The Clock Is Ticking

[Mid]

The clock is ticking

By Anucha Charoenpo

snip

The big issues include seeking ways to stop the violence in the deep South, pushing for new initiatives to spur the country's economy, reforming education and the health systems, promoting reconciliation and unity, and supporting full probes into graft-related cases involving members of the previous government in order to bring the offenders to justice.

snip

nothing to it , be done by lunch ....................

[soundman]

That's all for the "too hard bucket".

Back too square one....

Soundman.

[Robski]

Or do half a job and let someone else try to sort out the mess.

[nick2k]

thailand doesn't have any leaders anymore.

everybody is waiting for someone else to stand up.

easy for me to say, I know. but then, I know I'm not a leader.

thaksin was the last guy who could be considered a leader.

yes, perhaps he was crooked to a degree. but still, he was a leader.

[johna]

thailand doesn't have any leaders anymore.

everybody is waiting for someone else to stand up.

easy for me to say, I know. but then, I know I'm not a leader.

thaksin was the last guy who could be considered a leader.

yes, perhaps he was crooked to a degree. but still, he was a leader.

Yes and look where he led the country, the violence in the south grew worse under his rule, 2500 people were killed in a war on drugs, corruption within the government became the norm and the rule of justice became subverted. That's not leadership it is the act of a man who has nothing but contempt for the nation and its people.

Taksin has always been good public theater but his present act is becoming farce.

"Pride seeing humility is noble often borrows her cloak"

[nick2k]

thailand doesn't have any leaders anymore.

everybody is waiting for someone else to stand up.

easy for me to say, I know. but then, I know I'm not a leader.

thaksin was the last guy who could be considered a leader.

yes, perhaps he was crooked to a degree. but still, he was a leader.

Yes and look where he led the country, the violence in the south grew worse under his rule, 2500 people were killed in a war on drugs, corruption within the government became the norm and the rule of justice became subverted. That's not leadership it is the act of a man who has nothing but contempt for the nation and its people.

Taksin has always been good public theater but his present act is becoming farce.

"Pride seeing humility is noble often borrows her cloak"

first off, thaksin was one man, you can't say that justice was subverted under his term of office because it takes a lot of people involved to serve justice from the police, the politicians, to the judges. they ALL have to be involved for justice to be subverted. as for corruption becoming the norm in his term of office, I doubt that. on average, coups happen in thailand every 4 years. as for the 2500 people killed in the war of drugs, if they were guilty, they deserve to die. also, consider this, even though thaksin (who is just one man) is gone, those police officers who did the killing are still here. last but not least, you say the violence in the south grew worse under his rule, from what I understand, this jihad that the muslims have been on has been going on for over a hundred years.

thaksin is a leader. in fact, from what I understand - over 14 million people still look up to him.

[Mid]

hey nick2k ,

where does the buck stop ??

I know it's with the Captain of a Ship .

[soundman]

thaksin is a leader. in fact, from what I understand - over 14 million people still look up to him.

Fourteen million bought / brainwashed cretens.

And you would have the Thai people (67 million people) welcome him back after all he has stolen from the Thai people?

I would suggest the Thai people should find a leader from different political stock.

Soundman.

[farangsay]

thailand doesn't have any leaders anymore.

everybody is waiting for someone else to stand up.

easy for me to say, I know. but then, I know I'm not a leader.

thaksin was the last guy who could be considered a leader.

yes, perhaps he was crooked to a degree. but still, he was a leader.

Yes and look where he led the country, the violence in the south grew worse under his rule, 2500 people were killed in a war on drugs, corruption within the government became the norm and the rule of justice became subverted. That's not leadership it is the act of a man who has nothing but contempt for the nation and its people.

Taksin has always been good public theater but his present act is becoming farce.

"Pride seeing humility is noble often borrows her cloak"

first off, thaksin was one man, you can't say that justice was subverted under his term of office because it takes a lot of people involved to serve justice from the police, the politicians, to the judges. they ALL have to be involved for justice to be subverted. as for corruption becoming the norm in his term of office, I doubt that. on average, coups happen in thailand every 4 years. as for the 2500 people killed in the war of drugs, if they were guilty, they deserve to die. also, consider this, even though thaksin (who is just one man) is gone, those police officers who did the killing are still here. last but not least, you say the violence in the south grew worse under his rule, from what I understand, this jihad that the muslims have been on has been going on for over a hundred years.

thaksin is a leader. in fact, from what I understand - over 14 million people still look up to him.

Being guilty was apparently not necessary during the infamous "war on drugs". Being denounced anonymously by somebody with a grudge or even (in one case I read of) becoming "mysteriously rich" by winning the lottery and not telling the neighbours about it was quite sufficient.

