Eric Loh

To use one example. The United states in its first hundred years of democracy suffered through civil war, slavery, rampant corruption untill it finally got most of its act together through constutional amendments and generational change to its laws and culture. It took until the 1960's to finaly give the blacks civil rights.

Thailands democracy movement is less than 75 years old. It is now much like the U S going through enormouse change. This coupled with Asian culture makes for many difficult challenges. Rather than ridicule Thai's trying to improve their lot perhaps we should give pause to all the bad things that happened in our own countries prio to getting our act together. Thailand managed even with all its faults to avoid the things that killed millions in neighbouring countries under Pol Pot and the communist dictatorships of Vietnahm and forced military rule of Cambodia. I recon that in spite of what is going on here things are heading in the right direction. Nation building takes time.

There are many countries in Asia that were democractic in lesser time than Thailand. None of these countries have coups and they are flourishing. Your argument is flawed. Don't be fooled by false prophets proclaiming that our democracy is unique. Successive coups happened due to the establishments stance to stay relevant and in power.

The only thing the WRB can possible achieve now will be their brainstorming session, and I suspect little will come from that either.

Nowhere in this article does it say the government is advocating the use of water-saving devices in homes, hotels, offices and factories. Nor does it mention the the government will raise the cost of water to consumers in an effort to encourage them to use less. And, the most glaring omission of all, there is nothing mentioned about TAT running an education campaign aimed at all tourists entering the country (to alert them to the need to conserve water)!

Nothing else they can do at this time (short of resorting to magic) will mitigate the impact of the current drought. A horse, and an open barn door make an appropriate metaphor.

In yet another example of government failure, the Nations news article is at least six months too late in coming. It should have been about the governments plans before the start of the rainy season (at which time there may have been a chance of taking meaningful action). These guys had plenty of warning of the onset of current El Niño, but did SFA about it.

Even the photograph in this article is appropriate in highlighting the incompetence and mismanagement that has taken place it shows water flowing from a hydroelectric power station! Did anybody think to shut down the hydro stations to conserve water?

One only hopes now that they dont interfere with the farmers too much at this stage, as they and their families are about to become the real victims of this failure to act when there was a chance of doing something.

Every shopping centre has a car wash in the basement using thousands of cubic of clean water every week. They can't even force people not wash their cars every week.....

Rather than forcing people not to wash their cars, the government should include waste water recycling in the water plan. Recycle waste water can be used for agriculture and industrial. Only 10% of waste water is recycle and that is extremely low when we have 14 million cubic meter of waste water daily.

This plan will not be binned, same as none of the other ideas from dear leader that had strong opposition has been binned.

Right. They are just waiting till the storm calms down so they can push it through again.

This time someone stumbled upon the documents by accident and made a fuss, next time that might not happen and it will be implemented before anybody realizes they have no rights anymore in this country.

And the submarines will be bought when nobody is looking. Got to get the Navy on their side. No Eastern Tigers connection there.

Looks like the PM is plucking ideas from the air without giving much careful thoughts. The idea of desalination of sea water is just another of his once in a moment spark that has his staffs scratching their heads. Why do Thailand need very expensive desalination plants when we have excess of fresh waters from the rivers and dams. Singapore need these plants because of land scarce of securing water catchment reservoirs and have to depend 90% of water from Malaysia. And they need 3 desalination plants costing over almost 100B Baht. What we need is a comprehensive irrigation and water resource plans which previous governments already have but never implemented due to politics, courts and environmentalists impediments. Just dust off any on these blueprints and don't need to re-invent another hair brain idea.

I cant understand all this talk of anger from a few posters here, as if they wanted the trouble to start again. I have lived in a farming village in Isaan for 10 years, i speak Thai and am relatively active in village life. I see poverty and debt and i see worry for the future but i see no anger. The farmers are used to poverty and are usually completely apathetic towards politics. They will mutter and mumble about the lousy price that they are getting from the millers or about the weather but that is it. Farmers all over the world are a patient lot. I don't see the guillotine set up any time soon.

We are only responding to the topic.I am sure TF has a better pulse on the situation which warrant them to raise the survey. And there are more than few posters that resonated that there are anger. Just check the survey result. As for farmers apathetic towards politics; wrong again. Just check the voters turnout in the North and NE for last 2 elections. But I do agree with you that the rising anger will unlikely to erupt into political violence as long as the junta stick to the election roadmap and not extend their stay.

How could anyone, even a slimy worm like Suthep, possibly defame a rotten, lowdown skunk like Thaksin ??? Cannot believe this defamation charge even reached the court, even in the Land of Litigation.

................."Thaksin then designated a lawyer to sue Suthep of violating Sections 326, 328 of the Criminal Code.".............................

Which is fitting, as they are both criminals, in their own way.

