jcsmith

Is blocking voting booths and refusing to participate in elections part of democracy, as well?

It's pretty plain to see that the Democrats, Suthep, and the Military have all been working together in this from the very beginning.

It might have been better if he had said "new elections within an agreed timeframe." Immediately after is not practical. Personally I think that new elections are further away than what most people thought, Prayuth wants to put things in place that he thinks need to be sorted out, so give him the time, whilst there is no violence I am happy and I think most are. Democracy in Thailand is never going to like the one we know and we know plenty dont we. Everyone chooses the version they like and keep it whilst it suits them.

Whether we like it or not we just have to let things take their course and in their own time and dont get stressed over it, I came here to relax dont know about you.

The reason that you have elections is so that the majority gets their say. The problem is that the minority tries to rig the game so that things go their way. To say to give the unelected government more time to sort things out is just another way of enabling that.

Police Academy IX

"He said that operators would have to spensd hundreds of thousands baht to upgrade equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen do not have the skills to operate the equipment" Now how complex is this equipment and how difficult could it be to get a bit of training to use it?

As someone who worked for years in the fishing industry in alaska, I call bs on the training. Upgrading to new machines or to processing machinery would not be cheap. But people can be trained to use that equipment in a day. Companies fishing Alaska would often have a high percentage of new faces every season and they'd all be up and running quickly.

I think they are doing a great work to tackle the problem, but it takes time to build trust with years in a passive mode.

Thailand is acting now on the issue, to get out of the report. But the question is, when Thailand is out of the report, will they act like now, or is the issue with the world gone.

I'm especially impressed with the fact that it will only take 5 years to investigate the situation per recent news, and with the fact that they burned down the camps to "prevent them from being reused."

On a serious note, I think now Thailand is staring at an economic impact they are taking steps to take some measures here to prevent things. The question of course is what you mentioned in the second line, is this just to elevate their status? Certainly they are doing more now than before, but I think the above example shows that they are still not doing everything in their power to bring the truth to light.

Casinos are designed to do one thing - extract money from fools. The house never loses !

Add in the inherent criminal aspect (corruption and potential money laundering) and the number of high-ranking fingers that would be in the cookie jar, you can pretty much be assured that it wouldn't be well regulated and there wouldn't be a lot of "commoners" winning very much at all.

That can be said for parlor games. Poker is a fair game which can be won. The house still gets their rake, and it brings money into the economy.

Next thing you know we'll be burning books.

But this is coming from a country which also tramples on the rights of its own citizens, invades other countries on the flimsiest of excuses, detains citizens of other countries without trial and those persons only defenders are appointed by the the US military. Some of those people have been arrested in countries other than the USA and many of them have been awaiting trial for years.

It regularly sends drones to kill people in other countries and worries little if anything about "collateral damage" to that countries citizens.

Civilians in the USA are regularly killed by the police forces within the USA.

It supports freedom of speech but when it comes to Wikileaks it wants to prosecute to the nth degree those people that expose the truth.

It supports dictatorial regimes in some parts of the world.

When you live in a glass house it is not always a good idea to throw stones.

Ignoring your knack of overstating things in a pretty ridiculous manner, what does any of that have to do with Thailands transgressions? Slavery still exists here. Refugees are sold into it. Camps are burned to "prevent them from being used again", or more likely to get rid of the evidence. Blocking voting booths, arresting people for speaking their mind, and overthrowing elected governments time and time again with military coups. Face it, Thailand deserves the rating it has received. It deserves to have its fishing industry boycotted. The US is far from perfect, but that doesn't invalidate what has been said.

For there to ever be a real democracy a couple things need to happen:

1) The army needs to be controlled by the ruling government.

2) Anyone performing a coup should be dealt with as a traitor to that government.

As is, any time there is an election, the "wrong" side wins, there are protests everywhere for whatever reason they can think of, and then eventually the coup sets in and resets it all back to ground zero.

