Govt Using All Means To Corner Thaksin

[Insight]

A. decent personal values,

B. a sincere caring for the Thai people and their natural environment,

C. an ability to form coalitions and get things done.

So I agree with Damian somewhat on the need for a leader "to be able to get things done." Thaksin scores high on C, but fails miserably on A and B

I was upcountry(Noth-central,not Issan) during Songkran and the general feeling I got from people was that most of them felt that Thaksin's grades would be:

A. 0

B. 6 or 7

C. 9 out of 10

What I was told was that they voted for the Democats for years and got nothing in return. But when Thaksin was PM money flowed to the villages. If the current Dem=lead coalition wants to get votes, they are going to have to try to copy as many of Thaksin's populist policies as possible.

Honest perception of how things really are at ground level much appreciated :D

[brahmburgers]

note to chris larsson re; post #85: you got a big quote attributed to brahmburgers, but it's not mine.

A. decent personal values,

B. a sincere caring for the Thai people and their natural environment,

C. an ability to form coalitions and get things done.

So I agree with Damian somewhat on the need for a leader "to be able to get things done." Thaksin scores high on C, but fails miserably on A and B

I was upcountry(North-central,not Issan) during Songkran and the general feeling I got from people was that most of them felt that Thaksin's grades would be:

A. 0

B. 6 or 7

C. 9 out of 10

What I was told was that they voted for the Democats for years and got nothing in return. But when Thaksin was PM money flowed to the villages. If the current Dem=lead coalition wants to get votes, they are going to have to try to copy as many of Thaksin's populist policies as possible.

Right - the Dems let the rural folk rot, preferring instead to squabble endlessly among themselves. That's what Abhisit is up against, and that's why it will take more than empty promises to bring the rural folks back on board. They've heard it all before.

well said. It appears we're getting somewhat of a consensus here in T.Visa. Saying all Thai politics revolves around money is generally true, but a tad simplistic. Among other things, groups of people don't want to be disenfranchised. Besides the Issanites, who are in a gray area in terms of being a veritable part of Thai population (from Bangkok elites' perspective), there are a bunch of hill tribers in northern and western Thailand who feel even more marginalized.

We've heard about the Bt.2,000 recently allocated to all Thais. And there's a program afoot to help poor families pay for school necessities for their kids. Well guess who doesn't get a satang of that gov't largesse? That's right, nearly all hill tribe families are off the radar - because most don't have full fledged Thai ID, and the only way to get full ID is to pay tens of thousands of baht to some pu yai ban - and even then you're not sure whether you're getting a real ID, or a good quality fake (I've heard varying reports). Same goes for 30 baht hospital program. Indeed, many Thai hill tribers can't legally travel to nearby Thai villages, can be stopped and fined any time by any authority, can't legally own a motorbike, drivers license, or phone service. In essence, despite Royal efforts at assistance, and lots of rhetoric from big shots in Bkk, tens of thousands of Hill Tribe people are still stateless and treated like dirt.

Edited May 3, 2009 by brahmburgers