Insight

The rest of Thailand should vote, organize, and participate in Democracy. This is what the red shirts have done and are doing.

More of the same "reds = democracy, rest of Thailand = not" nonsense.

And yet hardly a week goes by where the democratic credentials (or lack of) from Phua Thai are splashed all over the news. Today it's Chalerm and his love for a tipple while on the. Job.

Scouse Tommy, #28

The only things that i find worrying about a communist party in Thailand are the confirmed reports of red shirt leaders being given instruction (read...brainwashing)

Denigrating, besmirching, disparaging and impugning idiot stuff on the Red Shirts is parroting.

In this case however, it may not be parroting oppositional agenda, but descent into just making stuff up.

I would consider this snippet of parotting as being agenized, and not innocent.

When will the rest of Thailand learn it's only the rural north and north-eastern poor who really understand Democracy...

There will probably be a nuclear bomb at the biggest Red Shirt rally since before the election, at Bonanaza Resort in Khao Yai, tomorrow.

Sounds very war-like. Much like the name of this thread.

Thaksin has the people by his side.

Mark has the army by his side.

If there is a war, it will be like Mao against Chiang Kai Sak in China.

In the end, the people wins.

Thaksin has the people he can buy on his side. That certainly isn't everyone, and there's a substantial number who can now see right through his schemes - more than ever before.

A full blown conflict may just highlight how flawed democracy in Thailand really is.

This forum has been dominated by anti-Thaksin / anti-red-shirt / anti-PTP venom for a very long time.

So has Bangkok.

Guess where a good number of TV posters reside?

Yes it is, and I appreciate it.

The thought also occurred to me how many countries this sort of political dialogue would not be tolerated.

I also appreciate Thailand.

Debate like this has been going on for many years here. I doubt you can attribute it to any particular government.

But the arguably intense opposition you are facing on here does highlight how isolated your opinions are.

How many people have you had to (frantically) reply back to now? You're not seriously going to insinuate this is coordinated in any way...?

The simple fact is many of us were living in Bangkok during the red shirt armed occupation of Ratchaprasong and elsewhere, and find much at fault with your attempts to justify it.

But labeling a poster a liar after for accurately recalling a confrontation with the red shirts in Udon Thai (which I find highly believable given what we also observed here during that time), is downright weak.

What is important is the education of this Board and its' wonderful contributors.

Democracy in action.

Tell you what Calagryll. If you ever get to Udon PM me and let me know when your flight arrives. I'll be happy to meet you at the airport. It's only four kilometers from my house. We can dicuss this over a beer. I'll bring along my maid. Her brother is one of the ring leaders of the Udon red thug mob. She detests everything they do and stand for. She can enlighten you first hand on all these things that "never happened"!

By the way you might want to improve your reading skills. I did not say anything about a red village during the burn Bangkok campain. Those came later.

In closing, no one believes you because your post have no credibility. Only nonsense.

I can't believe "Calagryll" even attempted that approach to defend the shameful actions of his "taxpayers" (yeah right). Pretty pathetic.

In the meantime, this cartoon explains very well how the red shirts' constant antagonism was viewed by a very large number of people, here in Bangkok and elsewhere.

I think they'll get something more like Chinese MID tabs and not iPads.

Dear oh dear. If those are the tablets the kids will be receiving, they don't look like they're worth whatever money PT will be paying for them. (And that video clarifies a recent blog post discussing whether such tablets are worth bothering with). It looks like they'll require some serious hacking to be able to do anything with them.

BUT... I still stand by my original post. If a small group of kids per school figures out how to hack them (and not depend on some back-street, MBK-style IT shop dosshouse), the project still has some value. Not in the way the PT govt, teachers or parents probably envisaged it, but value for the kids all the same. It'll be the teachers then asking these kids how to use them, so they themselves know teach the rest of the kids. (Hmmm... sounds familiar....)

I'm not very comfortable with supporting anything these inept, self-serving goons champion. But for reasons personal to me, I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and let history judge them on this one.

