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Thaksin back in Thailand on May 16th - calls for a landslide election victory to get country out of a "black hole"


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Posted
17 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

What can possibly go wrong?

thaiprotest.jpg

 

 

That's what happens when people's chosen, elected leaders are routinely deposed.

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Posted
16 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

My question included whether democracy could return if Thaksin came back into power.  Obviously their MO is industrial level vote-buying, gambling with public money to fund the vote-buying, suppression of free-speech, changing laws to allow corruption, and human rights violations.

 

If Thaksin comes into power, it is unlikely that people will be able to vote him out if they do not like what he does.

Of course you present no evidence to support any of your claims. 

 

All we know for sure is that there is no democracy under military rule.

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Posted
15 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Thaksin took it to a whole new level.  You should look it up.  Especially the "rice pledge scheme".  It's like something from a Hollywood movie.

 

In most places, people would remember what Thaksin did in the past and would never vote for him again.  In Thailand they simply think "he gave me money, I like him".

 

People are free to vote for him, of course, it's just funny when someone says something about democracy, human rights, or law and order when discussing a Thaksin proxy being elected.

You think agricultural schemes that benefit farmers at taxpayer expense invalidate democracy?  By that standard, how many democracies are there?

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Posted
14 hours ago, kingstonkid said:

ASEAN  he just saw the military take over Myanmar again and Marcos was elected as president in the Philippines so he thinks he is entitled

Really?  You don't see any difference between the Myanmar generals rejecting an election, seizing power and waging war on the people of Myanmar, and the Philippines accepting election results?

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Posted
14 hours ago, h90 said:

they were legally ousted from power.....as the winner writes the book of history and in this case they wrote that into the constitution.
But beside that: Thailand was on the brink of a civil war with already injured and death people + massive economic damage.
Specially in the coup against his sister, Prayut tried till the last minute to negotiate a peaceful solution. Which would have been the PM to visit the king and telling that she is unable to govern the country and ask for an emergency government. They hoped that than the king would call in a temporary government from bureaucracy and retired respected people which pacify the country and call for new elections.
The government rejected that. The alternative would have been civil war with all the tourism goes down to nothing. There was already talks that the complete South declares itself an independend country, under the king but not under Bangkok rule.
There was also already a tax boycott many companies didn't pay taxes anymore and revenue department did not enforce anything anymore.

"they were legally ousted from power.....as the winner writes the book of history and in this case they wrote that into the constitution."

 

If you think that's acceptable there is no hope for you.

 

"But beside that: Thailand was on the brink of a civil war.."

 

No, it was not.  The protests were dying of apathy.

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Posted
5 hours ago, BangkokReady said:

Again, it doesn't look like it.

 

Perhaps the problem comes, with sugar cane and rubber, from the fact that someone is seeing "[crop] pledge" and assuming (or perhaps hoping?) that it is the same as the rice pledge scheme.

 

The two mentioned schemes appear to differ from the rice pledge scheme in a number of ways.

 

The sugar cane scheme appears to be about encouraging farmers to harvest their crop rather than burn it, while the rubber scheme seems to be about guaranteeing prices through subsidisation to prevent farmers from becoming destitute.  Both schemes appear to be funded directly from the government and keep the prices around similar levels to what they have been previously.

 

Both the sugar cane and rubber price pledge schemes were also being bought buy the manufacturers and being used.  That's quite important to remember.

 

With the rice scheme, rice was guaranteed to be purchased at a price much higher than the market price in order to buy votes.  The plan for the funding was that the rice would be stockpiled, the global price would go up, then the rice would be sold for much more than it would have been previously on the global market.

 

The rice scheme went wrong in a number of areas.  In many cases the rice was not properly stored and spoiled or went missing.  People were importing lower quality rice below the rice scheme pledge rate and then passing that off as Thai rice (this might have been done by some of the people running the thing, can't remember).  IIRC, there was a lot of corruption in general around the scheme by those organising it.  Many people didn't get paid as promised and when they complained red-shirt roughs went to threaten them.  The global shortage was picked up by other countries, so rather than increasing the price it allowed more producers into the market, eventually lowering the price of Thai rice (the damage to the reputation had a similar effect).

 

I'm sure you can see the difference here.

 

Like I said, the kind of thing you might see in a movie.  You should look into it.  Very interesting.

Good reasons to vote Yingluck out in an election.  That might have happened if people had been given the chance.

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Posted
18 hours ago, keith101 said:

He is pushing for his party to win so he and his daughter can get pardons and can return home and take power again .

Exactly. 

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Posted
6 hours ago, Mr Dome said:

I lived in Thailand during his rule and remembering how anti-foreigner he was and how he divided the country, that's a very weird statement from a farang. Does Thailand really need the vote buying & his own brand of corruption back that he was so good at? I doubt it. 

Lucky we have now anutin screaming that foreigners are filthy pigs who take only 1 shower a day

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Posted
11 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

Was the "rice pledge scheme" anything like the recently introduced scheme for the sugar cane farmers?

 

I just thought I would ask?

not at all close

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Posted
16 hours ago, NemoH said:

What kind of country has a criminal think that he can get pardoned from his crime if he wins an election ????????????

There is no bigger criminal than the present unelected caretaker PM, difference is the soldiers have all the strength behind them that would keep him out of jail.

