Nickymaster

Talking about productivity. Has anyone noticed that nowadays if you go (let's say) to the sports department in a mall most workers are playing on their smart phones? It often takes a serious effort to get their attention.

Same applies to offices. Most computers are set-up that you can't install Facebook, MSN etc. The fact that most people now can afford a smart phone doesn't make it easier for companies to increase their productivity.

PT needs at least 50% of the votes of all eligible voters (46 million).

Yesterday Chalerm stated (from his house) that he doesn't believe a referendum is the way to go. He skipped (called in sick) yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting.

Yingluck yesterday told reporters that she is not sure if a referendum is the way to go.

Meanwhile, Tarit (DSI) said that he would speed up his "work" in bringing forward more charges against AV and Suthep.

So it seems that Chalerm doesn't want a referendum anymore and Yingluck is not sure. Meanwhile, DSI is working OT.

Sooooo funny.

Oh dear, if only the fugitive PM hadn't systematically dismantled the checks and balances put in place by the 1997 constitutuion in order to establish his own feifdom aka Thailand the LOS would still be just that and none of the ensuing mess would have occurred.

Everyone has made mistakes since but the root cause of the mayhem as so often in history is one man's personal lust for power.

Of course. Anybody with a few brain cells knows that ..I hope.. but I am not convinced reading some posts here.

AV is guilty of taking a leading role in siding with Army Chief Poajinda to force a coalition of the unwilling, that he knew would be widely despised and cause serious social unrest, but for the sake of power (and it was his only way to power) he underhandedly carried through with the undemocratic deed. He, the elite backers and the army are responsible for the consequent mayhem. He shouldn't have done it in the first place, but certainly at the first sign of serious civil unrest, for the sake of his country he should have dissolved parliament immediately. Shame on his greedy lust for power and efforts to pervert democracy for the sake of those who he and his privileged associates see as being worthy.

So what your saying is he should give in to mob rule. Let the thugs win when they threaten violence, and burn the city?

Sent from my GT-P6200 using Thaivisa Connect App

No, I am saying he shouldn't have caused the whole situation by deliberately perverting democracy, and that when he was caught red-handed he should have stepped down. He knew perfectly well the electorate did not want him to be the head of government. Shameless // Thia script removed //

So we could go back a few years before that and look at where this red/yellow crap started and say that a particular person shouldn't have been a greedy p.o.s.

Sent from my HTC phone.

Correct. If Thaksin would not have been the corrupt and evil sob he is, we would never have ended up in this situation.

We love democracy and we love our corrupt leader. Yeah right!!

are you saying the Dems assumed power illegally? Or are you still blowing methane?

The only way they formed that coalition was with the explicit backing of the army. Illegal, ??, undemocratic, surely

And the only way PT can form a coalition is by Thaksin buying (promising them very lucrative positions in his government) the smaller parties.

I think that it is the best news I have read in a long while. Heads of state should be held accountable for their acts. If this was done more often then there would be far fewer dead people in the world. The protests in Bangkok were peaceful, there was no danger, except from the military. As for the military in Thailand, Australia or anywhere else involving itself in civil affairs—this should never be done. The military are responsible for carrying out the actions of the psychotics who run the world.

If anyone is interested in reading a book on this subject, Geoff Robertson "

The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold"

The protests in Bangkok were peaceful, there was no danger, except from the military.

You are being sarcastic.. right? There were already 7 officials killed before the army arrived. If the Police would have done their job, things would not have gotten out of control. But...

A kind reminder of some of the events leading up to the dispersal:

1) the firing of an M79 into the 11th Infantry Regiment on January 28, 2010;

2) the firing of grenades during the incidents at Kok Wua intersection on April 10, 2010, which caused 5 deaths of soldiers (including that of Col Romklao);

3) the firing into the oil depot at Prathum Thani on April 21, 2010;

4) the firing of an M79 into the BTS station at Sala-Daeng on April 22, 2010, which caused 2 deaths and 78 injuries;

5) the firing of an 3 RPGs into Dusit-Thani Hotel on May 17, 2010

6) the firing attack into the police flat at Lumpini Police Station on May 19, 2010, causing deaths and injuries of police officers and their families;

7) the firing of an M16 on police officers and soldiers in front of the Krung Thai Bank, Sala-Daeng Branch, on May 7, 2010, which caused 1 death and 2 injuries of policemen;

8) the firing into the UCL building on May 14, 2010, causing 1 deaths and 4 injuries of police officers;

Expect nothing to happen. The Thai Police force only works for PT, Thaksin and the Reds.

