Siripon

Hello all,

I'm trying to formulate the text in my copyright passage for a book to fit the shape on the enclosed photo, a kind of squashed orange effect!

I can't seem to find how to achieve this on Word instructions. Can anyone help please?

Yours,

Siripon.

22 hours ago, khunPer said:

One can wonder what might have happened, if general Prayuth Chan-o-cha didn't stop the unrest in 2014...????

But he didn't stop the unrest for a long time. He let Suthep march around the streets, closing down this road and that in his 'Shutdown Bangkok' campaign, surrounding and invading government property. Suthep even ordered civil servants to report to him, not Yingluck. An act of treason.

And what has Prayuth done since seizing power? He's appointed some of the very men who were causing the unrest to his government!

It wasn't that long ago:

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/639981-thaksins-niece-set-to-marry-son-of-hun-sens-right-hand-man/

So it's not surprising if the Cambodian dictator repaid her with a passport- She's almost one of the family now.

11 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Wrong again. The royal decree to set the election in motion was signed mid December. This decree include lifting of political activities and political campaigning. A time table was included including Jan 4 for the EC to announce the election date. That date came and gone because the EC is waiting for the junta to confirm the election and set a date. Royal decree simply gazette the election date and not set the date. 

 From The Asian Review-

The junta will cease submitting any new laws on Dec. 28, effectively becoming a caretaker government. The royal decree to hold an election will be granted on Jan. 2. Two days after the decree, the Election Commission will officially announce the date of the election.

And from The Nation 12 hours ago-

The much-anticipated Royal Decree on the election, which will allow the Election Commission to fix the poll date, has yet to be issued and Prayut yesterday said he did not know when it would be published in the Royal Gazette.

47 minutes ago, Jimbo in Thailand said:

Ummm.... Do you actually believe that Fearless Leader was not aware of this carved-in-stone requirement? Of course the signing of the Royal Decree should have been done, or agreed upon, prior to Fearless Leader publicly announcing the February "poll" date months ago.  Methinks this is yet another preplanned delay orchestrated by the conniving schmuck-in-charge to retain power to the last possible nanosecond.  ????

We don't know. Perhaps Prayuth assumed too much.

3 hours ago, Eric Loh said:

The Royal Decree can’t be signed because the EC has not set a date. EC although supposed to be independent will

not set the date without the junta’s assurance of election and a date. It’s entire Prayut fault. 

No, you're wrong. The EC have to set an election date within 5 days of receiving the Royal Decree.

I don't think it will be that simple for Prayut. Even if he manages to become PM through support from the Senate it is very likely the majority of MPs in the Lower House will be against him, namely Pheua Thai and The Democrats, thus making any legislation impossible.

If Abhisit is re-elected as leader of The Democrats, as I believe he will be, then the party cannot join Prayut in forming a government.

http://www.atimes.com/article/abhisit-says-thais-deserve-better-than-military-rule/

8 hours ago, jayboy said:

And of course the poll was organized by NIDA.

 

That's about the sum of it.Monstrous though developments are, I feel less engaged than a few years ago: it's somewhat absurd for a foreigner to feel strongly on matters most Thais seem not to care about.It's all up to the Thai people and the remedy is in their hands. But I see no sign of other than occasional mild discontent - certainly among the Bangkok middle classes.And the whole region is moving in a direction inimical to democracy.So as you say one can always enjoy the soap operas (though I hate them).

But jayboy, you insisted the genie was out of the bottle once Thaksin had been elected. According to you, once the majority of Thai people realized  that they had a voice, then there would be no turning back.

I remember you advising the elite to surrender some of their power to the hoi polloi to avoid bloodshed as the inevitable march of history meant power slipping from their hands and into those elected.

Presumably his advisers have told him that rubbing shoulders with popular teens will boost his image and votes among the young in next year's election. I wonder if it will have the opposite effect though.

When I was young I didn't expect or want anyone over 30 liking the kind of music I and my friends enjoyed. ' It's our music!"

And the older voters just see a man deep into middle age keen to get his picture taken with teens in short skirts.

8 hours ago, jayboy said:

I don't particularly want to get into disputing numbers because it suggests I'm soft on the horrors of Thaksin's drugs war - which I'm not.

 

Nevertheless I question the very large number of "innocents" involved.Wikipedia is a lousy source but I found the Human Rights Watch report on line (or at least an summary).Here's an extract

 

"In August 2007, the military-installed government of General Surayud Chalanont appointed a special committee to investigate the extrajudicial killings during the 2003 war on drugs. The committee's report - which has never been made public - said that of 2,819 people killed between February and April 2003, more than 1400 were unrelated to drug dealing or had no apparent reason for their killings. Human Rights Watch, ‘Thailand: Prosecute Anti-Drugs Police Identified in Abuses,' February 7, 2008."

