What Has Thaskin Done To Be Villified So?

[Sabum]

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS GOOGLE!!!!! BUT YOU DIDN'T BECAUSE YOU ARE FULL OF POOP. You don't really want information or facts, if you did you would have used a bloody search engine..... you really piss me off.

http://www.asiantribune.com/oldsite/show_news.php?id=2679

This one is from the beggining of the drug killings and Thaksin claims most of the murders were inflicted drug dealer to drug dealer and yet none of the bodies were allowed to be autopsied and the bullets were removed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7260127.stm

Many of the murdered were later shown to be innocent.

http://www.mail-archive.com/cannabisaction...m/msg00007.html

They want to try Thaksin for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17678

Video of Thaksins terror reign

These were just the first 5 links from google..... what is wrong with you?

[gbt71fa]

What proof do you have that Thaskin knew what was going on? I'm not saying he didn't, I just want facts no guessing games. Do other leaders of the world know what is going on with their police forces? Is it that centrally controlled?

What exactly do you consider proof?

Articles from the internet?

Or, do you need a scanned copy of orders with his signature and thumb-print?

Your request is totally unreasonable.

The rest of the world sees Thailand as a joke, now, and it started with the overthrow of Thaskin. Like him or not, his party was elected by the people. Now, if there was vote fraud, payouts, than the establishment should have held him accountable. Is Thaskin such a genius that he was able to cover up all his tracks, either financially or criminally? You seem to think I am a supporter of him. Honestly, I don't care who is office anymore because if one side doesn't like the other they will just take to the streets again. What the world sees is a country whose military threw out the elected party. If my requests are unreasonable than how do you plan to hold Thaskin accountable for his misdeeds?

[Sabum]

For crying out loud.. lol Im not making accusations, this wasnt hidden information, everyone knows about it and people that lived here during this time heard it every day. Even the King came on national Television and berated Thaksin asking him "what will the rest of the world think of us?"

Then why wasn't he LEGALLY dealth with. Impeachment. Charges brought up to accuse of him action unbecoming someone of his office. Why weren't the legal avenues followed? Why did they wait until he was outside the country to overthrow him. Did the army act in defense of the King's statement. Is this a case of the Royallists vs. the Republicans, per say? Heard what every day?

Are you for real? did you forget this is Thailand? Impeachment? lol They are trying to hold him legally accountable but only on things that have to do with money, this country never holds rich and powerful accountable for the deaths of the peasants, give me a break.

[dominique355]

Prove it? No, of course we cannot. (Anyone who could might well be "dissapeared" by now!) But surely an educated person would not believe all these reports are without foundation, no?

Thaksin's "war on drugs" campaign in 2003 resulted in the extrajudicial killing of more than 2,500 people. Although local and international media reported and recorded hundreds of cases of police officials shooting and killing unarmed civilians - always in self-defense according to official accounts - to date not one Thai official has been prosecuted or even reprimanded for his or her role in the unprecedented orgy of violence.

Thaksin's heavy-handed counterinsurgency policies in Thailand's conflict-ridden south resemble an Augusto Pinochet-style dirty war. Rights groups say hundreds of Thai Muslims have gone missing since the conflict kicked up in 2004, a charge Thaksin has consistently contested. Yet there are many examples of security forces implementing his policies using arbitrary and often excessive force, including the April 2004 siege on the Krue Se Mosque, the point-blank shooting in the back of the heads of 19 restrained and handcuffed young Muslims at Saba Yoi, and the October 2004 death by suffocation of at least 78 Muslim civilians at Tak Bai.

There are plenty of other cases where individual liberties, then protected by the progressive 1997 constitution, were apparently smothered without legal recourse by Thaksin's abuse of state power. For instance, Thaksin has publicly admitted to state complicity in the still-unresolved disappearance case of Muslim human-rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who was abducted by Thai intelligence officials in Bangkok in an apparent effort to suppress his submitting evidence of police torture of five detained Muslim men he was representing. That damning evidence, it was later revealed, included medical proof of security forces' using electric-shock treatment on one of the bound suspects' testicles.

