Thai Political Parties Dissolved

[RenzoInOz]

I never said Thaksin wasn't a criminal. But he's not the only criminal. I said many times, Thailand never had a choice of Democracy, but only a choice between one corrupt leader or the other.

Perfectly put Rainman!

[indothai]

I want the airports back online !!!!

[v2drinkers]

BBC reporting the Thailand Airport Authority have extended Bangkok Airport closures until 15th December

Edited December 2, 2008 by v2drinkers

[marshbags]

The Nation, December 2, 2008 : Last updated 05:06 pm

PAD agrees with AOT to resume services at Suvarnabhumi, but rally to continue

The People's Alliance for Democracy Tuesday agreed in principle to cooperate with the Airports of Thailand Plc to reopen services at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport but the PAD will not end its demonstration there.

The agreement was announced at 3:30 pm by Somkiart Pongpaibool, a PAD leader and Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, chairman of the AOT board of directors, following their meeting.

Somkiart announced that the PAD would allow flights to resume at the Bangkok international airport after AOT technical officials check technical readiness of all systems.

He said a joint committee between the PAD and AOT board would inspect assets in the airport and would open gateways for passengers to use the airports for arrival and departures.

Somkiart said the PAD would allocate a zone for its demonstration to continue without affecting the passengers.

Vudhibhandhu said the board would cooperate with the PAD to check the readiness of the systems and would try to resume services within 24 hours.

He said the AOT board would try to make the systems of the airport ready in line with international standard.

The Nation

marshbags

Edited December 2, 2008 by marshbags

[wxpwzrd]

<SNIP>

And why are you even commenting you don't even live in thailand.

Wow is that a requirement?

[TAWP]

Wrecker: Dont even suggest that red march on the airport. Its what PAD want. Right now PPP/PTP is still in power as far as the Constitution and laws is concerned. And this time they have the powerbase from "clean" Members of the Parliament. There is 22 "clean" cabinet members, there is two "clean" MP's in that government and they have a caretaker PM.

If "other powers" dont intervene, and that would be breaking the Constitution, you will have a new Cabinet filled with "clean" MP's from the Coalition parties. Then there will be by-elections in the provinces where the court handed out red and yellow cards. The only way of a legal power change is if those by-elections chose exclusively democrat MPs. And thats highly unlikely. Its more likely that PTP get the majority alone in the Parliament.

To sum it up, "PPP"/UDD have nothing to gain from a violent confrontation at the airport, so hopefully there wont be one.

So you are saying suddenly their support would grow from 30% to atleast 51%? Fantasies.

[jts-khorat]

PAD agrees with AOT to resume services at Suvarnabhumi, but rally to continue

The People's Alliance for Democracy Tuesday agreed in principle to cooperate with the Airports of Thailand Plc to reopen services at the Suvarnabhumi International Airport but the PAD will not end its demonstration there.

The agreement was announced at 3:30 pm by Somkiart Pongpaibool, a PAD leader and Vudhibhandhu Vichairatana, chairman of the AOT board of directors, following their meeting.

Somkiart announced that the PAD would allow flights to resume at the Bangkok international airport after AOT technical officials check technical readiness of all systems.

He said a joint committee between the PAD and AOT board would inspect assets in the airport and would open gateways for passengers to use the airports for arrival and departures.

Somkiart said the PAD would allocate a zone for its demonstration to continue without affecting the passengers.

Vudhibhandhu said the board would cooperate with the PAD to check the readiness of the systems and would try to resume services within 24 hours.

He said the AOT board would try to make the systems of the airport ready in line with international standard.

The Nation

marshbags

One would assume the discrepancy between 1 week to open and this 24 hours quoted here is, that emergency flights to pull stranded tourists out might well land at a not fully certified airport. Surely compromises must be made to ensure speedy re-opening for the passengers most in need.

For full nortmal flights to resume I think 24 hours is awfully optimistic, but for the moment I will go with it :-)

In the end, this is a compromise, I can happily live with: the PAD being able to protest, tourists being able to travel unhindered. This is how it should have been from the beginning and nobody would have batted an eyelid. Maybe a sign that there is still some human consciousness even under the PAD.

[yom07]

Airport to re-open on Dec 15th

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Bangkok's international airport will remain closed to until Dec. 15 due to a blockade by anti-government protesters, the airport manager said on Tuesday.

"The rally has caused massive damage to the country. We will try to open the airport as soon as possible," Serirat Prasutanond, acting head of Airports of Thailand said in a statement.

