ColPyat

I obviously cannot speak for every State in the U.S.A. You name it and it has happened some where at some time.

If you don't mind, i have a few questions on this issue.

The impression i am getting from those tales, and also from excons, is that in many of the US prisons a inmate that is vulnerable can be somehow expected to be raped by other inmates. From your experience, is that so, or is that exaggerated? Does that count for all prisons, or only a few?

What, in your experience is done to prevent this?

Have you ever had cases like this where you had to protect inmates from such predators, or is it impossible to protect them?

For your information their is a Federal Law called the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Any accusation by a prisoner of being raped must be taken extremely seriously and it is! That is not to say that their are not sexual predators in prisoner, because their are, or that no prisoner has ever been raped. But to say that people who commit certain offenses are especailly targeted to be gang raped or murdered is not true. The sexual predators in prison target those who they see as vunerable. Also, they have their own special perverted motivations that to get into further would take more time than I am willing to put into a thread on this forum at this time.

Interesting posts.

What do you think about this website - 'Stop Prison Rape', and the many events described in there?

http://www.spr.org/

There are more than a few events described in which the prison authorities allegedly have tolerated, covered up, and some even participated in prison rapes.

In reality, outside the Chinese dominated cities in Thailand, traditional Thai culture is not patriarchal, but is certainly moving in that direction. Traditional Thai culture is matrilocal with husbands moving in with their wives family and the wife having a significant say in family matters as she will be backed up by her sisters and parents and her hubby would have been dependent upon his new father-in-law for padi land. Many rural villages still have clusters of sisters living in close proximity. So traditionally, hai women were not mere toys for their husbands. The husbands were toys of the rulers, the chao chiwits, who took the men away for several months a year as corvee laborers.

Chinese culture is patriarchal and patrilineal. And as the prestigious economic elite in Thailand, the Thai Chinese have long been influencing traditional Thai culture towards their own social norms. Skinner got it arse backwards.

Thank you for a bit of educated reality on the cultural background here.

Obviously in modern Thailand many of those traditions are watering down slowly, especially have so in the last ten years. Both in the newly urban worker classes (hardly researched yet) and in the middle classes more and more marriages are love based, and also in the villages this becomes more the norm now.

I have some items from Singapore to be sent to me via DHL. These are electronics and a set of a computer. These are Brand new and for personal use

i was wondering if i get it sent as a "GIFT" to me in Bangkok, will i be tax for this import shipment?

Yes - you will get hammered for taxes and import duties (the freight cost will also be added to the amount to be taxed).

A trip to Singapore to pick the items up in person will be much cheaper.

Similar practices still being performed in some - civilized - countries.

Cheating wives (word of the husband is enough) stoned to death.

onzestan

And some may think that death penalty in whatever ritual it may be packed in is a sign of an uncivilized country/nation.

So... your answer then, is, it's unstable... "Is that your final answer?"

Please stop fishing/trolling/baiting for purely semantic, and clearly off topic arguments with me. This will only result in both of us getting banned.

FYI - the thread title is: 'to Return To A Democratic Thailand'

My workpermit has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread.

very stable??? Now, which is it? Stable or unstable??? [/color]

What the hel_l has this nosy question to do with the thread topic?

To answer your curiosity - as stable as it can be in a country that changes laws and rules at a whim, and tends to apply those laws retroactively.

Inflation is stable, prices are not going up up and away. Factory closings are economy related, I said from the start it didn't perform as expected. There are reasons for it.

In the South the government managed to avoid Krue Sue/Tak Bai/Nangyonlimo massacres and standoffs.

The divisions have not gone away, but at least there are no massive demonstrations of power and mostly people just want to move ahead rather than fight their opponents to death. On anti-Thaksin side, at least.

Corruption in the government is like a crime in the society. You don't want it but it will always be there. You don't legalise crime just becuase there will always be criminals out there, like Thaksin's supporters want to legalise corruption.

