Colin Yai

They should have done that BEFORE the election.

Of Course this Government had'nt a clue that most of the outside world has had its head up its financial arse for quite sometime which was bound to affect Thailand,s commerce sooner or later , no doubt they will but the blame on Abhisit's handling of the economy as to just why many if not all their insane un costed promises will now be put on the "back burner" even forgotten ,many thought that this new administration could affect a miracle panacea for its many ailments ,but alas things like this just do not happen in real life do they, no quick fix ,no overnight success's , its going to be a hard hard slog which may well prove just too much for this lot, as most of the electorate expected overnight"wonder's", I think it will not be long before the dawn of realization finally penetrates that it will not be forthcoming!.

PM not bothered by the Opposition's debate

However, the Prime Minister said she would only observe the event and let her ministers answer all of the questions raised by the Opposition Party.

Ahh yes how very cosy , if they "drop a clanger" she is not responsible,or as they say in the west its called "passing the buck" and there's silly old me thinking that any PM worth their salt should lead from the front and be ultimately answerable for her tenure as PM of Thailand , obviously I have it all wrong in my assumptions.

the headline could just easily be written as...

PM can't be bothered

not answerable to the media nor her Parliamentarians...

,

Yeah she gets all her answers from dear Brother, who in turn was answerable to no one in Parliament before he got kicked out of office.

So, because the Democrats make an accusation based on the statement of a Japanese minister, the PTP not only want to charge them with defamation, but also want to have the party disbanded.

That's certainly a good way to silence opposition.

Welcome to Thaksicracy.

AG Are you suggesting that the Jap Minister lied?

, why should he do that?, He has nothing to gain, whereas if Surapong "comes clean" he has everything to lose!!.

but with this new government acting the way it has started, soon I will be getting 45 bahts to my one dollar .... and that smells of roses to me.. Thailands demise back to a Banana Republic... and us Farangs getting rich..! Rock on Yinluck

Any improvement in the exchange rate for farangs would be offset by higher living costs due to inflation caused by the wage hikes.

Caused by the wage hike's??, so far all we have seen is empty promises, mind you I do agree with your summing up of the situation, but lets not count our chickens just yet eh.

Well if i was an innocent Mr Taksin - i certainly wouldn't have run away...

And if i was a Courageous leader that cared for my people - i certainly wouldn't run away to fund and orchestrate a red blood war to seek revenge on those that dared to uncover my crimes...

But if i was a hero standing up for democracy and freedom and all that love - money would not be one of my main objectives in life... neither would manipulating the poor... but ofcourse - im none of the above

This reminds me that till now no one has come up again with our dear leader k. Thaksin shaking hands with another pillar of freedom and democracy fighter Nelson Mandela. Probably because Mr. Mandela is the real, genuine stuff heroes are made of, not a fake like some who came to visit him for a photo opp.

More sentimental hogwash about terrorist Mandala, he was offered his freedom in 1985 by PW Botha if he renounced violence which he flatly refused to do ,and languished another 5 years till his release by FW De Klerk in 1990 ,the noble peace prize rings hollow when people like Mandala and Yasser Arafat received it,and In my view somewhat of a sick joke !

PM not bothered by the Opposition's debate

BANGKOK, 21 August 2011 (NNT)-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said she was not bothered by the Opposition Party's debate while showing her confidence that the Foreign Minister would be able to defend himself regarding the entry visa to Japan for her brother.

Pheu Thai is expected to deliver the policy statement from Tuesday to Wednesday during the House meeting.

However, the Prime Minister said she would only observe the event and let her ministers answer all of the questions raised by the Opposition Party.

-- NNT 2011-08-21

Ahh yes how very cosy , if they "drop a clanger" she is not responsible,or as they say in the west its called "passing the buck" and there's silly old me thinking that any PM worth their salt should lead from the front and be ultimately answerable for her tenure as PM of Thailand , obviously I have it all wrong in my assumptions.

