Thailand's Abhisit Government Rules Out Return To Ante-coup Playing Field For Talks With Ex-pm Thaksin

[Publicus]

Don't let us spoil your Merry Christmas. 

You won't Publicus...you won't, don't worry.

And, I hope you will be able to have a little bit of the Christmas atmosphere in China.

China is adapting the Xmas atmosphere in shops, streets and restaurants more and more but it will never be the same as back home, will it?

Anyway:

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your loved ones

LaoPo

Merry Christmas to you and to your loved ones equally LaoPo..........and to every one at TV.

I've always enjoyed Xmas in Thailand, usually at the beach which is most welcome given my hometown is usually snowed in this time of year.

Don't know your long experience in the PRC but because I'm Western - USA - there are Chinese who use religious terminology throughout the year and Xmas time especially. I always get "God Bless You," and "God be with you" and other same or similar statements any time of year. The past week I've been getting "Merry Christmas" from every direction to include all over my cell phone. Many Chinese I know are concerned that I be accommodated during this traditional Western holiday season. 

Last year the proprietary languages school where I was foreign director had a big Christmas party in which everyone participated and gifts were exchanged. It was the sole idea of the proprietor, who is from Taiwan and Buddhist (Mahayana), has an MBA from the US, the mother of twins and a few others as well. 

This evening, the 24th, I have my usual Thursday night, well known English institution in the PRC, "English Corner" which of course will have a Christmas theme but only because the students of the college English Club decided so. Tomorrow I'm giving two exams to two of my classes but later will gather with friends foreign and Chinese for dinner. Lotsa happy Xmas music at malls in the PRC such as "Jingle Bell Rock" and others but of course no "Silent Night" and no Santas.

I'm not a god person anyway. I used to think Xmas was for kids but I've since come to view Xmas as a time to pause, to reflect and to take a special moment to say Happy Holidays. 

[BangkokJazz]

What does this have to do with bashing Thaksin? Lets stay on topic people!

[Steve2UK]

We're given to understand that the Thai judiciary acts independently. So, was it "the previous (PPP-led coalition) government, under PM-Somchai (Thaksin's brother-in-law), which permitted Thaksin to leave the country while his court-cases were underway" - or the Supreme Court?

"Earlier, there had been speculation as to whether the couple would return to report themselves to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders, which has granted them permission to leave the country on a case-by-case basis."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/rea...newsid=30080169

"The Thai Supreme Court found him guilty of abusing his position as Prime Minister, the first of a series of verdicts due against the former leader, who was deposed in a bloodless coup in 2006.......... He was allowed by the court to attend the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle4984120.ece

Fair comment, Steve.

If the courts are independent, and the court gave him permission to go, then it cannot be the current government's fault that he got away. Although you still have to pass through Immigration, controlled by the government, on the way out.

Of course if the courts are less-than-impartial, as Thaksin and many of his supporters regularly like to claim, then which government/PM were in-power, when he was given leave to go ? Right PPP/PM-Somchai, not the Dems/PM-Abhisit !

So either way it is spurious, to try to claim that it's the same government now trying to get him back, who let him go. Although it does make a nice rod, to beat PM-Abhisit's back, which is why the accusation seems to resurface so regularly on TV.

Presumably the Immigration Police, as a branch of the in principle independent Thai Police would have no option but to obey an instruction given by the in principle independent Thai judiciary......

No contest, of course, that letting Thaksin leave wasn't at the instigation of Abhisit (still only leader of the opposition at the time) - or of Somchai (still only education minister at the time). Nor, if the Thai judiciary are independent in practice as well as in principle, of the then PM Samak.

If someone says that the police and/or judiciary were influenced (let's call it) "from above" in their decision to let him leave, what does that say about their certainty of judicial decisions always being reached independently before and since?

[Publicus]

Allowing Thaksin to escape his trial, conviction and sentencing speaks to the belief at that time that we'd be better off without him in the country than locked away in a prison. It also speaks to the viable concern among the authorities of the certain commotion (let's call it) that would have surrounded Thaksin being hauled off to prison and the certain chaos that would have occurred during the time leading up to his being hauled off to his two years of incarceration.

Thaksin chose to be a fugitive and got conscious assistance from the eye-winking PRC leadership in Beijing during the Olympics, which the eye-winking Bangkok government allowed Thaksin to attend while in the midst of the judicial procedings against him.

