Censure Debate Result

[womble]

From a 493 votes cast, 367 votes were cast in favour of Surriya. We knew most of TRT would vote that way anyway as they had already been told to 'toe the party line'. There were a 119 no confidence votes and 7 undecied votes.

The interesting thing is TRT has 377 votes, providing all members were present. So unless 10 members were missing, some voted against or undecided for Surriya. I wonder who they were. The wang Nam Yen faction numbers about 30, so some of them obviously bottled it.

It's funny how by having such a large mandate, it can actually work against the government in the eyes of the public. More than 50% of the public surveyed didn't believe surriya, so now they all know that TRT members were told they had to vote for him regardless of the debate. This now brings the whole government under more scrutiny from the Public, as one of the major policys put forward was a purge on corruption. However in the eyes of the public, there was certainly some wrong doing, but the government is willing to do nothing about it.

This could have serious implications for credibility of this Government, is it possible that such a large mandate could be one of the factors that leads to TRT's downfall?

On monday Abhisit proved himself to be a capable leader, and his speaking in the house was very impressive, this was possibly the best PR the Demorcrats could have hoped for, suddenly Mr T's strangle hold on power is looking a little shaky to say the least.

Edited June 29, 2005 by womble

[george]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38117

[womble]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=38117

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"A recent government investigation into the case found no Thai government officials involved in any bribery."

Has anyone else noticed that every single press release from TNA on this scanner scandal ends in the same two lines. I have seen it used as the last sentance countless times in the last week or two.

The trouble with this sentance is that if the public believe him to be guilty, then the whole govenment looses it's credibility as they had already carried out an investigation, and the government investigations findings do not follow that of public opinion.

The public arn't stupid, they know how to smell a cover up, this makes the whole problem a lot bigger than just resting on Surriya's shoulders, it could have implications far higher up.

Questions are now being asked whether the money was used to fund the previous election campaign, afterall a very large sum of money has already been paid out, and no scanners had even been shipped.

Perhaps questions should be asked where exactly the money is now, this should be followed up and those that have it or were involved should be prosectued and be made to pay it back, it is afterall the people's money.

Edited June 29, 2005 by womble

[george]

The public is not stupid, they just don't bother. TiT.

[womble]

The public is not stupid, they just don't bother. TiT.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah thats true, most have given up on politics.

It won't be corruption that brings this govenrment down, it'll be the economy, the only time most Thai's really start acting is when they're pockets are being hit. The government can't control outside factors. They have no control over rising oil prices, had they been more careful macroeconomically they would have ensured a stable base for continued growth, not gone for maximum growth without strengthening the weak areas. This is why imports are becoming such a problem for Thailand.

The other thing they have no control over is official documents obtained from outside Thailand, such as some of the US and Singaporean documents shown in the censure debate. This proves the government investigation was completely flawed, obviously no proper investigation even took place.

If the thai people start to doubt the government, and more and more people start to turn against the government, I wonder will the media finally change their tune and start speaking out and reporting unbias articles.

Thai Rath took the middle ground, Matichon predictably went against TRT and backed the opposition, interestingly though many of the local papers apparently went against Surriya, there hasn't been negative reporting against TRT on this scale probobally during the entire time they have been in government.

Edited June 29, 2005 by womble