What Has Thaskin Done To Be Villified So?

[Gary A]

What did Thaksin do? It's a simple answer. He did most of his stealing legally. He is smarter than the rest of the thieves and passed laws to make his looting legal.

The old saying; Out of the frying pan and into the fire rings very true. Politicians will NEVER get better until the law is willing and able to follow the money and put those unusually wealthy people out of politics.

Corruption is a way of life here. The police are incredibly and openly corrupt. The long suffering Thai people will continue to suffer and enrich the elite.

[ernest1966]

my point is you dont ponce about with these <deleted>

your <deleted> them b4 they <deleted> you

do or die

[Sabum]

my point is you dont ponce about with these <deleted>

your <deleted> them b4 they <deleted> you

do or die

Right... yo go G.I.Joe right? Kill em all and let god sort it out eh? I bet you really think the war in Iraq is justified and a good idea too right? Man.....

[Digitalman]

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.

I think your last sentence brings up a really good point, a lot of folks are missing that dynamic.

[bonobo]

my point is you dont ponce about with these <deleted>

your <deleted> them b4 they <deleted> you

do or die

First of all, you are pretty far whacked on this.  The Muslims in Thailand were pretty much assimilated and not very militant until heavy-handed government reaction recruited more and more into the militant camp.  

Second, just what does your diatribe on Islam have to do with the topic?

[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.

[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.

Yes, yes, yes. His blatancy and selfishness negated anything 'good' he did. End of story. Anyone defending Taksin by point at corruption of other is avilding the issue.

[hhgz]

"I would like to get information, actually facts if possible, about what Thaskin as supposedly done."

This has been covered many times in many threads, and you should search the forums.

Although the Thai perspective can't be covered adequately - we're not Thai - the farang perspective is that he helped the poor people outside of Bangkok, something that many farangs disapproved of. He raised taxes, and caused farangs to spend more for their beer and cigarettes.

Edited April 15, 2009 by hhgz

[chiangmaibruce]

Just finished watching a show on the MCOT station (ch 9 i think) about a lady by the name of dieu (sp?). she is the lady on which that insurance company ad is based ... the lady who collects the street kids and take care of them, takes them to the beach etc. Well she has an orphanage in Yasothon and only a few months to live (cancer). Quite a lot of kids there.

Got me thinking about a certain guy famous for his love of the people of the northeast, helper of the poor, etc etc. The guy who just spent, lets say, 50 million baht* in employing a band of thugs to block streets, damage private and public property etc. All incredibly irresponsible, futile and ultimately counter-productive. Wouldn't it have been a wonderful gesture of he could have spent (instead) even a tenth of that amount on this dying women and her orphanage? Might have even salvaged a few shreds of credibility - instead of flushing what little that was left down the toilet.

* they say there were 100,000 redshirts there on the biggest day. Yes some may not have put out their hand for the dough, but then the riot went on for many days too. So on that basis 50 million is probably a conservative estimate

[Ricardo]

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.

my point is you dont ponce about with these <deleted>

your <deleted> them b4 they <deleted> you

do or die

So you would propose to "<deleted> them b4 they <deleted> you", especially the 99.9% who aren't fanatics, to get the 0.1% who are ?

Did you ever wonder if this might support the fanatics' absurd claims, that the rest of the world is out to get all muslims, and help them gain more influence over the rest ? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot !

Thaksin's own simplistic view was that there were no freedom-fighters, or people who wanted their non-Bhuddist non-Thai-speaking provinces to have more independence, as they did a century earlier, only a bunch of crooks down there. Well they do say it takes one to know one.

[spysee]

ANYTHING Thaksin did was for personal gain. He did not do anything for the country at all. If there was something he changed or was doing, it was because he was getting paid. There are many many examples of it mentioned in previous posts.