Then there is the mysterious unresolved shooting death of Kornthep Wiriya, a former customs employee of Shin Satellite, the publicly listed telecommunication concern established by Thaksin and until last January majority-owned by his family. Kornthep apparently made the mistake of agreeing to serve as a prosecution witness in a politically charged 100 million baht (US$2.6 million) tax-evasion case against the company. He was ambushed and shot in the head by unidentified assailants while riding his motorcycle before he could testify in court.

Where is this article from? I need the source of the article. The newspaper it came from. It seem more of an editorial than a straight news story. I am not saying that it is not true. I remember the stories that Thailand had secret U.S. C.I.A. prisons holding muslim extremists and that turned out to be bumpkus.

Actually it turned out to be true.

[john69]

I would like to get information, actually facts if possible, about what Thaskin as supposedly done. I read where one write explained how Thaskin controlled the rice export market and proportioned it out to his family and freinds. That is the kind of informationt that I want. I don't want to hear about rumors how he killed innocents durring the drug wars unless you have some sort of fact to back it up, not rumors.

Also, are we trying to force our western ideology on Thailand. Too many of you seem all too willing to ignore other evils in the world for the sake that "it will get worst if we get involved" or "we can force them into our own cultural context". If that applies to other parts of the world, than why not here? What say do we have as guests here if our cultural is so vastly different? If you won't fight for it abroad than why fight for it in Thailand. It seems like all politicians are corrupt in one way or another in Thailand and is that the name of the game in Thailand. If Thaskin was indeed corrupt how was he different from any of the others? Did Thailand prosper under his rule besides his corruption as a whole; economy, infrastructure, education, ect. or was just a small group that was close to him that earned the fruits of his labor? Was he overthrown because he became more powerful than the military or put his beloved police above the military? I assume that he did buy off votes but has any of the other parties done this as well and is it just a recent phenomenon?

So, all I am asking is for informational facts pertaining to what Thaskin has done. Keep emotion out of it

This seems to be an opinion masquerading as a question. The opinion is probably something like this: "Taksin is OK with me. You got a problem with that? The other guys are even more corrupt."

A better and more relevant question would be: What mistakes did Taksin make that caused him to lose power? There are no doubt a lot of reasons/opinions, but here is mine.

Taksin made himself vulnerable with the sale of his telecom business to the Singapore government and structuring the deal is such a way that he didn't have to pay taxes. If you recall, this news came out when Sondhi Limthongkul's movement was in its infancy. The tax issue, it seems to me, strengthened Sondhi's anti-Taksin movement.

True, everyone with money tries to minimize taxes. But I have a gut feeling that Taksin would still have been in power if he had paid his taxes and used his wealth in a very direct way to lift people out of poverty (rather than on such trivial billionaire pursuits as buying an English soccer club).

Taksin made his wealth in Thailand, thanks in large part due to Thai taxpayers who paid for Thailand's roads, hospitals, powergrid, and for Thailand's schools and universities, WHERE THE EMPLOYEES OF HIS COMPANIES WHO HELPED HIM EARN HIS BILLIONS WERE EDUCATED.

Taksin "bought" the support of the poor with his low-cost housing plan and health care program (the under-funded 30 bath card scheme), but went to extremes to avoid paying taxes to fund this and other plans to help the poor. Any informed economist will tell you that low tax rates benefit the rich and that it is one of the key reasons of Thailand's dramatic split between rich and poor.

In short, there is nothing "wrong" with Taksin that isn't also "wrong" with other politicians. He is equally corrupt, sociopathic, and unspiritual as the rest. He merely underestimated the power of his opposition.

[gbt71fa]

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS GOOGLE!!!!! BUT YOU DIDN'T BECAUSE YOU ARE FULL OF POOP. You don't really want information or facts, if you did you would have used a bloody search engine..... you really piss me off.

http://www.asiantribune.com/oldsite/show_news.php?id=2679

This one is from the beggining of the drug killings and Thaksin claims most of the murders were inflicted drug dealer to drug dealer and yet none of the bodies were allowed to be autopsied and the bullets were removed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7260127.stm

Many of the murdered were later shown to be innocent.

http://www.mail-archive.com/cannabisaction...m/msg00007.html

They want to try Thaksin for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17678

Video of Thaksins terror reign

These were just the first 5 links from google..... what is wrong with you?

because, YOUTUBE, CANNABISACTION and AMNESTYORG are reliable sources of information. Are there any visions of the airport being shut down a while back or the rural vote being repressed? What about all the other villains out there who have created acts far more outrageous than what you accuse Thaskin of doing? Are you going to go after them? Again, do all heads of state know what their organizations, police, military are doing? If he did know than he should be held accountable for hauling them into the courts. I am not full of poop, I just went to see a man about a hourse an hour ago...cannabis action, are you seriou?