>>>

"I will step down if people don't give me a mandate to run the country" - wasn't it from the same speach where Thaksin pledged to rule for twenty years? Where he said "Ok, after twelve years I'll let Democrats a shot at the government".

You forget to mention that for example the Krue Sue massacre was ordered by Panlop Pinmanee (outspoken Thaksin opponent, now special PR advisor to the ISOC, accused of masterminding the failed bomb attack against Thaksin, and leader of a death squad in the '70s) against the direct orders of the TRT government.

Also the guilty of Tak Bai have still not been brought to court under this government.

And yes, the tiny little problem of economy going bad is not affecting people. Mass lay-offs do not mean that Thailand is in a bad state.

Yes, the are reasons for the economy going bad, some are rooted in the unusually weak US dollar affecting the export economy, and others are with the more than strange economical policies and decisions of this present government.

Actually Thailand is better off now than it was a year ago. Economy didn't do very well, but that's about it on the minus side.

That is actually rather funny.

Scores of factories are laying off workers in the ten thousands in all industrial zones from Navanakhorn to Samut Prakan, and it is kept out of the media thanks to the friendly neighborhood soldiers who are still sitting in the TV stations and censor the news.

Prices of basic necessities are rising constantly.

Drugs are making a huge come back.

Crime is getting worse.

The war in the South is worse than ever - no end in sight.

The divisions between the different sectors of the population are bigger than even a year ago.

But yes, our Generals say that the country is better off - Gen. Sonthi said in an TITV interview today that Thailand has no problems anymore - so yes, it must be better off.

I don't know if a shall laugh or cry when faced with such naivety.

Oh come off it!

For every factory closed theres a different factory opening in another sector, its called competition.

Read my posts - i said that factories are laying off workers in the ten thousands. They mostly are not yet closing. That is expected to happen after new year.

The war in the south is worse? thats a load of crap - I remember not so long ago people being herded into the back of lorries and dying of suffocation.

That is not "a load of crap" - i have been down there many times.

Here is a link on what is going on today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/20...542899950_x.htm

I see no additional crime, or drugs problems, or 'divisions', Maybe you just live in a neighbourhood thats on its way down?

Not just my neighborhood, all neighborhoods i am familiar with. And i have many friends all over town. Most of my Thai friends report the same.

Price of what basic necessities?, just a minute ago you guys were moaning about rice subsidies, because rice was so cheap - make your minds up.

I believe that you don't really understand what subsidies are, and what they are for.

I don't know if you go shopping in the markets for your food, or just eat in restaurants. Food and other basic necessities are getting very expensive now.

All that this basically boils down to is bitter expats, annoyed because the baht has gotten stronger, their visa is harder to get and their favourite beer has gone from 6% to 5%.

Sorry, i am on a very stable workpermit with one year visa, and that since many years, i drink alcohol maybe once in two or three weeks (at most). Actually - those sort of expats are generally very happy with the coup - bars are again open as long as the owners can afford to pay the local police stations, and all sort of underground businesses flourish again.

Actually Thailand is better off now than it was a year ago. Economy didn't do very well, but that's about it on the minus side.

That is actually rather funny.

Scores of factories are laying off workers in the ten thousands in all industrial zones from Navanakhorn to Samut Prakan, and it is kept out of the media thanks to the friendly neighborhood soldiers who are still sitting in the TV stations and censor the news.

Prices of basic necessities are rising constantly.

Drugs are making a huge come back.

Crime is getting worse.

The war in the South is worse than ever - no end in sight.

The divisions between the different sectors of the population are bigger than even a year ago.

But yes, our Generals say that the country is better off - Gen. Sonthi said in an TITV interview today that Thailand has no problems anymore - so yes, it must be better off.

I don't know if a shall laugh or cry when faced with such naivety.

emporer tud - OK, I am an elite so and so who has contempt for the poor and I despise them. There.... settled.

I don't have contempt for the poor, but I have contempt for those who exploit them.

