Thaksin Bids For Montenegro Island

[brahmburgers]

Thaksin has got excellent business sense,

Thaksin, like nearly all speculators that are heavily invested in stocks and property, probably lost 50 to 70% of the value of his assets since the crash of Oct '08. That's not counting the billions of baht frozen by Thai gov't - which is a different can of worms. Not a great report card for someone who has 'excellent business sense.'

BTW, not all speculators got shat upon last fall. I personally know one 'little guy' (assets under $1 million) who cashed out 100% just before the market tanked. Now, that's better business sense, if you ask me.

[ParadiseLost]

He's like a cheap floozy, making promises to every tin pot banana republic he visits: Nicaragua, Liberia, Montenegro ....who's next to get sucked in to the charm of Thaksin flashing his fat wallet, grinning widely, and promising each honcho in turn, that they're the one dearest to his heart.

You omitted the English (Premier League)... Dirty money is just fine for them too

Edited May 14, 2009 by ParadiseLost

[johna]

His new neighbors know how how to squeeze blood from a stone, he must be really desperate to live there

[johnnymoretti]

Speaking of cracked runways... the air strip for his private jet might be a bit tricky on this listing to starboard island.

Listing to starboard, yes....but only from this side. Its listing to port if viewed from the other side. It is for this reason we could not determine bow or stern.

In any event, it will be a new place to go diving. Maybe even find artifacts, like a steam trunk full of Thai dignity that he stole from the people.

[johnnymoretti]

A 'wye' is Thai and we don't do that in England. We shake hands. In Thailand I wye people, in England i shake hands. Respect other people's culture. No player in the premier league salutes the chairman on the football pitch before a game. Whether it be by 'wying' or dancing a jig. (unless you feel the need to do so out of respect)

You're 100% right - Wying is just like shaking hands or any other type of greeting. But at the end of the day, it's a mark of respect, and if you've never been to Thailand it would be completely alien to you.

NOT WYE is a Wai

NOT WYE or WAI...it's ไหว้

[JR Texas]

A 'wye' is Thai and we don't do that in England. We shake hands. In Thailand I wye people, in England i shake hands. Respect other people's culture. No player in the premier league salutes the chairman on the football pitch before a game. Whether it be by 'wying' or dancing a jig. (unless you feel the need to do so out of respect)

You're 100% right - Wying is just like shaking hands or any other type of greeting. But at the end of the day, it's a mark of respect, and if you've never been to Thailand it would be completely alien to you.

NOT WYE is a Wai

NOT WYE or WAI...it's ไหว้

Maybe somebody can convince him to put in a snow-making machine and turn the "slope" into a ski jump......and then.......well.......how do I put it.....JUMP!

Are their tiger sharks in the water? If not, they can be imported.

Just kidding........

[Plus]

How's FengShui on that thing? It's "sinking" looks really disturbing for my eye. It's just wrong.

[animatic]

Actually it's a brilliant idea by Thaksin- buy the island and declare it the sovereign nation of Thaksinland. Then he can issue all the passports he wants to all the PTP MPs here. He will then ask all the red shirts to move over there so that they will benefit from his wealth and there will be no more poverty anymore and he can rule over them as their president/emperor/god, etc.

Except this is totally within Montenegro's territorial waters

and they are not likely to ceceed territory to one rich guy,

because them Russian oligarchs and god knows who, will want the same...

[Samuian]

Thaksin has got excellent business sense, he will probably be able to sell it in a few years time for double the price. In the meantime it would be a nice part of the world for him to sit back and relax, make his phone ins from his beach side resort.

He does not have excellent business sense. He's willing to pay nearly a billion baht for the lower part of rock that sits 1 Km over water from a town that no one has heard of, in a country that's not really a country. It's extremely doubtful there's any fresh water there, so all water will have to be shipped over. There was a report earlier that locals enjoyed going to visit the little beaches there. Will big shot Thaksin allow locals to continue to come and picnic on his 26,810 baht per sq.M property? Doubtful. Every Thai who has ever owned property does one thing sooner than anything else: builds a fence or wall around it.

When Thaksin was the biggest shot in Thailand, he bolstered the decree that farang could never own land here. How different for him now, that he prances around the globe - going to various countries that allow him to own property.

