thailandpeter2

is torching an allowed profession for foreigners in thailand anyway?

Did these five have work permits to torch the stage?

yes, i'd also expect this to escalate some now...

add to this the shootings and bombs overnight and you have a concerted effort that will certainly escalate things far beyond where they were. I expect we will see another Constitution Day without a constitution.

She offered to resign if it would solve the crisis, Suthep said he doesn't accept it. Why are people on here tearing Yinluck's head off ? Maybe their reason is utterly clouded by their bias ?

suthep said it's not enough. but logically, for ANY solution except for this government to stay in power, she would have to resign first, right?

So she lied when the heat was turned up - said she was willing to dissolve parliament. So how can trust what she says??

guess the heat will soon turned be up again...

Can't blame them for believing so.

First she says she'll resign and dissolve parliament and not she insists she won't. How can you believe anything that comes out of her mouth?

Boy I missed that. When did she say she would resign and dissolve parliament?

just a couple of days ago she said that she would resign and dissolve parliament if this would help the situation to improve...

Can't blame them for believing so.

First she says she'll resign and dissolve parliament and not she insists she won't. How can you believe anything that comes out of her mouth?

yes, it looks like on that one she made a 180 degree turn...

Khun Charupong..... the world is already laughing at you.

i wanted to write that...but you were faster...

What he really wants is an interim government to change the constitution in order to keep the Democrats at power forever. These people do not want democracy, they only want the power. I am neither red or yellow, they both do not understand what democracy is. The economy is a good judgement of how well a country is doing. Thai economy has been going up in recent years. Thats what is important especially for the poor people. Would the economy have been better under the Yellow, I do not think so. The Yellow will have to wait for the next election and then try to win that. Thats the way democracy works.

the problem is that, although many in thailand say that they want a democracy, both sides - as you correctly say - do not really understand the full concept of it. so, the question is, is it the best for now to keep democracy just for democracy's sake? or to look for another, temporary system which enables all to work out a good framework to enable democracy really to work as soon as it's viable again?

the paramount intention of any system of governance should be the well-being of the citizens and the good and peaceful development of the country. i am not sure whether the economy would have been better under the democrats, but it definitely has gone downhill - or at least not gone up - under the current government... and not only because of the floods in 2011...

really i wouldn't have any figures, but it's MUCH...

Once again, this deep, deep and constant concern about tourism must amount to more than 6% of Thailand's GDP. If this were happening in a Western country, even one with big tourism, like, say, France or Spain, there's no way we would see these frequent complaints and worries from top-level officials and business people RE lost revenue.

What's the real percentage of GDP that tourism (READ: Foreigners) contribute to Thailand? 25%?

yes, i can fully agree with you. to compare the government and opposition parties here even remotely with any parties and their ideologies like in europe or the usa (socialists - conservatives; rebublicans - democrats, etc.) is absolutely not possible. also, members of one party often change parties at whim. i remember that the first ministerial post of thaksin was with the then palang dhamma party, of which chamlong srimuang was the leader - who had been a leader of the PAD vehemently opposing thaksin now. sondhi limthongkul even called thaksin once 'the best prime minister ever' - before the two men fell out because of business reasons. the bhum jai thai party, partners in abhisit's government, said before the last elections that they would want whoever party wins the elections (the phuea thai party did not accept hem as coalition partners, though)...

the list goes on...

and how long will the army stay impartial?

the students usually follow their policical instincts, not only the gravy train, that's good at least...

Who ever comes into power, must also give a piece of the Thai pie to the working poor and farmers, they are part of the country also. The Democrats when they held the reins of power failed to share the pie, look at the results of them being so shortsighted.

Thaskin's was willing to share the pie, what ever you think of him he knew that to build up a lasting political movement by including the largest voting block in the nation (the working poor and farmers) had also needs that needed to be addressed.

Thaskin downfall was that he was to greedy while he was willing to share Thailand's money, he was not willing to share his money with his political base. A man that had more money then he could possibly spend, had the laws revised so he would not have to pay billions of baht of taxes on his sale of the satellite.

Which resulted in the corruption charge and prison sentence!

The Thai Democrats much like the U.S. Republican party failed to address the needs of all its citizens and only addressed the needs of the rich and its conservative power base, and in the end will pay the price of their failure to meet the needs of all its citizens.

Cheers

Maybe you need to research what charges Thaksin was tried and cleared of, what he was tried and convicted off and what outstanding charges he has yet to face.

Comparing Thaksin and the Thai Democrat party to republicans and democrats, conservatives and labour or capitalists and communists doesn't really work. Thaksin has owned a number of political parties which he uses to run the country for the benefit of himself, his family corporation, his cronies and anyone he needs to pay off. To do this, he knows he must buy large amounts of votes at election times and throw the poor a few crumbs and bones now and then. The Democrats represent the old controlling family powers who regard themselves as the elite HiSo's and have created very wealthy business empires, based on exploiting low paid labour, protective monopolies and total regard for the law, which the place themselves above. They want to preserve this very aristocratic lifestyle and massive wealth for future generations. They don't throw the poor so many crumbs but certainly engage in vote buying. The "fringe" parties are usually owned and run by someone with a local power base and most seem willing to sell their loyalty to the highest bidder.

