6 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

 

The grunting must have been exquisite at that table 

I hope he was promising them a better trough than that one.

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Weapons-grade hypocrisy.

 

There seems to be two very sad aspects to this;

 

• They believe that they aren't doing wrong
• The Thai people tolerate it

I shudder and cry at the damage these people are doing to beloved Thailand.

 

 

Now ask yourself why Thai people tolerate it?

Try thinking about it without western values in mind.

And talking about damage, I do have the idea the Thaksin driven governments did much more damage to the country, money wise and democratically.

 

3 hours ago, z42 said:

and yet the Thais en masse still sit on their backsides not even caring.

Ever been successful in attempt to wake up a Thai?

5 minutes ago, Lupatria said:

Ever been successful in attempt to wake up a Thai?

send her a Line-message 

23 minutes ago, hansnl said:

Now ask yourself why Thai people tolerate it?

Try thinking about it without western values in mind.

And talking about damage, I do have the idea the Thaksin driven governments did much more damage to the country, money wise and democratically.

 

I bet you can hear a pin drop on your side of the fence.

 

But back to the matter in hand. You know, this whole junta thing could in fact be the largest and most elaborate practical joke ever played. An entire people on Candid Camera...

Jingo juntas can be very flexible in the rule area not the waistline it appears? 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

deputy junta chairman Prawit Wongsuwan said the group, called the Three Friends, is not a registered political party and therefore not subject to the strictly enforced restrictions.

Prayut is not affiliated with a registered party.

Yet, he calls himself a "Politician" and not a "Soldier."

Has Prawit then created an excuse for Prayut to not be subjected to "strictly enforced restrictions?"

6 hours ago, webfact said:

the group, called the Three Friends

The Three Amigos

14 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

The Three Amigos

Or these Three Friends?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Stooges

6 hours ago, z42 said:

Prawit is a bona fide idiot, we all know that much, but at what point is anybody actually going to do anything at all? Do Thai people even understand this, or care. It has gone well, well beyond pathetic now and yet the Thais en masse still sit on their backsides not even caring.

 

I guess am wrong though for expecting more to be done. Sad as can be

 

5 hours ago, Eligius said:

I'm afraid I've almost lost all hope now that the Thais are going to mount a massive push to get their country and their freedom back. They really don't seem to be all that bothered by anything that's happening now. Loads of excuses have been put up over the past 4+ years to defend them ('oh, wait until after the royal Funeral - then you'll see the Thais fight back'; 'oh, you wait and see how angry the Thais will be when they don't get an election early in 2018 ...', etc.) - but nothing ever happens - apart from a small (very small) group of immensely brave students and workers who 'walked for freedom'. Mai ben rai. Freedom doesn't really matter. Thai soap operas on TV and Facebook are much more important.

 

So: I for one am beginning to think (in fact, have thought so for some time now) that the Thais en masse will let the autocracy roll on all over them and won't really resist - not today, not tomorrow, not next year, not in 2020.

 

And the junta knows it. Therein lies the power and sovereignty (a stolen one) of the military junta. They have power - because the Thais have handed it to them. The Thais really could not have made it much easier for the junta if they had tried. Junta rule in Thailand - it's a doddle!

 

Mai ben rai.

 

Patience grasshoppers, patience.

The power is with the Green Shirts. The Men with the Guns.

What else do you expect except open mutiny, revolution and blood and corpses on the street?

That is the only option currently and the last 4 years.

All good things come to those that wait.

Patience grasshoppers, patience.

One day, hopefully, in our lifetimes, we will see these traitors and regime leaders swinging in public, a la Mussolini.

Vivre la Siam!

2 hours ago, hansnl said:

Now ask yourself why Thai people tolerate it?

Try thinking about it without western values in mind.

And talking about damage, I do have the idea the Thaksin driven governments did much more damage to the country, money wise and democratically.

 

How about instead of applying 'western values' we simply apply common sense? 

 

Who in their right mind would want to be subservient to anyone else? Especially being subservient to those who are corrupt and steal from them. No one - no one who's been taught that we're all just decomposing matter and it's the things that we do in life that we should be judged on. Not the meaningless words. 

