I Know What You'll Be Doing This Friday The 13th: Thai Opinion

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I know what you'll be doing this Friday the 13th

Tulsathit Taptim

BANGKOK: -- Much has been said about Thailand's "Friday the 13th" situation, but I doubt many of you have seen the movie and its sequels.

What do those films have in common, apart from plenty of blood and gore? Well, each of them involves clueless, carefree teenagers laughing and joking their way to gruesome deaths.

In a way, the above is my disclaimer. In case you think this article is taking a very serious issue too lightly, consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife. A lot of bad things could happen after this Friday, when the Constitution Court delivers a ruling on whether the government's push to enact a new charter is legitimate. Maybe this is no time to make fun of anything but, you know, I can't help it.

People say that odd things always happen before a massive disaster strikes. If you believe that, pack and run. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has shown a great deal of common sense. If that isn't a strange phenomenon, I don't know what is. To add to Chavalit's unexplained burst of rationality, House Speaker Somsak Kiatsuranond has lost his sensibility by proclaiming in front of many - including someone secretly armed with a recording device - that he had managed to convince Thaksin Shinawatra to go slow in his attempt to re-grab full power.

Somsak is a Pheu Thai MP to begin with, so to assume that he must be neutral even in private is pure wishful thinking. What is absolutely incredible is his assumption that it was safe to speak, even privately, about Thaksin waiting a few more months so he could "stomp" his opponents later. The House speaker needs a beginner's course on social media immediately.

Chavalit, to me, has asked the most relevant questions concerning the whole charter brouhaha. He has criticised both the opposition Democrats and the ruling Pheu Thai Party, but he's wondering why something can be a threat to democracy in a country that has no democracy in the first place. "The red shirts have been demanding democracy and the yellow shirts have been denouncing parliamentary dictatorship, which tells me we as a nation don't have democracy in the first place," he said.

If that is profound, his next question is sharp. How come a Parliament born out of a Constitution so abhorred it has to be scrapped and a new one has to be created thinks it (Parliament) represents the Thai public in demanding a brand new charter? Chavalit follows that up with a punch line: "There will be no winners, only losers. And the biggest one is our country."

On Monday, the red shirts gave the Constitution Court judges some roses. Apparently that was not enough of a goodwill gesture, because reports came out on the same day that some of the receivers were adding soldiers to their security details that initially included only police. In Thailand, when someone gives you roses, accept them, but the next logical thing to do is duck.

"I pity the Constitution Court," Chavalit said. That is his only understatement this time. This is the court that acquitted Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001, to the ultimate delight of the red shirts; dissolved his political parties in 2007 and 2008, to the red shirts' extreme dismay; and is now poised to decide whether to sanction a process that would in effect whitewash him in the future.

To put it in the simplest layman's term, the court will on Friday the 13th rule whether the current charter allows itself to be dissolved. The judges' decision will have far-reaching repercussions and could turn out to be a self-execution order. If the process of writing a new charter is given the court's green light, the court's future status will no longer be guaranteed. In fact, the future of all "independent bodies" designed to check and balance politicians' power will not be guaranteed. Some say that to foretell doom for the independent organisations demonstrates big bias or paranoia. Which may be true, but for the Constitution Court, there's only one way to find out.

What is scarier - a Constitution Court bombshell now or a Constitution Drafting Assembly roaming free in the future? If what Thais are experiencing is scripted after scary movies, we will have to keep guessing how this will all end, and if this coming Friday is to yield some clues, they may be misleading. And don't forget the indispensable cliche of this genre of films: the villain never dies.

-- The Nation 2012-07-11

[Yunla]

consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife.

And Jason got some cowboys to build the airport years ago, so now the airport runways are all closed and there's no escape from his nightmare vision!

[animatic]

...People say that odd things always happen before a massive disaster strikes. If you believe that, pack and run. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has shown a great deal of common sense. If that isn't a strange phenomenon, I don't know what is...

Great morning humor.

I can see the birds flying away in sheets,

the land animals moving to higher ground,

and Chalerm falling silent, eyes wide.

...If the process of writing a new charter is given the court's green light, the court's future status will no longer be guaranteed. In fact, the future of all "independent bodies" designed to check and balance politicians' power will not be guaranteed...

... What is scarier - a Constitution Court bombshell now or a Constitution Drafting Assembly roaming free in the future?...

Sure is. thank god I got more coffee before finishing this.

Thaksin Kreuger?

Nightmare on Rahchadapisec?