Why then your support for the present bunch who have dismantled almost all "bones thrown" to them by the Thaksin government, taken away all their benefits, and have only replaced them with blatant propaganda?

Rice subsidies have been taken away, taking money out of the pockets of the farmers. Scholarship students have to return to Thailand because their scholarships have been discontinued. But enough money was there to raise the military budget tremendously. And hardly anything has reached the combat troops (mostly the poor) who have still have to fight with insufficient equipment, both medical and military.

I support the present bunch is so far as they are a better choice than the ones we had before, and the make up of the government - ie at the non-military level are to a large extent relatively independent thinkers who were sidlined under Thaksin. Specialists in their field for the most part...and the juicy bit, they hate being polticians, so they are doing it for the love of country - for one year only - and then they are all getting out of dodge and letting the monkies return to the monkey cage. Many of them were sidlined under thakin for disagreeing with him. I beleive under this government we have gotten less sychphantic ministers than we did at any time under Thaksin, and that is a good thing.

But that is my call on thier skills and personal attibutes, you may disagree with me.

As for military spending, well you have a point.

And why have some of the other programmes been dismantled? I don't know, but I can guess. Rice subsidies are never a good idea. I have no problem with giving government assistance to the poor, market subsidies distort the market. Thailand is one of the most efficient growers of rice, efficient farming doesn't need subsidies....but that is a personal beleif.

The scholarships you talk about were a rort I believe, and ended up being given to low achieving TRT affiliated families whose educational achivements were less than stellar. The programme also basically dumped cause it did nothing to prepare the kids, and most of them were dropping out anyway. Compared with other scholarships programmes, it was ineffectual. Thailand already runs a highly sucessful civil service scholarship system which must spend tens of millions a year sending kids overseas to some of the best schools. While there are some from well of backgrounds who get in, I've also personally helped prepare applications for really talented and bright kids who were living in wooden stilt houses with chickens running around go to LSE, University of London etc. Fact of the matter is the system that was closed was inferior and a waste of money.

First of all, i am not exactly a Thaksin supporter, thanks for not mistaking me for that.

And yes, you are somewhat correct about the skill level of many of the present non-military members of the government. Good choice of words, by the way - non-military. Because the military members are not exactly up to par.

But that is where the problem is - these people were appointed. This may be a not too bad short term solution, but it does create a dangerous precedent again - that the best politicians Thailand had were the ones appointed (such as Anand), and never had to compete within a democracy. This way Thailand will never cease to repeat the vicious circle. Democracy is nothing that can be simply appointed, it has to develop, and given a chance to develop in the wrong direction for a while. In the end - democracy has a tendency to correct itself, as long as it is not interfered with by extra-constitutional powers. Because if interfered with - a grown up generation of politicians will never appear, and we will be stuck here in different incarnations of the patronage system.

The worst that can happen, and maybe will happen soon, is that Thailand is not growing out of the patronage state, but it will be rid of it by a sort of violent revolution. There are many people now from all walks of life who ask some very uncomfortable questions they have not dared to ask before.

Democracy means that people can make mistakes, and have to be allowed to learn from them. In some way Thaksin was such a mistake, but the problem was that at the time, there was no viable alternative. I remember very well the last Democrat government. They may have been good at getting Thailand out of the financial crises (and TRT earned a lot of what the Democrat government has initiated), but they were a abyssal failure in terms of addressing and solving the problems of the poor in the North and Isaarn.

Politics and democracy is a lot about perception. While many of Thaksin's policies may have been populist, and were badly implemented at micro level - they have created a much needed perception under previously apathetic sectors of society. And instead on continuing and building up on this perception - all that was just destroyed, and replaced with almost medieval propaganda, which people do not believe in anymore. This has resulted in a very critical situation. The popularity of the higher powers is lower than i have ever seen them here.

People in Thailand are in dire need of the perception that the state works for them, that they have a right to demand certain services from the state and the elected government. It is very damaging to continue with the outdated way of the state giving charity to the obedient citizen and peasant.