[Sabum]

Oh my god who cares what the OTHER guys are doing?! YOU ASKED WHAT THAKSIN DID. You already know what he did, your just trying to say "he's better than the other guys". I simply don't care, I was answering your dam_n question. And once again I AM NOT ACCUSING Thaksin lol, these are facts not accusations. Thousands died as a result of his orders.

[gbt71fa]

I would like to get information, actually facts if possible, about what Thaskin as supposedly done. I read where one write explained how Thaskin controlled the rice export market and proportioned it out to his family and freinds. That is the kind of informationt that I want. I don't want to hear about rumors how he killed innocents durring the drug wars unless you have some sort of fact to back it up, not rumors.

Also, are we trying to force our western ideology on Thailand. Too many of you seem all too willing to ignore other evils in the world for the sake that "it will get worst if we get involved" or "we can force them into our own cultural context". If that applies to other parts of the world, than why not here? What say do we have as guests here if our cultural is so vastly different? If you won't fight for it abroad than why fight for it in Thailand. It seems like all politicians are corrupt in one way or another in Thailand and is that the name of the game in Thailand. If Thaskin was indeed corrupt how was he different from any of the others? Did Thailand prosper under his rule besides his corruption as a whole; economy, infrastructure, education, ect. or was just a small group that was close to him that earned the fruits of his labor? Was he overthrown because he became more powerful than the military or put his beloved police above the military? I assume that he did buy off votes but has any of the other parties done this as well and is it just a recent phenomenon?

So, all I am asking is for informational facts pertaining to what Thaskin has done. Keep emotion out of it

This seems to be an opinion masquerading as a question. The opinion is probably something like this: "Taksin is OK with me. You got a problem with that? The other guys are even more corrupt."

A better and more relevant question would be: What mistakes did Taksin make that caused him to lose power? There are no doubt a lot of reasons/opinions, but here is mine.

Taksin made himself vulnerable with the sale of his telecom business to the Singapore government and structuring the deal is such a way that he didn't have to pay taxes. If you recall, this news came out when Sondhi Limthongkul's movement was in its infancy. The tax issue, it seems to me, strengthened Sondhi's anti-Taksin movement.

True, everyone with money tries to minimize taxes. But I have a gut feeling that Taksin would still have been in power if he had paid his taxes and used his wealth in a very direct way to lift people out of poverty (rather than on such trivial billionaire pursuits as buying an English soccer club).

Taksin made his wealth in Thailand, thanks in large part due to Thai taxpayers who paid for Thailand's roads, hospitals, powergrid, and for Thailand's schools and universities, WHERE THE EMPLOYEES OF HIS COMPANIES WHO HELPED HIM EARN HIS BILLIONS WERE EDUCATED.

Taksin "bought" the support of the poor with his low-cost housing plan and health care program (the under-funded 30 bath card scheme), but went to extremes to avoid paying taxes to fund this and other plans to help the poor. Any informed economist will tell you that low tax rates benefit the rich and that it is one of the key reasons of Thailand's dramatic split between rich and poor.

In short, there is nothing "wrong" with Taksin that isn't also "wrong" with other politicians. He is equally corrupt, sociopathic, and unspiritual as the rest. He merely underestimated the power of his opposition.

\

I think you have nailed it. I think he could have done some great things for this country with all the money he brought it instead of keeping it for himself or his cronies. He was the same as the other polititicans, he was just better at making money. And then he didn't share his wealth with the rest of the establishment. You're right as far as his connection witht the rural establishment, his healthcare program broke the hospital system but gained the support of the poor. I think he had far-reaching ability but near-sighted vision as it pertained to Thailand. Do you think he would still be in power, though, if he actually help to raise the poor up, through education and training programs, business loans and the like, but still kept the other political parties of the establishment at arm's length? You're arguement was great.