He's like a cheap floozy, making promises to every tin pot banana republic he visits: Nicaragua, Liberia, Montenegro ....who's next to get sucked in to the charm of Thaksin flashing his fat wallet, grinning widely, and promising each honcho in turn, that they're the one dearest to his heart.

Mr.Nice Guy in best company - after all which serious business man, politician want s to be seen with him.....?

Honcho = Hanchu - Japanese for "Squad Leader"

henchmen are those who surrounded him and still do = political follower whose support is chiefly for personal advantage!

[phaethon]

I trust he read some books on Napoleon... destiny, banishment... and a rock will be the perfect place for him

It's worth remembering that Napoleon's first exile, when he was deposed by his own generals (Ney: "The army will follow its generals."), was to another Mediterranean island (Elba) where he rebuilt a small navy and army and retook power for the final 100 days that lead to Waterloo and St Helena.

Edited May 14, 2009 by phaethon

[bungy007]

Thaksin has got excellent business sense, he will probably be able to sell it in a few years time for double the price.

In the meantime it would be a nice part of the world for him to sit back and relax, make his phone ins from his beach side resort .

Yeah. He's a real wow at spending other people's hard earned money which he has 'liberated' from the people of Thailand. He can also do wonders with a monopoly given to him by a crony. He'll probably sell it on to another third world dictator who has plundered their nation's entire federal reserve to give them a way out - a la the sales of Man City to give a certain gentleman a 'way-in'. Yeah! A really great businesman and a credit to his country

[cm das]

I can't believe you guys. The island isn't sinking. It's rising triumphantly from the troubled, murky waters. Jeez, open your eyes.

[Mario2008]

One post refering to Thaksin by an incorrect name deleted.

[brahmburgers]

He could erect a giant statue of himself at the upper end of the island. Trouble is, only the lower part of it is on the bargaining table. If he spends a billion baht on a couple acres of rock, how does that help the multitude of impoverished Thai people who he unceasingly declares he wants to assist?

[sriracha john]

Thaksin wants to buy island

BANGKOK - THAILAND'S fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra has acquired a passport from Montenegro and is considering buying a resort island there, an adviser said on Wednesday.

Removed from power in a 2006 coup, Thaksin has been on the run since he fled Thailand ahead of a corruption conviction last year.

Last month, the Thai government revoked the personal passport of Thaksin, whom it accuses of stoking anti-government riots in Bangkok that left two people killed and hundreds wounded.

Noppadon Pattama, a lawyer who has been an adviser to Thaksin, said the ousted prime minister has a Montenegrin passport and at least a few others.

'Leaders of a few countries have given Thaksin passports because they sympathize with his position and know the injustice he suffered,' Noppadon said but did not specify which countries have offered him travel documents.

In January, Nicaragua named Thaksin an 'Ambassador on a Special Mission' to bring investment to the Central American country and issued him a passport.

Noppadon said Thaksin has also expressed an interest in buying Sveti Nikola island, despite also recently saying he is short on cash since the Thai government froze his assets after convicting him in absentia violating a conflict of interest law while in office.

'He thinks there is a lot of potential there in terms of developing its tourism business,' Noppadon said. 'But I am not sure about the status and whether he has officially entered a bidding process or anything.' The acquisition of a new passport is expected to further complicated Thailand's efforts to extradite the ousted premier.

Vice Foreign Minister Panich Vikitsreth said the ministry has ordered several Thai embassies to look into confirming the issuance of the passport.

The ministry has earlier submitted extradition requests through diplomatic channels to the United Arab Emirates and Nicaragua to facilitate the repatriation of Thaksin who fled the country before the court issued its verdict and sentenced him to two years in prison.

- Associated Press / 2009-05-14

Edited May 14, 2009 by sriracha john

[Oberkommando]

Speaking of cracked runways... the air strip for his private jet might be a bit tricky on this listing to starboard island.

He'll land on the mainland and take the chopper over, silly.

Looks like a great place for a commando raid to scoop him up

and drop him a swampy too.

Considering the Thais got a bloody nose in recent border skirmishes with the Cambodians I doubt very much that they have the wherewithal to succeed in such a daring, covert operation.