I'm not sure if 14 million people still look up to Thaksin but he does still have many unquestioning devotees.

I read recently that Pojmam was being suggested as new leader of the "new" TRT as she was closest to the "exhalted one" and anything she said could be taken as coming directly from him. I thought that was pretty sad. It probably made Kim il Sung jealous too.

[LinkPopularity]

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

let's agree on 1 thing, yes, he was corrupt, but tell me ? Is the gang, who's running the country now less corrupt ?

really ?

[ratcatcher]

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

let's agree on 1 thing, yes, he was corrupt, but tell me ? Is the gang, who's running the country now less corrupt ?

really ?

Name one please.

[ThaiPauly]

My Village Headman would do a better job than Toxin........

There is NO WAY ALL the people would ever tolerate him coming back, sure there are the brainwashed who were denied the real crimes of his regime.. plus the Bankokians would never allow it.

[Austhaied]

While Issan exists, so too will Taksin and his cronies.

[Pepe']

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

let's agree on 1 thing, yes, he was corrupt, but tell me ? Is the gang, who's running the country now less corrupt ?

really ?

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

Yes. No.

I think he should come back to power. The Thais deserve him as a leader.

[farangsay]

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

let's agree on 1 thing, yes, he was corrupt, but tell me ? Is the gang, who's running the country now less corrupt ?

really ?

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

Yes. No.

I think he should come back to power. The Thais deserve him as a leader.

Irony is a waste of time on this forum.

Don't bother trying again.

[Arunsak]

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

really ?

Name one please.

OTOP program

New airport

Paid back IMF with incredible financial acumen

30 baht healthcare scheme

Subway completed

Skytrain completed

Cut out old crony loanshark system, thus allowing poor to get much-needed loans at reasonable rates to finance entrepreneurial projects (highly successful)

Many new roads built

Strong hand kept relative peace (compared to now) in the south. Face it, islamist in the mix of any region need a Saddam or a Saudi regime to keep peace.

Put an end to drug peddling which threatened the entire country's future

Borrowing from Japan or other rich countries almost stopped entirely, as Thaksin had developed ways to finance Thai projects with Thai money

The list goes on and on. I would like to learn though from anyone here, who are undoubtedly closer to the local situation than I am, to specifically explain if any of those accomplishments outlined above have nothing to do with Thaksin, and why.

I can tell you now that skytrain, airports, subways, and new roads. All of these are out of the question now in my country due to environmental whackos. You just can't build a road anymore, and if you do, it's a 12 year planning cycle at least, for the environmental impact projects. We have tried to build one road in my town to bypass a small overcrowded area, and it's been in the works since 1991. Last I heard $300m had been spent on environmental reviews...

Thaksin got things done. In the past I believe there was so much corruption in Thailand that no project could get done unless it was financed by Japanese and/or years of undertable tea money spoils.

[wasabi]

It's hard for me to criticize another country's leadership when mine, USA has GW Bush. Even if the majority hadn't come to realize he is a buffoon who can hardly complete a sentence I still would dislike him. He probably has done some good things but above all a leader should be a diplomatic who ushers in goodwill amongst nations for the benefit of his/her own. GW has only caused our image to go down with his cowboy antics. We have lost respect and are losing dominance in nearly every industry.

[berkeleydb]

As a US citizen, I would like to second Wasabi's comments. If you

look at it from a distance, there's not much difference between the

Thai and US governments.

In my country at this point in time, democracy has diminished as

corporations gain more influence over government.

The past two presidential elections have seen court interventions

by Supreme Court justices that have very strong personal ties and

political obligations to the "winning" candidate and his family,

giving us a President of dubious legitimacy, with historically bad results.

It will take us generations to live down this administration and

pay off the bad debts.

Even our supposedly independent judiciary are all millionaires that

have found ways to accept corporate donations in the form of

personal trips (25 trips in the past year by Justice Scalia alone).

Compare that with the high court in Thailand and their recent

decisions.

In my country, laws are sponsored officially by Senators and congressmen, but

in reality are purchased and even written by corporate lobbyists.

Our current immigration bill is nothing more than a collection of

corporate interests seeking cheap labor, whether it's by importing

hispanic laborers or supposedly rare high-tech skills from India.

In my country, a bribe is called a campaign donation and there

are a thousand ways around the limits. Every candidate that

becomes a Senator becomes a millionaire within a few years.

I don't know that we should be giving much advice to Thais about

how government should work, as over the past 20 years we have become

much more like Thailand than they have become like us.

[Aujuba]

George Bush won the last election with 50.7% of the popular vote. Do you really think he would get re-elected today?

Thaksin got the votes then but now many of Thaksin's supporters think differently of him. They have information about Thaksin which they did not have in the past.