Posted

Some serious reshuffling of cards it up certain sleeves; get ready for a bumpy after-election period or "the outcry of the dinosaurs" ........... For once thy cannot stick that one on the alien's backs ???? 
The Titans are getting ready, let's see if verbally only ???? 

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Posted
10 hours ago, Confuscious said:

Thaksin is not a dumb man.

He is old and needs a lot of medical care.
If he dies in a cell, he will be a "Martyr" and Thailand will go down in a never ending war between the North and Bangkok (fuelled by Thaksin's family).


If he is treated well, he will cost the country lots of money and he will have control over his followers from the country within, which will throw Thailand back to 2006.

Any way you can chose, it as win-win for Thaksin.

Thailand was much better off with Thaksin abroad.

"which will throw Thailand back to 2006."  Thailand was a far better country then than it is now.

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Posted
31 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

Well said. I would give my left one to see Thanathorn in charge. He would really elevate this place. Thaksin would create strife, though anyone but the bl**dy army. 

Nice sentiments, but the Move Forward folks will have little or no chance of a majority rule or control.

Just the way things work here.

 

 

I'm waiting for the revolution.

Posted

The election results will not be "revealed" by 16 May.

 

During the last "election" unofficial results were released + four days, with official results released + six weeks.

 

Thaksin should not be making flight arrangements just yet - yes, I know he'll fly private.

 

I can't see him returning, ever. Upright, or in an urn.

 

 

Posted
1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

Well said. I would give my left one to see Thanathorn in charge. He would really elevate this place. Thaksin would create strife, though anyone but the bl**dy army. 

By "elevate", you mean make it more like the ghastly western world. No thanks. 

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Posted
4 hours ago, heybruce said:

Really?  Are you that blind?

 

The military wrote the constitution, did not allow any discussion of alternatives or criticism of their constitution, presented it to the people with the choice of voting for the constitution or never voting again, modified the "approved" constitution to accommodate he-who-must-not-be-named, then had to fiddle with the rules to keep Prayuth in power after the election.

 

The result was not democracy, it was a continuation of the coup.

From what country are you speaking? There was lot of discussion and criticism about the constitution and Prayut got asked and it was on TV what happens if the constitution is rejected. He said than the old constitution will be reinstalled.
And the constitution was accepted with >60% so by no means it was close. And that even the opposition parties promoted to vote no.
I don't know where you are from....But did the American vote for their constitution or for any changes, did the Germans vote for theirs or the French?
These were made in the backroom by the people in power without asking anyone.

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Posted
4 hours ago, heybruce said:

"they were legally ousted from power.....as the winner writes the book of history and in this case they wrote that into the constitution."

 

If you think that's acceptable there is no hope for you.

 

"But beside that: Thailand was on the brink of a civil war.."

 

No, it was not.  The protests were dying of apathy.

So that USA is independent from Britain is not acceptable for you, right? Because that was illegal. Or France should be still a Kingdom, because the Revolution was illegal broke a lot of laws.
My point is: Things change in an imperfect way. We have to live with that.
No it was not dying, protesters were dying....we know one who lost his foot.
Companies didn't pay taxes, revenue department agreed. The South talked about splitting away from Thailand. Police and military were split inside. There were already cases in which some units blocked other units. It only need one case (or a staged case) where one policeman shoots an soldier or one army unit shoot at another and there is civil war. The dock worker labor union organized itself in a paramilitary way. Some red shirt groups did the same. Former communist fighter boosted on TV that they still have their weapons and are ready to pick them up.
Maybe some of it was just empty talk. But see what happened in Ukraine when some sniper shot at both police and demonstrators. You could have got that here as well.
And look how many coups were in Thailand....Many and always the military finally stepped back and allowed elections again.

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Posted
32 minutes ago, h90 said:

So that USA is independent from Britain is not acceptable for you, right? Because that was illegal. Or France should be still a Kingdom, because the Revolution was illegal broke a lot of laws.
My point is: Things change in an imperfect way. We have to live with that.
No it was not dying, protesters were dying....we know one who lost his foot.
Companies didn't pay taxes, revenue department agreed. The South talked about splitting away from Thailand. Police and military were split inside. There were already cases in which some units blocked other units. It only need one case (or a staged case) where one policeman shoots an soldier or one army unit shoot at another and there is civil war. The dock worker labor union organized itself in a paramilitary way. Some red shirt groups did the same. Former communist fighter boosted on TV that they still have their weapons and are ready to pick them up.
Maybe some of it was just empty talk. But see what happened in Ukraine when some sniper shot at both police and demonstrators. You could have got that here as well.
And look how many coups were in Thailand....Many and always the military finally stepped back and allowed elections again.

So is any of that (your summation is way over the top, I was in Bkk for all of the period you're referring to and lived less than 1 Km away from 2 barricades the red shirts has set up) and valid reason why the paymaster should return to Thailand outside of the law which requires that he be arrested and jailed on site? And remebering that he was convicted and sentenced to jail becaue he had clearly broken the laws.And for the record, no I don't want a military government. 

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Posted
10 hours ago, MarkyM3 said:

Saw a long TV interview in English with her when I was in Thailand recently. Definitely good looking (so was Yingluck for that matter lol)  but intellectually unimpressive. Thaksin et al will be back seat drivers for sure. 

 

Top Silpa-Archa was also interviewed and came across a lot better imo. Excellent command of English language due to overseas education in UK and US. 

The trouble is, they come back from the elitist schools in the US or Europe hating Farangs because they were bullied unmercifully at those schools...

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