emelie

PAD needs to stand down.

Agreed

disagreed

There is too much heat and lack of comprehension of the true situation here.

Firstly, Thailand is NOT a democracy. The votes have never been free or fair here, if they were there would be no vote buying or heavy "persuasion" to vote for a particular party. As an example, at the last election, my maids and their entire community were told that if they did not vote for PPP, their loans from the 1MBaht village fund would be called in. This is neither free nor fair and does not fulfill the requirements to be a democracy. No government "elected in such circumstances can be regarded as legal or legitimate.

I have several family members deeply involved at all levels in PAD. They are not paid, and those demonstrating have never received more than a bottle of water or a khanom from well-wishers. The PAD have always preached Ghandiism and non violence. Any who arrived at a demonstration with any type of weapon had it removed, or they were turned away. The PAD have legitimate grievances, not least the illegitimate government, and have the absolute right to make them known.

On Saturday/Sunday that just passed, a group of men were touring the villages in the North and, I'm told the North East, offering 500-1,000 Baht per day to men willing to go to Bangkok to form a counter demonstration and attack the PAD demonstrators. All transport etc. was provided. Is it mere coincidence that this happened just when Mr Taxin sold Man' City and became highly solvent again. The rumour is that more than coincidence is involved here.

p1p, i am not young enough to know everything. but i am young enough to know one thing: your splendid post needs to be repeated after 12 hours at least. this i do, no more, no less.

so you say: the governor say not, the unions say yes, who do you believe? (and why?)

...Haven,t seen her in this state since i gave her 25 satang extra in her allowances. Yes i know i,m far to generous, but then again my mortgage is paid for back home and i,m comfortably well off in dear old Thailand as wel as back home, as are a great many other expats out here, contrary to arrogant belief of a certain poster who,s monica escapes me, on another related thread. ON a serious note, where does the present situation go from here apart from in the negative and more unruly behaviour from the people behind todays scenario. ?marshbags

thank you, in all this serious mess you made me laugh with your generosity. would you please disclose your bank account details so that all sympathizers can deliver their fair share of the 25 satang as a clear sign of support to all goodwilling and hardfighting people.

at last let them clash,the sooner the better - this stalemate cannot go on forever....

every idiot to 'call for violence' needs to be reported to the powers to be. do you wanna clash with me? if the watchmen are sleeping?

Not sure if this has been reported yet. Doesn't look too good.

EXCELLENT MOVE

I suppose one reason I am so passionate about my support to getting rid of the current government, and before that thee government of Thaskin is, I saw 1st hand what his policies did in Issan. You gave a lot of people easy credit, based on how much land they owned. They went out bought new trucks, maybe a Mia Noi, a few invested in equipment to farm, but little thought was given to how to pay the money back.

What happened when they did not pay the money back? They lost their land and the government sold it to its cronies....

We bought some of this land our selves, rather than having it go to the government, and then allowed the families to keep farming it.

While a lot of people praised the government for giving them money, for a lot the full realization has yet to set in on what it truly cost them.

It was almost universal in all the villages outside Si Sa Ket for a payment of 200 to 500 baht per vote....This is not democracy.

good point! scientists have investigated the 'million baht/tambon' plan and found it had little impact on thai economy. 'incomes' have improved marginally, 'expenditure' has increased double than 'income'. so thai people are more indebted now than before. many bought 'mobiles' with the borrowed money and spent many hours on 'air'. what a lucky coincidence, that toxin was engaged in both the handphone & the ais business. many who couldn't pay back (with default interest as high as 1% per day!) went to the old loan sharks, some just resorted to good old prostitution and 'walking atm's' (thai word for compassionate and stupid farang)....you can't give some poor people who had never ever seen more than 1,000 baht at any one time 20,000 suddenly and expect that they do anything good with it. many readers on this forum know well the average and below average thai's strong calculation and planning abilities. what a scam and those who profitted most where again the puppetmaster and his cronies.

Court kicks PPP out

your motto:...." when the government fears the people, there is liberty. - Thomas Jefferson". well said, but what if the p.m. fears nothing but his puppetmaster? is this libertarian, libertine or libidinous? just wondering about thailand?

...time to arm up ...

hey, what do you mean, please explain, what can we do? do you provide kalashnikovs and handgrenades, or what?

I am a firm supporter of PAD and the protest....It has always been a peaceful protest, in hopes of stopping further corruption and theft of the country to benefit a few at the top.