"If children use the tablets all the time, they will develop bad eyesight and abnormal brain development," Assoc Prof Nittaya Kotchabhakdi, a paediatrician at the Mahidol University's Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, said.

For me, the jury is still out on this tablet scheme. Tablets in general are great little "read only" devices - great for reading on, not so much for the lengthy online interaction some have cited as a concern. Yes, they can also be used for games, but would rather wait and see how they end up being used rather than judge now.

However, the comment above by the so called "Professor" is downright farcical. What on earth does he mean by "abnormal brain development"? The opposition to these projects seems more clueless than the people in charge of implementing it.

I know PT are likely to make a monumental cock-up of this (while no doubt shaving off nice little earners in the process) as per usual, and there's still the huge issue of what software and educational material is going to be installed on the things. But - in principle - I think there should be no age or class restrictions on technology at all.

Search YouTube for videos of kids using iPads. Impressive stuff.

I will be very surprised if they come anywhere close to installing a PT rep as the Bangkok Governor.

An abundance of supercilious verbiage and exuberance of byzantine phraseology a worthier argument does not constitute.

What about what I said.

Impressive vocabulary though.

LOL!

What you said is a justification for Jatuporn to constantly crying about an impending coup. As he seems to do every 2 or 3 months for the last two years or so. His "evidence" that he claims to have never materializes.

He's a proven liar, the doctored audio tape of Abhisit ordering the killing of Red Shirts is sufficient proof.

His job as UDD windbag is to keep the people in a constant state of anger and fear with his recurrent coup conspiracies and thus easily manipulated.

If he is "highly respected" among the Red Shirts that goes a long way on showing the moral character of the movement.

He's not the only highly respected leader full of denials:

Mr Nattawut denied ordering his followers to burn Bangkok as the military closed in.

"I didn't order red shirts to burn the place. The video clip was doctored. If anyone accuses me as such, I will sue to prove that in court."

You'll have to Google the source owing to forum rules.

Tax payers lol, I bet 95% of the donkeys bussed into to Bangkok for the burn Bangkok fest never payed 1 baht in taxes.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how they evade VAT...

It is not a valid argument, just bad rhetoric. Many of the working (poor) people are self-employed and have their own shops. Once you hang a sign in front of your shop, you cannot avoid paying taxes.

Yup, just like all those shops with signs above them at the likes of Pantip and MBK. Wonder how many tourists have successfully received a VAT refund from the govt for purchases made at those places?

But, of course, in the red shirt sticks it's done 100% by the books...

Will ThaiVisa ever fix the highly inaccurate and sensationalist title of this thread? It's three Thais and suspected foreign terrorist injured.

Very poor show from the forum staff.

BANGKOK: -- Education Minister Suchart Tadathamrongvej is set to legalise the acceptance of "tea money", which has long been described as bribery and a despicable custom.

Legalise corruption, that's one way of cleaning up the term. People will now be donating to a cause, and there will be no more corruption in Thailand.

LOL Seems like it in a nutshell.

Calgaryll has a point, transparency about something that is impossible to stop may be slightly better (lesser of 2 evils?).

I dont actually understand the whole thing, teh Red Shirts are supporting this guy?... but isn't this the opposite to what the Red Shirts were originally after? Equality. (Did I read this wrong?)

Yes, the best way to fight corruption is through legitimising it.

Thailand has learnt nothing in the past 11 years. Absolutely nothing.

two thoughts spring to mind...

Firstly if Thaksin did not exist would posters on this topic still be so keen on the military's existing legal right top stage a coup whenever it suits? Is this just Thai-style flawed democracy?

<snip>

What "military's existing legal right to stage a coup"?

The interim constitution made the actions of 2006 coup legal (after the fact). It says nothing about future coups.

But realistically, it's irrelevant if coups were legal or not. That wouldn't stop them. Would you really expect someone to perform a coup and then say "Arrest me, I broke the law"?

Let's not forget the only reason the tanks rolled was because of the complete disrespect law and order shown by the ruling, and then caretaker party - Thai Rak Thai.