[PhilHarries]

Proof? Well it depends on what you call proof. If you are looking for a smoking gun forget it he was way too clever for that. But, to take his war on drugs, he gave the order and, as I recall, coined the term "war". Those 2,500 or so deaths didn't occur overnight but happened over a period of some months. Now he orders this campaign against drug pushers/dealers and suddenly people start dying in almost daily shoot outs with the police. Innocent people, it was claimed, including at least one child were dying. He knew it was happening as did everyone who read the newspapers but he did nothing. You would think he'd stop one day and think "hold on a minute someone's going a bit over the top here" and start making some enquiries and tell HIS boys, remembering he's ex BiB, to take it a bit easier and take a few prisoners. But no he just let it ride as they were his boys and could do no wrong but in reality they were using the campaign to settle old scores and remove the competition in the drugs trade and being who he is he must have known. He was the boss, nobody did anything without his say so.

So is he responsible for the deaths? Well, again from memory, when he came to power he was going to run the country like a business and I believe he used the term the CEO premier or similar. Well in business the buck stops with the CEO, it's called corporate responsibility and he ducked it.

As for the other stuff, well that depends on how much you believe in the impartiality of the Thai judicial system. It was certainly not impartial under him as he appointed all his chums into positions that usurped the checks and balances. It's probably not impartial now as the elite are out to get him but they are a little more circumspect in how they do it.

One thing he has succeeded in doing is divide Thailand into two camps. Either people are for him or they are against him, no middle ground. Similarly here on TV there are two camps, well three in reality. There are the Thaksinettes for whom he is the shining knight on the white charger and then there are the anti box head lot for whom he is the devil incarnate. Then there is the third camp who are sick and tired of all the eternal bickering between the two warring factions and wish they'd all go to hel_l.

But do we need concrete evidence or irrefutable proof? Well obviously in a court of law the answer is yes but in our minds we can form opinions on people based on less tangible evidence after all would you say Robert Mugabe is a good man?

Enough, 11:15 and I'm off to bed. Goodnight from me and goodnight from him.

[gbt71fa]

Oh my god who cares what the OTHER guys are doing?! YOU ASKED WHAT THAKSIN DID. You already know what he did, your just trying to say "he's better than the other guys". I simply don't care, I was answering your dam_n question. And once again I AM NOT ACCUSING Thaksin lol, these are facts not accusations. Thousands died as a result of his orders.

Oh my god...what orders? -can't spell

Edited April 14, 2009 by gbt71fa

[Sabum]

Oh my god who cares what the OTHER guys are doing?! YOU ASKED WHAT THAKSIN DID. You already know what he did, your just trying to say "he's better than the other guys". I simply don't care, I was answering your dam_n question. And once again I AM NOT ACCUSING Thaksin lol, these are facts not accusations. Thousands died as a result of his orders.

Oh my god...what ordes?

HE implemented the war on drugs, HE changed policy on how to deal with the muslims, both things resulted in mass murder. What you are trying to do is completely ignore the human rights travesties because you like a couple of things he did with money... outrageous.

The King CANNOT do as you suggest.. and to talk about it further is just plain stupid.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Sabum

[TEFLMike]

Proof? Well it depends on what you call proof. If you are looking for a smoking gun forget it he was way too clever for that. But, to take his war on drugs, he gave the order and, as I recall, coined the term "war". Those 2,500 or so deaths didn't occur overnight but happened over a period of some months. Now he orders this campaign against drug pushers/dealers and suddenly people start dying in almost daily shoot outs with the police. Innocent people, it was claimed, including at least one child were dying. He knew it was happening as did everyone who read the newspapers but he did nothing. You would think he'd stop one day and think "hold on a minute someone's going a bit over the top here" and start making some enquiries and tell HIS boys, remembering he's ex BiB, to take it a bit easier and take a few prisoners. But no he just let it ride as they were his boys and could do no wrong but in reality they were using the campaign to settle old scores and remove the competition in the drugs trade and being who he is he must have known. He was the boss, nobody did anything without his say so.

So is he responsible for the deaths? Well, again from memory, when he came to power he was going to run the country like a business and I believe he used the term the CEO premier or similar. Well in business the buck stops with the CEO, it's called corporate responsibility and he ducked it.

