Corruption In Thailand Worsens Over First Six Months: Survey

[h90]

The cash cow named Corruption also has a nickname of TiT.

During Mark rule, corruption was reduced to almost zero. Mark was the cleanest PM of Thailand.

Now with Thaksin proxy return to power, corruption not only return, it has got worst.

Sorry, can't agree with that, Mark himself may have been the most honourable PM Thailand has had, but the people under him, no.

What? You doubt his wife?

The rest spread the rumor that he is gay. But somehow I can't see the point.....

[Reasonableman]

If you cannot substantiate what you say, then you should take your own advise. Knowing your leanings, "I strongly suspect" could potentially be meaningful or equally an expression of baseless paranoia. Hard to distinguish which it is without evidence.

We even had some new members join TV at the same time, and others in Feb-April 2010. What do you think the significance of that might be? Does the Bermuda Triangle exist?

I present an opinion based on a related fact.

For your reply, I hesitate between trolling and baiting or complete non sense. In any case, a total waste of bandwidth .

The related fact being....?.

[lungmi]

Your intention is good, but cannot be put in practice.

H90

"Complete transparent wouldn't be a problem in modern times with computer and internet.

I would put the complete countries accounting online. Maybe xxxx the names of the government employes.

The public who votes and pays everything are the owner of the country, not some politicians, and they should have a right to look into their books.

I posted that once in a discussion in a German speaking forum and there was a mob, most probably from a PR company who furiously explained why this would be absolute evil..."

----------------------------

In Sweden every MP and Gouvernment member has to open his tax declaration for the public.

Your rating of the German forum you mentioned is more than correct. The mob there even don't need a PR company, they are stupid alone.

No I don't mean that the MPs open their income (which is also good).

I mean the complete country accounting, every Cent that comes in and every Cent that is spent. If the police station in Ban Nok buys a pencil, than I want to read:

Police Station Ban Nok: 1 Pencil bought from Somchai Supermarket, 18.07, 10 Baht, signed by police chief Somsak.

And if I have too much time I can find that the police station in Chumphon only paid 5 Baht, while the police station in Chiang Mai paid 30 Baht.

Just everything......I have seen some invoices in my home country. If you would put all online I think the mob would burn down parliament (in my home country).

(Just as example: I recall Military 2002, yearly inspection of Volkswagen Golf (1 Series) was 1000 Euro each if there were no repairs done (I can't remember if they changed spark plugs and oil+the military is full equipped to do it themself+the country draft people so there are enough slaves to do it).

And such examples are not the exception they are the normal thing, and I guess also in Thailand. If you can read "Vehicle service costs 100 Mill" you don't know anything. But if you read "Change Oil and Spark plugs: 50.000 Baht" than everyone without special education knows that the price is far off anything reasonable.

I still don't understand what is so offending, if I want to know what happens with my tax money......

A rotten fish stinks from the head.

Why Scandinavian countries have the lowest corruption rating? The head of the fish is supervised by the people. Start at this point and the other possible corruption lose their importance.

If the master is corrupt, his followers have no reason to be not corrupt.

Edited July 18, 2012 by lungmi

[Joeb]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

[spidermark]

SURVEY

Corruption index worsens over first six months

Petchanet Pratruangkrai

The Nation

Private sector needs to spend 30-35% of project's cost to win government contract

BANGKOK: -- Corruption in Thailand worsened in the first half of the year, with the private sector saying it must spend 30-35 per cent of a project's budget as graft to win a government job, a survey by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) and the Anti-Corruption Network found.

If this is true, corruption could cost Bt252 billion to Bt294 billion out of the country's overall investment budget of Bt840.14 billion this year, amounting to 2.18-2.54 per cent of gross domestic product.

Corruption is getting worse because of higher budgets for the government's post-flood rehabilitation projects, and many mega-projects will open for bidding in the current second half, said UTCC president Saowanee Thairungroj.

Worsening graft could damage foreign investors' confidence and Thailand's competitiveness against other countries, she warned.

She claimed that the major culprits were politicians and businesspeople who deal with government projects, while state officials are instructed by politicians to cheat on each project.

