Thaksin Poised To Become Adviser For Sri Lanka

[webfact]

Somchai:

Thaksin poised to become adviser for Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government is expected to name ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as adviser, his brother-in-law and former Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said on Wednesday.

Somchai called on the government not to be overly concerned about the move, alluding to the retaliatory measures when Thaksin became the adviser to Cambodia last month.

He said Thaksin working for Cambodian and Sri Lanka should not be seen as harmful to the security of Thailand.

In the past couple of months, Thaksin revealed he made two trips to Sri Lanka.

-- The Nation 2009/12/30

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[ratcatcher]

And on the right hand of God we have..................................T.S. (merely as adviser)

[orchidlady]

When he becomes financial advisor to China or India, I will be really worried! I wonder what it costs to become a financial advisor to these countries? I have an MBA backed by twenty years corporate experience as financial manager in health care, real estate, and insurance industries...even a short stint in cruise industry, so I would have a lot to offer these developing countries BUT ALAS I HAVE NO POLITICAL CONNECTIONS NOR GREAT WEALTH TO SPREAD OR BRIBE WITH....

[MAJIC]

This sad B**tar* will go to any lengths to maintain his high profile,perhaps in doing so the less educated who are his natural supporters will wise up and realise,its no.1 and money he cares about and not them.

[Hardback]

Astonishing, just what is the motivation for this?

[RickBradford]

Somchai called on the government not to be overly concerned about the move

That's seriously pissing into the wind.

Why the <deleted> should Abhisit care about what Thaksin does in Sri Lanka? Or Zambia, even Dubai or England?

Cambodia is Thaksin's only plausible point of pressure, and I'm sure the Thai government knows it.

[dacron]

Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka)

December 30, 2009

Government plays Thaksin card to get Tamil Tiger assets

Some months ago a foreign news agency published an article that the former Premier of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra now in exile had sought political asylum in Sri Lanka.

Although this news did not create a stir, soon afterward it was learned that the new Tamil Tiger leader, Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), who was a resident in Thailand was arrested. Despite the huge publicity given to the news that KP was arrested in Thailand, the Thai Prime Minister contradicted the story. It was revealed later that KP was arrested in Malaysia and brought to Sri Lanka via Thailand.

Most of KP’s business activities are carried on in Thailand. KP’s wife and daughter are also living in Thailand.

KP was once arrested at the Thailand airport. When the Sri Lankan Security Division heard of the news and left for Thailand, by then, he had been released by the Thai authorities.

KP’s arrest by the Sri Lankan Security Division occurred soon after the news report of the former Prime Minister Thaksin seeking political asylum in Sri Lanka and according to some sources are two connected events.

It is no doubt that the present Thailand government adheres to stringent policies as regards countries, which are providing political asylum to Thaksin.

Owing to this, finding political asylum for Thaksin is a very grave problem.

During the time when Thaksin was asking for political asylum from the government of Sri Lanka and the proposal was under consideration of the Sri Lankan government, an article was published in the newspapers to that effect.

It is impossible to say whether the Sri Lankan government took advantage of Thaksin’s request in the arrest of KP and to wipe out Tamil Tiger activities in Thailand, on the Thailand government, on the basis of the assurance secured from the Sri Lankan government that political asylum will not be granted for Thaksin, united with the Sri Lankan government to arrest KP and to stamp out terrorist activities in Thailand.

The latest widespread rumors are that Thaksin is cashing in on the forthcoming Presidential elections in Sri Lanka. He is sending his special representative and holding discussions with the government.

Speculations are now rife that if Thaksin is allowed political asylum in Sri Lanka, the representative of Thaksin has told the Sri Lankan government representatives they would support Mahinda Rajapaksa to emerge victorious at the upcoming Presidential elections.

Some sources even go as far as to say, the Sri Lankan government is once again playing its cards well in the game with Thaksin to grab the assets and businesses of KP in Thailand, using Thailand's assistance. It is the argument of some that it was not Thailand government, but Thaksin who helped Sri Lankan government to arrest KP. With this in view he is trying to strike a deal with the Sri Lankan government

Amidst these Thailand officials announced that an aircraft with a consignment weapons which was impounded at the Thailand airport recently, according to Thailand authorities, was bound towards Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lankan government, of course repudiated this claim. The aircraft crew stated that they were Sri Lanka bound for re-fuelling. This aircraft which was transporting weapons from North Korea was to fly to Iran after the refueling.