Thaksin transforming himself into a fugitive by means of cooperation among the three party triangle - Bangkok, Beijing, Thaksin - makes no comment whatsoever on the judicial system. Trying to take all the eye-winking all over the continent to try to throw doubt or discredit on the judicial system is a reach and a stretch that cannot be sustained in any argument that attempts to assign blame in the debacle of Thaksin becoming a fugitive from justice, or in his becoming an enemy of the state in the true meaning of the expression (think also: Thaksin the Cambodian).

The attempts to discredit the judiciary to make Thaksin look better get more vacuous with each repetitive and boring post. 

[LaoPo]

What does this have to do with bashing Thaksin? Lets stay on topic people! :D

I'm surprised he reached 101 posts...but another -alter ego- reached only 3 and got banned the 26th; that was fast

LaoPo

Edited December 26, 2009 by LaoPo

[Publicus]

What does this have to do with bashing Thaksin? Lets stay on topic people!

I'm surprised he reached 101 posts...but another -alter ego- reached only 3 and got banned the 26th; that was fast

LaoPo

Pandas are fuzzy, warm, cute, sweet looking, innocent in their behavior, adorable to some, lovely to most.

Leaders of countries who censor all outside information, establish and maintain at all costs Big Brother control of the minds and behaviors of their sheeple, are nasty and cruel sob's who don't have the respect of the democratic peoples of the world.

Any members of any forum can and do get warned, suspended in one or more of various ways, even banned. But the Thaksin bashing will go on for as long as Thaksin bashes Thailand. Hooray for the modest and humble lumbering Thai elephant!

Edited December 26, 2009 by Publicus

[LaoPo]

Leaders of countries who censor all outside information, establish and maintain at all costs Big Brother control of the minds and behaviors of their sheeple, are nasty and cruel sob's who don't have the respect of the democratic peoples of the world.

So true and I wonder why you work in a country led my sob's ?

But, that apart, it will take a few more decades before China will reach a more democratic way of society as will Thailand.

The largest country in the world, population wise, can't change within 20-30 years after being locked for so long or it will collapse under it's own weight and a massive civil war would break out.

Nobody in the Asian hemisphere (nor the West) would want to see such a massive civil war!

It's easy to comment, but more difficult to steer such a country.

But, alas, I did it again, drifting away from the OP.

Mea Culpa

LaoPo

[Publicus]

Leaders of countries who censor all outside information, establish and maintain at all costs Big Brother control of the minds and behaviors of their sheeple, are nasty and cruel sob's who don't have the respect of the democratic peoples of the world.

So true and I wonder why you work in a country led my sob's ? 

But, that apart, it will take a few more decades before China will reach a more democratic way of society as will Thailand.

The largest country in the world, population wise, can't change within 20-30 years after being locked for so long or it will collapse under it's own weight and a massive civil war would break out.

Nobody in the Asian hemisphere (nor the West) would want to see such a massive civil war!

It's easy to comment, but more difficult to steer such a country.

But, alas, I did it again, drifting away from the OP.

Mea Culpa

LaoPo

"my" sob's ?!?  Izzat a typo or a Freudian slip, I wonder!    Or both ?

Mea culpa indeed.

For all its faults and woes, Thailand and its ever struggling democracy already is eons and light years ahead of "my" sob's. 

Regardless, I've already responded to the same question as you presented it previously - I want to experience the People's Republic of China and its sheeple, and I want to know the specifics of the place in the same ways I got to learn some things certain about LOS.

Cheers my friend.  

[LaoPo]

Leaders of countries who censor all outside information, establish and maintain at all costs Big Brother control of the minds and behaviors of their sheeple, are nasty and cruel sob's who don't have the respect of the democratic peoples of the world.

So true and I wonder why you work in a country led my sob's ? 

But, that apart, it will take a few more decades before China will reach a more democratic way of society as will Thailand.

The largest country in the world, population wise, can't change within 20-30 years after being locked for so long or it will collapse under it's own weight and a massive civil war would break out.

Nobody in the Asian hemisphere (nor the West) would want to see such a massive civil war!

It's easy to comment, but more difficult to steer such a country.

But, alas, I did it again, drifting away from the OP.

Mea Culpa

LaoPo

"my" sob's ?!?  Izzat a typo or a Freudian slip, I wonder!    Or both ?

Mea culpa indeed.

For all its faults and woes, Thailand and its ever struggling democracy already is eons and light years ahead of "my" sob's. 

Regardless, I've already responded to the same question as you presented it previously - I want to experience the People's Republic of China and its sheeple, and I want to know the specifics of the place in the same ways I got to learn some things certain about LOS.

