LevelHead

won't happen again.

Suthep's protesters came in peace and with no weapons.

Of curse since the whole stop movement is faltering and about to disentagrate, violent clashes are the only last desperate option left to try and provoke some response - as in army C

Chalerm is doing the right thing now. He should be focused on daily raids of protest sites and then retreat to avoid violence.

It will upset the protestors daily schedule, they will become scared and tired having to rebuild their sites everyday after raids.

Snatch and grab a few hundred protestors every day, arrested and off to prison.

It will cost the protest funders more money, as they have to keep replacing equipment, paying legal fees of the arrested etc..

It will set precedent that the police have tried numerous times to clear the protestors but been met with deadly force by armed PDRC thugs. Ultimately later then much greater levels of force can be used with clear evidence that attempts to use non-violent means has been tried many many times prior.

Keep on attempting to clear every day, make them tired, make them weary, make they spend money, observe their tactics, put snipers into place in future to take out anyone with guns or grenades....... just keep on hitting them with clearing attempts every day - its the only less violent way to clear them out.

Tulsathit for the Nation and Veera for the Bangkok Post.

It appears both news sites like to keep (in my opinion) at least one totally mad man on their books. I guess its for entertainment value and to "wind people up" because they certainly have not got a clue about politics or anything else that requires a small amount of intelligence.

In my opinion of course.

A slow motion video of the grenade attack. You can see the grenade coming in, bouncing up off of the road and then into the policeman's shield. Much clearer to see in slowmo.

http://vidd.me/jFK

.

Tragic events today but overall he has managed this delicate situation with great dexterity. With public opinion so strongly on his side, the protesters will be cleared off in short order...one hopes with minimum force but simply a very firm hand.

Tragic indeed.

With police being killed today I can assure you the world over that all police and families of police in every country are sickened by this disgusting action of PDRC protestors in my opinion. The PDRC protestors killing police with guns and trying to with grenades live on TV is now in everyones living rooms all over the world.

It can be seen clearly their goal is insurrection - they do not want elections, they do not want people to be able to vote freely and they are willing to kill police in order to get their goal of an appointed government.

All in my opinion of course.

Is PDRC leader now "buying support and votes" by raising money and giving it free to farmers.................. ??

Pro-PDRC group who thinks they are better than other Thai's writes letter moaning about liars ?

Yet another pathetic media article.

Most farmers are more than happy, they have had 2 years of rice payments for their crops, and there is a little hold up with the very latest payment as the PDRC are blocking ministries and warning banks not to lend money to pay farmers etc....

Have you see a few hundred (paid for ?) farmers protesting ? Ever seen more than 100 in a single protest group ? Mostly see 20 or so ?

Wow, so many millions all upset and yet just a couple of hundred (paid for ?) protesting....................

The biggest laugh of all :

Suthep and PDRC accuse Thaksin/PTP of buying farmers votes by paying more for rice, in effect giving them money.

Suthep and PDRC are now raising money and giving it (free) to farmers, to buy their support.......................

Pot - Kettle - Black

All in my opinion of course

Is PDRC leader Suthep still telling banks not to loan money to pay the farmers ??

The petition was filed under Article 68, which clearly the Constitutional Court felt wasn't strong enough a case. The petition ought to have been filed under Article 108 - as that is the one that talks about an election's fixed date within the 45 to 60 day parameter. There will doubtless by a filing of a petition to the Constitutional Court under the directive of Article 108. Article 7 is set to be activated on April 1 when the parliament that failed to achieve a quorum in 30 days, will have failed to nominate a prime minister in the following 30 days. On April 1 a political vacuum will have officially taken place. Article 7 addresses the possibility of a political vacuum.The administration is at that point stripped of its caretaker status. It will officially no longer be in power. Article 7 concerns the appointing of a new prime minister, under a specific set of provisions.