Indeed, if the courts were that desperate to see him serve his punishment why did they let him leave in the first place?

It seems incredulous, to have him leave under permission yet attempt to bring him back with a covert military operation on foreign soil.

Edited May 14, 2009 by Oberkommando

[HagenvonTronje]

May 10, 2007:

Whatever his future is.... he's just GOTTA learn how to find a suitable tailor that can properly measure the length of his arms:

March 10, 2008:

Foreign Affairs Minister Noppadon Pattama proudly shows off the sleeves of his latest suit

May 13, 2009:

The intrepid lawyer still struggling with his tailored suits at the media event of the first post above...

Maybe a gift from his Masta? Europeans are usually "taller" than Thais...

mhm, WEB FACT in other threads you did impress all of us with your super special technical skills and have been able to demonstrate of what date a picture really is and that a photo was deceptively being posted.*

but here, you seems to fail. can't spot that this are mega old photos from the archive, SJ somewhere found in the internet. these pictures haven't even at the time SJ posted them the first time fresh pictures of the day, but a random selected photo from the archive.

now repost them, create a timeline is deceptive and cheating.

those pictures are not from May 10, 2007; March 10, 2008 or May 13, 2009. news quack SJ tries hard to suggest that, but it isn't true. don't trust his edited copypasta forgeries. reliability = zero.

and the BS, that you can found in thai media is even worse, compared to all the FACT you can find in TEH INTERNET.

on the other hand it means that it is actually quite funny to read all that. and funny to see how others believe in that. Minitrue.

[brahmburgers]

Thaksin is fast losing whatever bit of credibility he may have had - in the 'eyes of the world.'

T smacked the floor of his rowboat with a sledgehammer when he insisted, during int'l viewed interviews on major TV news venues, that there were many covered up deaths during the Songkran riots. In other words, he insisted there were many killings of Red Shirts by soldiers in Bangkok - yet all indications are the soldiers showed incredible restraint, and there were nearly no injuries or loss of lives on their part.

For any die-hard observers who had held on to the thought that Mr. "I'm Through With Politics" Thaksin had any credibility left after nine years of continuous lying, then those statements on Int'l TV should dispel the myth that Thaksin is anything more than a manipulating self-serving liar.

[webfact]

mhm, WEB FACT in other threads you did impress all of us with your super special technical skills and have been able to demonstrate of what date a picture really is and that a photo was deceptively being posted.*

but here, you seems to fail. can't spot that this are mega old photos from the archive, SJ somewhere found in the internet. these pictures haven't even at the time SJ posted them the first time fresh pictures of the day, but a random selected photo from the archive.

now repost them, create a timeline is deceptive and cheating.

those pictures are not from May 10, 2007; March 10, 2008 or May 13, 2009. news quack SJ tries hard to suggest that, but it isn't true. don't trust his edited copypasta forgeries. reliability = zero.

and the BS, that you can found in thai media is even worse, compared to all the FACT you can find in TEH INTERNET.

on the other hand it means that it is actually quite funny to read all that. and funny to see how others believe in that. Minitrue.

HvT, thanks for realizing my skills. But calm down. I never mentioned "deceptively being posted". I only gave some prove that a photo was NOT taken at a date as purported in a posting. Hundreds of others with the same "skills" could have easily proved that too.

Let me add this. Even if a picture does not contain any information it is possible up to a certain level to retrieve "lost data" but this is a very complex process and not always successful.

I read SJ post carefully and I realize he does not state anywhere "these photos were taken at a specific date...

They may have been published at/around the time he posted.

SJ did show 3 pictures (apparently taken at different occasions) and in all 3 that lawyer wears the same suit.

What is your point? The suit? Is that damaging for his reputation???

[animatic]

Speaking of cracked runways... the air strip for his private jet might be a bit tricky on this listing to starboard island.

He'll land on the mainland and take the chopper over, silly.

Looks like a great place for a commando raid to scoop him up

and drop him a swampy too.

Considering the Thais got a bloody nose in recent border skirmishes with the Cambodians I doubt very much that they have the wherewithal to succeed in such a daring, covert operation.

Indeed, if the courts were that desperate to see him serve his punishment why did they let him leave in the first place?

