Bbc World Debate

[craigt3365]

The PM is participating in a world economic debate today on BBC. Smart guy. Definitely worth a watch if you have the time.

[afarang]

5555555555,dumb $um, definitely worth a miss.L.O. L

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Yeah, I'm not a fan either. But I'll watch anything related to Thailand, no matter how horrific.

What's the context? ( Hope he gets grilled over his recent (and quite sickening) campaign strategy at the expense of 90 odd people killed at his hands. Guess they don't get to speak huh. )

[coolhandjoe]

Yeah, I'm not a fan either. But I'll watch anything related to Thailand, no matter how horrific.

What's the context? ( Hope he gets grilled over his recent (and quite sickening) campaign strategy at the expense of 90 odd people killed at his hands. Guess they don't get to speak huh. )

Or maybe asked why the military should be involved in politics ousting an elected prime minister.

[afarang]

Love it ,but it will not happen

[Travel2003]

Yeah, I'm not a fan either. But I'll watch anything related to Thailand, no matter how horrific.

What's the context? ( Hope he gets grilled over his recent (and quite sickening) campaign strategy at the expense of 90 odd people killed at his hands. Guess they don't get to speak huh. )

Not sure where you are from, but answer this:

What would have happened if the same type of people had barricaded themself in the economic district in, lets say London or NY, and basically kept 1000s of residents hostage there?

By same type of people, I mean people (right or wrong) whos main goal is to get rid of the government (again right or wrong), with any means available.

Campaign strategy?

Im sure you dont even believe that yourself.

Shit just went out of control, because the government has no control over the Army.

Easy as that.

LIke him or not, but one can not say he is not intelligent.

Spelling

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Not sure where you are from, but answer this:

Not sure why that matters, but I'll answer anyway.

What would have happened if the same type of people had barricaded themself in the economic district in, lets say London or NY, and basically kept 1000s of residents hostage there?

By same type of people, I mean people (right or wrong) whos main goal is to get rid of the government (again right or wrong), with any means available.

Riot police would come in with appropriate gear and dispers & arrest. Same same with the airport takeover.

Instead money gets spent on pie in the sky military gear that's very unsuited to the apparent main purpose of the military: controlling their own population.

Campaign strategy?

Im sure you dont even believe that yourself.

It was in The Nation this morning, and dutifully pasted in the Political Bickering Sub-Forum on this very site. ( )

[samurai]

Financial Times Interview.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7b6de6b0-969d-11e0-baca-00144feab49a.html

FT: Do you think it is acceptable to use snipers as crowd control? Human Rights Watch said this was not a conflict zone …

AV: Do we have now a clear case where snipers were used?

FT: We have pictures of people with sniper rifles and spotters?

AV: I have explained what they were doing. You’ve seen the footage. There was a guy who was about to set fire to a vehicle, he was shot in the foot.

FT: So none of the head shots were from snipers?

AV: We can’t say 100 per cent, but just getting a still picture of people up there trying to control the crowd and to conclude that these were snipers that kill people just isn’t quite what we have evidence for and we’ve had clear demonstrations of the footage of what I just said happened and if I wanted to shoot that man dead he could have done, but he shot him in the foot just to stop him setting fire to a vehicle.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7b6de6b0-969d-11e0-baca-00144feab49a.html

Robert's take on it:

Anyone with even basic familiarity of the facts of April 10th and May 19th must be breathless with amazement over Abhisit’s comments above. Notice how he handles these serious questions as though it were a lying game among children: “Oh, you can prove there were snipers? (shown evidence) OK, there were snipers, but they were only shooting people’s feet. (shown evidence that 77% of bullet wounds were “kill shots”) Well alright, so it happened, but I didn’t order them to kill, although my Deputy Prime Minister will continue to claim that the protesters ‘ran into bullets.’”

http://robertamsterdam.com/thailand/?p=788

[7by7]

Inflammatory, nonsense post removed.