Subsidies may not the correct long term choice, but as a short term bridge to support people while changing the crumbling infrastructure they are a viable choice. Thailand is the biggest rice exporter of the world, but its farmers do work at a loss. This cannot continue. And a policy for those farmers that puts them into a state of pre-modern agriculture is not the solution.

The Democrats now pay somewhat lip service to the need to create policies for the poor parts of the country, but lets face it - they are still years away from having the infrastructure to communicate those, or then implement them. They have very little hope to be elected with a mandate strong enough to form a stable government. And the rest of the non TRT parties are not even worthy of discussion (i guess you agree with that).

We are slipping into very dangerous waters here.

Actually I'm a proponent of community based, ground up community participation. Always have been. I've worked on programmes in the NE which follow this methodolgy and work well under their ownsteam. All run by the so-called 'poor backwards' people that you are convinced I despise. Hands off and very little interference apart from inital seed money. These programmes are non-political and have been up and running for a couple of decades now, and the changes in the community are phenomenal and benefical to the community in terms of health, income and sustainable livelyhood.

So it gets up my goat when I go out to the country side and I meet the local big wig who is also the local TRT canvesser, and he tells me that all the people in the three villages I've just visited are going to vote TRT cause he tells them to. Where is the democracy in that? I know other parties do it, and I am equally contemptous of that fact as well. But please don't deny my experience.

Realistically speaking - these programs are existing and good, but they are not sufficient enough to work in more than a few example villages. They are underfunded, and the manpower does not exist to expand them countrywide.

These people don't need just those programs - they need political parties that have policies designed for them, and funded by the state budget. TRT was a beginning there.

Canvassers are of course existing, and it will take a long time to get rid of this system of patronage. Of course TRT used them, and so does every other party. People do need to be drawn into the political process, and not just ruled over by the elites.

I don't have contempt for the poor, but I have contempt for those who exploit them.

Why then your support for the present bunch who have dismantled almost all "bones thrown" to them by the Thaksin government, taken away all their benefits, and have only replaced them with blatant propaganda?

Rice subsidies have been taken away, taking money out of the pockets of the farmers. Scholarship students have to return to Thailand because their scholarships have been discontinued. But enough money was there to raise the military budget tremendously. And hardly anything has reached the combat troops (mostly the poor) who have still have to fight with insufficient equipment, both medical and military.

The guy was one of the biggest despots Thailand has ever seen. He is only annoyed as he couldn't pull of his own coup before hand. Then he would have been really dangerous.

With comments such as this you are trivializing the many brutal regimes Thailand had in the past.

perhaps, but what Dear Leader represented was more insidious in many ways, using tools of repression and nepotism on the people cause he claimed to have a mandate for doing so. At least with Thanom and co, you knew what you were dealing with. Pity the Thai people who for years though they were getting something else. So he threw some poor people some bones in the form of 30 baht health care etc. Was it worth the price that was paid by the rest of the country with his out and out corruption? We perhaps disagree on that final point....but so be it.

Thanom & Co were far more brutal with political opponents. Thaksin had many opportunities to brutally, or even less brutally to stop the demonstrations against him - but he chose not to. Of course there were brutalities while Thaksin was PM - most note worthy was the drug war killings. There is only one difference - Thaksin would not have been able to pull these killings off by himself without consent of the higher powers. There were public speeches of the higher powers even congratulating him on his success. And, lets not forget - the present powers were part of the drug war killings, and they chose not to topple Thaksin at that time (where i would have supported a coup, but was mistaken in the position those have taken. I have learned my lesson though...).

Vilifying Thaksin is a far too simplistic assessment. Was Thaksin what could be considered a true democrat. Definitely not. Was he corrupt? Most definitely.

But was he corrupt alone? Nops. Look a little more behind who else held shares of ShinCorp, and whom he helped out of a tight spot by buying ITV. Hmmmm...