The closure refers to passenger flights. One cargo flight left on Tuesday and others were scheduled to follow, the first departures in a week.

Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/

[TAWP]

Thai news said that the PAD still will not leave the airport.

Unluckily -- already since they started this mess -- the PAD so obviously have no plan what they really want. Then somebody could work towards that.

Their stated goal was that the government shall be dissolved. This has happened now.

One would assume that patience is wearing really thin on all sides who backed them, they seemingly never let this come to an end. They themselves do not want to be in power (really?), on the other hand they have nominated nobody. Maybe they just do like destruction for no other sake than destroying things...

No, it has not happened. In fact, it looks like [former]PPP will retain power in the coalition with most of its MPs in place to vote the same instructed way as before.

Surely allowing those that benefited to remain in power when the party itself is disbanded for perverting the democratic system goes against the spirit of the law?

So how long do you personally propose to disrupt any economic activity in the country? Until there is nothing left Thaksin and his cronies could get because all is gone?

I am sure you have a definitive plan in mind. Or not, like the PAD: totally lost in the corner they painted themselves in.

Is this the best strawman attack you could come up with?

And even if I, of you, had a 'plan' for Thailand it wouldn't matter as no-one would ever - ever - listen to us.

in the meantime we can just cheer on when they kill off wolf after wolf that is trying to prey in the sheep heard. Even if the killing is done by another wolf.

[jts-khorat]

Airport to re-open on Dec 15th

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Bangkok's international airport will remain closed to until Dec. 15 due to a blockade by anti-government protesters, the airport manager said on Tuesday.

"The rally has caused massive damage to the country. We will try to open the airport as soon as possible," Serirat Prasutanond, acting head of Airports of Thailand said in a statement.

The closure refers to passenger flights. One cargo flight left on Tuesday and others were scheduled to follow, the first departures in a week.

Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/

...old news from this morning and invalidated by current developments.

Edited December 2, 2008 by jts-khorat

[phazey]

Bugger, i just canceled my flight in on the 12th

BUT, whilst the airport is closed and undergoing checks, I do hope they finish off the final construction work in the terminal building and fill in the cracks on the runways.

[chrislarsson]

The estimated cost for their actions in the last week is now getting close to 100 billion US dollars (3,500,000,000,000 Thai Baht).

Where do people keep getting these ridiculous numbers from ? Oh....nevermind.......I think I can tell by the smell.

I just did the research on another thread and guess what. Thailand's total Gross Domestic Product for all of 2007 (that is the entire year) was only

$245,585,500,000 USD. (That is the average from the 4 different websites I culled for factual information)

Are you trying to tell us that in one week, PAD has cost the country 40.7% of it's entire GDP for all of last year ?

Wow. 100 billion in one week would equal about 5.2 trillion over a year, which would have been an increase of 2,100% over the previous years GDP !!!

dam_n those PAD ! 5.2 trillion would have ranked Thailand #2 in the world (behind the US) for GDP !!

My mistake...it should be 10 billion dollars. I already apologized earlier.

Of course it's not for the cost occurred already, but for the next year ahead. But the damage of this is caused in one week.

[yom07]

Airport to re-open on Dec 15th

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Bangkok's international airport will remain closed to until Dec. 15 due to a blockade by anti-government protesters, the airport manager said on Tuesday.

"The rally has caused massive damage to the country. We will try to open the airport as soon as possible," Serirat Prasutanond, acting head of Airports of Thailand said in a statement.

The closure refers to passenger flights. One cargo flight left on Tuesday and others were scheduled to follow, the first departures in a week.

Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/

...old news from this morning and invalidated by current developments.

Nop, fresh one from 10:31 GMT: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews...K40849920081202

Edited December 2, 2008 by yom07

[magisterludi]

Ho can it be any worse than now ?

I hope you will never find out how much worse its possible to get. You're living in one of the most civilized countries in the world. You have relative freedom of speech and press. You have a functioning educational system and health care system that include mostly everyone and all layers of society. You have a relative uniform and strong sense of nationalism. You have water and electricity. If you want to know how much worse its possible to get, hope for your 10 years of military rule.

Well put, "xminator"! Thailand is MORE civilized than most Western countries, IMHO, especially the 'Homeland Securitized' U.S.A. I applaud the restraint of the police (mostly) and the military of Thailand in dealing with a peaceful protest of unarmed citizens with legitimate grievances against the government. BushCo would have sent in the jack-booted riot police, beaten them, handcuffed them, hauled them off to unannounce confinement areas without any specific charges, access to lawyers or bail, and granted no court appearance for as long as it could be kept quiet from the "free" press or general populace.