The average Thai voter has a great choice! Whilst both main parties will fight tooth and nail for the power (and the gravy train) neither have an interest in creating a real democracy, where people have real power over a fairly elected non corrupt fully accountable government. Both will only be interested in an outcome that favours themselves and their agendas. Thaksin is marginally more dangerous because he would be like Mugabe, with similar results for the country. The Dems - same same as before - no real change there.

The only spark of hope is the awakening of the students, and the intelligence and sensitivity shown by the current crop of military high command.

i like RHINOCRACY...

could be used as a new word for ruling by smashing all... like a furious rhino...:)

The red shirts are ready to oppose any unconstitutional move to overthrow Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra by the military or other means, red-shirt co-leader and Pheu Thai Party-list MP Weng Tojirakarn said.

And when the government completely ignores the constitution to try and bring back the fugitive, that's just fine is it ? They hide behind the constitution and 'democracy' when it suits them and piss on the constitution when it gets in their way. PURE HIPPOCRACY AT ITS WORST !

and instead of exposing the government's obvious flaws and defeating them in elections allowing for victory and a peaceful / stable outcome, the opposition tries to use smash its way to power through brute force in a way that will just create anger and more violence PURE RHINOCRACY AT ITS WORST!

have a chat with yourself..what stait would the country be in if it was left to carry on for the next 2 years please be real.its ok for us foreigners to go on but were not the thais who are going to be paying for all this big pile of <deleted> ..im sorry but there is a much bigger picture than just thaksin and the dems..

i don't think it's over. although i'd estimate the strength of anti-government protesters at more then 180,000 people (i think up to 400,000 at the peak would be a fair guess), let's not forget that there had been some ten thousands' of reds in the rajamangala stadium until very recently too. so, they are surely not down to their last 1,000 people.

and what did suthep really win until now? symbolic victories at the metropolitan police hq and at government house. the government is still here; the arrest warrant for him still is valid; and he and abhisit are still called in to testify on december 12th about the charge resulting from the death of reds in 2010.

and even if yingluck has mentioned before that she would resign if that would help the situation, she can always change her mind still. and even if she will resign, when then? thaksin is still alive and kicking and i don't think that he will let all go easily.

also, in fact, nattawut was actually shown on tv too how he also ripped up suthep's paper.

i would be happy if all wold be over except for 'the formalities', but i don't believe it is... fr from that, i'd say.

There are those who try to belittle the strength of the anti-government movement, despite strong estimates of 180,000 attending their rallies at the peak. Here we have the remnants of the Red Shirt faithful, a crowd of 1,000 people telling themselves that they are going to overthrow this movement.

It's like something out of 300 Spartans, although the minority in this case would undoubtedly fall much more rapidly. I also note that Jatuporn and Nuttawat are not leading this rally. I wonder where they are now?

Guys, it's all over apart from the formalities.

Khun Surapong, Suthep is not going to surrender any more than your beloved criminal in exile is, so the movement will continue to push for the dissolution of this vile, self-serving group, loosely referred to as a "government", a point when we shall see many of these thieves with bloated bank accounts disappearing to various bolt holes.

Power to the people.....!!

At least she is looking at peace and considering Thailand. I have had a lot of criticism for her over the past but not on this. Suthep will be rubbing his hands together as power and wealth are getting closer for him.

well, a lot of the errors made by her government were not only hers - but of course, at the end of the day the buck stops with her. also remember, that sometimes prior to the elections she was saying at some point that she really did not want to be prime minister. maybe she really meant it? maybe pressure from the family, the party and her brother made her take the job? maybe she is herself quite satisfied to leave the job after all?

and all in all, yes, her handling of the current affair was quite ok...

Sure, but "the people" are the majority of Thailand. A small mob of 50,000 at most out of over 50 million Thais on a good Sunday afternoon is hardly "the people". It's a minority.

on the other side, the red shirts in 2010 were also a minority only. it's always the noisy minorities who create troubles - and in the end often decide things, come to think of it.

not that a good idea...or did you mean only 'government' offices being closed, not public holidays? for many people less workdays means less money in their packets, so that would not be good for the consumer demand...

Extend the government holidays at the end of the year, kill two birds(idle government workers and slower consumer demand) with one stone

in that case you were lucky, as the 90 days reporting period either started as soon as you ener thailand - which means on may 28, 2013 - or latest when you applied for a longer than 90 days stay in thailand - which means on 28th july. but in any case the fee for late reporting - be it 1 month, less or more - is thb 2,000.-. if you would have been caught before reporting at the immigration, the fine would have been THB 4,000.-...