To increase transparency and rein in corruption, the UTCC urged the government to share information with the public clearly on every project tender.

Based on a survey of 2,400 respondents covering the business, public and government sectors, the Thai Corruption Situation Index (CSI) slipped from 3.6 points in December to 3.5 points out of 10 last month, suggesting an increase in graft in the past six months.

A CSI score close to zero indicates high corruption, while a score close to 10 shows higher transparency and a lack of graft.

Other indices related to corruption - those measuring its seriousness, suppression efforts, and awareness and morality - have also dipped since last year, while only the index on corruption prevention was unchanged from last year's 4 points. The index on corruption seriousness was down from 3.4 points to 3 points, the suppression index shrank from 3.8 to 3.7 points, and the index on awareness and morality dropped from 3.5 to 3.2 points last month.

More than 85 per cent of respondents said they had to pay bribes whenever they had to deal with government agencies or politicians to win contracts. Only 4.7 per cent said they had not paid any bribes, while almost 10 per cent said they were unaware there was graft.

Saowanee said the projects most likely to lead to corruption were infrastructure developments worth a total of Bt2.2 trillion and the flood-rehabilitation project worth Bt300 billion.

Moreover, 35 per cent of respondents said they must pay more than 25 per cent of a project's budget to win the job from the government. On average, they said they must pay about 30-35 per cent of the budget to win a project from the government or state-owned agency.

These figures were higher than in the last survey, when only 30.6 per cent said they had to pay more than 25 per cent for tea money.

But according to the UTCC statistics for 1999, only 11-15 per cent of the budget would be paid under the table, Saowanee added.

She said the losses due to corruption would affect the government's procurement of materials, land and buildings.

Last year, the total losses due to corruption were about Bt233 billion to Bt272 billion, from the total investment budget of Bt777. 58 billion, she said.

Saowanee said the government had to get serious about reducing corruption or it would continue to hold back the country's growth.

Thanavath Phonvichai, director of the UTCC's Economic and Business Forecasting Centre, said the survey showed that the government had failed to rein in corruption.

The situation will badly damage Thailand's image while other Asean countries such as Singapore and Malaysia have developed more rapidly.

-- The Nation 2012-07-18

As usual they state all the obvious. But corruption is not getting worse due to the reasons they state. It is due to the lack of fight. This are pussycats when it comes to corruption. Zero fight in them. Zero interest in waging this tremendously important battle. It is crippling this country, and they have absolutely no idea.

[tlansford]

How is the Government supposed to reign in corruption when it is the most corrupt force in the county?

-mel.

Well you do have a point. The South is controlled by the Democrats and so is Bangkok. Phuket is probably one of the most corrupt regions of Thailand and the Democrats have been in power for quite some time.

You make a good point that corruption is not partisan.

And to answer Mel1 the way government can do it is by changing procedures - ie: shine a light on the money/projects. Their ability to do that is possible because the government just has to be the electrician... wire the room for electricity, put in the light bulbs, let someone else turn on the lights in the room. Just make the rules disclosing the bidding process, the bids, the winners, even disclosing the bank payments, etc. It is the publics money and given the tools to get the information, someone will always look for the information and, basically, turn on the lights.

The government is far too busy attempting to beatify Herr Thaksin to find the time to tackle corruption, despite Yingluck's empty words

well as one poster mentioned, the index is "better" than when they took office and as another mentioned, the index cannot be compared over time.

Very useful index.

Guess that makes the premise of the OP BS...

[lungmi]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

The methodology of Transpancy International is correct but limitated.. The hidden cultural corruption is not part of investigation.

The social racism is not included: I was English teacher in the best High School of my Province. My best students were Hmong (hill tribe), most other students sons and daughters of Thai VIP (VIP stupid). The stupids will have a job, the Hmong not.

[tlansford]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

if the UK is better than the USA, then there is clearly something wrong with the index

[TomTao]

Corrupt politicians in a corrupt country with a corrupt government, the people see the politicians and other authority figures diong well off corruption and emulate, corruption is like a snake eating its own tail which keeps on growing back, the more it feeds the fatter it gets.