[Travel2003]

I think we all agree it is not acceptable for any country in this day and age to handle the situatioin like it was done.

It was evident that nobody had control.

The snipers acted like loose cannons on deck.

The demonstrators had their own shooters.

The army is not reporting to the government.

The entire situation went out of control.

The riot police needs armed personnel carriers or tanks to break through the kind of barricades they made here.

Campaign strategy? I think not.

The Prime Minister was embarressed, and needed to try to explain it without loosing too much face.

[Mosha]

Did anyone catch the opening remark by the presenter re 40 people in Thailand and the money?

[craigt3365]

Yes. Interesting how he responded. I didn't catch the entire debate, but recorded it....so will watch all of later today.

He also responded to the deaths last year. Good response on his part.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I think we all agree it is not acceptable for any country in this day and age to handle the situatioin like it was done.

It was evident that nobody had control.

The snipers acted like loose cannons on deck.

The demonstrators had their own shooters.

The army is not reporting to the government.

The entire situation went out of control.

The riot police needs armed personnel carriers or tanks to break through the kind of barricades they made here.

Campaign strategy? I think not.

The Prime Minister was embarressed, and needed to try to explain it without loosing too much face.

That's a fair summary, I can live with that.

[mrtoad]

Robert's take on it:

Anyone with even basic familiarity of the facts of April 10th and May 19th must be breathless with amazement over Abhisit’s comments above. Notice how he handles these serious questions as though it were a lying game among children: “Oh, you can prove there were snipers? (shown evidence) OK, there were snipers, but they were only shooting people’s feet. (shown evidence that 77% of bullet wounds were “kill shots”) Well alright, so it happened, but I didn’t order them to kill, although my Deputy Prime Minister will continue to claim that the protesters ‘ran into bullets.’”

http://robertamsterdam.com/thailand/?p=788

Oh yeah, Robert Amsterdam - someone who is very credible

[Mrjlh]

I missed the first 10 minutes but I thought AV did a very good job answering questions and giving his views on the governments position and direction and how to get there. Others on the panel agreed with him. He is a lot smarter than people think. It was apparent the other country reps were also very critical of Thailand. The Philippine Congressman suggest no one should use Thailand as example how to get things done at the end. Several good topics came up from corruption to encouraging economic growth. I noticed AV also tried to steer the conversations back to the original questions so as not to dwell on Thailands problems which they were all aware of. Embarrassing to all Thais I would think.

We have too many members here on TV and in the public that have formulated opinions on "hearsay", rumors and not facts. Repeatedly they say there were government snipers. Well? show me a picture of one, just don't tell me. Yet there are hours upon hours of TV footage of the demonstrators shooting fireworks, throwing fire bombs, bricks and rocks. Innocent people were hurt by this. Setting fires to tires and trucks. Even footage of the "so-called men in Black" with AK-47's shooting at the soldiers at night. And let's not forget the weapons confiscated (stolen) at the overtaking of the TV Station. All on TV news footage.

Notice I have not mentioned colors or party's here. Why? because no one will accept responsibility for anything that has happened except for a few people in the government who apologized to the Thai people. And they get blasted. People on one side are in such denial they won't even accept that. But it's news footage. And the leaders who started it all won't even acknowledge the fact they were the cause of all the problems. Why? because they know they are going to jail if they admit to it. It's why they are under indictment by the "legal Courts".

To live in a Democracy, people have to accept the fact that "all" people have the same rights as you. Once you vote, the majority rules and decides all future policies until the next time you vote. you don't burn the city down because you lost. That's how it works. And you don't "kill" someone because they are passing out flyers on issues you don't agree with.

[craigt3365]

Well put. As mentioned here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/468924-temporary-policy-in-general-regarding-thailand-electionpolitical-discussions/

As a result of the great increase in posts about Thailand election/political posts, we are requesting that members keep political discussion confined to threads already open in the Thailand News Forum.

Non-political topics in General which are hijacked with political arguments will see posts removed without further notice.

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Well close this topic for now.