RIGHT ON!!! I can't believe how many of the farangs posting on here have so little respect for the brave protesters who are standing up for a fair share of the pie, standing up to these elite few who steal from the common man. Does anybody remember the cival rights movement in America and MLK Jr. ???

I don't think this can be emphasized enough. There isn't very much difference between Sondhi and Thaksin at all. Good friends/business partners at one point. And then clearly, they had a falling out. Sondhi has been a pain in the government's bum ever since. ...

Continuing mob attacks of the goverment is certainly reminiscent of 1930s Germany.

surprised, red historian? and 1933 adolf hitler came as the saviour, just like ceo toxin, but there was no pad those days so he prevailed and seized absolute power and dictatorship by amending the constitution and making 'emergency laws' with his puppet lawmakers. you know how this 'elected & lawful government' ended. do you want his history to repeat in thailand?

They based on law to say Khun Samak should resign because he cooked on tv when being PM. Is that a valid point?

please stay serious! what's your valid point? do you want him to stay because he cooked the elections?

Hang on. I see a lot of the posts here are based on the belief that Samak actually tells the truth when he speaks. I do not believe one word he says. When he took over he made himself the minister for defense to cover this exact situation, to control free assembly and free speech for his own ends...... no doubt suggested by Mr T.

i also don't believe much what samak says. but he will not easily change the word of the most revered institution in thailand. and those words, as reported by samak himself, were: ..."with extreme caution, ...soft & gentle"...anyone who understands diplomatic language, there is no stronger warning than "with extreme caution". and since we all know long time that samak is everything but "soft & gentle" diplomacy would express with those words: "but clearly without you, you are not soft & gentle, step aside!". in an absolute monarchy, a king could and would have been more direct, but as one has to resort to 'diplomacy' how could one have been more outspoken?

If these farmers stop working, we all will have nothing to eat. Working in offices or protesting against the law doesn't create foods.

well said, won't you please tell the board, what food you create?

I am a firm supporter of PAD and the protest....It has always been a peaceful protest, in hopes of stopping further corruption and theft of the country to benefit a few at the top.

My wife bears the scars of the May 92 protest, when another corrupt government did the same thing to the people that were peacefully assembled. Many were killed and wounded.

The most peaceful outcome would be for word from on High to come down for Samak to find life elsewhere. I thought it would after his visit to Hua Hin last week.

RIGHT ON!!! I can't believe how many of the farangs posting on here have so little respect for the brave protesters who are standing up for a fair share of the pie, standing up to these elite few who steal from the common man. Does anybody remember the cival rights movement in America and MLK Jr. ???

You better hope it ends up better for the PAD than it did for MLK Jr..

Well funny you should mention that.

As a human and a parent and a walking talking individual it ended badly, or too soon fo MLKjr.

but for HIS GOALS it ended, no it DID NOT END, he became and icon

and his words took on a MUCH greater power than when he spoke them.

His legacy is running for president now, with a good chance of winning it.

His legacy is the great number of people who are free to do things their grandparents only hoped for.

Martin Luther King's protests in the streets that many in the opposition called illegal,

40 years on have taken on a legitimate a life of their own.

He has a national holiday and he is considered an icon of freedom, and not just for african-americans either.

If he is looking down from above no doubt he smiles a lot.

He reached his goals, he just didn't LIVE to see it.

joe in surin, please read the other serious posts again and 'i have a dream': won't you please never ever compare pad with mlk! i hope it ends up better for you.

It's the first time I feel relieved hearing a state of emergency has been declared. And from what I heard from friends and relatives, and very few of them are Samak's suporters, I'm far from the only one.

As eastwest says rightly " If the military stays behind Samak and the principles of elected government, Thai democracy and the rule of law might very well be strengthened." Hope at last !

maybe 'pierrots' are not in thailand these days and don't have many friends here anyway. if the military stayes behind 'bought' governments, the rule of law might well be weakened. hope needs to go a long way these days

In America every man, woman, minority, land owner or not has the right to vote and the majority will rule. With this kind of democracy we have a very stable government that people will invest in and have become the worlds #1 economy.

very stable indeed! over 20 years of war criminals, conan the barbarian ruling california, dollar down to the ground, huge deficits, credit crisis, blood thirsty oil villains. trying to police the rest of the world but cannot win any war since 1945. instead killing thousands of people all over the world at the cost of thousands of american lifes. rampant crime & drugs & corruption. supporting dictators and corrupt governments all over the world for the sake of 'capital'. and you wanna tell us that this is a model for thailand? oh joe oh joe, it hurts so much.........

