1 hour ago, Reigntax said:

 

And such a comment, comparing the political situation of Thailand and Australia means anything else you say should be treated with the contempt it deserves. 

You deserve Prayuth, the treasonist, as your posterboy. When he is lined up with his back to the wall ready to face his justified punishment, I hope you are willing to stand by him on this momentus occasion also.

As I stated, democracy is just a smokescreen and means jack shit IMO. If you look at the most of the democratic countries throughout the world you would clearly see it doesn't work. I have always said it doesn't work and I stand by that. If you are so naive to think that the US, Aust, UK and other countries are clean, honest with no corruption and are run according to their constitution then you are wrong my friend, I know having been in government before. They are cheats, theives, and scum ...   they have their snouts in the trough.

But you can believe one thing and I'll believe otherwise. You are allowed to have a different opinion.

2 hours ago, Gudge said:

 

Nothing to wonder about. Thailand would have been involved in a dirty civil war as there was really bad feelings, riots, killings with people (red shirts) clapping in glee as announcements were made of killings. There was no go zones and if you were going outside you made sure you were not wearing either a red shirt or yellow shirt as you would probably be confronted, i know I was when I made the mistake of going out wearing a red shirt and I am a farang not involved. The army HAD to step in and now it's time to step down. I know I am going to get flamed by the anti Junta trolls claiming the red shirts were a peacefull bunch and all the press saying otherwise is all bullshit.

Interesting version of events... Bears no relation to the Thailand I was living in, mind you.

2 hours ago, ramr said:

Not necessarily so cut and dried as to warrant an absolute "HAD" in all caps.  Google "Reichstag fire".

 

Not really relevant. The situation was created for them once the puppet Yingluck government tried to give Thaksin a whitewash amnesty. That on top of an out of control rice scheme fraud turned more than enough opinion away from the Shins and their kleptocracy.

The rival old elitists and their military allies took full advantage as the Shins tried to cling on to power. The inept Chalerm and dubious Tarit with their totally biased CAPO just made matters worse.

 

Were there agent provocateurs - more than likely. But the Shins had rather shot themselves in the foot by misjudging how far they could go. That let the other side in.

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Not really relevant. The situation was created for them once the puppet Yingluck government tried to give Thaksin a whitewash amnesty. That on top of an out of control rice scheme fraud turned more than enough opinion away from the Shins and their kleptocracy.

The rival old elitists and their military allies took full advantage as the Shins tried to cling on to power. The inept Chalerm and dubious Tarit with their totally biased CAPO just made matters worse.

 

Were there agent provocateurs - more than likely. But the Shins had rather shot themselves in the foot by misjudging how far they could go. That let the other side in.

if Pheua Thai hadn't introduced the amnesty bill to wash Thaksin of his sins there would have been no excuse for Suthep to start his moral crusade. It was utterly stupid but as Thaksin said, Yingluck was his clone so the party must do as he says.

So they withdrew the bill, but it was too late. It had given Suthep the excuse to take to the streets, so all he had to do was rally against the inept mortgaged rice scheme and waffle nonsense about reform of politics, cleansing it of money politics and once he had caused enough turmoil, Prayuth had enough of an excuse to hold the coup.

Stupid, stupid Pheua Thai, I really hope they have learnt their lesson. They keep saying now they're a team, Sudarat, Chadchart, they're all friends, can work together, who will be a PM candidate is no problem. Son't rely on the old boss, plenty of members with lots of experience. I hope so for the Thai people's sake.
 

 

A post has been removed:

 

Referring to Thailand or the government as a dictatorship, military dictatorship or other such terms will be removed.

Life would have gone on without a military dictatorship 

Doubt it.
History has shown via the many coups that civil war is always simmering below the surface in Thailand.

Prayut bashers claim they don't want civil war but as soon as a hand full of protesters appear your all jumping up and down gleefully declaring.. Yes this is just the beggining!

And who will fill the Power vaccum after the junta are defeated? I doubt any of you have planned that far ahead.. Perfect scenario for anarchy!

1 hour ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Not really relevant. The situation was created for them once the puppet Yingluck government tried to give Thaksin a whitewash amnesty. That on top of an out of control rice scheme fraud turned more than enough opinion away from the Shins and their kleptocracy.

The rival old elitists and their military allies took full advantage as the Shins tried to cling on to power. The inept Chalerm and dubious Tarit with their totally biased CAPO just made matters worse.

 

Were there agent provocateurs - more than likely. But the Shins had rather shot themselves in the foot by misjudging how far they could go. That let the other side in.

Guilty as charged; I could have picked a better example in my haste.  

 

Still, it seems to me they rode a really fine line between capitalizing on their opponent's mistake and actively exacerbating the unrest as pretense for a power grab.

2 minutes ago, madmen said:

Doubt it.
History has shown via the many coups that civil war is always simmering below the surface in Thailand.

Prayut bashers claim they don't want civil war but as soon as a hand full of protesters appear your all jumping up and down gleefully declaring.. Yes this is just the beggining!

And who will fill the Power vaccum after the junta are defeated? I doubt any of you have planned that far ahead.. Perfect scenario for anarchy!

Utter drivel.

There was no threat of civil war in the 1991 coup. Strife emerged in 1992 after General Suchinda, a leader of the coup reneged on his promise not to be the PM post election.

The last coup was engineered by Suthep and his fellow right wing friends, indulging in the Bangkok Shutdown fiasco, where amazingly, the army didn't arrest them for insurrection, among other charges.

The power vacuum you describe will be filled by people who are elected by the Thai people, unlike the present incumbents who seized power by the barrel of a gun. 

On 1/18/2019 at 11:16 PM, darksidedog said:

Let us not forget the 19 coups d'etat that they have also had, 12 of them successful, so about half of the elected Governments have been overthrown. History has shown that the army have never been any good at running the place, they keep handing back power, saying they won't get involved again. This time looks a little different, as while the Junta are saying they are ready to give power back to the people, in reality it seems that they have no real intention of doing so. If they do cling on, history would suggest that it will not help Thailand one jot. Power hungry maniacs don't let little things like that worry them though, do they?

If Thailand can't get an election executed maybe it's time for their favorite pastime and have another junta? Or is the devil you know better than the one you don't?