The Thai officials who are conducting inquiries into this are to forward their report following the investigation to the UN. Transport of arms and weapons from North Korea are banned under the UN convention. It will not be a matter of surprise if the International community entertains doubts as to the direction in which Sri Lanka as a country is hurtling along given the following facts:

A former Premier of Thailand now exiled sending representative to hold discussions with the Sri Lanka government.

The information that the aircraft with a load of weapons which was impounded at the Thailand airport was heading towards Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka serving as a paradise isle for state leaders exiled by other countries of the world; arms and weapon dealers; Mafia representatives and assisting countries sidelined by the international community, portends grave dangers to Sri Lankans.

It can well be a precursor to a series of ominous outbursts in the country. In the pretext of destroying the international chain of KP, getting them down is to court disaster and placing the country’s future in jeopardy.

[animatic]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

A fossilized brontosuarus turd is larger than life too,

can't say i want it visiting me either.

He is motivated by 'appearances of being of great importance',

and is willing to spend foolishly to gain that appearance.

[thaijasmine]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

Maybe North Korea will be next " client "

Kim Jong Il's son is only a young guy without experience of running an " economy " and his dad definately looks sick

so TS could act as the mentor ......just a thought

[brahmburgers]

Thakins main priorities:

1. getting the money unfrozen

2. getting back in power

3. staying on newspapers' front pages

4. maintaining his image among some Thais, that's he is their only savior.

As part of his strategy, he wants to be chummy with countries ringing Thailand. He's got chums in the Burmese junta, he's bosom buddies with former Khmer Rouge Hun Sen, and now he's found another place that's open to him, Sri Lanka. He's in with China (his heritage) and Singapore (business dealings), but most of the others, like heads of Malaysia and Laos and Vietnam, know him too well to be impressed by him.

Still, if he shows a willingness to dump a few gazillion baht somewhere, then doors open accordingly - though it's doubtful his many promises (of investments) have been more than hot air. He's essentially been promising various small countries a pile of money in exchange for being accepted. After the photo-op and some lavish meals, he's off somewhere else.

[britadders28]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

A fossilized brontosuarus turd is larger than life too,

can't say i want it visiting me either.

He is motivated by 'appearances of being of great importance',

and is willing to spend foolishly to gain that appearance.

I was speaking to some very well educated chinese businessman in kuala lumpur and they said their network of friends followed the thaksin/PAD saga and that they actually backed thaksin more than this government as thaksin was more open and did alot more for the country and the poor and realised that problems were thai not blame on others like farang. Also they stated that PAD seemed to want thailand to be same as china with very strict human rights etc.. etc.. They actully felt the pad was no better than the BNP in england the only difference being BNP are racist working class <deleted> and PAD are middle class racist <deleted>. Would like to hear view of other nations in asia and not the usual farangs on here!

Ok this was just one group of businessman from china but maybe these feeling are more widespread???

[lazygourmet]

When he becomes financial advisor to China or India, I will be really worried! I wonder what it costs to become a financial advisor to these countries? I have an MBA backed by twenty years corporate experience as financial manager in health care, real estate, and insurance industries...even a short stint in cruise industry, so I would have a lot to offer these developing countries BUT ALAS I HAVE NO POLITICAL CONNECTIONS NOR GREAT WEALTH TO SPREAD OR BRIBE WITH....

Are you looking for a job?

[Oberkommando]

He just keeps on sticking it to this government.

Yet again he demonstrates he is far too politically astute for his detractors.

[Oberkommando]

When he becomes financial advisor to China or India, I will be really worried! I wonder what it costs to become a financial advisor to these countries? I have an MBA backed by twenty years corporate experience as financial manager in health care, real estate, and insurance industries...even a short stint in cruise industry, so I would have a lot to offer these developing countries BUT ALAS I HAVE NO POLITICAL CONNECTIONS NOR GREAT WEALTH TO SPREAD OR BRIBE WITH....

What good would you be at financial advice if you are not wealthy yourself?

[lazygourmet]

Somchai called on the government not to be overly concerned about the move

That's seriously pissing into the wind.

Why the <deleted> should Abhisit care about what Thaksin does in Sri Lanka? Or Zambia, even Dubai or England?

Cambodia is Thaksin's only plausible point of pressure, and I'm sure the Thai government knows it.

Thailand and Sri Lanka have very deep religious connections!

This bastard will certainly use this sensible cord to try to use its last arrow...

[gotlost]

Another fourth world appointment, you have to love this guy.

[Stumbo]

Astonishing, just what is the motivation for this?