I entered Thailand on the 28 May 2013 and got my non o stamped till the 25 Aug.
During that time I applied for one year Non O extension. When I applied for the extension they gave me another stamp till the 29 Aug. On the 30 Aug I collected my one year Non O extension with a stamp for the 30 August in there.
I though that the 90 day report starts from 30 Aug when I received my extension but no it started the month before that when I applied on the 28 July.

Can anyone make sense of what I just wrote. Sorry guys if it's confusing


Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app

ok, great, that is a good trend. but how about people in the provinces, or youths who are NOT high-school students? it would have been interesting to make a nationwide survey, among youths from different background and with different education standards...

a few more candidates come to mind...

Nice 1. Let's behead him together with Chalerm as a New Year's present for the Thai people.

regarding: Mr. Kokaew said, “want Thailand to descend into anarchy.”

that's really funny! does this idiot not realize that thailand HAS descended already some way into anarchy, and not only since now?

but, to do him justice, he is by far not the only idiot amongst the proponents - on both sides...

it takes one to know one... the expert is speaking... but i guess he and also the today's protesters would see themselves as innocent as they do not regard anything as government property (as they denounce and do not acknowledge the government), but as the property of the people. therefore, in their eyes, no violation of the law...

“Occupying government property cannot be considered anything but insurrection,” said Kokaew Pikulthong, a member of Parliament for the governing party, Pheu Thai.

As a red shirt leader in 2010 he should know.

it does not really matter where they come from. but you are right, one or a few drunken heads among them and once violence starts it is not easy to stop, not even for the protest leaders. and IF violence starts, the government and the security forces, bad and corrupt as the government may be, just HAS the duty to restore order - and for this they will also need to exert some power/counter violence if things get out of hand...

if the demonstrators return to thei peaceful kind of protest like until last sunday and still partially monday (before the occupation of the first ministries), all might still be ending ok. but if the don't then a repeat of 2008, 2010 or even worse is very probable.

unfortunately it seems that suthep and other protest leaders, the same as the pad in 2008 and the reds in 2010, have not learned from the past and are hell-bent to either get their way or to destroy the country. in this way they are not any better than thaksin and his cronies...

The protestors don't look typically middle class to me.

No they dont look like city dwellers for sure but they do look typically Isan, - after being in the LOS for 16 years these are not the typical faces you see at the market or JJ on the weekend, more like farmers from NE- I have been through 2 of these crazy protests, 2010 and the previous one, bombs at the BTS, grenades being dropped on the police box at Saphan Kwai, got so pissed off when they closed the cimema i was watching at central.

at least the guns have not come out yet , just need some crazy thai demonstrator with a belly full of mekong loose and off we go again with burnt out buses and cars littering the streets, dead bodies vanishing during the night with bodies turning up months later buried at some remote temple upcountry, no way is this the end - i am still amazed that the big companies are still keeping their investments there but lets see how long they well with this happening every few years, this country has no direct, its split down the middle, like headless chooks,they should arrest Mr Black S. or just make him vanish - i have a good pic of an army sniper who got rid of one retired general last time so why not here, things might settle down - well for the time being anyway, for how long one must ask.. china seems to be the place to me - for sure

it does not really matter where they come from. but you are right, one or a few drunken heads among them and once violence starts it is not easy to stop, not even for the protest leaders. and IF violence starts, the government and the security forces, bad and corrupt as the government may be, just HAS the duty to restore order - and for this they will also need to exert some power/counter violence if things get out of hand...

if the demonstrators return to thei peaceful kind of protest like until last sunday and still partially monday (before the occupation of the first ministries), all might still be ending ok. but if the don't then a repeat of 2008, 2010 or even worse is very probable.

unfortunately it seems that suthep and other protest leaders, the same as the pad in 2008 and the reds in 2010, have not learned from the past and are hell-bent to either get their way or to destroy the country. in this way they are not any better than thaksin and his cronies...

The protestors don't look typically middle class to me.

No they dont look like city dwellers for sure but they do look typically Isan, - after being in the LOS for 16 years these are not the typical faces you see at the market or JJ on the weekend, more like farmers from NE- I have been through 2 of these crazy protests, 2010 and the previous one, bombs at the BTS, grenades being dropped on the police box at Saphan Kwai, got so pissed off when they closed the cimema i was watching at central.

at least the guns have not come out yet , just need some crazy thai demonstrator with a belly full of mekong loose and off we go again with burnt out buses and cars littering the streets, dead bodies vanishing during the night with bodies turning up months later buried at some remote temple upcountry, no way is this the end - i am still amazed that the big companies are still keeping their investments there but lets see how long they well with this happening every few years, this country has no direct, its split down the middle, like headless chooks,they should arrest Mr Black S. or just make him vanish - i have a good pic of an army sniper who got rid of one retired general last time so why not here, things might settle down - well for the time being anyway, for how long one must ask.. china seems to be the place to me - for sure

i guess they will have to block A LOT of foreign media now. for example see bloomberg news service...

AJ will probably now get banned in Thailand. Truth hurts.