Pattaya Chainsaw Masacre?

Don't open the door and go out there.

Edited July 11, 2012 by animatic

[carra]

consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife.

And Jason got some cowboys to build the airport years ago, so now the airport runways are all closed and there's no escape from his nightmare vision!

really? the runways are all closed?

more lies

[whybother]

consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife.

And Jason got some cowboys to build the airport years ago, so now the airport runways are all closed and there's no escape from his nightmare vision!

really? the runways are all closed?

more lies

Not lies. Nightmares.

Sent from my shoe phone

[Yunla]

really? the runways are all closed?

more lies

It was a joke. Look it up, its under J in your 'little red book of responses'.

"Joke : something employed by the enemy for no purpose but to confuse and waste valuable work time. A frivolous waste of the People's energy, and outlawed by our magnificent Leader. All jokes will be abolished when the Red Day dawns. Joking will be replaced by folk-music, dissenter-burning, and line-dancing by the Youth Brigade."

Edited July 11, 2012 by Yunla

[carra]

consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife.

And Jason got some cowboys to build the airport years ago, so now the airport runways are all closed and there's no escape from his nightmare vision!

really? the runways are all closed?

more lies

It was a joke. Look it up, its under J in your 'little red book of responses'.

"Joke : something employed by the enemy for no purpose but to confuse and waste valuable work time. A frivolous waste of the People's energy, and outlawed by our magnificent Leader. All jokes will be abolished when the Red Day dawns. Joking will be replaced by folk-music, burning of dissenters, and line-dancing by the Youth Brigade."

A joke would be something funny, however with your posting history being full of untruths and opinions it is hard to disseminate exactly what is a joke and what is not a joke in your posts.

What you have posted is just a downright lie, it is also defamatory to the people that built the runway (I believe not a thai company but an international company that specialize in this. although I stand to be corrected on that) and it is another petty attempt at propaganda.

how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

[whybother]

A joke would be something funny, however with your posting history being full of untruths and opinions it is hard to disseminate exactly what is a joke and what is not a joke in your posts.

What you have posted is just a downright lie, it is also defamatory to the people that built the runway (I believe not a thai company but an international company that specialize in this. although I stand to be corrected on that) and it is another petty attempt at propaganda.

how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

Do you mean Jason did not get his cowboys to build the airport? Who'd have known????

[Yunla]

you might be taken a bit more seriously

I write because I believe in what I am writing, have something I would like to say, or because I find something amusing. I don't write in order to be "taken seriously" by anyone.

[carra]

A joke would be something funny, however with your posting history being full of untruths and opinions it is hard to disseminate exactly what is a joke and what is not a joke in your posts.

What you have posted is just a downright lie, it is also defamatory to the people that built the runway (I believe not a thai company but an international company that specialize in this. although I stand to be corrected on that) and it is another petty attempt at propaganda.

how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

Do you mean Jason did not get his cowboys to build the airport? Who'd have known????

I guess we have different sense of humour but at least this is a better attempt at the previous garbage in the thread

Now back to the thread, surely all this covered in other threads, there is nothing in this article that has not been discussed already elsewhere so we will end up with 2 threads running with the same tired old arguments.

[WhizBang]

how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

And you might want to try and find a sense of humor... or maybe a life.

[animatic]

quote name='Yunla' timestamp='1341962440' post='5472899'

consider me one of the young fools who is unaware that Jason is waiting in the woods with his long knife.

And Jason got some cowboys to build the airport years ago, so now the airport runways are all closed and there's no escape from his nightmare vision!

really? the runways are all closed?

more lies

It was a joke. Look it up, its under J in your 'little red book of responses'.

"Joke : something employed by the enemy for no purpose but to confuse and waste valuable work time. A frivolous waste of the People's energy, and outlawed by our magnificent Leader. All jokes will be abolished when the Red Day dawns. Joking will be replaced by folk-music, burning of dissenters, and line-dancing by the Youth Brigade."

A joke would be something funny, however with your posting history being full of untruths and opinions it is hard to disseminate exactly what is a joke and what is not a joke in your posts.

What you have posted is just a downright lie, it is also defamatory to the people that built the runway (I believe not a thai company but an international company that specialize in this. although I stand to be corrected on that) and it is another petty attempt at propaganda.

how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

What's funny for many might not be funny for some.