You are right. Filing a petition under Section 68 in legal terms seems like a long shot or an attempt at a short cut. The government was under a legal obligation to set an election date within 60 days of dissolving parliament. Thus without substantive evidence that it set out to subvert the democratic system under the constitutional monarchy this was pretty much a non-starter. The angle that the emergency decree was used to influence the results could have some merit due to the censorship provisions and inability to conduct gatherings but that has already been tried without success and there are precedents of elections and referenda being held with parts of the country under emergency decree under the current consitution and its provisional predecessor.

Section 108 is a much more thorny issue but how this will be approached legally will depend on how the stand off between the government and the EC is resolved re the registration of candidates in the 28 constituencies with none. Re-opening registrations looks unconstitutional because the the organic law requires that registrations must be closed within 20 days of the dissolution of parliament and there is no legal mechanism to re-open them. A new royal decree to fix a new election date for those constituencies is technically not permitted because the constitution only permits a royal decree to dissolve parliament and fix an election date simultaneously and this has already been done. If the government issues a new royal decree, it would be arguable whether it is legal or not. But most likely the court would rule that it is OK but has the effect of annulling the first decree and the elections along with it. With no royal decree the EC will not re-open candidate registrations, unless the court rules that it is OK to do so which seems unlikely. Since this is all very involved with a number of uncertainties and could take some time, it seems likely that the attempt to use Section 68 was indeed an attempt to short cut the process without much hope of success. It was probably thought best to get it out of the way first, to eliminate that possibility clearly in the minds of all legal protagonists.

I am not quite sure about the 30 day limit after the elections to form a parliamentary quorum and 30 days thereafter to elect the PM. It could be implied that the caretaker government no longer has validity after that but this is not clearly specified in the constitution. The court could rule that by default the caretaker government continues in office until a new government can be formed despite these overt time limits.

The PDRC certainly seem to be angling for use of Section 7 as Scamper indicates. In fact, other than a military coup, that's their only hope. I was just reading Jonathan Head's tweets and he mentions this:

Jonathan Head ‏@pakhead Feb 11

@jeffbkkjeff If EC refuses to hold elections we have paralysis. PDRC side is openly looking for angles to oust govt, install temp PM a la

Jonathan Head ‏@pakhead Feb 11

@jeffbkkjeff Anand 1991/2. They keep talking about March, when elected Senators terms end, as an opportunity. The legalities leave me lost.

So as I understand it, Article 7 means under certain conditions, e.g. a political vacuum, *someone* could propose a PM and request royal assent. Who determines what constitutes a political vacuum? Is it the Constitutional Court? The Senate? Some combination? I believe the plan might be to have the Senate vote for a candidate and send the name for the King's signature. This will surely be open to legal challenge. What relevance does the elected Senators term ending have though? I believe the head of the Senate is pro-Thaksin. Maybe he has to power to block such a move and they're waiting until there are appointed Senators only left. Then you have the NACC charges against 50 pro-PT Senators, how does that affect things?

And when does the constitution's provision that PM must be an MP cease to be applicable? As you say, Arkady, much of this is constitutionally ambiguous and will be open to legal challenge. But if it's left to the CC to decide, I guess I wouldn't have much hope for PT's chances. The CC could well cite 1991 as a precedent. After all, they cited 2006 as a precedent for a delayed election, despite the fact that election was annulled, not delayed.

Article 7 at the moment is a no go. Instructions have been handed down that elections must happen and any attempts to invoke article 7 will be rejected.

The PDRC and their backers game plan is to stifle government, put the country on hold, show the countries economy being effected, make life for many people bad - and then go back and seek approval to proceed with article 7 (they cannot proceed until they know it will be approved).

You will see the pro-PDRC media running stories of poor farmers, farmers committing suicide (real or not).............. this is all part of their propaganda to try to gain approval for the use of Article 7.

But as I said, at the moment it is "no go".

The world must support the government of Thailand and support Democracy and apply pressure that Article 7 should not be allowed and it will be a very big black mark against all those involved in it.

