old one rebooted. 

That old government didn’t solve economic issues. What hope with this rebooted government 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Prayut ‘to have the final say’ on Cabinet

Old habit die hard. First sign of trouble for his coalition. 

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Anutin said the party would join Palang Pracharat’s coalition on the condition that its four demands are accepted.

Those are not demands but easy give away by PPRP. If Anutin has the nuts, he asked for the position of Defense and Intrtior Ministers AND that Prawit and Anupong don’t take up any position in the government. Gut wrench time if Anutin is up to that.

7 minutes ago, Roadman said:

still to be seen thou. 

So you really don’t know after expanding so much energy with your bigoted views. The topic is about PTP not FFP. Try not to confuse yourself. 

Forget legacy, I am more interested for the future. Surayud will be the most senior privy council. He and Gen Sonti in the council with Army Chief Apirak are from the King’s Guard. Will the dynamics be different with the 3 Ps from the Eastern Tigers in government. Let’s see. 

8 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Politicians do more u-turns than the roads have in Bangkok!

 

But you don't seriously expect anyone to be naive enough to believe PTP are fighting for the people? One of the most corrupt parties ever, leading the fight against corruption - 555! Yeah, out of jealousy not morals.

Apples and oranges but credit you for trying to pull one over. Give you an analogy. Suppose you at a bar and have intention to bring a hooker back home for a night of joyful lust. You agreed on the price and she went with you. If you then realized that you don’t want to risk catching herpes or worse, you make an u-turn and tell her the deal off. If you did the act and refuse to pay, that’s a reversal of your promise. Dem did a reversal not a u-turn. Not same same. 

By the way, the best way to judge whether the party is fighting for the people are the election results. They won all the time. The people subscribed to them for fighting on their behalf.