Thaksin Gives Live Interview To CNN

[Siripon]

Of course Thaksin wants to come back, and he certainly wants to come back as leader of Thailand, because he has nothing else in his life.

Have you ever seen him visit a museum, historical site, cite the arts, philosophy or religion in any way?

Profess a love for sport or music? What interests does he have to maintain himself without power?

[John K]

Why do I keep seeing this image of a two year old having a tantrum. He also said “here in Thailand” makes you wonder why lies flow so easily off that mans lips. He is in Singapore is he not.

[Tony Clifton]

Enough is enough : Thaksin

Ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has vowed not to re-enter politics, saying "enough is enough."

Speaking publicly for the first time since his ousting, Thaksin told CNN that he would like to return to Thailand as a private citizen.

"After six years in politics, it is time for me to be normal citizens, outside political arena. Enough is enough," Thaksin said during brief interview with CNN from Singapore.

He dismissed suggestion that he was behind the New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok and surrounding areas that resulted in the death of three people.

Thaksin called on the authorities to bring the culprit to justice and expressed sympathy with those who suffered from the bombings.

"I came from election. I came from the people," said Thaksin, described the bombings as "stupid".

--The Nation 2007-01-15

So knowing Thaksin says things 180 degrees from the truth on more occasions than not....

why is he so concerned about not getting air time?

He hasn't changed a bit

[warni]

He was the best Thailand can gethttp://www.thaivisa.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/style_emotic...lt/angry.gif.Of course faild, because the system behind.Officers (and police too) all around the country are still the same.All the secretaries or so are still the same. So the core of it all is still the same.

Some greedy of power people just behind this bullshit.I by myself defence him.Poeple vote for him, so what.

Excuse my English

[Haddo]

for those of you in Thailand who couldn't see it, you can watch it here

[asd]

Transcript: Thaksin Shinawatra interview

January 15, 2007

SINGAPORE (CNN) -- CNN's Dan Rivers spoke to ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The following is a transcript of the interview. Rivers began by asking Shinawatra about his alleged involvement in New Year bombings in Bangkok.

Shinawatra: It's baseless allegations. No one believes so. Because everyone knows who is, who am I. I come from election, I come from the people. I owe gratitude to our people. I do everything for the good of the country and the people. I don't do something that's stupid.

Rivers: So you had no involvement.

Shinawatra: Not involvement at all. But I would like to express my deep sympathy, deepest sympathy for those who lose, lost their loved ones and also all those who are injured. And the individuals who are involved must be brought to justice.

Rivers: This is the first time you've spoken since the coup of September the 19th, first of all, you were in the United States, in New York at the U.N., when this happened, how did you find out that this was going on?

Shinawatra: Well I find out just about four, five hours before, before it happened, but I trying to get into the television station but it's very difficult at that time I cannot get into it until I can get into channel 9 briefly, but you know, which I, it's a rumors at that time but I don't believe that this can happen again in the 21st century.

Rivers: So it was surprise when it happened?

Shinawatra: It's very surprise because you know, but anyway 70 years in Thailand, 17 coup happened is very unfortunate but it's, it's an event that happened here in Thailand.

Rivers: Will you go back to, back to politics?

Shinawatra: No. No. (DR: Go back as a private ... ) Enough is enough. Six years you serve the countries. You been working hard. You sacrifice your time even your life. And, even your family life. So it's, it's time for me to go back as a private citizen. And contribute to the Thai society outside political arena.

edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/15/thaksin.interview/index.html

------------------------------------------------------------

Seven years ago, Thaksin was a telecom operator, already a billionaire. He won the elections with populist policy reminiscent of Juan Peron of Argentina and Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillippines. He overpromises most of the things and always comes up with new flashy projects to distract people while he and his cronies rob Thailand.

During the time that he's a prime mister, he:

1. Cheats in elections. Ballot stuffing, intimidation, buying votes are standard practices of his administration. He always proclaims that he is the democratically elected PM, but "election thief" would be a more accurate description.