As for the current government. This government didn't come to power to solve all of Thailand's problems. They came to power to get rid of a corrupt leader and to move Thailand on. You can blame the next elected government but not this one. They never said they were here to solve all of Thailand's problems in a year. Get real and stop being blinded by the spin of TRT.

[jackr]

sad ... Thaksin did a lot of great things for this country, now that he's gone and things are getting worse again, so many still put the blame on him ... sad indeed

really ?

Name one please.

OTOP program

New airport

Paid back IMF with incredible financial acumen

30 baht healthcare scheme

Subway completed

Skytrain completed

Cut out old crony loanshark system, thus allowing poor to get much-needed loans at reasonable rates to finance entrepreneurial projects (highly successful)

Many new roads built

Strong hand kept relative peace (compared to now) in the south. Face it, islamist in the mix of any region need a Saddam or a Saudi regime to keep peace.

Put an end to drug peddling which threatened the entire country's future

Borrowing from Japan or other rich countries almost stopped entirely, as Thaksin had developed ways to finance Thai projects with Thai money

The list goes on and on.

... and not forgetting the most important; that he told the majority of his party to bog off when they wanted the bars to open and close between the hours of 6pm and 10pm only!

[soundman]

OTOP program

A complete failure however you cut it.

New airport

A white elephant with only one purpose - To make money for Taksin & his cronies.(CTX scanner scandal etc...)

Paid back IMF with incredible financial acumen

Absolute nonsense - The previous government put the measures in place to pay back the $40Bil to the IMF

30 baht healthcare scheme

Just an extension to the early 50B scheme & a vote grabbing policy.

Subway completed

Aren't we lucky that wasn't built to the same standard as the new airport.

Skytrain completed

Completed before TRT came to power.

Cut out old crony loanshark system, thus allowing poor to get much-needed loans at reasonable rates to finance entrepreneurial projects (highly successful)

Are you completely out of your mind? The poor are in more debt now than at any other point in Thai history.

Many new roads built

Out of necessity. Most large projects awarded to people associated with TRT cabinet.

Strong hand kept relative peace (compared to now) in the south. Face it, islamist in the mix of any region need a Saddam or a Saudi regime to keep peace.???

Put an end to drug peddling which threatened the entire country's future

Only to use it as a smoke screen while Taksin was busy buying a steel mill with millions of tons of stock & then raising import tariffs on Japanese hot rolled products so all his stock suddenly became 30% more valuable overnight, all with the end game plan of being the only steel supplier to Suwannapumi Airport.

Borrowing from Japan or other rich countries almost stopped entirely, as Thaksin had developed ways to finance Thai projects with Thai money

I wouldn't bet the bank on this comment.

The list goes on and on. I would like to learn though from anyone here, who are undoubtedly closer to the local situation than I am, to specifically explain if any of those accomplishments outlined above have nothing to do with Thaksin, and why.

Thaksin got things done. In the past I believe there was so much corruption in Thailand that no project could get done unless it was financed by Japanese and/or years of undertable tea money spoils.

Since you don't appear to be in Thailand or have any understanding of what's actually been happening in Thailand over the past eight years, it might pay to actually research your arguments before putting pen to paper.

Soundman.

[lazeeboy]

OTOP program

A complete failure however you cut it.

New airport

A white elephant with only one purpose - To make money for Taksin & his cronies.(CTX scanner scandal etc...)

Paid back IMF with incredible financial acumen

Absolute nonsense - The previous government put the measures in place to pay back the $40Bil to the IMF

30 baht healthcare scheme

Just an extension to the early 50B scheme & a vote grabbing policy.

Subway completed

Aren't we lucky that wasn't built to the same standard as the new airport.

Skytrain completed

Completed before TRT came to power.

Cut out old crony loanshark system, thus allowing poor to get much-needed loans at reasonable rates to finance entrepreneurial projects (highly successful)

Are you completely out of your mind? The poor are in more debt now than at any other point in Thai history.

Many new roads built

Out of necessity. Most large projects awarded to people associated with TRT cabinet.

Strong hand kept relative peace (compared to now) in the south. Face it, islamist in the mix of any region need a Saddam or a Saudi regime to keep peace.???

Put an end to drug peddling which threatened the entire country's future

Only to use it as a smoke screen while Taksin was busy buying a steel mill with millions of tons of stock & then raising import tariffs on Japanese hot rolled products so all his stock suddenly became 30% more valuable overnight, all with the end game plan of being the only steel supplier to Suwannapumi Airport.

Borrowing from Japan or other rich countries almost stopped entirely, as Thaksin had developed ways to finance Thai projects with Thai money

I wouldn't bet the bank on this comment.

The list goes on and on. I would like to learn though from anyone here, who are undoubtedly closer to the local situation than I am, to specifically explain if any of those accomplishments outlined above have nothing to do with Thaksin, and why.