But, what you call "throwing bones to the poor" were sadly the first somewhat substantial benefits those poor received from the state. And not as charity where they had to crawl on their knees to show gratitude, but as a rudimentary beginning of a welfare state (note: rudimentary!).

Thaksin, maybe accidentally, reached something no politician ever did before - drawing the poor of Isaarn and the North somehow in the political process, where they have started to learn that they also have rights to demand things from the state. I don't see Thaksin as a great PM, but he could have been (and maybe was, in the long run) a step to democracy.

A coup was not the solution, it was nothing but a power grab by the old elites, who are far less democratic than Thaksin. The constant patriotic songs on TV and radio, the propaganda, an economic policy that has no scientific background whatsoever, can only carefully be criticized - even now in the constitution, all that does not show any modern democratic attitude.

One day Thailand will be a democracy - not with Thaksin though, and even less with the current bunch.

Personally observed a dozen fistfights between "ambulance' crews? I don't remember when I last saw a fistfight myself. Why is it considered normal to wack eachother with wooden planks and brag about it in interviews? Some really ######ed up friends you have, Colpyat.

It requiers a willing suspension of disbelief (I like that phrase, Hillary Clinton used it recently).

To be honest - some of those fights were worse than just fistfights.

As to my friends - i chose not to cocoon myself into some sheltered existence in a fantasy land, lose touch with reality and theorize/moralize about things i do neither understand nor make any attempt to do so.

Reality is a complex thing, no absolutes but shades of grey - especially in a country like Thailand. It's easy to sit in suburbia and judge. Get personally involved things aren't that easy anymore. But no - you wouldn't dirty your fingers by getting involved.

Talked with a friend here today and, locally, part of the problem has been solved with Por Tek Tung and one more foundation alternating every other day so that they never meet.

This has happened in Bangkok about 13 years ago with the Por Teck Tueng and the Ruamkatanyu. Nowadays they mostly work very well together, and in many areas they are now closed friends as well.

I don't know where you are located, but this is a step in the right direction. Development and improvements do take time.

I wonder if that guy needed to be rescued. if he did, would the first guy then have turned around and started hauling him into his truck since he 'was in his area'?

Trying to be reasonable here.

There is more than just territorial pride in the importance of the area and its boundaries.

The rescue teams have to be responsible for the area the work in. They have to radio in when they start working, when they take a break, and when they go home. They have to radio in the incidents, and names and details of the people transported. What happens is their responsibility.

If a injured is picked up by a neighboring or fake crew, and anything untoward happens - the crew on duty in the area will be made responsible first. Sometime other volunteers, such as radio volunteers who are only there to radio in incidents, might pick up injured, even though they have not the proper training and permission to do so.

Many conflicts happen because of overzealous crews, fake crews, or crews that are in for they money "steal" injured from the areas of responsibility of a particular crew.

Mostly though neighboring crews do work together well, and help each other out.

I repeat that - the rescue teams of the proper foundations are not some thugs going wild. They are registered, they are known by the police and hospitals of their areas. They carry ID cards, and which injured they pick up at which incident at what time is documented in their headquarters, the police, and the hospitals. They work with the authorities within the law.

Yes, things do happen occasionally, some teams are using their position to do criminal things. You cannot expect that in a country like Thailand where corruption and abuse of power is endemic the rescue teams are entirely free of that. They are part of the society. They are no worse (and i would say far better) than many other organizations and institutions here.

Shoot out between two rescue teams is not a rumor. Maybe they are nice people in your view, but I wouldn't be so proud of having freinds who always carry guns and occasionally shoot at rival trucks. This is a stuff for B-movies about gang culture, not emergency services.

On a side note. Once Colpyat complained that people here do no appreciate his "inside" information. In this case he acts and talks like an official spokesman for those goons. If you provide "insider" information you should at least pretend that you are impartial. Any news source that is so clearly slanted should expect to be shot down.

A shootout between two suburban teams does not mean that all rescue teams are engaged in those activities. You cannot extrapolate from one incident to all rescue teams.