[Unkomoncents]

First I would like to know who is this Anti-Corruption Network, who is behind ? As far as I know it's just one of these many "independent" group that has been created by the PAD to annoy the government. If I'm wrong, don't hesitate to correct

No need to correct you when you state yourself you don't know who the group is....and then go on to guess.

Find out who that group is and then go on and find out about the University in the OP, and THEN return to the thread without your pie in the sky guesses.

.

Obviously you don't know either

As far as I can find this group was created in June 2011 just a few weeks before the foretold victory of the PT party, hence my strong suspicion it is just an other poison pill for the current government.

For the other answers to my post (with the exception of Rubl who made an effort to do some research for his post), I just have to say that "BS" just means that you don't like my post but you have nothing much to say to prove me wrong and the only thing I have for you is this quote from Mark Twain (I believe ..) "If you have nothing to say, say nothing"

This proves you wrong:

www.transparency.org/country

Now please guide me in the direction of which industrialized/Western countries have the same magnitude of corruption issues as Thailand. It is so old and tired to hear the same cr*p again and again from some TV posters about how the situation in Thailand is the same as in wealthy, progressive, industrialized, developed countries. Corruption happens in every country, but in Thailand everyone is corrupt, all the way down to the average policeman/civil servant/citizen. I have lived in Korea and the United States and I can tell you that the first time I was shaken down by a policeman was Thailand. In Thailand, people are so corrupt that they seem generally confused as to what corruption is. I don't think the immigration officers (who I've seen taking money from the various visa agents in the marriage visa section at Chaengwattana's immigration office, mostly because I paid a Chinese agency to help me with the visa and it turns out that the service they provide is paying the correct person a "fee") even realize that their is something wrong with what their doing. Since I just got a marriage visa for my wife for the US, I can say resolutely that their is no fee-for-service system in place. Thailand is far and away more corrupt than any developed country. That's, in fact, one of the reasons that Thailand remains a third-world, developing country. It's one of the reasons why all multinational companies base their operations in Singapore, rather than any other ASEAN country or Thailand. Corruption is bad for business.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Unkomoncents

[Tatsujin]

D@mn . . . that explains why I'm not getting any work, I need to charge 50% more and then pay some tea money to the greedy Thai's . . . got it now!

[Roadman]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

Kiwi's at or near the top of yet another morality and values poll? Nothing new there if you want to use an example of why democracy is built around those values, instead of most of the bull crap that is spewed on here about western countries being corrupt to justify Thailand's mess.

I can recall on here a few months back some of the Yingluck and Pheu Thai lovers having a crack at the Democrats term as being the most corrupt in thai history.

The point in disagreement put to that was, corruption in Thailand has been trending up regardless of who is in power since the master scum bag thief himself via his thugs pressured the judicary to find him not guilty when "Madam, wanted to borrow our names" for the Shinawatra's share hiding from declaration. It's no suprise at all that the corruption trend on that fine example of statesmanship from the now convicted fugitive crim is still heading down the dunnie with the majority of young thai's now accepting corruption as long as they benefit from it.

When this current lot of greater thievies and criminals than those gone before came to power the mighty Yingluck and the previous honest "but coalition of thievies for bed mates" Abhisit stood together and proclaimed that they would stand against corruption. Both major politicial parties standing together against corruption! One would think great. Yet here we are a year or so later and the Thai governance machine delivers yet nothing but photo shots and more bull crap and empty nothingness. Thailand is not only politically corrupt, but also morally corrupt. Corruption has consumed Thailand and locked it into destruction and nothing it seems will save it, as nobody in this country seems to have the ability, or will to stop it. Epidemic corruption, morally bankcrupt, lawlessness and a lack of enforcement, inequality in judgements and thugs in government who want to change the laws or threathen the high courts into non existence so that they and the Dubai thief are the law, a convicted fugitive criminal running the country from abroad, one can go on and on. And people talk about Thailand being democratic? Thailand has the over viewing governance it deserves at the point of the gun of the Army. And given the cesspot that Thailand is that is not going to change anytime soon. Thaksin may not be the whole problem of Thailand but he sure has a lot to answer for.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Roadman

[Reasonableman]

Kiwi's at or near the top of yet another morality and values poll? Nothing new there... +9.5

[MEL1]

How is the Government supposed to reign in corruption when it is the most corrupt force in the county?

