3 hours ago, Hunz Kittisak said:

key stats with real figures to back up 

 

 

Key positive effects of Thaksinomics

 

Poverty reduction

• Declining poverty rate: Between 2000 and 2007, the national poverty rate decreased significantly, from 21% to 8.5%.
• Income growth: From 2001 to 2006, the average income in Thailand's rural and impoverished northeast region rose by 46%.
• Targeted development: The program included direct financial aid and microcredit schemes, such as the Village and Urban Revolving Funds, which allocated 1 million baht to each village for community-managed loans. This boosted small businesses and increased rural productivity. 

 

Economic performance

• Accelerated growth: Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Thaksinomics helped boost economic recovery. Thailand's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an average of 5.7% per year between 2002 and 2006. The economy saw growth in 2004 (6.1%) and 2005 (4.5%) fueled by strong exports and domestic consumption.
• Repayment of IMF debt: The country was able to repay its loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) two years ahead of schedule.
• Decreased public debt: Despite increased spending, public sector debt was reduced from 57% of GDP in 2001 to 41% in 2006. 

 

Social welfare

• Universal healthcare: The "30-baht program," introduced in 2002, provided subsidized, near-universal healthcare to all Thai citizens for a 30 baht (about 75 cents at the time) fee per hospital visit. This dramatically increased healthcare access, particularly for the poor.
• Infrastructure development: Thaksin's government invested heavily in public works projects, including new roads, public transit, and Suvarnabhumi Airport.
• Agricultural support: The government implemented a three-year debt moratorium for farmers, providing relief and stability to the rural poor. 

 

Economic strategy

• Emphasis on domestic growth: Thaksinomics shifted the focus from export-led growth to stimulating domestic demand and empowering the local economy. This included promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
• Marketing-focused branding: The administration sought to create a "brand economy," moving Thailand away from being just an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for other countries. The "One Tambon One Product" (OTOP) initiative promoted locally made crafts and goods. 

Let's take a few of these cut and pasted 'statistics'.

1. The 30 baht health scheme is good but unlike the UK's NHS, it doesn't cover adequately all diseases and conditions.

If someone gets a serious disease, they will often have to pay, often beyond the means of the poor.

Secondly, state hospitals often mean long waits for treatment which is why private clinics abound in Thailand, frequently opposite the government hospital! These clinics are usually run by doctors from the state hospital who make far more from their private clinics than their government salary.

I don't want to sound cynical but it's not in the doctor's interest to have all the patients quickly seen to in the government hospital!

 

2. The OTOP scheme started with a bang but soon fizzled out. Why? Because there were so many tambons making the same products, 7,255 to be exact! No way could these sub districts all make different products, consequently competition was fierce between tambons with subsequent failures.  Drinkers may remember the legal sato rice wine produced by many tambons at the time. There was even talk of a 'drinking street' to promote the various tambons' efforts!

 

3. Thaksin's approach to agriculture was wrong in my view. In my previous post I mentioned his disastrous decision to promote rubber trees, the price of which collapsed years ago.

More recently, I read that he wanted to convert sor por kor land documents into full land deeds, meaning farmers could legally sell their land to anyone, rather than as now with sor por kor land, having to pass it down to their next generation upon death. If able to sell to anyone, I believe poor farmers would soon lose their land to investors and speculators. 

Making money from mono crops in Thailand is difficult, especially on small plots, which is what most Thai farmers possess. Some farmers are successful with integrated farming but it requires knowledge and determination, plus a mindset of self sufficiency, not something Thaksin with his mind always on commerce, fully appreciates in my view. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 9/14/2025 at 11:09 AM, MikeandDow said:

nope            a leopard does not change his spots 

 he IS doing his time  not did his time

 

Agree...a leopard does not change his spots. 

 

He did 4 years in Australia for drug offences, hardly a minor crime.   

 

Should he now be totally trusted with community development / taxpayers funds etc? NO.

3 hours ago, scorecard said:

He did 4 years in Australia for drug offences, hardly a minor crime.   

 

i’m not quite sure, who had to serve 4 years in jail in australia? thank you ... 

38 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

 

i’m not quite sure, who had to serve 4 years in jail in australia? thank you ... 

Thamanat Prompow

4 hours ago, bannork said:

Let's take a few of these cut and pasted 'statistics'.

1. The 30 baht health scheme is good but unlike the UK's NHS, it doesn't cover adequately all diseases and conditions.

If someone gets a serious disease, they will often have to pay, often beyond the means of the poor.