It seems incredulous, to have him leave under permission yet attempt to bring him back with a covert military operation on foreign soil.

Of course you are assuming I meant Thai commandos...

[Oberkommando]

Thaksin is fast losing whatever bit of credibility he may have had - in the 'eyes of the world.'

T smacked the floor of his rowboat with a sledgehammer when he insisted, during int'l viewed interviews on major TV news venues, that there were many covered up deaths during the Songkran riots. In other words, he insisted there were many killings of Red Shirts by soldiers in Bangkok - yet all indications are the soldiers showed incredible restraint, and there were nearly no injuries or loss of lives on their part.

For any die-hard observers who had held on to the thought that Mr. "I'm Through With Politics" Thaksin had any credibility left after nine years of continuous lying, then those statements on Int'l TV should dispel the myth that Thaksin is anything more than a manipulating self-serving liar.

This government are playing straight into his hands though, making him a martyr for the rural poor and now he's the figurehead of those dissatisfied with the military's continued involvement and interference in Thai politics.

Of course you are assuming I meant Thai commandos...

Which other country would bother getting involved? He isn't Radovan Karadic.

You are going to have to face reality, as has been said from day one, he will never be captured and he will never see the inside of a jail cell if he ever returns to Thailand.

Case in point: his ex-wife.

[HagenvonTronje]

I read SJ post carefully and I realize he does not state anywhere "these photos were taken at a specific date...

They may have been published at/around the time he posted.

SJ did show 3 pictures (apparently taken at different occasions) and in all 3 that lawyer wears the same suit.

What is your point? The suit? Is that damaging for his reputation???

in the thread 'red-Shirt Tactics' user koo posted an image of a big crowd in red shirts, a red rally, this photo got immediately scrutinized because it doesn't looked like a photo of the most recent rally, but a little bit dated (6 weeks).

you could read-out the hidden exif data, the file name of the pic gave a hint of a calendar date, and the sky on the photo didn't looked like the one on the last most recent red shirt rally. the pic was not "fresh" news. albeit koo never claimed that, that it was of the last rally. she brought more or less an archive photo, a random sample pic of her continuous vivid red movement. she never mentioned a specific date to this picture.

you could say that is a little bit lame, such pics have been posted before , we know them, we saw them them. interesting would be to see a "fresh", a new pic of the red movement, because they came into some problems lately and the surrounding conditions are very different from 6 weeks ago. thats why we felt cheated. but for koo maybe the red movement was still the same, a decline not on the way. and it's all a little 'tease each other game' here at TVboard.

after it got explored that the picture wasn't fresh , SJ did a big talk, condemned such practise of posting old pics. spoke the words: "It helps us know now what we know about this 2 month old photo deceptively being posted."

and also a couple of other TVmembers jumped in mob style on the "Red Liar" koo.

anyway, you have skills, the Joe Schmoes of the internets have them not. and are also not aware of all the hidden data, a document, an e-mail or an jepg-photo can contain. so it's good to point that out from time to time. everybody learns that way. i like opera for that, that it tells me a little bit more about a photo in the right click menu. and there ends my little knowledge, but still big enough to impress aol mickey mouse browser surfer. and next time, if it's really important and i want get to the bottom of it, i will not only rely on opera. can you recommend some small software for windows?

but now to SJ's post, it has the following structure:

• year 2007
  
  
• a specific calendar date
  :
  month dd,yyyy
  
  
• a caption
  , that point out the up to date fashion sense
  
  
• a photo
  of Noppadon in that suit that doesn't fits him
  
  
  year 2008
  
  
• a specific calendar date
  : month dd, yyyy
  
  
• a photo
  of Noppadon in that suit that doesn't fits him
  
  
• a caption
  , that point out the up to date fashion sense
  
  
  year 2009
  
  
• a specific calendar date
  : month dd, yyyy
  
  
• a caption
  , that point out the up to date fashion sense
  
  
• a photo
  of Noppadon in that suit that doesn't fits him
  
  

and you are right, if i read SJ post carefully and i realize, SJ never said ""these photos were taken at a specific date..."

the dates are there just coincidental , and to draw a connection between the dates and the photos is just my own interpretation, an arbitrary exegesis, right? i like such excuses, do you believe them yourself?