You're blaming the questioners? Oy, that's rich. Perhaps she's just not qualified for the level of this new job; have you considered that? Her previous experience, quite frankly, does not impress as preparing for being PM. I am also quite skeptical about how you describe her previous role, sounds like a campaign brochure. In any case, people she met with before were supportive or people UNDER her. Reporters are something very different, yes?

Yeah I would just love her to be "grilled" by a western type press on her future plans and promises to the electorate and especially on "her Choice" of foreign Minister, sadly this scenario will NEVER be put into operation as its the "THAI WAY" When reporting "their" side of proceedings ,that any political sinners remain unnamed ,just in case it causes"loss of face" to the perpetrators ,and of course massive litigation and even loss of their jobs for printing their democratic right to speak the truth.

As far away from her relatives as possible

Ahh yes ,it would appear you have come into contact with the dreaded far Eastern disease of Thai inlawaitus of which the only cure is to shout loudly at every given opportunity the two by now very famous 4 and 3 letter words one beginning with F and ending with K and the other starting with O and ending with F ,I am afraid that this is the only thing that appears to work apart from maybe walking round your house stark naked which sometimes affects a short term cure , of course the only real PREVENTION for this dreadful malaise is to start thinking with what is between your ears and not between your legs,LOL.

A child bomber. That says it all.

Yeah the so called "religion of peace"IMHO the threat/spread of Islamic radicalism is far more dangerous to world stability than Communism ever was!.

No doubt you must be the most popular guy in the Village...

Let's hope we don't someday end up reading your obituary here...

But speaking seriously... I'm not saying your approach is wrong... But I would say, I think the typical Thai family has a somewhat different sense of familial interaction than what you describe above...

Some months back, my wife's younger sister had a particularly nasty breakup with her longish-time Thai BF, who moved out of the apartment they were sharing, took most everything with him, and left the younger sister on the hook for a bunch of bills.

Without telling me in advance, back then, my wife gave her younger sister about 20K out of my wife's own separate funds account, wiping out a good portion of her personal, non-retirement savings. She told me shortly after she'd given her own funds to her sister, and never asked me to support the bailout.

Today, I learned the younger sister now, maybe 6 months later, had returned all the funds to my wife's older sister, who's going to use them for some needed project upcountry, before returning them to my wife in BKK in a few months...

I had figured, once my wife gave her money to her younger sister, that she'd seen the last of those funds... Now maybe, I'll be proven wrong... But, it hasn't happened quite yet.

.

Yeah I am quite popular and also well respected, I have seen far too many "mugs" here who are the laughing stock of their Village , both to Thai's and farangs alike for being regarded as a human door mat/walking ATM,s many farangs cannot even go out for a drink "with the lads" in the evenings ,I have had my wifes house refurbished inside and out at considerable cost with all the modern conveniences ,for me this should be quite sufficient for her mother/sister,s to be very happy that I have Improved my wifes life beyond recognition to what it was 12 months ago,and I forgot to add in my earlier submission that I have made provision that when I pass away she will be financially secure for the rest of her life ,oh and another thing I failed to add she does not lend her brand new Honda click to anyone as if the borrower wrecks it no money will be forthcoming as she has a "rich farang" for a husband and I can always lay out another 51,000, as lets have it right us farangs get our money from the "money tree" and only Thai's have to bend their backs to get theirs,LOL.

Considering its normal for the press and media interrogation of the government of the day objectives,especially where her brother is concerned,

I wonder how long it will be before she declares:Press questions must be submitted a week prior to her need to answer?

and no spontaneous questions on Press briefing days allowed?

Its usally the case for people who do not possess good debating skills,or in depth knowledge of a subject,which is probably the reason she never took up Abhisits offer of a Televised live debate.

He would have eaten her for breakfast.

Edited for Typo.

Hmm regarding your museings about no spontaneous questions on Press briefing days ,Which IMHO is not beyond the realms of possibiltys ,if should something as nonsensical as that happening then the whole news media should just refuse to interview her, as it would not be actualy she that was answering, just her well paid advisers and of course Dear Brother!.