Secondly, state hospitals often mean long waits for treatment which is why private clinics abound in Thailand, frequently opposite the government hospital! These clinics are usually run by doctors from the state hospital who make far more from their private clinics than their government salary.

I don't want to sound cynical but it's not in the doctor's interest to have all the patients quickly seen to in the government hospital!

 

2. The OTOP scheme started with a bang but soon fizzled out. Why? Because there were so many tambons making the same products, 7,255 to be exact! No way could these sub districts all make different products, consequently competition was fierce between tambons with subsequent failures.  Drinkers may remember the legal sato rice wine produced by many tambons at the time. There was even talk of a 'drinking street' to promote the various tambons' efforts!

 

3. Thaksin's approach to agriculture was wrong in my view. In my previous post I mentioned his disastrous decision to promote rubber trees, the price of which collapsed years ago.

More recently, I read that he wanted to convert sor por kor land documents into full land deeds, meaning farmers could legally sell their land to anyone, rather than as now with sor por kor land, having to pass it down to their next generation upon death. If able to sell to anyone, I believe poor farmers would soon lose their land to investors and speculators. 

Making money from mono crops in Thailand is difficult, especially on small plots, which is what most Thai farmers possess. Some farmers are successful with integrated farming but it requires knowledge and determination, plus a mindset of self sufficiency, not something Thaksin with his mind always on commerce, fully appreciates in my view. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s your criticism and opinion 

The figures speaks for themselves, he did reduce poverty he did increase household income, he did up GFP and the whole list shown. Overall he did more good than harm.
More importantly he tried and his heart was in the right place. 

That’s better than any of his predecessors or those inept coup generals who overthrew him. Name some good things that those governments achieved 

 

44 minutes ago, Hunz Kittisak said:

That’s your criticism and opinion 

The figures speaks for themselves, he did reduce poverty he did increase household income, he did up GFP and the whole list shown. Overall he did more good than harm.
More importantly he tried and his heart was in the right place. 

That’s better than any of his predecessors or those inept coup generals who overthrew him. Name some good things that those governments achieved 

 

I don't think his heart was in the right place unfortunately. Thaksin always believed in domination. He achieved that in the mobile phone sector and he replicated that in politics by buying up whole parties such as the NAP, New Aspiration Party, approx eighty MPs bar one. 

He deserves credit for his innovation though, he surveyed the population to ascertain what they wanted and then tailored his policies accordingly.

Unfortunately a lot of his policies were superficial, for example the one tablet, one child for education. A catchy phrase but it did nothing to raise educational standards.

In my view he will be remembered for ( inadvertently) showing the Thai working class their voices could be heard if united, a notable achievement in itself, offering nationwide policies to the country, but his hubris, arrogance and need to dominate has flawed his potential.

Time to let a party not dominated by one family guide the future of Thailand.

 

 

6 minutes ago, bannork said:

I don't think his heart was in the right place unfortunately. Thaksin always believed in domination. He achieved that in the mobile phone sector and he replicated that in politics by buying up whole parties such as the NAP, New Aspiration Party, approx eighty MPs bar one. 

He deserves credit for his innovation though, he surveyed the population to ascertain what they wanted and then tailored his policies accordingly.

Unfortunately a lot of his policies were superficial, for example the one tablet, one child for education. A catchy phrase but it did nothing to raise educational standards.

In my view he will be remembered for ( inadvertently) showing the Thai working class their voices could be heard if united, a notable achievement in itself, offering nationwide policies to the country, but his hubris, arrogance and need to dominate has flawed his potential.

Time to let a party not dominated by one family guide the future of Thailand.

 

 

A note worth opinion      but lets not forget the bad Thaskin did to this country and the thai people, Family's devastated by his actions to this day some 20yrs ago    the Man and his family are evil,  some people think he is a hero   but hero's dont give order to kill people !! I am afraid in my opinion and i think it is shared by the majority of people  the BAD out weights the good 

4 hours ago, Hunz Kittisak said:

That’s your criticism and opinion 

The figures speaks for themselves, he did reduce poverty he did increase household income, he did up GFP and the whole list shown. Overall he did more good than harm.
More importantly he tried and his heart was in the right place. 

That’s better than any of his predecessors or those inept coup generals who overthrew him. Name some good things that those governments achieved 

 

 

" ... and his heart was in the right place. "

 

I don't agree.

 

He and his hangers on realized that the 30Baht health scheme (actually sugested by the democrat party, then the idea / concept stolen by thaksins mob) was a big factor in 'winning the hearts', plus for the next several elections open for all to see massive voting buying (paid for by thaksin and cronies) was the factor that kept thaksin and cronies in power. 