I see a lot of the visiting fascists are taking this "kinder, gentler" approach as a personal slap in the face. Hope it stings!

Congratulations, Thailand. This is a victory for all of you!

Yeah, wow, amazing victory for Thailand! The current results of Thailand vs. Thailand: 6-3, with Thailand in the lead!!!

[arkom]

Suvarnabhumi airport to resume service soon : PAD and AOT

By The Nation

Suvarnabhumi International Airport will resume its service as soon as technical officials examined functional and operational system, joint panel between People's Alliance for Democracy and the Airports Authority of Thailand.

The panel set up to solve the airport crisis is attended by PAD's co-leader Somkiart Pongpaiboon, AOT's president Wutthipun Wichairat and AOT's advisor to the president ACM Kittisak Ratprasert.

Somkiat said that the meeting agreed that all flights in and out the airport will be resumed as normal. PAD which has seized the airport since last week will divide channels and space for passengers from the protesters.

The panel will examine assets inside and outside the airport to check if there was any damage before returning the areas to AOT.

Somkiat said he could not say for now when officially the airport will resume the service because he has to talk with other PAD's co-leaders.

Meanwhile Wutthipun said that AOT will jointly inspect the readiness of the airport with PAD as soon as possible.

"I think that Suvarnabhumi Airport will be able to be re-opened within 24 hours," he said. Referring to checkpoints set up by PAD at the entrances of the airport, AOT and PAD will jointly conduct the screening of passengers into the airport.

"First priority of the work is to clean all the passengers' buildings and to remove tones of garbages from the areas," he said.

Meanwhile an informed source said AOT told PAD that the airport should be resumed the service on December 3.

Good news but what right do the PAD also screening passengers?

[manjara]

Airport to re-open on Dec 15th

BANGKOK, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Bangkok's international airport will remain closed to until Dec. 15 due to a blockade by anti-government protesters, the airport manager said on Tuesday.

"The rally has caused massive damage to the country. We will try to open the airport as soon as possible," Serirat Prasutanond, acting head of Airports of Thailand said in a statement.

The closure refers to passenger flights. One cargo flight left on Tuesday and others were scheduled to follow, the first departures in a week.

Source: Reuters http://www.reuters.com/

...old news from this morning and invalidated by current developments.

I have an option of a 36 hour 'trek' via KL to get to Chiang Mai, and then on to BKK or I have a flight on Thursday night to BKK direct, arriving at 0730 on Friday morning. Both will get me there approximately same time, but the second one is a lot cheaper and less hassle, assuming it actually happens.

Is it really opening up?

If not I have to get on a plane to KL tomorrow morning!

[TAWP]

So far the red team is playing by the rules. You can not say that about the yellow team.

Please show me the rulebook that says murder is alright.

[jts-khorat]

Thai news said that the PAD still will not leave the airport.

Unluckily -- already since they started this mess -- the PAD so obviously have no plan what they really want. Then somebody could work towards that.

Their stated goal was that the government shall be dissolved. This has happened now.

One would assume that patience is wearing really thin on all sides who backed them, they seemingly never let this come to an end. They themselves do not want to be in power (really?), on the other hand they have nominated nobody. Maybe they just do like destruction for no other sake than destroying things...

No, it has not happened. In fact, it looks like [former]PPP will retain power in the coalition with most of its MPs in place to vote the same instructed way as before.

Surely allowing those that benefited to remain in power when the party itself is disbanded for perverting the democratic system goes against the spirit of the law?

So how long do you personally propose to disrupt any economic activity in the country? Until there is nothing left Thaksin and his cronies could get because all is gone?

I am sure you have a definitive plan in mind. Or not, like the PAD: totally lost in the corner they painted themselves in.

Is this the best strawman attack you could come up with?

And even if I, of you, had a 'plan' for Thailand it wouldn't matter as no-one would ever - ever - listen to us.

in the meantime we can just cheer on when they kill off wolf after wolf that is trying to prey in the sheep heard. Even if the killing is done by another wolf.

I am just seeing your answer now and by god, it is a giant straw man I selected, have I not; in the end it should have been obvious to the PAD supporters: how do you protest, win the hearts of non-supporters and at the same time gain what you are out for. There is only one answer: by having good propaganda. 'There is no such news as bad news' is definitely not true for political movements.