OK got it. 2 low-life. Only one has conviction while the other is and will be always be protected. Technically only one is a criminal while the other has a laundry list of charges but never convicted or even banned from politics.

When poor people are pushed to the brink of economic hardship with no end in sight and seeing their votes violated by yet another coup and their elected members of the government unfairly muzzled and charged, anger is only natural. Now it seem that the educated middle class are beginning to be angry too with the state of the economy, suppression and more attempts to control their freedom of expression. Will this rising anger erupt into political violence? No, I doubt it. Thais know that the military is ruthless and will never back off. History tells it all.

Most likely they will wait and see this through and manifest their anger at the next election. History will repeat with another resounding beating of the rightist parties like the Dem Party.

But I do see some cracks in the military government and time will tell if there will be a change of PM. There always discontent in the military regarding promotions and factions. The performance of PM may also be a cause of change as he losing support from the people who back him to stage the coup.

Reality here in Thailand------People have always been on the brink of hardship.

Especially when the farmers did not get paid BEFORE the problems started---FACT.

Yingluck and here PTP party --quote "unfairly muzzled and charged-----UNFAIRLY after all they did illegally. ???

The middle class are not happy because the economy is a world wide problem---didn't you know, not just a Thai problem. OMG

Freedom of expression OMG, more freedom than when Thaksin controlled the media---Comparison.

And you people have this audacity to say I have an agenda-----there is only about 10 of you on TVF that repeatedly put this view YOU have just posted---

Suppose the vast majority of old regular posters must be wrong. If I was in a minority without too much to shout about --I would be shy.

I can see that you get highly emotional defending the junta and not really making much sense. We get it. You love the junta and hate the Shin. The good news is that there will be an election and you need to bring yourself to that reality. Just don't jump of the building if another Shin party get back into power. That looks very likely, Ginjag.

Trump brash and in your face demeanor kind of remind me of someone in Thailand. Fellow clowns?

When poor people are pushed to the brink of economic hardship with no end in sight and seeing their votes violated by yet another coup and their elected members of the government unfairly muzzled and charged, anger is only natural. Now it seem that the educated middle class are beginning to be angry too with the state of the economy, suppression and more attempts to control their freedom of expression. Will this rising anger erupt into political violence? No, I doubt it. Thais know that the military is ruthless and will never back off. History tells it all.

Most likely they will wait and see this through and manifest their anger at the next election. History will repeat with another resounding beating of the rightist parties like the Dem Party.

But I do see some cracks in the military government and time will tell if there will be a change of PM. There always discontent in the military regarding promotions and factions. The performance of PM may also be a cause of change as he losing support from the people who back him to stage the coup.

Any CDC under this junta will produce exactly what the junta wants.

why does anyone pretend that people other than the junta and it's "leader" are in control of this process?

All the 21 CDC members are involved in writing post coup charters only. They have never involved in a writing a charter under a democratic government. And the biggest supporter of the rightist camp is Meechai and he chair the CDC. What do you expect?

Really started with US September job creation misses big expectation about 6 days ago. Stock market rally as the sentiment for rate increase this year doused by this poor data. Currency took the cue and most currencies appreciated including the Baht. However the biggest gainers were the Malaysian Ringgit and Indonesia Rupiah with more in-flow of stock investments and better commodity prices. The US dollar strength slow down benefited commodities and most commodity exporting countries saw much strengthening of their local currencies.

Ultimately it will happen if the country is not returned to a democracy. This government/oligarchy/dictatorship has been given time to sort out various problem but if it takes the long term option there will be opposition and more than just civil unrest.

How can we return to democracy when there was no democracy here to start with?

If you mean that there is democracy to start with because the repeated coups always truncated democracy, I agree with you.

THAMMASAT IS ALSO A THREAT TO HUMAN RIGHTS

Most of the crooked lawyers I know graduated there. Their "Old Boy' network is above the law.

If you are cheated in a Thai court, (regular occurrence), what can you do?

Hire another lawyer and get cheated some more?

Go to the Lawyers Council ? Waste of time, it's part of the "Legal Mafia"

I know one lawyer who was struck off over 20 years ago, and still runs a busy law office in Bangplee, still cheating and abusing people.

Thailand urgently needs an independent body, with teeth, to regulate and clean up the deplorable Justice System.

This is the best possible legacy that General Prayuth can give the people

News topic about commemorating students slaughtered by the army. This idiot turns it into plugging general too.

Well done.

WHO'S THE IDIOT?

Who's plugging the general? I merely pointed out that some Thammasat graduates have a VERY negative effect on this country, and made a positive suggestion for improvement.

Most people on this forum have much more to fear from a corrupt Justice System which can legally harass you, steal your assets, and even wrongfully imprison you. The current government seems harmless by comparison!

Concur with you that we have a corrupt justice system that has not change with the current government. We are still being harassed and wrongfully imprisoned.