2. Changes various laws to thwart the check-and-balance procedures so he can do things with impunity by putting his own people in the various independent auditing agencies that are supposed to watch corruptions.

3. Dominates the boards of various telecom, energy, logistics state enterprises with his men and makes those enterprises that compete with his business much weaker so that he could either take them over or destroy them.

4. Signs various FTAs (free trade agreements) with various countries without disclosing the terms in the parliament (so that the terms can be reviewed by the public) before the deals are done. It seems that for all the FTAs, he has the signing countries buy his regional telecome services, especially the service involving IPStar (a broadband geosynchronous satellite he owned.)

5. Tries to setup various special economic zones with laws that greatly benefit his and his friends' businesses, effectively create sub-countries within Thailand.

6. Allows rampant human right violations to happen. In the south, where a large fraction of the population is Muslim, there are a lot of police-state intimidation actions and killings of civilians. Under his "war-on-drug" pretext, thousands of people were killed without due process. No meaningful investigation into their deaths was performed. A prominent civil-right lawyer was kidnapped and disappeared when he raised this human right issue.

7. Practices extreme cronyism. His friends and relatives are put into various positions to control and benefit from all business.

8. Hides his assets against the laws. Most likely to do insider trading and manipulate the stock market.

9. Distorts the free operation of news media. News organizations and people who reported unfavorable news about him or his business got sued for billions of baht. News organizations who reported his propagandas got lavished with lots and lots of ads money from him and his cronies. Free broadcast TVs were controlled by his administration.

I could go on and on, but I think any one of the above should disqualify him from his office already.

Edited January 15, 2007 by asd

[younghusband]

Of course Thaksin wants to come back, and he certainly wants to come back as leader of Thailand, because he has nothing else in his life.

Have you ever seen him visit a museum, historical site, cite the arts, philosophy or religion in any way?

Profess a love for sport or music? What interests does he have to maintain himself without power?

Well I agree.But perhaps you or somebody else could explain how different is the vast majority of the Thai political class from whatever party with their golf,vulgar expensive watches, grotesque wives (mutton dressed as lamb) and complete lack of civilised taste and culture.There are a few English educated Democrats who have a genuine interest in the areas you mention but they are a tiny minority.An unkind person might point out that the vast majority have their origins in the South China peasantry, and failed to bring to Thailand the magnificent high culture of Central China.The few I have encountered personally Newin, Suwat etc confirm all my prejudices, not a gentleman among them all.At least Surayud is a gent with civilised tastes.

[warni]

The Thai pigtails have blocked cnn.com.

I tried several times.I have access to everywhere, cnn not.

[Pattayaman]

ASD 100% with your analasis here here

[John K]

Asd; great post with 9 wonderful reasons why Thaksin wants to be back at the top. Virtually non of that less item #1 will hold together very long unless he is on top again. I admire your work and yes I know that is just the short list.

Siripon; great observation that Thaksin has no life out of acquiring more wealth. So all the public events he had to attend as PM must have been rough on him when he could have been making more money.

Thanks Tony and Autocad; for the visual.

Thanks Thaksin; for continuing to show us that the bottom is deeper than any of us thought. You just keep getting lower and lower not knowing when to stop. Shinawatra: It's baseless allegations. No one believes so. Because everyone knows who is, who am I. I come from election, I come from the people. I owe gratitude to our people. I do everything for the good of the country and the people. I don't do something that's stupid.

Well I believe it and most of Thailand does so I guess we are still a bunch of stupid losers to you.

[Grover]

link to youtube from OZ is fine.

when he was asked if he will return to politics, he said no, rolled his head back then struck a pose:

hmmm.... with a face like that i kind of believe him.

[Grover]

when asked ... "so, you had no involvement?"

this is the instant reaction:

tell us what you really feel, Thaksin!

Edited January 15, 2007 by Grover

[John K]

Play by play body language... I love it!!! Note: no eye contact . It is very difficult to lie and look someone in the eye.

[Grover]

"so you had no involvement?"

"no involvement [snap]...