 

I worked in Bkk with the loud 30+ year old daughter of a police inspector from essan.

 

She was so proud of her dad's connection to thaksin and she spoke openly / frequently about her dad and many of his police subordinates being actively / openly involved in door to door payments (vote buying). 

 

Ultimately her employer in Bkk became very concernd about the lady's continuous 'speeches' to the company staff (over 1,000 employes) about how wonderful thaksin was and the employer moved her out.

 

17 hours ago, bannork said:

21 hours ago, Liverpool Lou said:

No you don't. he's never been quoted as saying that.

I do remember, eat your own words, LL.

 

In his response to opposition and Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew's criticism of the budget, Prayut said his government did not practice favouritism like how the Thaksin government in the past threatened to make budgetary provisions only to provinces that elected the ruling party’s MPs.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40016177

No, you don't.  You quoted Prayut, having a go at Thaksin, not Thaksin, so eat your words unless you can quote what you claim Thaksin said as opposed to third party hearsay.

 

It's always best to actually read your own (wrong) "links" before presenting them as "evidence"!

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

No, you don't.  You quoted Prayut, having a go at Thaksin, not Thaksin, so eat your words unless you can quote what you claim Thaksin said as opposed to third party hearsay.

 

It's always best to actually read your own (wrong) "links" before presenting them as "evidence"!

Eat your words LL.

Thaksin’s quote that he would take special care of provinces that elected Thai Rak Thai MPs have often been cited by his opponents to attack him.

He made the remarks on October 31, 2005 when he was the prime minister and Thai Rak Thai leader. Seventeen years later it still haunts him.

Thaksin made the remarks while giving a speech at the auditorium of the Banphot Pitthayakhom School in Banphot Pisai district of Nakhon Sawan province when he handed over land lease documents to local people. The people were allowed to lease land of the Crown Property Bureau at a cheap rate under a Thai Rak Thai populist project.

“I’ll be straightforward. We must take special care of provinces that trusted us to take care of them. We must take care of people in the entire country but we have limited time, so we must give our time to provinces where we have received much trust,” Thaksin said.

His remarks came in the aftermath of Thai Rak Thai losing by-elections in two of three provinces. The winning Thai Rak Thai candidate in Sing Buri province secured a lower number of votes.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/in-focus/40016177

34 minutes ago, bannork said:

“I’ll be straightforward. We must take special care of provinces that trusted us to take care of them. We must take care of people in the entire country but we have limited time, so we must give our time to provinces where we have received much trust,

Eat your words, you started this by claiming that Thaksin threatened unfavourable budgetary provisions, i.e. financial penalties, now you're saying that it was limited "time", not financial constraints, that was being threatened to some provinces!

 

1 hour ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Eat your words, you started this by claiming that Thaksin threatened unfavourable budgetary provisions, i.e. financial penalties, now you're saying that it was limited "time", not financial constraints, that was being threatened to some provinces!

 

What do you think ' give our time to' means?

It means take care of, arrange budgets for policies i.e land lease documents to provinces that voted for Thai Rak Thai.

Then he says , 'We must give our time to provinces where we have received most trust ' 

In other words provinces that voted for TRT will receive preferential treatment from the government, and that means governmental help. 

 

55 minutes ago, bannork said:

What do you think ' give our time to' means?

It means take care of, arrange budgets for policies i.e land lease documents to provinces that voted for Thai Rak Thai.

Then he says , 'We must give our time to provinces where we have received most trust ' 

In other words provinces that voted for TRT will receive preferential treatment from the government, and that means governmental help. 

 

you are correct 100% and Thaskin did give that speech with those words of corruption and it has  haunted him ever since 

and good luck trying to get  Liverpool Lou to admit he is wrong 

On 9/9/2025 at 11:27 AM, marin said:

Lock him up. He already wriggled out of the first try. No bail, no appeal, like monopoly, "Go straight to jail". 

He might become a model prisoner and when he gets out he instigates prisons reform and becomes a hero 

On 9/10/2025 at 3:22 PM, RobKray said:

I said the hospital has air conditioning. I visited my wife’s father there. Next time I’ll ask if I can take my phone in to take of photo of the air conditioner as some wise guy doesn’t believe me.

 

If you think a billionaire with the influence of Taksin will be treated like normal prisoners you are deluded.

If you think prison guards, earning less than 50,000 baht a month can’t be bought, again you are deluded.

Do you know about Kamnam Poh? 
 

Talk about a know it all !!

Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

On 9/9/2025 at 9:13 PM, Liverpool Lou said:

There isn't.

Do you believe me yet about the A/C hospital?