NOT JUST ONE,,,,,,TWO MASSACRES, by the Thai Army, killing unarmed civilians.

The first massacre was on October 14th 1973, and there were even more victims than October 6th 1976.

1992?

2010?

And nobody punished! 39 years later, Has anything changed?

Nothing really change and the ultra rightist groups are still around and all those that work for them are still unpunishable.

How about doing something on your own back yard like the yearly smog in Chiangmai.

Growing number of educated middle income Bangkok citizens getting annoyed with the junta. Their support base is fast dwindling. Bad news for Suthep and the Dem Party.

Criminal court dropping the lawsuit was expected and she said that. Smart that she able to highlight the irregularities of the court without being charge for contempt. Brilliant defiance which will see her as strong by her supporters.

Now that we get the serious stuff like securing a photo-op with Obama out of the way, can the junta pay bit more attention to the petty stuff like the economy. This kind of self gratification like the happiness poll is getting silly and makes the junta more like a mickey mouse club.

If ever the situation turns chaotic, it will not be the NE farmers but spark either by the students activists or within the military. The students will grow bolder and the junta is caught in a catch 22 situation. Tough action will result in a middle class uprising and soft action will embolden the students. Within the military, there are much discontent especially the senior officers that will pass over in promotion in favour of a certain faction. I think it is boiling for a long time and a certain officer death may be targeted for this reason in 2010.

Guess the only comedian left is the PM himself.

What losses?

Oh, right. He could not travel to see his paymaster and pick up his cheque.

Only a simpleton could believe this.

Only a simpleton would not see WhizBang's comment was sarcasm, dipped in satire, & rolled in black humor.

(but...............many a true word spoken in jest)

Amazing you can see all that. Pretty straightforward to me and is juvenile.

At what cost when 40% of the population are non citizens. I know it's the policy of the government to have a population of 6M to enhance the domestic economy and lessen the dependent on export. However the negatives is now outweighing the positives. The locals are not a happy lot. Credit to the government, they now slow down the number of immigrants and job seekers and that brought them a massive boast in recent election. They need to do more.

We shouldn't underestimate the intelligence of the Thai people to make their decision at the ballot box. Twice the voters made their voices heard and voted out the Dem government under Chuan due to massive corruption of the Sor Phor Kor scandal and policies that prospered their crony companies and friends. Thaksin can be voted out if we allow democracy to mature and the people realized the power they hold.

It'll all come to a head one day and I am convinced Yingluck will be treated far more kindly by history than the current installed PM. The rice scheme was poorly managed but well intended and now the subsidies have stopped and the farmers, once AGAIN, will suffer and does the Junta care? we know the answer to THAT.

OK, first of all, whatever happens to Thaksin/Yingluck is entirely of their own making. Those that are still blinded by the red propaganda will continue to believe they are a self-sacrificing family who put the interests of the "poor" over their own, when in reality nothing they do is for any reason other than to enrich themselves and their cronies.

Secondly, the rice scheme was a scam from day one, it was NOT well intended, as only the middle/top level rice farmers were eligible, the poorest who actually needed the help couldn't participate. The people who made shitloads of money from this were the people that owned the fields (they put up the rent, A LOT), the rice millers (owned by, you can guess), and the transportation and storage companies (again, you can guess who they are owned by).

The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), a private non-profit foundation that researches public policy, analyzed the rice pledging scheme in 2012 and identified several disadvantages. (Advantages and Disadvantages of Rice Pledging Scheme[in Thai] TDRI (Sept. 2012).) For example, it found that the farmers who would receive the most benefit from the scheme would be high to moderate-income farmers (around 1.185 million households), because they are capable of cultivating considerable amounts of rice for the purpose of selling their product to the government. (Id.) In contrast, low-income farmers possess only the ability to cultivate rice for consumption by their own households. Thus, they would not have enough rice to enter into the rice pledging scheme. (Id.) Furthermore, THAI PBS found that only 8% of farmers would benefit from this scheme. (1 Year: Problems of Rice Pledging Scheme of Yingluck Administration, supra.)

I don't disagree with you but tell me which governments in the past have not done things to benefit themselves and their cronies and I will also include military governments. They are all the same and Thaksin parties are no different from any of the past governments. Ultimately the people will see through their corruptions and will make their feelings felt at the ballot box. Military intervention and harsh laws stripped them of their rights and rights to question corruption of the military.

Thaksin for all his imperfections have done things that people resonated which allow him to be the first PM to serve a full term and re-elected for another term. His parties have won all election and that's a recognition and acknowledgement of his policies. Even Prayuth is flip flopping to agree with most of Thaksin policies. Come next election, it looks like another Thaksin party will be elected again. The rice scheme was a poor policy but will be just that lousy policy against a broad range of policies that has benefitted the Thais.