-mel.

Law enforcement is the duty of the police and the courts, is it not?

Was that a joke?

-mel.

[JurgenG]

First I would like to know who is this Anti-Corruption Network, who is behind ? As far as I know it's just one of these many "independent" group that has been created by the PAD to annoy the government. If I'm wrong, don't hesitate to correct

No need to correct you when you state yourself you don't know who the group is....and then go on to guess.

Find out who that group is and then go on and find out about the University in the OP, and THEN return to the thread without your pie in the sky guesses.

.

Obviously you don't know either

As far as I can find this group was created in June 2011 just a few weeks before the foretold victory of the PT party, hence my strong suspicion it is just an other poison pill for the current government.

For the other answers to my post (with the exception of Rubl who made an effort to do some research for his post), I just have to say that "BS" just means that you don't like my post but you have nothing much to say to prove me wrong and the only thing I have for you is this quote from Mark Twain (I believe ..) "If you have nothing to say, say nothing"

This proves you wrong:

www.transparency.org/country

Now please guide me in the direction of which industrialized/Western countries have the same magnitude of corruption issues as Thailand. It is so old and tired to hear the same cr*p again and again from some TV posters about how the situation in Thailand is the same as in wealthy, progressive, industrialized, developed countries. Corruption happens in every country, but in Thailand everyone is corrupt, all the way down to the average policeman/civil servant/citizen. I have lived in Korea and the United States and I can tell you that the first time I was shaken down by a policeman was Thailand. In Thailand, people are so corrupt that they seem generally confused as to what corruption is. I don't think the immigration officers (who I've seen taking money from the various visa agents in the marriage visa section at Chaengwattana's immigration office, mostly because I paid a Chinese agency to help me with the visa and it turns out that the service they provide is paying the correct person a "fee") even realize that their is something wrong with what their doing. Since I just got a marriage visa for my wife for the US, I can say resolutely that their is no fee-for-service system in place. Thailand is far and away more corrupt than any developed country. That's, in fact, one of the reasons that Thailand remains a third-world, developing country. It's one of the reasons why all multinational companies base their operations in Singapore, rather than any other ASEAN country or Thailand. Corruption is bad for business.

Fist could you please point out in the posts you quote where I said that "industrialized/Western countries have the same magnitude of corruption issues as Thailand" ?

Then I know Chaengwattana government office, I've been there a couple of time for different reason. I found the people there quite courteous and efficient and never, at any time, I was asked for tea money. It seems to me the only service the "Chinese" (??) agency you hired provides is extorting money from gullible foreigners.

In my opinion, the most corrupt department as far as foreigners are concerned is the custom and excise department. But here don't expect your democrats friends to do anything

[Reasonableman]

Sounds like you've got some inside contacts there. Care to share?

[Chads]

Perhaps the only thing that's non-partisan is corruption.

[apetley]

First I would like to know who is this Anti-Corruption Network, who is behind ? As far as I know it's just one of these many "independent" group that has been created by the PAD to annoy the government. If I'm wrong, don't hesitate to correct me.

Then, 30% for a government contract is nothing new. A study in Great Britain showed that civil servants are among the most corrupted people in the world. It's true in Thailand, but it's also true in GB and any other western countries. Here I should remind people that government employees in their big majority support the democrats .

Finally to know how corruption is evolving, I'll wait for internationally recognized organization to publish their finding. Here again I should remind the people that previous records showed that things were going noticeably better during Thaksin administration.

I used to work as a Civil Servant in the UK.

Some of my work involved Govt tenders. In my experience there was absolutely no backhanders involved. It just didn't exist so I would be very interested to see your evidence rhat I was part of some civil service mafia.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect App

[h90]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

How much to pay to stay on top of the ranking?