As for the other stuff, well that depends on how much you believe in the impartiality of the Thai judicial system. It was certainly not impartial under him as he appointed all his chums into positions that usurped the checks and balances. It's probably not impartial now as the elite are out to get him but they are a little more circumspect in how they do it.

One thing he has succeeded in doing is divide Thailand into two camps. Either people are for him or they are against him, no middle ground. Similarly here on TV there are two camps, well three in reality. There are the Thaksinettes for whom he is the shining knight on the white charger and then there are the anti box head lot for whom he is the devil incarnate. Then there is the third camp who are sick and tired of all the eternal bickering between the two warring factions and wish they'd all go to hel_l.

But do we need concrete evidence or irrefutable proof? Well obviously in a court of law the answer is yes but in our minds we can form opinions on people based on less tangible evidence after all would you say Robert Mugabe is a good man?

Enough, 11:15 and I'm off to bed. Goodnight from me and goodnight from him.

I applaud your post. Magnificent.

Edited April 14, 2009 by TEFLMike

[Sabum]

LOL not related to anything bad Thaksin did (except pay his protestors) but too funny.

[bonobo]

THis may be small potatoes. but here is one example which tends to indicate corruption from his family, at least.  I wanted to export 1,000 women's blosues to the USA.  At that time, I had to get a visa for each blouse.  THe US issued the Thai government x number of visas to limit the amount of clothing from Thailand going into the country.  The visa were given to Thailand without charge.

I got my visas easily--by paying Thaksin's sister 25 baht for each one.  You do the math here and let me know if you think this could possibly be a sign of corruption.

[gbt71fa]

LOL not related to anything bad Thaksin did (except pay his protestors) but too funny.

Well, if you are going to get professional protesters you have to pay them...otherwise they are amateurs...or play in college...one of those.

[john69]

I would like to get information, actually facts if possible, about what Thaskin as supposedly done. I read where one write explained how Thaskin controlled the rice export market and proportioned it out to his family and freinds. That is the kind of informationt that I want. I don't want to hear about rumors how he killed innocents durring the drug wars unless you have some sort of fact to back it up, not rumors.

Also, are we trying to force our western ideology on Thailand. Too many of you seem all too willing to ignore other evils in the world for the sake that "it will get worst if we get involved" or "we can force them into our own cultural context". If that applies to other parts of the world, than why not here? What say do we have as guests here if our cultural is so vastly different? If you won't fight for it abroad than why fight for it in Thailand. It seems like all politicians are corrupt in one way or another in Thailand and is that the name of the game in Thailand. If Thaskin was indeed corrupt how was he different from any of the others? Did Thailand prosper under his rule besides his corruption as a whole; economy, infrastructure, education, ect. or was just a small group that was close to him that earned the fruits of his labor? Was he overthrown because he became more powerful than the military or put his beloved police above the military? I assume that he did buy off votes but has any of the other parties done this as well and is it just a recent phenomenon?

So, all I am asking is for informational facts pertaining to what Thaskin has done. Keep emotion out of it

This seems to be an opinion masquerading as a question. The opinion is probably something like this: "Taksin is OK with me. You got a problem with that? The other guys are even more corrupt."

A better and more relevant question would be: What mistakes did Taksin make that caused him to lose power? There are no doubt a lot of reasons/opinions, but here is mine.

Taksin made himself vulnerable with the sale of his telecom business to the Singapore government and structuring the deal is such a way that he didn't have to pay taxes. If you recall, this news came out when Sondhi Limthongkul's movement was in its infancy. The tax issue, it seems to me, strengthened Sondhi's anti-Taksin movement.

True, everyone with money tries to minimize taxes. But I have a gut feeling that Taksin would still have been in power if he had paid his taxes and used his wealth in a very direct way to lift people out of poverty (rather than on such trivial billionaire pursuits as buying an English soccer club).

Taksin made his wealth in Thailand, thanks in large part due to Thai taxpayers who paid for Thailand's roads, hospitals, powergrid, and for Thailand's schools and universities, WHERE THE EMPLOYEES OF HIS COMPANIES WHO HELPED HIM EARN HIS BILLIONS WERE EDUCATED.

Taksin "bought" the support of the poor with his low-cost housing plan and health care program (the under-funded 30 bath card scheme), but went to extremes to avoid paying taxes to fund this and other plans to help the poor. Any informed economist will tell you that low tax rates benefit the rich and that it is one of the key reasons of Thailand's dramatic split between rich and poor.