As many noted, in the beginning they were overwhelmingly for the notedly good targets of the PAD, mainly stamping out corruption. Inconveniencing foreigners who will alert the foreign press is a bad way forward if one wants to have symphathy.

However, if the current compromise holds, this would have been the right way from teh start. Portesting #visibly# for those foreigners, dispalying their plight clearly and non-violently. Might even have given them protection from police or army forces against bomb attacks as tourists would not have been endangered.

The current result is: nobody will forget the PAD and Thailand how badly they f*cked up and how much damage they caused (most likely a much higher amount than any of Thaksins corruption possibly could!). The PAD will be branded for years as lawless thugs and terrorists, however good their targets were in the beginning.

But to be frank, I am taking the status quo with much happyness and am ready to move on from here. New elections, peaceful protests with the economy in mind, everybody happy.

[prakhonchai nick]

Please don't come up with this vote buying crap again as most ALL parties do it but it appears that only the winners get penalised in this crazy system.

True - most all parties have been involved in vote buying, BUT the reason for the dissolution is because an EXECUTIVE of each of the 3 parties bought votes, and as a result the whole party suffers. Had it been a lesser person only he/she would have been thrown out.

Hey nick --- I think you are wrong here --- one of the very questionable rules being applied here is that if a member any party is "red carded" then the ENTIRE PARTY can be disbanded. This rule has received wide spread criticism from around the world.

Imagine if applied world wide ---- a corrupt member of parliament and then the whole party is disbanded .....

There would be no governments anywhere left intact..... corrupt politicians.....

I do not believe that any of the banned executives were "carded" by the EC for anything---- please correct me if I'm wrong.

I agree something was needed to be done to eliminate corrupt practices--- as carried out by ALL parties -- but this is not reasonable

all the best in this mess.

Never heard about red-carded party members bringing the house down. In all previous elections, red carded winners could not stand again but it only affected the constituency, not the whole party.The 3 parties that were today dissolved each had an executive found guilty of electoral fraud

" By The Nation

The Constitution Court on Tuesday ruled to disband three coalition parties, People Power, Chart Thai and Matchima Thipataya, and banned the three's party executives from electoral process for five years.

The high court held the three parties for accountability on electoral fraud involving party executives, Yongyuth Tiyapairat of People Power, Monthien Songpracha of Chart Thai and Sunthorn Wilawan of Matchima Thipataya.

[oldhand]

but from which airport?

Nothing will be flying out of the bangkok airports for a minimum of 7-9 days (2 days clear up and 7 days to re-certify the airports)

Can you clarify this please - why does the airport need to be re-certified and why would it take 7 days

[TAWP]

We only had one civil war. The 60's we had the black rights issues, and they were murdered and were treated horribly, but THEY the black protestors did not overtake national interests, and they won their protest and the rights for them and their children.

You seem to have a short memory as you have already forgotten the Black Panters.

And PAD started out their demonstrations full peacefully. Problem was that they lacked armed guards and Red's took advantage of this, with both street fights and grenade attacks as a result. Hence PAD increased their number of hired guards and the more violent people, that exist in any group of people you pick out, brought out their crappy guns (look at the pictures of the guards and others shooting of their handguns...it's small crappy cheap ones) and started to take way too much newsroom. For every moron with a gun there has been some 5000 with no weapon that only sit down and listen, cheer and sing. The airports are not destroyed and from pictures it looks fine and almost strangely highly organized into allotted space for each person to sleep with their cover and so on.

If Gandhi would be here to tell you one thing it is that a pacifist movement is the hardest to run. It's almost so that unless it is a real part of ones religion one cannot fight the urge to be upset, angry and wanna fight back when others are sneaking to attack you in the night.

And for you that are PAD terrorists, wow...would you like to put up the numbers of killed on each side?

They are not angels, but jeez, some balance people...

[FatherF]

Suvarnabhumi airport to resume service soon : PAD and AOT

By The Nation

Suvarnabhumi International Airport will resume its service as soon as technical officials examined functional and operational system, joint panel between People's Alliance for Democracy and the Airports Authority of Thailand.

The panel set up to solve the airport crisis is attended by PAD's co-leader Somkiart Pongpaiboon, AOT's president Wutthipun Wichairat and AOT's advisor to the president ACM Kittisak Ratprasert.

Somkiat said that the meeting agreed that all flights in and out the airport will be resumed as normal. PAD which has seized the airport since last week will divide channels and space for passengers from the protesters.

The panel will examine assets inside and outside the airport to check if there was any damage before returning the areas to AOT.