... at all"

[chuchok]

Seven years ago, Thaksin was a telecom operator, already a billionaire. He won the elections with populist policy reminiscent of Juan Peron of Argentina and Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillippines. He overpromises most of the things and always comes up with new flashy projects to distract people while he and his cronies rob Thailand.

During the time that he's a prime mister, he:

1. Cheats in elections. Ballot stuffing, intimidation, buying votes are standard practices of his administration. He always proclaims that he is the democratically elected PM, but "election thief" would be a more accurate description.

And the other guys didn't buy votes and the future guys won't buy votes.I am amazed how people bring this up.All sides buy votes.

[John K]

Point: he sees that he was not physically there and in his mind he did not have involvement. It matches his tactics completely, think of the PAD people who got mugged moments after Thaksin left. He had no involvement.

[Grover]

Rivers: This is the first time you've spoken since the coup of September the 19th, first of all, you were in the United States, in New York at the U.N., when this happened, how did you find out that this was going on?

Shinawatra: Well I find out just

ummm... ahhh... ummm [snap]

... ummm ... ahh...

about four, five hours before, before it happened,...

He is fuming.

Edited January 15, 2007 by Grover

[Plus]

Actually TRT sucked in ALL the guys who could buy votes. Nothing and nobody was left.

[farangsay]

As there seems to be a few "Thaksin bashers"

and "democracy pundits" in this thread (NB

neither term is intended to be pejorative)

could yous answer two questions for a

schmuck?

I am familiar with the legislative process in

different western countries , to wit Ireland ,

the UK , France and the US. In each case

laws are passed by the relevant legislative

assembly. Yet I still read of "laws" in Thailand

being passed in a "cabinet meeting". Is this

really the case? Obviously Thaksin could

have driven a coach and four through that

loophole. But has anything changed?

Secondly I accept the urgent need for the

coup of Sep 19. This from somebody who

pitched up at the Thai embassy on Sep 20

and was disappointed with the result.

It would help me to maintain that acceptance

if a single indictment for the supposedly

rampant corruption saw the light of day.

Do you think any will come in my lifetime?

[PeaceBlondie]

We who teach English in Thailand have a general rule: if you can't speak or write English perfectly, don't criticize those like yourself who can't do it, and don't set yourself forth as an example. Thaksin himself told students publicly that they should speak English as well as he does. He's not so much a hypocrite in that regard, as an egomaniac. He thinks he's perfect, and all the rest - Thai or farang - are inferior.

Another word comes to mind: shameless.

[John K]

Not bashers, more of what goes around comes around. I suspect his hobby other than making money is just rubbing people the wrong way. But I could be wrong on that, it may not be a hobby.

[onethailand]

According to Reuters:

Unfortunately for Thaksin, nobody in Thailand saw the interview as cable TV provider UBC overrode the signal with a recording of the previous hour's international sports report, according to Reuters.

Not acceptable. Thaksin may be an outcast, an exile, but he has just as much of a right to be heard as anyone else.

I can understand the police trying to censor/block porno and gambling websites (even though I vehemently disagree with this idea) - but blocking newscasts is simply ridiculous, this is not Myanmar, this is not China.

[John K]

According to Reuters:

Unfortunately for Thaksin, nobody in Thailand saw the interview as cable TV provider UBC overrode the signal with a recording of the previous hour's international sports report, according to Reuters.

Not acceptable. Thaksin may be an outcast, an exile, but he has just as much of a right to be heard as anyone else.

I can understand the police trying to censor/block porno and gambling websites (even though I vehemently disagree with this idea) - but blocking newscasts is simply ridiculous, this is not Myanmar, this is not China.

If his intent was to unite Thailand I would agree with you, but it is not. He is totally self serving and it is good that it was blocked as for sure he would have pissed a lot of people off again by putting them down again. I agree with the call to block him.

[onethailand]

If his intent was to unite Thailand I would agree with you, but it is not. He is totally self serving and it is good that it was blocked as for sure he would have pissed a lot of people off again by putting them down again. I agree with the call to block him.