No, not all rescue teams carry guns, this is an unfounded assumption, and complete rubbish. A minority of rescue teams carry guns.

No, i am not a spokesperson for anybody, but i argue against such almost insane exaggerations and distortions of reality. In a previous post i have already described that in thousands of crime and accident scenes i have seen only one single fight between different teams while the injured was still present (and yes, this is a very bad incident), and not more than a dozen fights that happened after the injured was delivered.

Thousands of injured delivered without any misconduct against a dozen incidents of misconduct, and only one in which the injured was still present (and which was caused by conflicting orders and the late arrival of the government organized rescue crew that has not allowed to take the injured away from the accident scene, which led then to serious aggravation between bystanders and the rescue crews and the crews with each other).

In the year old thread i have described in detail the territory in which these volunteers have to work, and why a reputation of not taking shit is absolutely necessary. If they would not be feared, then they would simply not be able to get into some of the most dangerous areas of town to get injured out.

I personally have been at incidents when because of incomplete radio calls rescue crews arrived in the middle of large gang fights, and had to make their way out, i have seen incidents when people tried to stab them, throw stones and bottles, where even the cops had to leg it.

What do you think rescue in Bangkok is? Some sort of nicy-nicy-do-gooder activity?

No - it often means getting into and working in the worst and most violent areas of town, not knowing what to expect, dealing with some of the most brutal lowlifes imaginable, sometimes getting injured out when there is no police around, where only a reputation is what makes a difference between getting done in or not.

The guy was one of the biggest despots Thailand has ever seen. He is only annoyed as he couldn't pull of his own coup before hand. Then he would have been really dangerous.

With comments such as this you are trivializing the many brutal regimes Thailand had in the past.

Sure you will have something outstanding to say. You seem to take all this very personally....

Yes, i do take this personally. If you would have spent years of your life studying and working with these rescue volunteers, and would have to read insulting rumor mongering by people who have never spent any time with them - then i guess you would feel similar.

And yes, i find it insulting after making efforts here trying to answer questions and to communicate some of what i have learned, just to be shot down by off topic rants and insulting comments, which often are more guided by personal animosities than any reasoning based on fact.

Yes, i am aware that anybody can post here, but it does lower the standard when rumor dominates the debate.

I always try to make way for these rescue trucks even in heavy traffic, now I know that they carry guns and are ready to use them if you get in their way.

Or is ok for them to shoot each other as long as they don't shoot victims and bystanders?

That must have been a sight - two rescue trucks with full lights and sirens chasing and shooting at each other at neck breaking speeds in the middle of the night.

Do you wanna be a victim ready to be rescued by either of these trucks?

I fully realise that they are the only choice for accident victims, but that doesn't excuse them, does it?

Usually you should make way for the trucks because they transport injured to the hospital.

And as to guns here in Thailand - you should always assume that anybody has a gun in their car - because many have.

The rest of your post is a bit incoherent, sorry, i don't understand what point you are trying to make.

That's the text:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

'To Return to a Democratic Thailand '

By THAKSIN SHINAWATRA

September 19, 2007

One year ago today I was in New York , preparing to address the United Nations General Assembly on behalf of my nation. I was filled with pride as I looked forward to delivering my remarks.

One year before, I had been overwhelmingly re-elected as prime minister of Thailand . Thanks to the people of my nation, I was the first leader in the near 100-year history of Thailand to be not just democratically elected, but democratically re-elected. Under my administration, we had cut poverty almost in half, provided universal access to affordable health care for the first time, balanced the budget and paid off our debts to the International Monetary Fund. In addressing the United Nations, I intended to emphasize to the world the success and maturity of our democracy.

I was never able to deliver my remarks, however, because I awoke on the morning of Sept. 19 to the news that my government -- and Thailand 's democratic constitution -- had been overthrown in a military coup.