Cheers my friend.  

Do you make your students also look like fools if they make a mistake? Childish behavior springs to mind by a man who makes multiple typing errors himself.....

LaoPo

Edited December 26, 2009 by LaoPo

[Publicus]

Leaders of countries who censor all outside information, establish and maintain at all costs Big Brother control of the minds and behaviors of their sheeple, are nasty and cruel sob's who don't have the respect of the democratic peoples of the world.

So true and I wonder why you work in a country led my sob's ? 

But, that apart, it will take a few more decades before China will reach a more democratic way of society as will Thailand.

The largest country in the world, population wise, can't change within 20-30 years after being locked for so long or it will collapse under it's own weight and a massive civil war would break out.

Nobody in the Asian hemisphere (nor the West) would want to see such a massive civil war!

It's easy to comment, but more difficult to steer such a country.

But, alas, I did it again, drifting away from the OP.

Mea Culpa

LaoPo

"my" sob's ?!?  Izzat a typo or a Freudian slip, I wonder!    Or both ?

Mea culpa indeed.

For all its faults and woes, Thailand and its ever struggling democracy already is eons and light years ahead of "my" sob's. 

Regardless, I've already responded to the same question as you presented it previously - I want to experience the People's Republic of China and its sheeple, and I want to know the specifics of the place in the same ways I got to learn some things certain about LOS.

Cheers my friend.  

Do you make your students also look like fools if they make a mistake? Childish behavior springs to mind by a man who makes multiple typing errors himself.....

LaoPo

My students in the US, S Korea, Thailand and the PRC are not fools. Unfortunately you need to be made clear of that.

Neither are the sob's of the People's Republic of China who command their population by prohibiting all information, news, thought etc from outside the box of the Communist Party of China autocracy "my" sob's.

As I indicated, Freudian.

If however it's a genuine typo, which is equally possible, then so be it.

It's just that IMO I see two possibilities, and IMO a likleyhood of one subconscious statement.

IMO. 

So now it's my mea culpa for being OT.

[LaoPo]

My students in the US, S Korea, Thailand and the PRC are not fools. Unfortunately you need to be made clear of that.

If however it's a genuine typo, which is equally possible, then so be it.

It was a typo and you know it; if your students are no fools why did you try to make me look like a fool? Are you telling me that your students never made errors, mistakes ? You never made mistakes ?

I just noticed a typing error by yourself in another message, in another topic, but I'm not so childish as to point it to you. If you wish I can send you the link; it is and was not the only one mistake by yourself since you made many but the only one who's making a fool of himself here......is who ?

I have seen this kind of members over and over here on this forum, pointing at people who made mistakes, making them look like fools, being oh so superior themselves....

But I can't feel much respect for people who points at another member because of a typing error.

Maybe you should study Confucius a bit more and have a free look at my signature, below.

LaoPo

[Steve2UK]

<snip>

which the eye-winking Bangkok government allowed Thaksin to attend while in the midst of the judicial procedings against him.

<snip

The attempts to discredit the judiciary to make Thaksin look better get more vacuous with each repetitive and boring post.

Not repetitive enough for some, apparently :

Earlier, there had been speculation as to whether the couple would return to report themselves to the Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Political Office Holders, which has granted them permission to leave the country on a case-by-case basis."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/rea...newsid=30080169

All here are free to skip posts that bore them.

[webfact]

//General Advise//

Please stop personal bickering about typos, writing style.

The topic is about

"Thailand's Abhisit Government Rules Out Return To Ante-coup Playing Field For Talks With Ex-pm Thaksin"

Further off-top posts will be deleted without prior warning/information.

[animatic]

Ersatz Xmas cheer recycled to look even handed,

doesn't hide the over bearing malevolence beneath,

no matter how flowery the prose and self-righteous platitudes.

The Thai people will find their way, their way. Not likely a western way.

Blanket statement. The playing field will be of their choosing not ours.

Many here can understand others opinions and think for themselves.

There are many here who read and digest and consider ALL points,

and then keep their council.

While others regularly extol certain virtues, and decry certain vices,

and the machinations of the regional players, in day to day action.

And others still actively counter certain others every suggestion,

from some apparently self-serving knee jerk reactionism.

This last certainly reduces their arguments to so much air.

What should be debate becomes tit for tat face or back slapping.

Rancorous and with bitterness aforethought, or bitterness attributed

where none exists, since that might score points in some obscurantist way.

He or she without biases,

has died along the way and no longer types to us in this world.

Edited December 27, 2009 by animatic