As far away from her relatives as possible

Fair comment I suppose but that depends on the strength of the farang individual, all my wifes relatives live here in our village ,yet I told them through my wife that(1) I do not lend money,(2) everything in our house is what I have worked and paid for so do not come here expecting to "freeload" just cos I married your Sister /Daughter (3)under no circumstances can you raid my fridge or "CAMP" at night watching my 48" TV (4)do not expect a free"taxi service" just cos I have a Isuzu 7 seater which happens to run on diesel and not water ,(5) do not expect Sin sod just cos I give your Daughter a life she could only dream of before she met me, I need only add my wife and I are blissfully happy ,and I get on really well with her family now they are very much aware that I am not a "stupid farang" , but treat their Sister /daughter with the respect and generosity she so richly deserves especially bearing in mind all the shit that she had to go through with her previous Thai Husband,in closeing I treat her little daughter of 5 years with all the love and attention as I would my own 3 grown up kids back in England when they was of a similar age.

This is how the PTP will play it: They will start the process to change the constitution to whitewash Thaksin's crimes. This will bring out the protesters trying to stop them. Then they will use the protests as an excuse as to why they are unable to bring in their other "policies".

Yeah WB, this is not beyond the realms of possibility's by a long chalk!

Lets hope not. It would potentially set off utter chaos. I dont know of anyone who would support that, and a lot of the people I know dont even vote PTP, but accept that Thaksin is going to be part of the future of a country that is going to have differences of opinion on many things, which will have to be resolved through democracy. Quite a sophisticated opinion really. Then again most people whether they like Thaksin or not have far far more important things to worry about, and one trend I notice among Thai friends is that everyone thinks he is coming back and so it might as well be sooner rather than later as once he is back it ends all the games that go on while he trots round the world and one lot try to keep him away and the other try to bring him back. I am actually amazed that every non-PTP person I know right down to the most ardent PADer thinks he will be back and not serve time

You must know the most intellectual Thai people in all of Thailand. I employ 100+ Thai's in various businesses and the running theme from all the people that work for us from the Issan area is once PTP (Thaksin Proxy THEY call them) fixes all the stuff that the DEMs did wrong the country will be perfect.. just like before. When you ask them when before is, they go blank and give the always ready Thai response to ANYTHING they don't understand "you not thai you not understand thai way" then walk away muttering about farang under their breath. We also have people working with us from the South and the opinion from them is very clearly that if Thaksin sets foot on Thai soil again expect him to be killed.. they are very hard line about it...I assume its just a lot of big talk

The interesting part to me in all of this is how many of our employees that at one point would have died for the Red Shirt movement are getting impatient with PTP obviously not all of them probably not even a majority right now but quite a few are openly questioning others on the job about when all these great things are coming, free computer, 300 baht a day, 15,000 baht per month for their kids when they graduate etc... the list of people getting impatient is growing among the Thai's I deal with daily... I wonder about all the rest of them out there...

It is also interesting to note how many of our employees have school age kids, many in University and those kids just hate Thaksin and think their parents are fools for voting 1 in the last Election.. it gets rather heated sometimes around their dinner tables we are told.

A good thoughtful post YFC,but its still very early days yet ain't it, but when the penny drops and those who voted for PTP finally realize that they have been shafted,conned, duped ,been had,call it what you may, then we may see the Pot boil over , and Yingluck will not be able to put "the lid on" to stop it, so how much "sweet talk" she gives out , IMHO it will start in the South (maybe its started already) and slowly move northwards.

It's amusing to watch these numpties and their "brilliant economic team" squirm now that they have to try and *pay* for their promises. It was obvious during the campaign that they hadn't done the numbers and couldn't deliver.

Hey Crushdepth,Maybe they did do their"numbers" and knew for certain that they could not "deliver" on their promises,the only thing that really matters in a case like this is these mugs up here in Issan believed that they could !,LOL.

what about wait further investigations instead of screaming at this or that?