In short, there is nothing "wrong" with Taksin that isn't also "wrong" with other politicians. He is equally corrupt, sociopathic, and unspiritual as the rest. He merely underestimated the power of his opposition.

\

I think you have nailed it. I think he could have done some great things for this country with all the money he brought it instead of keeping it for himself or his cronies. He was the same as the other polititicans, he was just better at making money. And then he didn't share his wealth with the rest of the establishment. You're right as far as his connection witht the rural establishment, his healthcare program broke the hospital system but gained the support of the poor. I think he had far-reaching ability but near-sighted vision as it pertained to Thailand. Do you think he would still be in power, though, if he actually help to raise the poor up, through education and training programs, business loans and the like, but still kept the other political parties of the establishment at arm's length? You're arguement was great.

It's impossible to say if he would still have been in power without the telecom business deal, but it solidified Sondhi's movement.

If Taksin had paid his taxes and had reformed the tax structure (which I think the current PM wants to do), things would no doubt have been different. He had two large electorial victories but through it all away with his tax shelters.

He gave the poor a voice in politics, but probably set back the cause by instigating the tuggish behavior of his followerd these past days.

[Captain Chaos]

How about corruption? I worked for a subsidiary of a British MNC in Bangkok during Mr Thaksin's administration. Our office was close to the new airport - watched it go from a big patch of dirt to a (nearly) world class airport during my time working in the vicinity. We were a Thai company and the domestic market leader in our field, with nearly a 50% market share.

Bidding for Swampydoom projects, the procurement manager complimented us on our technical quality and pricing of our pre-qualification material - but then he asked us one question 'are you a Shincorp company?' ... when we replied in the negative, he advised us not to 'waste our time' submitting...

Funny thing is, I remember Mr T telling everyone when he was first elected (I paraphrase) - don't worry about corruption, I am already too rich to bother with it - if only...

I agree Mr T is a clever guy and handled a lot of Thailand's external financial issues well, but he just couldn't keep his hands out of the till - his real mistake of course, was throwing down the gauntlet to the establishment, and that has happened to many populist premiers in many countries...

So was his mistake that he didn't include the rest of the establishment (the military, the other parties) in on his dealings? Was it a case of the rest of the establishment not getting their cut?

Nope - my example was to demonstrate that it was a case of him changing official Thai govt policy to benefit his own personal biz interests, as opposed to the 'brown envelope' corruption we had before - which bit of that is NOT clear?

CC

[Ricardo]

Keep emotion out of it

because, YOUTUBE, CANNABISACTION and AMNESTYORG are reliable sources of information. Are there any visions of the airport being shut down a while back or the rural vote being repressed? What about all the other villains out there who have created acts far more outrageous than what you accuse Thaskin of doing? Are you going to go after them? Again, do all heads of state know what their organizations, police, military are doing? If he did know than he should be held accountable for hauling them into the courts. I am not full of poop, I just went to see a man about a hourse an hour ago...cannabis action, are you seriou?

Dear gbt71fa, I thought you were proposing to keep emotion out of it, seems like you forgot that.

[MeetJohnDoe]

For most expats, it goes all the way back 10 years to his first Interior Minister, nicknamed "Purely Puritanical" by many, who was the one who started all the flim-flam about nitelife, smoking, drinking, and whoring crackdowns. Before then, when the Democrat Party was in charge, Thailand was a great place to live and work, kinda like the USA now.

Edited April 14, 2009 by MeetJohnDoe

[Sabum]

lol all you gotta do is google, just read statements by Thaksin where he says "HE will kill them all". (meaning drug dealers) Ya... he wasn't giving the order or directly responsible... newp.

[eldar1]

Please allow me to add a couple of Thaksins sins that are 100% verfiable since they involve what the thai's have very nicely dubbed "Policy Corruption" which is to say corruption through the changing of the laws of a country for personal gain (my definition, might not be the best but it works)

I'm too tired at the moment to give accurate dates for these but you should easily be able to google them.

1. The changing of the laws regarding interconnect charges between mobile phone networks and TOT, which only benifitted AIS and was to the detriment of DTAC and Orange.