The completion of the Feb 2nd elections IS THE ONLY WAY to resolve this present situation, along with criminal convictions of all protestors who broke the law to set precedent that in future - nobody can break the law.

If there is no amnesty for anyone, its means, no amnesty for anyway, be they PDRC law breakers or whoever.

All in my opinion of course.

I can see Abhisit getting nervous now. He was so sure the court would find the election unconstitutional.

Abhisit is fine so far. You will only see him worried if its nearing April 20th and advance voting for the re-run of failed Feb 2nd elections are about to take place, that will mean he has lost.

This ruling was expected - to try to justify to the world that the CC is fair and not in bed with Suthep and his backers.

The problems start on March 3rd.

The Military Junta and their Elite backers changed the Senate from being democratic and 100% elected - to being undemocratic where 50% are appointed good people (friends) of the Elite and 50% are elected. The terms of the elected Senators ends on March 3rd and the new Senate election is on March 30th.

During this period of time only the appointed (Suthep lovers) are in the Senate and there are no democratically elected Senators............which is the time at which strange things might start to happen.

All in my opinion of course

Who cares about this list of Thai financiers of protest? The constitutional court has already ruled that Suthep himself would not be charged with anything because he was only expressing objections to the government's policies. So why the hypocritical bother to name Thai financiers?

Perhaps because :

Foreigners who spoke on the red stages in 2010 were deported.

Foreigners who have spoken on the PDRC stages have yet to be deported.

In 2010 Abhisit and Suthep grinning from ear to ear as the DSI listed all the "red backers" and their bank accounts were frozen.

In 2014 the PDRC backed media is claiming this is all unfair and the backers should not be named (perhaps because they are on the lists).

Its called reciprocity................and once precedents are set then things continue.

All in my opinion of course.

Reform number 1

Every Thai ID card holder must declare contents of all bank accounts in every country in the world for themselves and their children. Failure to do so will result in a 10 year jail terms and confiscation by the state of all monies in undeclared accounts. No person is excluded from this.

Every Thai ID card holder or their children who has over 100 million baht in total assets worldwide (land and property and cash and investments) must be subject to a full and thorough investigation by forensic accountants to go over how they got their money/land/properties - going back a minimum of 30 years. No person is excluded from this. There will be a 6 month "no questions asked" period prior to implementation and people can sign over land, property and donate monies to a state fund without questions. Once the 6 month period is over then any person found to be in possession of monies, investments, land or properties that they cannot account for from non-corrupt practices then the assets will be seized by the state and mandatory 10 year jail term with no parole.

That would be the first step to National Reform.

Pointless topic that cant be even really be properly discussed because of the restrictions about mentioning the Royals.

IMO this is always the elephant in the room in any serious discussions about solutions and without discussing it there will be no long term improvement or peace, to pretend otherwise is to only ignore the obvious.

Total crap. Many decent & prominent Thais have suggested various ways that a commission or council could be set up which doesn't require any discussion about the royal family. None have been taken up by PTP.

The lack of acceptance of its urgent need is what's holding it up from progressing.

The issue is of course what is the definition of a decent and prominent Thai ?

Someone not (yet) been caught doing bad things ?

Someone clever enough to play both sides and keep them both happy with gifts to prevent them being caught doing wrong things ?

I have yet to see an reform proposal by genuine Thai people, I mean people who work everyday 9 to 5 for their wages. People who go to local markets to buy their food. People who catch the bus and train to work.

Yes, lots of proposals from people who think they are intelligent, who have played the system to get themselves into positions of power - and these people have been involved in every constitution so far and now they are saying it needs reform (eg they did a bad job last time).

The reform committee should have :

Nobody who is affiliated to any university.

Nobody who is affiliated with any politician or senator.

Nobody who has been convicted of any crime.

No direct relatives of any politician or senator - children and spouses of children and spouses of children's kin all not allowed.

Nobody who is affiliated with any protest in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014 - anyone pictures supporting or attending any protest in the past 10 years in any way is banned from the committee.