As someone still paying Australian taxes, I would support and expect an aggressive response from Australian tax authorities when tax evasion is suspected, which seems to be the case here. I'm just an ordinary tax payer, and I end up paying more when the rich evade their tax obligations.

Are you Thai? You could be.. Only the Thais don't seem to care that the rich and politicians don't pay tax. They keep on voting for them.

just saying.

Production is increasing and exports are decreasing. I hope that everybody understands why.

The governement is paying THB 50 billion!!! a year on handling charges. These include storage and transportation.

We are witnessing the largest corruption case in thai history. It is estimated that this game will cost Thailand around THB 250 billion a year. And the majority of the Thai people don't seem to care.

Can somebody please explain why the DSI is not investigating this case. Please anybody..

Well it seems that the PTP government has the opposite of the midas touch, every policy that they implement turns to poo. I guess thats what you get when you have a cabinet of no hopers run by a criminal from Dubai.

Short term gains vs long term gains.

PT will do everything to please potential voters to build support to whitewash Thaksin. It is destroying the country but PT and Thaksin don't seem to care and the voters don't seem to get it. Every major city with huge traffic problems is trying to decrease the amount of cars on the road. PT is trying to increase the amount of cars on the road. It is just a joke.

Many Thai voters don't seem to worry or know about the long term effects of all these policies. For example, PT has already destroyed the rice market. With a bit of luck Thailand will export halve of what Vietnam will export next year. 2 years ago Thailand was the largest exporter in the world.

It seems that not only the politicians are greedy; the average Thai person is as greedy it seems.

But hey, Thaksin has a good propaganda machine so we cannot but all the blame on the blind voters.

I spy a Yoshi

Got my 2nd year's insurance renewal: 11k baht valued at 180k. Lockton Insurance.

thats a better deal than i got

i paid 15or 16k for a 2011 versys and it only gives back 180k as well if stolen

i thought they would take into account the actual value of the thing

also it doesnt cover the 3 givi boxes,custom rack ,seat ,lights and the extra i put worth about 50k

i would have happily paid a bit more if i could insure the bike for its full value (what it would cost me to replace etc )

180k is a joke for a bike which now costs 290k to replace

and i stand to get back 180k - 5k excess so 175k outta 340ish

they dont even take into account that a versys costs 40k more than an er6n ,the policy are identical and both pay 180k max

i paid 15or 16k for a 2011 versys and it only gives back 180k as well if stolen

So you will make sure your bike doesn't get stolen or crashed because you only get 180k back. That's the strategy of the insurance companies.

NHRC subcommittee chairman Niran Pitakwatchara is reviewing four actions by the government -

-denying access to the rally site,

-using excessive force and teargas against protesters,

-blocking ambulances from servicing the injured,

-and arresting news crews on duty.

That's democracy according to the Thaskin clan. Poor Thailand

Just wondering, has any individual or group been convicted of killing security personal in relation to the 2010 violence?

Since Thaksin couldn't find a suitable male puppet anymore, he threw his sister into the political game.

Let's hope that she can at least improve the image of women in thai media. Or..give it a human touch.

Ref post # 3

Your post is well written and makes perfect sense.

thanks marshbags

+1

Also very worthy of note is that the two teenagers accused of burning down Central World have today just been acquitted.

Insufficient evidence.

I do wonder who really did burn it down...........

And 2 main suspects are still at large...

I don't know who burned it down but it could be related to this event. That's all I know. Just guessing.

Amazing isn't it, all those soldiers, hundreds of cctv cams and the best efforts of the government of time to get the culprits and yet nothing, no convictions, no men in black arrested, no arsonists convicted, zero, zilch.....................

There were arrests. Definitely not zero arrests. I heard somewhere that 493 (or so) people were arrested charged.

I believe that is what DSI Tharit said a few days ago. I will look it up.

And if Thailand would have a police force that would be less corrupt, many more would have been arrested.

Look what happened a few weeks ago, over a hundred arrests within 2 hours after the protest started.

Because I went there with friends!

A thai man came up to me and shook my hand.

There were police there. It was all very relaxed.

I went there everyday as i worked in Central World at the time.

Every time i tried to enter the protest site to get to work, i was stopped by the guards and they tried to search me - i was held at gun point by several Thai men when i tried to refuse.