Somkiat said he could not say for now when officially the airport will resume the service because he has to talk with other PAD's co-leaders.

Meanwhile Wutthipun said that AOT will jointly inspect the readiness of the airport with PAD as soon as possible.

"I think that Suvarnabhumi Airport will be able to be re-opened within 24 hours," he said. Referring to checkpoints set up by PAD at the entrances of the airport, AOT and PAD will jointly conduct the screening of passengers into the airport.

"First priority of the work is to clean all the passengers' buildings and to remove tones of garbages from the areas," he said.

Meanwhile an informed source said AOT told PAD that the airport should be resumed the service on December 3.

Good news but what right do the PAD also screening passengers?

Totaly agree, what right do the PAD have to "Screen" any passenger? will they be checking to see if anyone is wearing red underwear?

Also, since when has the PAD been approved by anyone to be able to decide weather an international airport is ready for full operations?

FF

[TAWP]

Hi chrislarsson,

Interesting amount you come too. I am not saying it's wrong but do you have a link or something to back up the 100 billion US?

Regards,

LiveSteam

You are right...it's not correct. It should be 10 billion dollars. My apologies.

It's based on that GDP growth goes down from 4.5% to 4% this year, and from 4% to 1% next year.

That is just crazy. You take some [imaginary] projected numbers, due to world economical reasons, and apply them to PADs week-long siege of two airports.

Yes, it is so clear now...

[yom07]

Can you clarify this please - why does the airport need to be re-certified and why would it take 7 days

A bunch of yellow guys have compromised the security for almost a week. Who knows what they could have hidden anywhere in the airport or didn't break any security / computer system.

On top of that some major airline will have to re-check their own interfaces with the airport IT.

[sibeymai]

I just heard from my maid who got the news from the maid next door that Chalerm will be the next PM and Mr Happy Toilet will be the FM

That's great. Thailand really needs someone who can explain to the rest of the world where it's heading and speak with some authority from experience.

[Bunglesback]

Don't hold your breath. It was reported in the Bangkok freebie that some of the judges involved weren't qualified to the job. The PPP and others will appeal to the high court, and so it goes on...............

[chrislarsson]

So far the red team is playing by the rules. You can not say that about the yellow team.

Please show me the rulebook that says murder is alright.

I wrote this in terms of teams, not individual actions. For instance, when the court asked the PM to resign he did. And the red team have by no means exercised politics to destroy the economy.

[xminator]

So you are saying suddenly their support would grow from 30% to atleast 51%? Fantasies.

No, but its more likely then that the Democrat party would get 51%. What we are talking about here is the result of by-elections, and where the dissolved MP's will go.

The parliament have 480 seats. 241 is needed for majority. I would say its likely that the by-election will gaing PTP some seats. Its likely that all MPs from dissolved PPP will enlist to PTP. PPP was 8 seats short of having majority alone. That is the 8 seats I'm saying COULD be gained from by-elections and also from former Matchima and Chart Thai MPs going to PTP.

This round of red/yellow-cards cut the number of MPs to 447. The coalition have 283 members left. I havent seen reports on new parties for Matchima and Chart Tha, but they have woved to stay with the former PPP-members.

[topsecret]

This is another sad decison by courts that are politcal pawns:

THAILAND: Watershed moment for democracy and rule of law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AHRC-STM-298-2008

November 26, 2008

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

THAILAND: Watershed moment for democracy and rule of law

Already, the criminal justice system of Thailand has been reduced to an utter joke, its agencies and personnel either unable or unwilling to intervene effectively to protect public property and people's lives, or even prosecute wrongdoers. That the security forces can carry out coups on the whimsy of generals and engage in battles over trifles with those of neighbouring countries but not responsibly protect the Government House or international airport is sheer farce. That government agencies have been forced to negotiate and cut their losses rather than insist that the law be enforced is dangerous folly. And that the senior judiciary, which through a succession of highly politicised judgments has played a major part in contributing to the current mess has nothing useful to contribute when lives are at stake and the country is in greatest need of intelligent guidance is altogether shameful. About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile....tatements/1779/

I couldn't agree more. I have lost all respect for this country and it's so called leaders.

Similar circumstance occurred in Germany in 1923 and more recently in Myanmar 1962.

Are we heading for fascism?

[feasantplukka]

I want to know who had the brilliant idea to wear red & yellow shirts must have made a small fortune, next party protesters should wear bright green think I'll have 10.000 made ready.