2. Changing the laws concerning foreign ownership of airline companies, which benifitted Thai Air Asia, 50% owned by thaksin

3. changing the laws regarding foreign ownership of telecom companies prior to selling Shin corp to Temasek, shin corp is ofcourse owned by thaksin.

There are countless examples of nepotism and cronyism

1. The appointend supreme commander of the army is familiy of Thaksin

2. Most of his friends of the police academy got promoted to high government function right after thaksin came to power. I know this is pretty vague, but i don't feel like searching for the names and positions right now.

Human rights abuses. this subject is tricky as thaksin cannot be directly linked to these, but he was PM during the time and he was very evasive in the press. Also i'm including media abuses in here which he definately was directly responsible for.

1. The systematic alienation of the muslim minority in the south, using unnecessarly harsh and inflammatory remarks

2. The tak bae (sp?) incident in which 78 (could be less, but around that number) of people died of suffication, dehydration and over heating, because they were piled face down and 3 deep on flatbed trucks and left in the sun for 3 hours.

3. the ordering of military action inside the mosque at uhh krung something i forget

4. the disappearance of somchai ....... the lawyer fighting for the muslim families in the south

5. Filing multiple multi-billion baht defamation law suits against various reporters and most famously against manager magazine

6. Threatening the bangkok post with using the power of his position to pressure companies not to place ads in the bangkok post unless 2 reporters critical of him were fired (the were fired including the editor i believe or maybe he resigned, not 100% sure on that)

7. Using green and red signs to denote which questions the media could ask him and which ones were deemed bad or unhelpfull (he had a nice catchphrase for this that i forgot)

8. Withdrawning all federal money promised to the local governments of the southern provinces most affected by the insurgency there.

There are more but i feel this gives a decent overview of the thaksin years

[PeaceBlondie]

Do not mention the royal family. Seriously, not one mention. From now on on ThaiVisa, the easiest way to get your post deleted in full and risk being banned forever is to mention the monarch, his wife, his sister, his son, what you think he might do, what he did do, etc.

[Sabum]

Told you it was stupid lol

I just youtubed the muslim massacares in the south during Thaksins reign, makes me want to vomit.

This one shows them stacking the people in the trucks murdering 79 by suffocation.

Edited April 14, 2009 by Sabum

[Sabum]

Watching these videos on Thaksin reminds me of why I REALLY hate the guy, he always threatens like a sissy little girl to get his way. Always threatening to sue news agencies if they talk about his negative actions, threatened to boycott the Asean summit if they brought up the muslim killings (and they conceded to his wishes!)..... he does terrible things and then pulls a hissy fit to keep people from talking about it, what a weener.

[faranginexile]

I would like to get information, actually facts if possible, about what Thaskin as supposedly done. I read where one write explained how Thaskin controlled the rice export market and proportioned it out to his family and freinds. That is the kind of informationt that I want. I don't want to hear about rumors how he killed innocents durring the drug wars unless you have some sort of fact to back it up, not rumors.

[snip]

If Thaskin was indeed corrupt how was he different from any of the others? Did Thailand prosper under his rule besides his corruption as a whole; economy, infrastructure, education, ect. or was just a small group that was close to him that earned the fruits of his labor? Was he overthrown because he became more powerful than the military or put his beloved police above the military? I assume that he did buy off votes but has any of the other parties done this as well and is it just a recent phenomenon?

So, all I am asking is for informational facts pertaining to what Thaskin has done. Keep emotion out of it

Let's start with the day that he signed a law allowing himself to sell his monopoly wireless communications concession tax-free, then sold it to a foreign government owned entity. I think that's the day that the bloom came off Toxin's rose.

Until that time, it had been your standard-issue nepotism and cronyism, albeit writ very large. Stuff like canceling the print advertising contract already awarded for the then-new skytrain, and re-awarding it to one of his kids. Multiply that single act by 10,000 or so TRT cronies, every last one of whom got his contract, baillywick or pound of flesh. (Those are also the true-believer redshirts who miss the good old days, and want to get back to the important business converting common weal into private wealth; they are distinct from those who are merely being paid to blow stuff up and cause trouble)

Stuff like his wife "winning" a bidding process for hugely valuable piece of land for a fraction of its value (for which she was later convicted), and both Mr. and Mrs. Chinawat distributing shares in their various entities among family members and even servants in order to avoid paying taxes on their astronomical income. Remember, this is the head of government and his wife, whose whole vast fortune is derived from the concession of a goverment monopoly to him, actively engaging in tax fraud to avoid paying any taxes.