:jap:

Did you honestly believe in the investigations in Thaksins War on drugs or even the Tak Bai incident? ,If some persons in "high places" could be implicated, liberal amounts of "whitewash will be applied and the whole affair will be forgotten in a very short space of time .LOL.

Thai people this morning had all the info from the Thai non-red media.

And what was the source that the Thai non-red media got it from, that made them run with the type of headline that they did?

The red leaders have pretty much called for an investigation and refused to comment on whether they think it is reds or not.

Of course that is what they are saying. Don't you get it? The red leaders don't need to comment. Their work has been done for them.

The media quoted a police man

Anyway we are talking about police investiagting a load of dead bodies in a mass grave that it seems cant be accounted for. It is kind of more important for it to be investighated than for a bunch of people to go off on a because Amsterdam mentioned it, it must be BS. Where did they come from? Who are they? Why is there to date no papework? There may be an explanation but one thing is for sure the longer one isnt found the dodgier this looks whether reds or not.

And anyone who thinks many Thai people including non reds think that the bodies may well be reds because of what Robert Amsterdam wrote just doesnt get it. If nobody had said a thing and Abhisit announced had found them suspicions would be the same. Previous history on Thai demos over the decades causes that. And because RA said it doesnt make it right or wrong.

I hope the authorities can show that there is a reasonable explanation, and I hope they are not red shirts.

On the Contrary Thaksin and his cronies hopes that they are Red shirts , just to keep the pot boiling before little Sis brings him back to a hero's welcome at the Cobra swamp, welcomed of course by tens of thousands of paid "well wishers" it fairly brings a tear to ones eyes does it not,LOL.

The trouble is without a paper trail too many are already thinking the worst and that is before any red media campaign. It would be nice if a paper chain could be found as Thailand isnt the place it was before where when a big name gave an explanation it was accepted or at least moved on from. Without that paper trail or an evidential based explanation this is only going to spiral. Luckily it looks as though the authorities are aware fo this and to date everyone has been quite restrained in what they have said, whihc is posiitve

It seems that the "red media campaign" started the whole thing, with RA's post on Facebook.

Thai people this morning had all the info from the Thai non-red media. There has been no campaign as of yet to create a meme. The red leaders have pretty much called for an investigation and refused to comment on whether they think it is reds or not.

Then why is the very title of the article that lead to this thread "Thai Police Suspect They Have Found Bodies of 169 Missing Red Shirts". Isn't that a bit presumptive?

No doubt rapid promotion through the ranks is in line for the BIB's who suspect that they are the body's of missing Red Shirts.

Given the recent revelations about the lies told in regards to the extradition warrant I would have thought the Dems would be keeping a pretty low profile right about now.

Apparently not. Their arrogance and stupidity just continues to dig them a much bigger hole for themselves politically and in the minds of the general populace.

Didn't the current government say they would not focus on Thaksin? But it seems that's all they have done? Seems their arrogance and stupidity continues as well? Two sides to every coin.

The Nation Newspaper is a propaganda sheet and nothing more. Stooges for the yellow shirts.

Read the uncensored Blogs to get to the truth.

And people who write at blogs donot have their own agenda or someone elses to push. If someone supports a certain point of view they will find those who lend support to their views, be it a newspaper or uncensored blogs. Or the people who support thier views at this forum.

And I suppose that the red shirts are not Thaksins stooges,LOL.

Given the recent revelations about the lies told in regards to the extradition warrant I would have thought the Dems would be keeping a pretty low profile right about now.

Apparently not. Their arrogance and stupidity just continues to dig them a much bigger hole for themselves politically and in the minds of the general populace.

And there was I thinking that the function of the opposition is to critically appraise the actions of the government, to point out their errors, and prevent them from committing criminal and felonious acts.