Would someone be kind enough to explain what the restriction on gatherings of 5+ people means in respect to the entertainment zones? Does this mean that venues such as bars or clubs must close? Restaurants? Technically, a birthday celebration would land afoul of the rule.

No. You can still go out and get pissed up with your mates on Bangla tonight.

and grandpa, please do it, please please.....

I am not an English subject, but it would appear that the Government in England does this very thing. You have the House of Lords....that are inherited, or appointed

They are no longer inherited but are appointed by the democratically elected parliament.

Not by the military. And the UK has been trying to reform the House of Lords for decades in order to improve its democratic value, they are even considering public referendum on how to do it. That is how democracy works you see, the people all get an equal vote and a chance to use it.

house of lords sounds 'noble' so you need to be a lord to be 'democratically' elected? explain please......? the thai people need to know, coz they are also trying for decades.....................'electing' corrupt crooks does not seem to be more noble than 'assigning' decent people.

PPP won majority of the votes. The Democratic Party did not. The PAD is not a political party but a Pitbull of the Democratic Party...

and who's pitbull are you? the ppp won the rat race: "who can buy more votes". you can win a rat race, but you are still a rat. i just looked at your motto and i understand! you surely translate the lies of ppp!! khao djai puean dii

...Many tv channels just deliver half of the news to support the protestors. NBT is telling all truths so they were the first to be attacked last week.... we'll throw stones to them. ....

some tv channels tell your truth others tell other truth. never believe any but build your opinion by watching several. thailand has more truths available than some farang can dream about. your democratic understanding sounds pretty poor, when you defend corrupt governments, but wanna 'throw stones' at legal strikers for a few drops of water. think twice! if you are more interested in water than in thailands fate & future you could apply as a strikebreaker, blackleg, fink, scab.......

...This is the 21st century, not a soap opera on television.

sorry, you are wrong, this is a soap opera on tv. it has all the ingredients, the good, the bad and the ugly and it is staged by the same people who deny democratic education and insist on soap operas for thai people instead.

I am no supporter of Thaksin or Samak but this situation is more like a revolt than a protest. so why do you support them?

As far as I can see the PAD is anti-democracy and are complaining that the wrong party won. That's the problem with a democracy, you have to follow who/what party was elected and they can't handle that. they were not 'elected', they bought votes!

As far as government corruption and populist polices etc are concerned, you could argue that all governments everywhere are corrupt (to a certain extent) and all governments follow populist policies otherwise they would never get elected. pretty right! you think this good??

If you read my post carefully I NEVER gave an opion ( View) which way I cast my vote either P.P.P. or P.A.D

hi warrior, maybe you were not meant this time, just all the other 'warriors' here on the forum. but if you never give an opinion (view) and if you don't cast a vote either or, please tell the forum, what in heavens are you doing here? just trolling?

I think the questing that needs to be answered is should international tourists cancel their holidays in Thailand.....

every tourist who has a heart should immediatelly cancel his thailand plans to show sympathy with the protesters against corrupt governments. samak ook bpai! thailand can survive a few canceled holidays better than many more years of corruption. corruption makes holidays less pleasent and more expensive. tourists can take that into account and they will come back in flocks as soon as thailand ist just, save and corruptionfree.....

Newbies have as much right to articulate in this forum as you do warriors. No PPP affiliation, just a view different from yours. The notion that with an older join date at Thai Visa somehow begets you the only realistic POV is amazingly ignorant...I don't take sides particularly... but even at the surface, what PAD is doing and their method is not going to benefit anybody... step back and get some perspective

yeah poryai you are perfectly right. as a newbie warrior you have all the rights, but just not the credibility. no affiliation, just different, only amazingly ignorant, no particular side, only pad bashing. most older forum members know each other, only some newbies from a certain hongkong pr agency are rather unknown and therefore not much trusted. be patient, step back and get some perspective before you post.

....mindful that Gen. Chamlong says he wants to take away the voting rights of the 'common man' if he deems him to be under-educated! Both 'sides' in this stand-off are unsavoury !

i deeply believe and strongly support, that anyone -educated or not- who sells his voting rights to the highest bidder must be deprived of this right immediatelly. anyone who attempts or buys votes must be banned from politics for the rest of his wretched life. and anyone who promotes soap operas, gameshows, violence or weapons over democratic education is unfit for any office.