Just released from the Bangkok Hilton were we? Err, can't imagine... no wait, maybe, just maybe it was the military coup that threw him out, sentenced him to jail and stripped him of his money? Can't imagine why that would upset anyone though.

But you really have to laugh, the Thai Elite don't want him, yet Cambodia and Sri Lanka do, has to be aimed at raising some questions with the voters. Surely even the histrionic Nation fed TV "I Hate Taksin" intellectual can see the funny side? There again maybe not.

[DegenFarang]

When he becomes financial advisor to China or India, I will be really worried! I wonder what it costs to become a financial advisor to these countries? I have an MBA backed by twenty years corporate experience as financial manager in health care, real estate, and insurance industries...even a short stint in cruise industry, so I would have a lot to offer these developing countries BUT ALAS I HAVE NO POLITICAL CONNECTIONS NOR GREAT WEALTH TO SPREAD OR BRIBE WITH....

You also don't have experience being the Prime Minister of Thailand...

I doubt he is paying them anything. Compared to Thailand these are very poor nations, they look up to Thailand. His experience and advice are valuable to them. In return he gets the media attention and gets to stay relevant.

[Publicus]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

A fossilized brontosuarus turd is larger than life too,

can't say i want it visiting me either.

He is motivated by 'appearances of being of great importance',

and is willing to spend foolishly to gain that appearance.

I was speaking to some very well educated chinese businessman in kuala lumpur and they said their network of friends followed the thaksin/PAD saga and that they actually backed thaksin more than this government as thaksin was more open and did alot more for the country and the poor and realised that problems were thai not blame on others like farang. Also they stated that PAD seemed to want thailand to be same as china with very strict human rights etc.. etc.. They actully felt the pad was no better than the BNP in england the only difference being BNP are racist working class <deleted> and PAD are middle class racist <deleted>. Would like to hear view of other nations in asia and not the usual farangs on here!

Ok this was just one group of businessman from china but maybe these feeling are more widespread???

Kudos for relating that. Forum readers should welcome your experience speaking face to face with well informed Chinese who are a part of the educated business elites of the PRC and who are among the still few in the PRC who are global enuff to be aware of and know about political groups in other countries, such as the PAD and Brit BNP (and others). Your conversation partners are indeed exceptionally well informed. If I could get anyone here in the PRC to post to TV then forum members would hear directly the account you've related in your post, and much more, but of course that's impossible........to the PRChinese trusted conversations are one thing (congrats to you), public postings are quite another even tho it's highly unlikely anyone in the PRC government would read many comments posted here.

The PRChinese elites do support the Sino-Thai Thaksin, they do care about his situation and circumstances vis a vis the other Thai elites (who the Chinese see as rooted in India, an awful place due to its democracy and its history of Buddhism/Hinduism/Dali Lama-Tibet, and as having no historic connection whatsoever to China). Given that the Communist Party of China teaches in the schools of the PRC that their emperors were evil because they were monarchs, the view among the PRC elites is indeed that the PAD are the bad guys and represent the bad elites, that the Reds are the oppressed poor about whom Thaksin cares and wants to elevate socioeconomically (properly from above of course rather than by entrepreneural free market means).  

The PRC recently provided a huge influx of military aid and air surveillance technology to the Sri Lanka government to finally, at last once and for all, crush the TT insurgency and are now constructing PRC naval bases there to include developing free of charge the port in the hometown of the president Thaksin is negotiating with and purportedly will support for re-election in return for favors, one of which already has been granted with more likely to come. (The tyrant president will be re-elected anyway so why shouldn't he get richer in the process by the largess of a man of his own ilk?  )

No doubt the halted N Korean arms trafficing via Thailand plays into this box within boxes of politics,  international finance, criminal activity, unsvory characters and their intrigues, geopolitics and Thaksin's ego. Thaksin's trail now extends not only from Beijing to Dubai, but from Dubai to Cambodia to Sri Lanka with N Korea and Burma thrown in for good measure. 

There's just no rest for the weary. 

We however are the weary ones, Thaksin the tireless one.

[animatic]

Pathos and bathos can be seen,

belabored humor of the darkest sort,

but none too funny.

[siggie2]

Just hope the idiots that follow him get on a plane to Sri Lanka

[RickBradford]

I just had a conversation with a university-educated Thai on this subject:

RB; Do you agree with democracy?

UET: Yes!

RB: So you agree with 'one person one vote'?

UET: Yes!

RB: You know if you have one person one vote, Thaksin will win, same as before?