By your reasoning, the CNS should also be banned from public broadcasts. It is debatable whether their intent is to unite Thailand or not.

I am not a fan of Thaksin at all. But that does not mean that he should be censored in Thailand. Censorship is practiced by those who believe they are morally better than the people they claim to be protecting.

[farang prince]

Not only the interview was unavailable/blocked off in Thailand, but I for one, cannot access the cnn.com (without a proxy) as well. So here it is...

Transcript: Thaksin Shinawatra interview

Rivers: Will you go back to, back to politics?

Shinawatra: No. No. (DR: Go back as a private ... ) Enough is enough. Six years you serve the countries. You been working hard. You sacrifice your time even your life. And, even your family life. So it's, it's time for me to go back as a private citizen. And contribute to the Thai society outside political arena.

Well, there you go. Thailand's financial problems are solved once and for all. Since Thaksin says :So it's, it's time for me to go back as a private citizen. And contribute to the Thai society outside political arena."

He can start by voluntarily paying back the billions of baht he illegally kept by dodging taxes from his Shin Corp. sale. Pay that back, and then we can see if there is any reason to believe his sincerity about wanting to "contribute" to Thai society. Anyone holding their breath that he will do this?

[Plus]

It's not really a newscast, he didn't have anything new to say, did he?

The interview was absolutely forgettable, no consipiracies, no dirt on his opponents, nothing newsworthy. I don't think even the interviewer believed him. Just another outsted dictator - if you ask them, they are all innocent, aren't they?

Junta laid the rules already - no nonsense like "I come from elections, I did everything for the benefit of the country, I'm guiltless, I'm clean" on Thai TV, but blocking CNN was stupid. Are they going to open it when the video and transcript are removed? That might take days. Let's see if the interview makes it into Thai media tomorrow. Generals would be very happy if it doesn't.

[onethailand]

CNN is definitely available to me, both on UBC and through the website (CNN International). CNN's US site does seem to be non-functioning though, but it's been like that for a few days now. Doubt it's because of the interview.

Edited January 15, 2007 by onethailand

[A_Traveller]

Well it may be a coincidence, but presently I can't access either BBC or CNN right now.

Regards

PS Can access both using a proxy, and YouTube link in the thread is operational without proxy

Edited January 15, 2007 by A_Traveller

[ColPyat]

It's not really a newscast, he didn't have anything new to say, did he?

The interview was absolutely forgettable, no consipiracies, no dirt on his opponents, nothing newsworthy. I don't think even the interviewer believed him. Just another outsted dictator - if you ask them, they are all innocent, aren't they?

Junta laid the rules already - no nonsense like "I come from elections, I did everything for the benefit of the country, I'm guiltless, I'm clean" on Thai TV, but blocking CNN was stupid. Are they going to open it when the video and transcript are removed? That might take days. Let's see if the interview makes it into Thai media tomorrow. Generals would be very happy if it doesn't.

What a pile of unbearable rubbish.

Who are you to decide what is newsworthy and what not?!

Of course it's newsworthy, otherwise you and the rest here would not take the opportunity to gloat again.

And your repeated defense of censorship in Thailand under the present government - ("the junta laid down the rules") - proves again your complete lack of understanding even the basic principles of freedom of the media and its importance in a democracy as the forth estate.

Freedom of the media does not mean that you, or some generals decide what is newsworthy or not, but the media deciding itself according to long estabished rules. Part of that is that political opponents are equally given a voice, so that people can make up their own mind.

Declaring a political opponent, someone suddenly fallen into disfavour, into a non-person is what happened under Stalinism and other dictatorships, and you supporting such attempts is rather revealing.

[onethailand]

Well it may be a coincidence, but presently I can't access either BBC or CNN right now.

Regards

PS Can access both using a proxy, and YouTube link in the thread is operational without proxy

Hmm. Very strange, because my ISP (CSLoxinfo) has the filtering block from the Police.

You wouldn't happen to be on True, would you? Definitely not on Internet Thailand as they are the ONLY ISP who refuses to use the police-requested filters...