The military where again required in the streets during the red shirt riots of 2009 and 2010, when the police force tasked with enforcing the law were completely unwilling to perform their duties effectively. 2010 was made all the more tragic by the presence of an armed militia, clearly tasked with assisting the red shirts.

Bottom line is to strengthen the judicial system and apply it fairly across the board, otherwise military intervention will likely be a key facet in Thai politics going forward. Can we trust Phua Thai to strengthen the judicial system as required?

Of course we can't.

But you haven't really challenged anyone - All things considered, I think I have.

Where? From what I've read, most of your posts are allegedly your own experiences and opinions, which in turn have been challenged. Many of those challenges you're yet to respond to.

Their feeble resistance by taxpayers to armed might cannot be characterized as being anarchic, or anti-social as some try to define it.

Woooahh... "taxpayers"? Who do you consider the taxpayers here? The red shirts, or the Bankokians?

But it was also fun. Especially for a Farang. Gives one some idea how a celebrity is treated.

Guess a taking a few photos would of been difficult to resist....?

Donations BTW, that came from poor people. As much as we tried, no-one appeared out of the huge, palatial homes to contribute. And we knew they were home, by their vehicles and doors open.

Well the red shirts still have a bit of an image problem in Bangkok, mainly owing to their tendencies to "smash the place up" and "burn it to the ground" when they can't get their own way. If you were wearing all your red "Truth Today" (vomit) barb when you had your tin out, surely you can understand why people are somewhat hesitant.

That besides, as with all charitable causes the Thais are occasionally asked to donate to (tsunami, orphanages, floods etc), the people in my office and my wife's friends donated both their money and their own time very generously, as they always do. Way above the norm of what I see when people are asked to make donations in the UK.

Unfortunately, these donations decreased significantly when the various pictures and videos depicting Thaksin taking credit for these donations came about. They came to a complete stop when the footage of the supplies floating around the flooded and vacated Don Muang airport emerged.

Sad, really. A small amount of very greedy people ruining the goodwill of the many. But that's Thailand.

PM Forced to Speak to Virtually Empty Seminar Room

accompanying photo to the OP article

My isn't that strange, Buchholz helpfully provides the "accompanying photo to the OP article" - Except there isn't one

http://www.tannetwor...?DataID=1052188

And suprise, suprise guess where this photo originated, yes that good old photobucket album, rightie1.

Who is supplying your photo database, Buchholz?

While waiting for Buchholz to respond, let's have another example of Yingluck's shining diplomatic and reasoning skills in action during a public forum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgLhvF-sNk

Days could be spent studying the many layers in her response...

I fully understand why Seh Daeng's daughter would want to find her dad's killer, but she shouldn't be focusing on who pulled the trigger, but rather who hired the shooter.

that would be mr T

Hmm ,a wild stab in the dark with no real evidence ,HOWEVER Seh Deang was a very loose cannon, and maybe was causing acute embarrassment to his bankroller so what you write does make sense in a way !!!

The "tweets" reporting what Seh Daeng was apparently saying in the hours before he was hit by a sniper where to the effect of him being under direct orders from Thaksin to rebuild the tyre and bamboo barricade around Chula hospital, thus undoing the creation of an exit which had previously been negotiated between hospital staff and red shirt leaders. (Incidentally these negotiations had only come about as a result of the disastrous red shirt hospital raid, conducted in an attempt to find the snipers on the roof the red shirts were convinced existed).

I'm sure Thaksin, being the fine humanitarian he is well known for, would of been somewhat upset with Seh Daeng's alleged comments.

This is a daughter fighting for the truth about who murdered her father, a brave man fighting for the democratic rights of the majority of thais, assassinated by a sniper. Your responses are quite perverse. If this happened in most other counrtries in the world, people would support her. How about JFK, MLK, etc. Did you get callous, racist or perverse comments about their family? But here on Thai Visa, as I can see, anything goes.

Sa Daeng was a rogue, insane wild dog that needed to be taken out.

You are starting to sound like a North Korean Party Spokesman now.

Or Juttaporn