The coup came as a shock to me and to most Thais. Democracy appeared to have become well entrenched in Thailand following adoption of the Constitution of 1997. Also known as the "People's Constitution," this charter was universally acclaimed as the most democratic constitution in the history of Thailand .

The people of Thailand have the same democratic aspirations and expectations as the people of other mature nations, and they will not rest until these are restored to them. Regrettably, the military rulers in Bangkok have spent most of the past year worrying not about promoting our nation's economic development or restoring basic rights to the Thai people, but rather about preventing me or anyone sharing my political philosophy from returning to political power.

In reflecting on the past year, I am appalled by the suffering that has been inflicted on the Thai people by the junta's misplaced priorities. I have made clear to all who will listen that I have no desire to again hold political office in Thailand . As a patriot whose first loyalty is to my King and country, I wish only to return to a democratic Thailand to live in peace with my family.

The junta justified the coup in part on the assertion that my administration was corrupt. Once in power, they created a government agency whose sole purpose was to validate this claim by finding me and my family guilty of some form of financial malfeasance. After investigating me for a year, none of the original charges has been sustained, so they have concocted new ones. In so doing, they have had to invent new interpretations of Thai law with respect to investment and taxation.

These new legal interpretations cannot be applied only to me, however, which has jeopardized Thailand 's hard-earned reputation for predictability and respect for the rule of law. As a result, foreign investment -- long a principal engine of Thailand 's economic growth -- has begun to dry up.

To try to stop me or anyone sharing my enthusiasm for free markets and democracy from ever regaining power in a free election, the junta has banned my former political party, forbidden over 100 of the most prominent political figures in Thailand from running for political office, and frozen my financial assets in Thailand . For most of the past year, Thailand has been under martial law, with freedom of the press restricted and activity by political parties severely limited.

The junta appointed a committee to draft a new constitution for Thailand , stacking it with hand-picked bureaucrats. The committee's top priority was to reduce the role of the Thai people and their elected representatives in national decision making. The constitution they produced needlessly reduces the size of the lower house of parliament to 480 from 500 members, the size of the Senate to 160 from 200 members, and redraws parliamentary districts in a manner designed to diminish the voting strength of the 35 provinces in northern and northeastern Thailand that have been most strongly opposed to the coup.

In addition, the new constitution strips the Thai people of the power to elect the Senate. Instead, senators will henceforth be appointed by unelected selection committees. The antidemocratic role of the Senate and the judiciary is amplified by features empowering the Senate to appoint heads of independent agencies and to remove the publicly elected prime minister.

In a referendum last month, an unexpectedly large number of Thais voted against adoption of the constitution, despite severe restrictions on organized opposition to the referendum imposed by the junta during the campaign.

There will now be a national election on Dec. 23, which the junta wants the world to accept as free and fair. As campaigning begins, however, the junta continues to apply martial law in the 35 northern and northeastern provinces. In those provinces, it remains illegal for more than 10 persons to gather for political purposes -- though this rule and others are rarely enforced against political parties favored by the junta. To ensure itself a free hand, the junta is resisting efforts by the European Union and others to deploy election monitors.

The world appears inclined to accept all these departures from democratic norms. The explanation is as simple as it is troubling. The international community is so disgusted by the junta's mismanagement that it wants it to pass from the scene as soon as possible. Rather than quarrel over the details of democracy, the world appears ready to look the other way so as to provide no reason for the junta to delay the Dec. 23 election. In a bizarre twist, the junta's greatest weaknesses -- its incompetence and unpopularity -- have been transformed into its greatest short-term strengths.

The world is miscalculating, however, if it thinks there can be stability in Thailand without true democracy. The voters of northern and northeastern Thailand who the junta wants to disenfranchise may be poor, but they will not be denied their voice - nor will the millions of other Thais whose rights are being restricted.

We will not have stability, democracy and development in Thailand until we have genuine national reconciliation. Needless to say, national reconciliation will not be achieved at gunpoint or through rigged elections, but rather when our generals and politicians finally put the national interest above their own narrow interests.