My female staff were groped and grabbed by the guards and they got angry and aggressive when the girls complained or tried to resist. The whole place smelled of p*ss and sh*t after a week or two...

There were no police there and it was far from relaxed and friendly...

I wonder which protest site you went to, it wasn't the same one i had to walk through everyday...

I just told you.

I visited the Democracy Monument site in March.

What followed was largely the responsibility of your poster boy.

He fanned the flames and to sit and watch his interview yesterday with the BBC what struck me was the man's arrogance.

He has that thai trait that when you tell a fib to embelish it as much as possible much as we did when we were children.

In this country the rich just keep getting richer and the poor well they just stay poor.

It's funny but over in China they have privatised all their major utilities as Thaksin tried to do here.

But see you have the yellows opposed to privatisation and then you have Pitak Siam who want to seize foreign assets eg oil explorers but not to nationalise.

You have to go back to Suthep's secret meetings with Hun Sen over oil and gas rights and Hun Sen partly spilling the beans over the negotiations and the thai families who would share out the spoils.

Abhisit and his clan if you like are all just getting richer. They have more and more apparent power.

Where will it all end? You tell me.

In general, we are all agreeing that Thailand is corrupt (and getting more corrupt), the education system is a mess, the south is a mess and that the rich getting richer and that the poor getting poorer.

Somebody must take the blame for this. Maybe the government that was in power 10 out of the last 12 years?

Also very worthy of note is that the two teenagers accused of burning down Central World have today just been acquitted.

Insufficient evidence.

I do wonder who really did burn it down...........

And 2 main suspects are still at large...

I don't know who burned it down but it could be related to this event. That's all I know. Just guessing.

We're straying off topic here but I'd like to point out that not only did the protesters, bystanders and journalists have a choice to be there, they had a RIGHT to be there. Similarly they had a RIGHT to protection from the authorities and not aggression. They had a right to be protected from any violent elements not simply branded as terrorists because a minority were acting like them.

Elections hadn't been promised prior to the protests and a late change of heart by Abhisit, only when faced with a mass occupation of the city, to grant the citizens their democratic right to vote (but only at a time of his choosing) didn't appease the situation.... perhaps too little, too late?

I'd also like to point out that I made a single post that actually addressed the topic at hand and gave my thoughts on Abhisit's interview with the BBC. Please don't disingenuously suggest that I'm repeating myself. This is the first time that I have written about Abhisit's show of mock bravado during the BBC interview being in bad taste given the deaths of so many in 2010 who didn't have the luxury of a trial or a platform to explain their motivation or actions.

How does anyone have the "right" to be at an illegal assembly?

Because it was an entirely legal assembly UNTIL Abhisit well, lets see first he said foreigners attending would be arrested and then he declared a state of Emergency after some suspicious explosions went off conveniently around Bangkok.

No witnesses, no working CCTV, no injuries except at Poseidon Massage (hi-so knocking shop) where a car bomb exploded seriously injuring the bomber.

Abhisit's then Minister for Commerce only previous work experience was working for her mother as a Madame in their Poseidon Massage parlour.

"lets see first he said foreigners attending would be arrested and then he declared a state of Emergency after some suspicious explosions went off conveniently around Bangkok"

You mean these?

1) the firing of an M79 into the 11th Infantry Regiment on January 28, 2010;

2) the firing of grenades during the incidents at Kok Wua intersection on April 10, 2010, which caused 5 deaths of soldiers (including that of Col Romklao);

3) the firing into the oil depot at Prathum Thani on April 21, 2010;

4) the firing of an M79 into the BTS station at Sala-Daeng on April 22, 2010, which caused 2 deaths and 78 injuries;

5) the firing of 3 RPGs into Dusit-Thani Hotel on May 17, 2010);

6) the firing attack into the police flat at Lumpini Police Station on May 19, 2010, causing deaths and injuries of police officers and their families;

7) the firing of an M16 on police officers and soldiers in front of the Krung Thai Bank, Sala-Daeng Branch, on May 7, 2010, which caused 1 death and 2 injuries of policemen;

8) the firing into the UCL building on May 14, 2010, causing 1 deaths and 4 injuries of police officers

We're straying off topic here but I'd like to point out that not only did the protesters, bystanders and journalists have a choice to be there, they had a RIGHT to be there. Similarly they had a RIGHT to protection from the authorities and not aggression. They had a right to be protected from any violent elements not simply branded as terrorists because a minority were acting like them.