(pause)

UET: Because he pay money 3M baht for poor villages and bring idea for only pay 30B for see doctor. This make they like him, because they have close eye and think money is the god.

RB: So Thaksin should not win?

UET: No.

We went through this cycle a few times, logic failing to land the blow that if you support democracy, you must accept that Thaksin would be voted back in immediately.

I don't believe in democracy (in the Third World especially), so I think Thaksin should be harried at all points, but it is interesting to see how even well-educated Thais can insulate their thinking from logical reality.

[hansnl]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

Thailand maybe?

[siggie2]

I just had a conversation with a university-educated Thai on this subject:

RB; Do you agree with democracy?

UET: Yes!

RB: So you agree with 'one person one vote'?

UET: Yes!

RB: You know if you have one person one vote, Thaksin will win, same as before?

(pause)

UET: Because he pay money 3M baht for poor villages and bring idea for only pay 30B for see doctor. This make they like him, because they have close eye and think money is the god.

RB: So Thaksin should not win?

UET: No.

We went through this cycle a few times, logic failing to land the blow that if you support democracy, you must accept that Thaksin would be voted back in immediately.

I don't believe in democracy (in the Third World especially), so I think Thaksin should be harried at all points, but it is interesting to see how even well-educated Thais can insulate their thinking from logical reality.

Thick as dog poo.Maybe the poor villagers vote for him because they have good medical care,the same as the hi-so freaks.Why doesnt the other party do the same for 20 baht.This country will never evolve when you get university students talking and thinking like that,the mind boggles at the next generation of these fixed degrees

Edited December 30, 2009 by siggie2

[caf]

I just had a conversation with a university-educated Thai on this subject:

RB; Do you agree with democracy?

UET: Yes!

RB: So you agree with 'one person one vote'?

UET: Yes!

RB: You know if you have one person one vote, Thaksin will win, same as before?

(pause)

UET: Because he pay money 3M baht for poor villages and bring idea for only pay 30B for see doctor. This make they like him, because they have close eye and think money is the god.

RB: So Thaksin should not win?

UET: No.

We went through this cycle a few times, logic failing to land the blow that if you support democracy, you must accept that Thaksin would be voted back in immediately.

I don't believe in democracy (in the Third World especially), so I think Thaksin should be harried at all points, but it is interesting to see how even well-educated Thais can insulate their thinking from logical reality.

Which means they are not well educated in the western sense. I had a similar conversation witn a doctoral candidate about the new constitution.

Many such students are still indoctrinated from other sources: family, head man, their social superiors etc etc ( I won't go further...)

Effectively that is propaganda. There are two posters on this thread who are giving illogical and unsubsatiated views because of their " not so hidden" agenda. BBB I suppose.

I just don't like propaganda. I'd rather see people think for themselves. It might change here but your example shows it isn't changing yet.

[caf]

Love him or hate him you have to admire this guy, he is larger than life.

And the biggest thorn in the side of the current government by far.

A fossilized brontosuarus turd is larger than life too,

can't say i want it visiting me either.

He is motivated by 'appearances of being of great importance',

and is willing to spend foolishly to gain that appearance.

While the turds you describe from a prehitoric time are larger than human turds, they are not larger than life. They are the usual life-size turds of that species. Yours are life-size for a human. Theirs are life-size for a prehistoric monster.

The remarks anyway are just cheap jibes and do not address or advance the topic.

[lazygourmet]

To publicus:

google "Akmal Shaikh" and check what is happening in your shit hole

[bangon04]

Just hope the idiots that follow him get on a plane to Sri Lanka

and make sure the arms shipment reaches its clients eventually.....

[junglist]

Word on the street was that the weapons that were apprehended coming from North Korea were really heading to Sri Lanka. I kid you not. Scary. Simply Scary. Now this news....... Oh my.....

[animatic]

Caf it was metaphor.

And fossilized means it is not life now, and so it is bigger than 'Life".

Besides that was just the set up for the following point:

Thaksin's driven need for attention, and the appearances of power and influence.

He seems to badly crave the old fix of power he has lost,

and the increase of face that goes with it.

I agree the lack of logic supporting Democracy and also not wanting Thaksin in

under any circumstances is a logic failure item on face value.

But they may also be saying Thaksin isn't getting elected via 'proper democratic methods',

and so shouldn't get in using the word 'Democracy' as a screen or shield for deceptive practices.

At least this was how one educated Thai explained HIS position to me.

Edited December 30, 2009 by animatic