3 hours ago, hansnl said:

Now ask yourself why Thai people tolerate it?

Try thinking about it without western values in mind.

And talking about damage, I do have the idea the Thaksin driven governments did much more damage to the country, money wise and democratically.

 

Thai people tolerate it because most of them are struggling too hard to get by to have time for politics, and because people with guns come for those who make trouble.  The rich Thais with money don't want democracy, they like a junta that protects their privileged position.

 

For all his many faults, Thaksin was elected and greatly improved life for the majority of Thais by building roads, schools, and clinics in parts of Thailand living in third world conditions.  Barely literate parents were able to send their children to school, many of these children are now university graduates with professional jobs instead of subsistence farmers.  That's why Thaksin kept winning elections and why the Bangkok elite couldn't tolerate him; he represented a threat to their monopoly on wealth and power.

 

In summary, Thakson showed people they could choose who led the country, the junta shows people they have no choice.  How does that make Thaksin more damaging to the county?

 

BTW: the Thai economy did fine under Thaksin.

3 hours ago, hansnl said:

And talking about damage, I do have the idea the Thaksin driven governments did much more damage to the country, money wise and democratically.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Pro-Junta Politicians Can Campaign Because They Are Not Politicians: Junta

 Making it up as they go along. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

 

More "Parties" are not the way forward.

 

A "Movement" is.

 

This opens that door :

"is not a registered political party and therefore not subject to the strictly enforced restrictions."

 

It's official.

 

 

Another plate of somtam and I'm all yours!

 

Looks like their are more than 5 people in that photo and they must surely be talking politics 

4 hours ago, rkidlad said:

How about instead of applying 'western values' we simply apply common sense? 

 

Who in their right mind would want to be subservient to anyone else? Especially being subservient to those who are corrupt and steal from them. No one - no one who's been taught that we're all just decomposing matter and it's the things that we do in life that we should be judged on. Not the meaningless words. 

I know. I know.

But sometimes I think I have got it wrong looking angry thinking 'what is wrong with you all?'

'Why are you so happy. Don't you know about all these problem you have?'

8 hours ago, Esso49 said:

There you have it and your own statement illustrates exactly why they get away with it.  Identify any Thai male with a gram of intelligence and you may have identified someone who could lead Thailand from the 18th century to the 21st.    Good luck with your search.

As they did in the USA?

13 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

The staggering level of hypocrisy in that statement is breathtaking.

 

An insult to anyone with a gram of intelligence.

 

“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.”

 

Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions

Perhaps the level of hypocrisy is staggering but also is nothing new from this group. But are the Thai people seeing through this charade?

So if other political parties have supporters that are not politicians running for office and have the same relationship to their party can gather and campaign for their friends without fear of repercussion? Be interesting to see if anyone is brave enough to try it, how the long arm of the junta responds, if the media covers it, and then how the Thai voters respond.

43 minutes ago, chama said:

Perhaps the level of hypocrisy is staggering but also is nothing new from this group. But are the Thai people seeing through this charade?

I think the Thais (in general) surely see through all this nonsense - but they just shrug their shoulders and say (I've heard it a thousand times): 'What can we do about it? They've got guns'.

 

And that is where the matter rests. It does not seem unduly to bother the Thais (most of the Thais - with some honourable exceptions). Not worth getting all hot and agitated over. It bothers people like me and you far more, I would hazard a guess. But then we come from a culture that went through the European Enlightenment and which cherishes the notions of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, liberty, equality, fraternity, justice - and human rights.

 

The moral and political soil in which the Thais have been 'nurtured' is very, very different. Thaksin and his sister began to change things - but now, after 4+ years of basically utterly unchallenged junta control of their lives, the Thais have started to get inured/ reconciled to ongoing oppression. 

 

It's not a particularly big issue for most of them - that is clear to me (and to a number of others on these threads). It's certainly (in the Thais' eyes) not worth fighting for their freedom. "Let's put up with it and just get on with our lives. Nothing we can do." 

 

That seems (after more than 4 years) to be the Thais' attitude. It would not be mine - but it is clearly theirs.

 

Nothing I can do about it.