But the day that he sold the country's communications system to Singapore (only after ensuring that, once again, he paid no taxes), I think the whole Kingdom took a deep breath and decided this guy is incapable of grasping the concept of "enough."

He wasn't the first politician to buy a vote, but he was the first to finance a nationwide (as opposed to regional) vote-buying scheme. He wasn't the first corrupt, self-serving PM, but he did raise cronyism and venality to previously unseen depths/heights.

He won't stop trying to get back in power; he's like a rat or a roach that way. He can't help himself, really. But as long as the powers that preceded him remain in place, he ain't getting back in, no matter how many videoconferences he has or red t-shirts he buys.

[ernest1966]

Lol. I love the bleedin' heart brigade. It's alright for the muslims to kill anyone they want (including their own side) but <deleted> me, dare anyone stand up to the f*ckers and sheesh "it's save the muslims" why don't you give $10 to the cause or go out and by a copy of the Qur'an and keep it under your pillow.

I watched a interview on Aljazeera with one of the head honchos who was living in Malaysia, he said that he would have anyone (from the south) killed if they did not back the fight.

Will you stop acting like a load of bleedin' hearts. These guys kill people, they don't give a sh1t who they kill, they don't want peace they want a seperation from thailand and have their own muslim state, with muslim law.

And I've had to put up with the crazy sh1t muslims talk most of my life because I am arab and NOT a muslim, never will be and never want to be.

The truth the typical fantatical muslim nutter hates with a vengence any non muslim, wants their own islamic state and wants to impose his viewpoint on every other muslim , even if they are moderates and once this happens there is no going back.

I'm waiting for bradford, leeds and hounslow (UK) to be declared mini-muslim states.

The problem is not 99.9% of the people in the south, its 0.1% of fantatics who do want a muslim state and want to impose their own religious mania on everyone in it.

[eldar1]

Lol. I love the bleedin' heart brigade. It's alright for the muslims to kill anyone they want (including their own side) but <deleted> me, dare anyone stand up to the f*ckers and sheesh "it's save the muslims" why don't you give $10 to the cause or go out and by a copy of the Qur'an and keep it under your pillow.

I watched a interview on Aljazeera with one of the head honchos who was living in Malaysia, he said that he would have anyone (from the south) killed if they did not back the fight.

Will you stop acting like a load of bleedin' hearts. These guys kill people, they don't give a sh1t who they kill, they don't want peace they want a seperation from thailand and have their own muslim state, with muslim law.

And I've had to put up with the crazy sh1t muslims talk most of my life because I am arab and NOT a muslim, never will be and never want to be.

The truth the typical fantatical muslim nutter hates with a vengence any non muslim, wants their own islamic state and wants to impose his viewpoint on every other muslim , even if they are moderates and once this happens there is no going back.

I'm waiting for bradford, leeds and hounslow (UK) to be declared mini-muslim states.

The problem is not 99.9% of the people in the south, its 0.1% of fantatics who do want a muslim state and want to impose their own religious mania on everyone in it.

You may have a point on this regarding the mosque incident, but the tak bae incident involved peacefull demonstrators

[Sabum]

They killed over 100 unarmed people AFTER they arrested them...... was that the 0.1%?

[ernest1966]

I am not referring to one incident per se, I am talking about the ethos/doctrine that these fantatics sprout, what they want to achieve and how they go about it generally.

When I was living in the UK in my teens there where several known fanatics who we knew of , not really friends of the family. Whenever they were present everyone was very careful of what they said. These guys where fantatics, were organised and from Iran. Most people where shit scared of them (our friends where Iranian) because if they spoke out of line in any way, their families back home would get a very rough time with the then new regime.

I have met many muslim fantatics, from all over unfortunately, malaysian, iranian, saudi, pakistani, turkish they all want the same thing, to impose their religious ideology on every other muslim and try and convert non muslims or kick them out of their state.

[Sabum]

Whats your fracking point? That the slaughter of innocents should be ignored because you met some nasty muslims? Are you for real?