Black humor is typically an outlet for pain. For those that revel in the pain of others, black humor can be seen as evil, because it belittles the pain reveled in, the pain that shows one side is beating another. Or brings that pain into unwanted social perspective for all. For some, the only way they know they are winning is because they can tell they have hurt their opposition.

Others just plain. 'Don't get it.'

Some brains are not wired for humor, black, white or shades of gray.

Edited July 11, 2012 by animatic

[Time Traveller]

' he's wondering why something can be a threat to democracy in a country that has no democracy in the first place. "The red shirts have been demanding democracy and the yellow shirts have been denouncing parliamentary dictatorship, which tells me we as a nation don't have democracy in the first place," he said.'

Well of course there's no democracy. But the elite tyrants that rule need to keep the illusion of democracy, and naturally the imminent threats against it, to justify the use of guns and tanks to "protect the nation". Which are also the method to seize power and suppress all who oppose you.

[Arkady]

Well it seems a pretty big mess. While the claim that PTP MPs plan to do away with the constitutional monarchy in the process of re-writing the charter seems a bit of an exaggeration, they clearly aim to reverse court convictions for corruption and fraud and white wash legion criminal acts as well remove all the constitutional checks and balances that are designed to make corruption by politicians a lot harder.

In the 90s a backlash against the corruption of the Chatichai government and the corrupt and evil generals that ousted him created the atmosphere for the 1997 "Peoples' Constitution" with all the checks and balances to which the 2007 constitution is almost identical. Today the people seem sadly to have given up on corruption and only care about what's in it for them personally. Corrupt politicians or generals are fine as long as they give you what you want.

Thus there is not much hope for the integrity and ethics of the Thai political and legal system in the next generation or two. After that it will have become evident that Thailand's system of "legalized" corruption and short term populism has rendered the economy utterly uncompetitive against neighboring countries that will have overtaken it. When Thais are being treated like shit as poorly educated slave labourers in Burma they might realise there was a problem.

Edited July 11, 2012 by Arkady

[saltandpepper]

Friday 13th,,,,,I'll be working, as usual. And I believe that some people should really do the same, rather than trying to stir the pot again!

[55Jay]

Admin author to other Admins as the Post button is clicked - "Watch this!"

For serious, frustrated expats on involvement in Thai Politics, refer to page 432, para 16, subpara (a) of the "So Ya' Wanna Retire in Thailand" handbook.

[sunshine51]

Admin author to other Admins as the Post button is clicked - "Watch this!"

For serious, frustrated expats on involvement in Thai Politics, refer to page 432, para 16, subpara (a) of the "So Ya' Wanna Retire in Thailand" handbook.

I lost my copy of the handbook...where can I get a new one?

On the 13th I'll most likely have a few Sing's & try not to burn

any steaks...then shag the ole lady and eventually sleep.

[MILT]

A joke would be something funny, however with your posting history being full of untruths and opinions it is hard to disseminate exactly what is a joke and what is not a joke in your posts. What you have posted is just a downright lie, it is also defamatory to the people that built the runway (I believe not a thai company but an international company that specialize in this. although I stand to be corrected on that) and it is another petty attempt at propaganda. how about for once you try and deal in facts rather than petty point scoring by posting untruths, you might be taken a bit more seriously then when you do eventually manage to write a decent unbiased post.

Do you mean Jason did not get his cowboys to build the airport? Who'd have known????

I guess we have different sense of humour but at least this is a better attempt at the previous garbage in the thread Now back to the thread, surely all this covered in other threads, there is nothing in this article that has not been discussed already elsewhere so we will end up with 2 threads running with the same tired old arguments.

So what you are saying is you don't approve of poster's expressing themselves the way they wish? MmmmKay So nothing is worth discussing or debating unless you deem it worthy Try not taking life so seriously and enjoy the thoughts of others even though you find it troubling. Now back to the thread that's not worthy of commenting on.

[55Jay]

Admin author to other Admins as the Post button is clicked - "Watch this!"

For serious, frustrated expats on involvement in Thai Politics, refer to page 432, para 16, subpara (a) of the "So Ya' Wanna Retire in Thailand" handbook.

I lost my copy of the handbook...where can I get a new one?

On the 13th I'll most likely have a few Sing's & try not to burn

any steaks...then shag the ole lady and eventually sleep.

Yeah, you got the right idea, I see you are not biting your nails down to a bloddy nub until Friday then.

LOL, I lost my copy too, I just remember some parts like that one, and another comes to mind, such as: 1) Election, 2) coup, 3) election, 4) coup. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Cheers,

J