Since the coup it seems like that scene in the old Superman movie where he rotates the earth faster than the speed of light and sends time backwards. This country is going backwards at warp speed.

He's right. There are enough political tools in this country. They don't need any more.

Case in point...

I wonder what the respondents' opinion is of the popularity rating of most Western governments. In some of these "models of democracy" the approval rating is under 25% - ironic given that these freely elected governments are ostensibly elected by the same people who give them a bad rating.

I think you just proved the point you were ridiculing with that statement. The 85%+ poll results are ludicrous when you consider that these are polls about an unelected government which is suprressing peoples basic freedoms. A 65% approval rating would be very favorable throughout the world. To believe that 85% of people are happy by the fact that they have to watch their unelected prime minister on prime time television regularly is not only highly unlikely, it is completely insulting to everyone elses intelligence.

Someone is going to need an attitude adjustment...

And this is crystal clear.

The man has nothing to hide or being afraid to testify.

We all know the reasons of that crackdown and we also know that the reds were responsible for what happened.

Anarchy is not acceptable and will be tolerated the same way if happens again.

All other excuses and crying by certain members should be ignored.

I think I finally understand you now! I think you're taking the mickey with your comment, sarcasm to the highest degree! You're just saying this stuff to get a rise from people while in the real World you are appalled by the atrocities committed by Red/Yellow/Thaksin or Prayuth. Nobody could make the comments you make in seriousness could they!

I think the more accurate description is that he's just trolling. He's always one of the first responses, always taking it to the extreme to try to get a rise out of someone.

elected governments have a democratic mandate to deliver their policies. And, if their policies do go awry, their only punishment should be a "political" one

Not if their policy was a corrupt scheme to enrich themselves then they should face the full weight of the law.

And where is the evidence of that?

Agree with him. Thailand does not need US interference. Sort your own country out first and then maybe countries where there are huge human rights issues.

Umm, you mean like Thailand? Human trafficking is a major issue here. As is the elite being above the law, and the poor being used as scapegoats. People being mysteriously murdered for speaking out without ever seeing a resolution. You have elections where one side wins repeatedly and the other side manages to find a way to get into power time and time again. A military which does is free to act against the government, but only when it's one side. But it's all hunky dory because Prayut is bringing happiness to the Thai people who would have never elected him.

Sounds like someone has their hand in the bus pie.

Will this extreme brain washing will work with young generations plugged on the Internet?

Sure. All it requires is the necessary laws to imprison people for speaking out against them.

The BIB won't bother to meet the deadline and then what, another of the infamous ' deadline extensions ' then another and ... ?

I'm sure the junta won't order the National Police Chief to ensure compliance since the PM personally backed the investigators to the hilt.

So much for reform.

He didn't have bribe money for police and courts, simple as that.

Yeah it's pretty ridiculous you can walk into a stall at a shopping center or most any night market and buy pirate movies or software, yet they make a farce of an example over this guy.

And already talking of the next coup, or military intervention as it is politely known.

The power of the military has to be curtailed so that options other than "interventions" can be pursued in the event of future problems.

That was my first thoughts when reading it.

I actually do not go along with most of the polls---I didn't with Yingluck, whether they were in her favour or not. But the PM will never be the flavor of the month with most---BUT at the minute most are going along with the ride---like it or lump it.

THEY are ALL bogus surveys if you do not agree with them. If the surveys were showing a minority, you would say they were for real and cheer them on.

I'd guess it has more to do with the fact that the people running these polls started up just before the coup and were formed by military tied individuals, and each of their polls deals with community leaders.

"Yingluck Shinawatra, the elected Prime Minister".

Who elected her? She was a party list MP and therefore appointed by someone in Dubai, then she was appointed PM by the same person in Dubai.

2 votes from the same person makes her elected?

Oh please. She was obviously running and earned votes. While you can claim she was a figurehead for her brother (and I wouldn't disagree with that), the people knew who they were voting for and they cast their opinion.