The reform committee members must declare their and their families personal assets before the meeting and be required to report their assets annually for the next 15 years.

The reform committee member and their children and relatives cannot be involved with any political party for the next 15 years after the meeting ends.

Lots more could be added, but if you start to do this and make the reform committee and real reform committee suddenly all those wanting reform will not longer support real reform............ not in their interest anymore.

in my opinion of course........

who dominates the senate?

So the writer is saying that those opposed to Suthep and the Democrat Party must now prevent the senate elections from happening, therefore without a senate it will be impossible to relieve the caretaker government of their power.

That, I think, will not be talked about yet, however if the EC refuses to hold by-elections to fill the 95% of seats then there will be a mass boycott and disruption of the senate elections end of March.

Tit for tat as they say.

The senate is not a real democratic institution anyway. Following the coup it went from 100% elected (truly democratic) to being 50% elected with the other 50% appointed without any elections. Of course the big problem was PTP wanted to return the senate to being fully elected and this is what kicked off the protests (in reality but hidden behind the agenda of amnesty).

So therefore, given the senate is not truly a democratic institution it would well be that the Senate elections (which unsurprisingly the EC want to hold without problems) might get totally disrupted - we may see the inverse of the general election, in that the senate election can be held in the South and Bangkok but will be stopped in the North and Northeast.

The most obvious thing would be to hold the by-elections for parliament at the same time as the senate elections - 2 in 1.

But it appears the anti-election EC do not want this as it might lead to a successful parliamentary election as the forces against the government want the senate election to go without problem. Its no surprise to therefore see Somchai of the EC saying it would "confuse" people to hold the senate and parliamentary elections at the same time and so it cannot be done, yes, we know what your agenda is matey in my opinion.

All in my opinion of course.

I have a suggestion.

For FAR TOO long the academics and intellectuals and business leaders have written the laws and the constitution and it appears they do a terrible job. Its full of holes they can skip through.

So, this time, lets have a committee of non academic people, non business leaders and let them write it, perhaps it might be better, much better - but of course, if would have no loopholes deliberately put in, so would never have a chance of ever being accepted by the Elite..................

Reform ?? Don't make me laugh.

If any party puts up reform without reform of the Constitution Court and the Military - then you know for sure they are not serious about reform - and you can expect the PDRC to never have these two parties under review in their reform proposals................... guess why ?

All in my opinion of course

And if these farmers are so broke why are they not out helping on other farms and doing other work for 300 baht a day. Construction laborer or something. Plenty of work around.

So they can afford not to work and come to Bangkok and protest and then moan they cannot feed their kids.......................... HELLO..............try working instead of protesting, you get money with working...........or perhaps they are getting paid to protest ?

All in my opinion of course.

The Taskin Dictatorship has started

Every think she says is law, and if she does not like it is against the Law

A North Thai woman sent a Message to Yingluck

In the message she wrote hat her child had a good breakfast waiting for him before he went to school and a good packed lunch during the day

She asked Yingluck how can she look in the mirror and say she is good for the Country and the Thai people in the North when her own son has nothing on his plate before he goes to school and nothing to eat while he is there

When I read posts on Thai Visa from Falang that preach how good Yingluk is and I read this mothers letter, I wonder what has Thailand become. and how selfish some Falang can be

Maybe time for us all to look in the mirror, and imagine how many Thais are suffering while this corrupy Government just do not give a S...t

Next Thai Visa will be closed because some of our members support the protest

Hail Taskin our new Elected, unelected Leader

What I find more amazing is :

The PDRC have shut down the Ministry of Finance and other government offices and preventing normality.

The PDRC are pressuring all the banks not to raise money for the government to pay the rice farmers.

And now so called hungry farmers are on the PDRC stage claiming they are broke and need money...............

PDRC stopping money being raised to pay farmers and then cuddling so called broke farmers............ hilarious.

I take it these are Democrat Party supporting farmers.................. LOL

All in my opinion of course.