Thaksin got things done. In the past I believe there was so much corruption in Thailand that no project could get done unless it was financed by Japanese and/or years of undertable tea money spoils.

Since you don't appear to be in Thailand or have any understanding of what's actually been happening in Thailand over the past eight years, it might pay to actually research your arguments before putting pen to paper.

Soundman.

taksin did some really good things for thailand,also bad things,when are they going to stop blaming him for everything that has gone bad in thailand and get on and sort it out ,change the record its getting boring

[mellow1]

If Thailand were to prosecute all the various scenarios of corruption,would there be enough people left to man the jails? So many people are always putting down the USA.I am glad that my fellow countrymen ,have the freedom of speech,available uncensored information,free education, to be able to evaluate, and criticize.To be able to work,live in a nice house with 2 cars in the garage.To then retire with a good pension,maybe a 401k.Move to Thailand,marry or rent a 20 year old,sit back and put your country down.It's a shame that these fellow countrymen, didn't have the opportunity, to be born in a little village, on a dirt floor, and after planting rice all their lives,could now be following 10 cows watching shit come out of their ass,as a retirement bonus.The US should base its foreign policy as well as diplomacy on the examples given by Russia and China.No one complains much about these two,they must be doing something right.

As for running Thailand.Instead of elections,the heavies should get together,and go ini, meani,mini,moe

[wolfmanjack]

It's hard for me to criticize another country's leadership when mine, USA has GW Bush. Even if the majority hadn't come to realize he is a buffoon who can hardly complete a sentence I still would dislike him. He probably has done some good things but above all a leader should be a diplomatic who ushers in goodwill amongst nations for the benefit of his/her own. GW has only caused our image to go down with his cowboy antics. We have lost respect and are losing dominance in nearly every industry.

G Bush is about as far from a cowboy as a person can get.

[wolfmanjack]

The US should base its foreign policy as well as diplomacy on the examples given by Russia and China.No one complains much about these two,they must be doing something right.

Not sure about russia and china but i for one would not mind if the USA Gov pulled back all of the troops from all of the other countries. We are spending way too much money to have troops in Japan and germany when the people there do not want our troops there. Actually i am tired of the USA being the world cop. I am also tired of the USA giving all the money to other countries and then having every one bitch about the USA. I say stop all of the give away programs and lower the taxes.

[kmart]

Thaksin was wildly popular for a time because he was a "do-er" alpha-male with real policies and the determination to see them through. Compared with the previous wishy-washy dimwit collectives of robber-barons and dodgy jao phor types, he was a breath of fresh air to most Thai people. His failure to see through his term in office although with a massive mandate from his electorate gives full weight to the old adage about "absolute power corrupting absolutely" although it seems like his biggest mistake with leaving too many old-money entitled snouts out of the feeding trough... I would go on to say the Thai people deserve better, but I'm not sure if this is true.

[mellow1]

Could not agree with you more, wolfmanjack.Well said, exactly my sentiments,and I believe, that of most Americans.

[tim armstrong]

The clock is ticking

By Anucha Charoenpo

snip

The big issues include seeking ways to stop the violence in the deep South, pushing for new initiatives to spur the country's economy, reforming education and the health systems, promoting reconciliation and unity, and supporting full probes into graft-related cases involving members of the previous government in order to bring the offenders to justice.

snip

nothing to it , be done by lunch ....................

Are we talking about Thailand here, or the U.S. or Iraq, or the Russian Federation, or Afghanistan, or East Timor. Funny how so many countries just have the same old problems ??

[tim armstrong]

The US should base its foreign policy as well as diplomacy on the examples given by Russia and China.No one complains much about these two,they must be doing something right.

Not sure about russia and china but i for one would not mind if the USA Gov pulled back all of the troops from all of the other countries. We are spending way too much money to have troops in Japan and germany when the people there do not want our troops there. Actually i am tired of the USA being the world cop. I am also tired of the USA giving all the money to other countries and then having every one bitch about the USA. I say stop all of the give away programs and lower the taxes.

There is a great book that came out a few years ago now by Samuel P Huntingdon. called "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order". It was a best seller in the U.S. and probably scared George W. just a tad, if indeed he read it. It also probably surprised some other Americans and made them reconsider their values.

Whats happening in Thailand is a rethink as well, as the country ponders whether or not to join the 21st century. What seems to surprise many Americans is that democracy isn't the same everywhere, or the only way to run a country. I think Thaksin understood that very well. Tim

[wolfmanjack]

Could not agree with you more, wolfmanjack.Well said, exactly my sentiments,and I believe, that of most Americans.

Do you think I could get elected on a Fortress America Platform ??