Mr. Thaksin is a former prime minister of Thailand .

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...Even Colpyat admits that they have a bad reputation. Where did it come from?...

The bad reputation comes mostly from the past, where the fights between the two main Bangkok based organizations were really out of hand. That was a time when there were no real territorial boundaries, and no duty shifts. That changed though bout 13 years or so ago. Clear areas of responsibility were created, and the two foundations have a daily shift rotation now. The fights between the two main organisations have ceased.

There are a lot of exagerated rumors around, such as the thefts. They do happen, but they are rare, and when found out will be harshly punished. Many thefts though happen before the rescue arrives. In the areas i am familiar with there are sois where the people living there are known to rob accident victims. Thefts also happen in the hospitals.

Another rumor is that rescue volunteers would kill victims of accidents in the cars. That is just pure fantasy.

There is not a "good chance" that there is a fight developing at an accident scene. There is a small, tiny, chance. It depends on the area. The southern part of Bangkok, Thonburi, and the suburbs have more problems, but in the years i have been following the whole thing, with literally thousands of accident and crime scenes, i remember being present at one fight when the victim was still on the road, and maybe a dozen fights that happened after the victim was delivered already.

Before making allegations about the motivation of these volunteers i would suggest gathering some personal experience with the different crews. It is not too difficult to ride with them. Yes, of course, there are rotten apples, nobody does deny that. Where is no corruption here in Thailand?

These wide sweeping statements about their financial motivations are wrong and exaggerated. Most volunteers are not in it for the money (and there are far safer and legal ways to make money while in that strange world than doing illegal and highly risky things).

Most young volunteers are starting because it is simply cool and exiting. Many have a very strong sense of trying to help the community. There are others who have done something wrong in their lives, and want to balance the karmic sheet.

There are many regular festivals every year, the absolute highlights are the very rare graveyard cleaning festivals in their graveyards for unclaimed corpses, including a mass funeral for the bones of the dead. I have been at many of them all over Thailand. The large one of the Por Teck Tueng was an absolute highlight - one of the most impressive religious festivals i have seen in twenty years in Asia (and that includes some very obscure festivals in India and Tibet which i have attended).

In other such upcountry festivals i have seen spirit expulsion ceremonies of haunted grounds, spoken with Thai Chinese spirit mediums. I have always been welcomed in the most polite and friendly way.

This is living culture and tradition.

These foundations are much more than what rumor suggests. I wish people would go out and inform themselves before mocking something they clearly have never bothered to find out much about, and just follow nasty uninformed rumormongering.

With that attitude you people miss out on something very special this country has to offer.

I am searching for family in Thialand, with a relation to Pratoomporn last name. My father was Thia and died at an early age in the Phillipines. My mother is Filpina and we lost contact with my fathers family from the Chaing Mi area. Please if you know any Pratoomporn's tell them about this post. My four siblings and I live in Canada and have never met any of our relatives, from Thialand. It is my understanding that my father had a sister and brother, the sister was in nursing? Any leads would be much appreciated.

It would not be too difficult to find your family here by searching the house registration forms (Tabien Ban) in the local district office. Maybe you could ask for advise in your next Thai embassy/consulate how to proceed best.

Isn't it also a great setup for money laundering since they only run on donations?

I don't think so.

These foundations are genuine organisations with a long tradition and very religious backgrounds. For money laundering there are far better options available.

Their main festivals are the grave yard cleaning festivals which happen every 15 or twenty years. The last major one of the Por Teck Tueng (Thailand's oldest and biggest foundation) about two or three years ago had members of the absolute elite of Thailand attending, including a Privy Council member as palace representative, a representative of the Supreme patriarch (who was too ill to attend in person), and the heads of the most powerful Thai Chinese families (which are usually never seen in public).

I describe that just to show that these foundations are not just a few thugs on the road, as is so widely and entirely mistakenly assumed. These foundations have a very established place in most levels of Thai society, including the very top.