my point is the correctness and accuracy of statements. SJ demand it from others, but ignores such rules for himself.

and i am not worried about that the reputation of that man in that suit maybe got damaged. i don't mind. it's true that the suit isn't tailored well, but he didn't wear it over all those years and everytime the same neck tie. that are just archive photos, that got reused over there years again and again. not very smart to assume he never got the sleeves fitted. and it's bit unfair to pick out and select only pictures of dumb moments. that suit maybe just borrowed from a colleague after some misfortune with a bowl of noodle soup involved or the dry cleaner mixed it up. who knows.

some b- level starlets b- posh girls commit fashion faux pax once a month and that made it into "News", monthly. politicans sometimes got spotted by the media with an adventurous outfit, on a day on the beach, on a Segway or what ever makes them look stupid, such pictures don't get printed over and over again. and that is just Thaksins lawyer or spokeman. maybe also a friend of thaksin, but why mock him all the time, with the same lame joke? is there any new quality, additional information behind it? it's funny for 13 years old. thats all. photoshop a face into an urinal, call it mr urinal ,cross post and requote it all over the board, trying hard to create a meme, is only funny for 13 years old. to recycle racist and stereotyping pics with black americans and watermelons into pics with Samak and water melons is still racist. only 13 years old do that and/or racists.

but if somebody else quotes bangkok pundit or new mandala, a report from the asian human rights commision, professor giles... OMG, he and some other TVboard members get hysterical. whinge that this have no credibility. prachathai.com just a blog in the internet, but TAN/TOC/NATION serious news business.

so as long you keep the facts correct and the photo has some value, why not add them. photoshops of thaksin as napoleon, blofield or goldfinger i don't mind, nothing wrong with that and in this thread they are on topic. from time to time i post photos of public figures as well. frozen moments of their activities. publicity shots, images 'painted' by themself. that reveals more than any secret camera or a paparazzi could do.

[think_too_mut]

Since Montenegro is currently trying to negotiate Fast Track entry into the EU (ahead of Serbia and some other neighbours) this little episode might just be an embarassment to them......

It's rather an advertisment for their coast. They boast 65meteres water transparency, very clean. Montenegro may use this media attention to advance their tourism industry. This kind of attention would have cost them millions of EUR were they have to pay for it.

Another one is - who - deposed or not - leader buys anything in Thailand? Or even know Thailand exists.

[Datsun240Z]

Another thread was closed by the humour police, but I repeat...

Billionaire, gone underground, buying private island... Do the maths...

That's fuc_king funny mate...

[HagenvonTronje]

Another thread was closed by the humour police, but I repeat...

Billionaire, gone underground, buying private island... Do the maths...

That's fuc_king funny mate...

welcome to amazing thailand. the place where reality beats fiction.

>^..^<

[johnnymoretti]

What island would be complete without Tattoo and Master Thaksin! Da Plane! Da Plane!

[Cayenne]

What island would be complete without Tattoo and Master Thaksin! Da Plane! Da Plane!

Is that Jatuporn sitting on the right with his back facing us?

[brahmburgers]

those photos are funny, however, it's doubtful the little piece of rock has any level flat spots or standing fresh water - as shown in the photos. It appears to be rock and scrub at steep angles, with a couple tiny bits of sand at one end. To maintain just one family there in any sort of comfort, would take hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per day. The place has air to breathe, and he can set up his own power generating rig, but pretty much everything else needed to survive, including water and food, would have to be shipped in from elsewhere. If someone were to fall ill (and we know how quick Thais are to go to a hospital for the slightest reason) - he/she would have to be airlifted over to the mainland.

A far cry from the idyllic mode shown in the photos.

[Heng]

The same for an awful lot of private islands, yet these type of purchases keep making the news.

[phaethon]

those photos are funny, however, it's doubtful the little piece of rock has any level flat spots or standing fresh water ...

Yes, yes, yes... but what about the inside ? The secret caverns, the retractable death-ray/satellite control dish, the nuclear plant, the harbour for stolen nuclear submarines, space shuttles, missile silos...

I mean... C'mon, Baby!...

Edited May 17, 2009 by phaethon