Elections hadn't been promised prior to the protests and a late change of heart by Abhisit, only when faced with a mass occupation of the city, to grant the citizens their democratic right to vote (but only at a time of his choosing) didn't appease the situation.... perhaps too little, too late?

I'd also like to point out that I made a single post that actually addressed the topic at hand and gave my thoughts on Abhisit's interview with the BBC. Please don't disingenuously suggest that I'm repeating myself. This is the first time that I have written about Abhisit's show of mock bravado during the BBC interview being in bad taste given the deaths of so many in 2010 who didn't have the luxury of a trial or a platform to explain their motivation or actions.

How does anyone have the "right" to be at an illegal assembly?

Because it was an entirely legal assembly UNTIL Abhisit well, lets see first he said foreigners attending would be arrested and then he declared a state of Emergency after some suspicious explosions went off conveniently around Bangkok.

No witnesses, no working CCTV, no injuries except at Poseidon Massage (hi-so knocking shop) where a car bomb exploded seriously injuring the bomber.

Abhisit's then Minister for Commerce only previous work experience was working for her mother as a Madame in their Poseidon Massage parlour.

It was never an legal assembly. A six week occupation of down-town Bangkok in not legal. Have you ever heard about rights of people affected by those protests?

They were allowed to protest (for a long period of time) but at areas designated to them by the authorities

Just like what happened a few weeks ago. There were over a hundred arrests within 2 hours because they tried to go to areas they were not allowed to go to. Very simple.

Nevertheless, I am curious to hear why YOU think it was an entirely legal assembly.

The way to deal with this is to have the Taksin court cases investigated by an independant commission to see whether the correct legal processes and laws were followed.

Now there are people that say: Let Thaksin come back as a free man first and do all his cases again (that would take 10 years and during those 10 years he is a free man). Funny, that is exactly what Yingluck said to CNN the first day she took office: We have to look at my brothers’ cases again. Thaksin would then be innocent until proven guilty. Such a scenario would be the joke of the century.

Independent commission? In a country where EVERYTHIING is politicized? That is virtually impossible, and you know that. And if such a commission could ever be set up, 99% of all Thai politicians and officials would be guilty of any sort of crime.

In this perfectly legal (Thai) country who would be the government?

And do you honestly believe that Thaksin could be cleared of all the dozens of cases against him (by this independent commission)? The answer would (most probably) be no and therefore Thaksin is only interested in an amnesty. He will never come back before this amnesty is in place.

I just noticed that my post has little in common with the thread topic. The Mods are free to delete it.

Everything is politicised...except when it relates to Thaksin?

99% of politicians are guilty for some sort of crime but ignoring that and making a scape goat out of the main opponent to your favoured party is acceptable?

I guess, given your take on independent commissions in Thailand, that you also accept the reluctance of many to accept the findings of the independent commission set up by the Dems to investigate the deaths in 2010?

Don't guess.

>This is a typical ploy of Abhisit - trying to change the conversation. Whenever challenged about the 90+ deaths at R'song, he starts talking about "Men in Black". In this case, trying to re-direct the conversation about his legal status to "amnesty". Nothing to do with his predicament.

>It is true, the protesters occupied the middle of the city, and he felt compelled to restore order. But who was restoring order after the 2006 coup, an occupation of the country, which precipitated all of it. The disconnect between these two events is another 'change of conversation' by him, when seeking to link the protests with Thaksin assets seizure. The 2010 event was a coup-election thing. The so-called negotiation that wasn't, wasn't about 'assets', but about election timing.

>I think the term 'crackdown' is overused and does not describe historical reality. It implies legitimate use of State Power, when a political solution was easy, and hence rendered use of force illegitimate. There is never talk about a 'crackdown' on those who perpetrated a coup.

The occupation at Rachaprasong occured just 2 months after the court seized half of Thaksin's 84 billion baht.I suggest the two are related.

Apisit is a brave and articulate man.Compare his actions to the cowardly Thaksin,always running away, hiding in shopping malls when violence occured by his foot soldiers.

Not directly related but I do wonder when Chalerm,'there is no terrorism in Thailand' Youbamrung will resign.Did he not read about the two Buddhist teachers gunned down 2 days ago whilst their Muslim colleagues were left unharmed?

Thousands of red shirts began street protests in Bangkok in mid-March 2010, a little over a week after a court seized Bt46 billion in assets from Thaksin, found to have been obtained improperly.

Sssst, don't mention that. Don't spoil the game. The red shirts were there because injustice was done to them, nothing to do with Thaksin.