 

So the 1400 number comes from a military government that overthrew Thaksin and as we know was determined to blacken him.Furthermore the report has never been published.For all I know the number is correct but it's not evidence.It's hearsay from a dubious source - "parti pris" as the lawyers say.

 

If the report has indeed been published and signed off as credible by HRW etc I would obviously take a different view.

 

But hey it's only Thaksin so we can say any old rubbish we like, right?

No doubt you're read the enclosed report jayboy.

.https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/thailand0704/4.htm

10 hours ago, jayboy said:

The drugs war was a human rights disgrace and Thaksin bears prime responsibility.It was incompetently organised and ineffective.Many local scores were settled with little reference to the drugs trade.But the campaign had very wide support at the highest levels of the Thai establishment, with the military/police complicit.None of this makes Thaksin's actions excusable but the misery caused by drug traffickers destroyed countless families and lives.None of this is ever mentioned and the drugs war now serves as a way of making political capital but it's a slight surprise to find someone as intelligent as you playing that shopworn game.Incidentally the numbers you quote seem to be plucked out of the air.Unless substantiated (particular the number stated as having nothing to do with drugs) they are pretty much worthless.I really respect those who protested at the time but honesty compels one to concede they were very few - indeed a miniscule number.

"Of 2,500 deaths in the government's war on drugs in 2003, a fact-finding panel has found that more than half was not involved in drug at all. At a brainstorming session, a representative from the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) Tuesday disclosed that as many as 1,400 people were killed and labeled as drug suspects despite the fact that they had no link to drugs. ... Senior public prosecutor Kunlapon Ponlawan said it was not difficult to investigate extra-judicial killings carried out by police officers as the trigger-pullers usually confessed."

Quotes from Wikipedia:

 "Most of those killed in war on drug not involved in drug" Archived 2008-02-01 at the Wayback Machine.. November 27, 2007. The Nation (an English-language newspaper in Thailand).[5]

Jump up^ "Southeast Asia: Most Killed in Thailand's 2003 Drug War Not Involved With Drugs, Panel Finds". November 30, 2007. Drug War Chronicle.

It's hilarious Pheua Thai complaining about defections. They are the true masters of 'persuading' politicians to jump ship. Chavalit's New Aspiration Party of over 70 MPs was swallowed up whole bar one MP by Thaksin years ago.

 There is often the carrot and stick approach employed in defections, especially if it is the party in power trying to persuade the MP.

Financial incentives of large monthly payments.

Secondly, threats of prosecution for some crime (corruption) in the past if the MP does not respond. This can be very effective!

2 minutes ago, KiwiKiwi said:

I believe the 2014 reading, I wonder why you left out all of the years between 1983 and 2014? Not a cruxe way to misrepresent the reality is it?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-32061822

23 minutes ago, KiwiKiwi said:

 

A very few...

i think he was making a joke.

1 hour ago, KiwiKiwi said:

 

I think I saw a while back that capital punishment in Thailand is approved of my the majority of Thais. It's not the oinly backward aspect of Thai culture by any means. Most civilised country's eschew capital punishment and rightly so.

Capital punishment was approved by a large majority of the UK population until very recently. 75% supported it in 1983 whilst in 2014 it had dropped to 48%.

 56% of Americans support the death penalty for murder.

Suthep needs an amnesty himself. He's facing some serious charges. Maybe time to team up with the Pheua Thai folks like him who are facing charges that will mean imprisonment.

After all, charity begins at home!

The police chief failed to arrest the monk while he was in Thailand so now he's running back and forth trying to bring him back and save his own job.

Just now, KiwiKiwi said:

Most things these people do are a joke. Often in pretty poor taste.

 

Question: does anyone think these people really know what many foreigners think of them? I see no sign they understand that they are held up as a complete laughing stock, but they can't possibly be that thick can they? Oh... sorry.

Many foreigners can be summed up as a few posters on Thai Visa with a lot of time on their hands. I know several foreigners in Thailand who have no interest in Thai politics. And those outside almost certainly don't care.

Having said that, I hope the Amnesty campaign regarding the charges pressed against the protestors is successful and they can gather many signatures but I doubt the junta are shaking in their boots at fear of foreigners' impressions.

Isn't Prayuth off to Europe next week?

Just now, KiwiKiwi said:

 

With respect, that's just naive. There will always be reasons not to have it - political parties to be prosecuted and banned, deaths in the family, conflict in the streets, and that's without getting creative.

 

Or would care to make a small wager?

 

 

I don't want to take your money KiwiKiwi, it would be cruel.

Reasons why the election couldn't be held- political parties banned -Future Forward , yes, that's possible, his support base is still small.

Pheua Thai- it's too obvious and would lead to street violence. I don't think Prayuth could survive doing that.

A death in the family -perhaps, we can't really go down that path.

Anyway, time will tell , and whatever will happen is certainly getting nearer!