When the new government has done very little, with the exception of one certain criminal act (commonly known as aiding and abetting a fugitive), I guess they might have to spotlight that as there is SFA else to look at.

But I'm a little at a loss to understand why pointing out that someone is performing a criminal act should reflect badly on the pointer rather than the criminal. Does a mandate absolve all responsibility for criminal acts past, present and future?

Its the duty of every political opposition to promote checks and balances within the sitting Govt, a sort of "keeping them honest" however with the PTP I would think that this function is well nigh impossible!!.

Umm, yeah right. Suddenly the bodies which has been dead for more than 1 year has been resurrected somehow.

Santhan said the bodies would be exhumed for DNA tests to determine the identities, adding that those involved with their burial would also be questioned.

How is the DNA going to work in this case? I bet those involved in the burial would have forgotten what happened. In the end, I don't see much progress in this case besides the fact that the 169 bodies might be one of the propaganda tools.

No. they were not resurrected. Rather, the police were acting on allegations that had been circulating for some time. If there are a sufficient number of bone fragments available, DNA samples can be taken. This is how the Bosnian genocide was investigated. Specialized technicians and anthropologists exume the bodies. If Thailand does not have the expertise, then the Dutch, Canadian, Israeli and Swedish governments have many people that do.. As I recall, the Bosnian war crimes investigators asked for and received volunteers from the aforementioned nations' medical examiner offices.

If there are bodies, it should be investigated. Let the police investigate first please.

The Thai's would not dream of seeking "outside" assistance as this would Mean massive "loss of face" and an admittance that they not "up to the job" nah just the usual buckets of whitewash and the guilty ones (if there are any) being completely exonerated .

The Labour Ministry, he added, was now surveying wage rates across the country.

Here, maybe this will save them some time.

Thailand minimum wage rates

Right WB ,I have surveyed them which took me all of 5 minutes , can we now go on to stage 2 or will it take those in the corridors of power 6 months which could be done in minutes,LOL.

Thaksin's too busy finagling his way back here to worry about such trivialities as keeping promises.

Yep Jingthing, A breath of fresh air , broken promises were just part of the plot to get her Beloved Brother back, problem is most who voted for Yingluck believed her, Whether they will "cotton on" to the simple fact that they have been well and truly conned is open to conjecture IMHO I doubt it ,more is the pity!.

Maybe a lot of those who voted for PTP wanted Thaksin back and assumed that was what would happen. I did hear a lot of men were unhappy about the idea of a woman being in charge. There are a lot of men some of whom are very experienced in politics in the cabinet and some who perhaps think they should be. Did they think they would have to serve under woman with no political credentials at all were they thinking she was just a nice face with the surname of the person she was going to help them get back?

One thing about this minimum wage policy that puzzles me is why a daily wage. Surely an hourly wage would make more sense as happens elsewhere. Perhaps everyone works the same amount of hours in a day in Thailand. This would make it impossible for a company to allow for instance a woman to work say 5 hours so she could look after her children or maybe an elderly relative. I realise that this may not be the done thing in Thailand at the moment but I would have thought it wise to frame your policy to take account of future trends especially now the PM is a woman and a mother.

A women in charge???, sorry your words do not compute!,LOL.

Yesterday Mr Kittirat, the Commerce Minister, said the 300 baht rate will not apply to the private sector.

There's going to be a lot of disappointed Pheua Thai voters.

Somchai and Porntip boasted " we voted for .P.T.P. as they are going to make us rich in six months."

I just wonder when it dawns on the electorate that they have well and truly had their noses rubbed in the shit!,LOL.

Yesterday Mr Kittirat, the Commerce Minister, said the 300 baht rate will not apply to the private sector.

There's going to be a lot of disappointed Pheua Thai voters.

HMM, how nice and cosy ,so only public sector workers will get the increase now ,it gets better by the day ,mind you this administration has got to get its priority's right ,like getting compensation for the Red shirts and of course the top one of all,come back dear Brother all is forgiven,LOL.