[Reasonableman]

As mentioned in other posts, Transparency International produces their Corruption Perception Index, which collects information from a number of sources to arrive at a score for a country based on what their sources feel the corruption levels are in the country. Not an exact science since corrution is illegal and people don't publish how much money they collected illegally. They note that trying to use actual identified cases of corruption is not necessarily a good indication of the corruption level but rather a measure of the effectiveness of the police, prosecuters or media to identify and prosecute the cases. Warts and all it is probably the best measure available to compare one country to another in terms of corruption levels.

There are posts here stating that the corruption levels in Thailand are no worse that those in the Western world. That is not the conclusion of this organization. Here are a few countries off the list with their 2011 ranking and score (higher is better).

1 New Zealand 9.5

2 Denmark 9.4

5 Singapore 9.2

14 Germany 8.0

16 UK 7.8

24 USA 7.1

60 Malaysia 4.3

80 Thailand 3.4

100 Indonesia 3.0

112 Vietnam 2.9

How much to pay to stay on top of the ranking?

Looks like NZ has a greater ability to pay undertable fees than the US

[JurgenG]

Sounds like you've got some inside contacts there. Care to share?

No inside contact. Just bring the right documents. And be polite.

[Moruya]

well as one poster mentioned, the index is "better" than when they took office and as another mentioned, the index cannot be compared over time.

Very useful index.

Guess that makes the premise of the OP BS...

I thought you said the index was crap because the UK was cleaner than hotdogland?

If you read the actual index, it was taken over a half year shared with the Dems and as the OP states, it's not just one index that is heading south since the PTP took control of the trough!

[tlansford]

well as one poster mentioned, the index is "better" than when they took office and as another mentioned, the index cannot be compared over time.

Very useful index.

Guess that makes the premise of the OP BS...

I thought you said the index was crap because the UK was cleaner than hotdogland?

If you read the actual index, it was taken over a half year shared with the Dems and as the OP states, it's not just one index that is heading south since the PTP took control of the trough!

"I thought you said the index was crap because the UK was cleaner than hotdogland?"

That too.

[Thaddeus]

Fist could you please point out in the posts you quote where I said that "industrialized/Western countries have the same magnitude of corruption issues as Thailand" ?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/570607-corruption-in-thailand-worsens-over-first-six-months-survey/#entry5494251

Then, 30% for a government contract is nothing new. A study in Great Britain showed that civil servants are among the most corrupted people in the world. It's true in Thailand, but it's also true in GB and any other western countries

.

[Pseudolus]

Haven't got a clue what planet Jurgen is on. Planet Pattaya perhaps where everything is beers and smiles?

Anyway...

"while almost 10 per cent said they were unaware there was graft."

I am guessing this 10% are being lemon lips about it then? "I ain't saying nuttin; I didn't see anything; the cash was in their hand when I got there".

The fact is that this is why the only major international firms working in infrastructure and construction projects are typically from other countries where corruption is rife and the accepted norm. What they do not know, or care about, is that if a firm is going to get paid 1b USD to complete a project, and then have to pay a third of that in bribes, the firm will then cut that money from the budget and cheap out on raw material costs. So, they win and keep their margin; the politicians win with their huge bung, and the loser is the country that ends up with a half built road; a airport collapsing after 6 years; building constructed, not properly finished so they look OK from the outside, and like something from a carry on film inside. They just don't care though. So why should we?

[Reasonableman]

How is the Government supposed to reign in corruption when it is the most corrupt force in the county?

-mel.

Well you do have a point. The South is controlled by the Democrats and so is Bangkok. Phuket is probably one of the most corrupt regions of Thailand and the Democrats have been in power for quite some time.

You make a good point that corruption is not partisan.

And to answer Mel1 the way government can do it is by changing procedures - ie: shine a light on the money/projects. Their ability to do that is possible because the government just has to be the electrician... wire the room for electricity, put in the light bulbs, let someone else turn on the lights in the room. Just make the rules disclosing the bidding process, the bids, the winners, even disclosing the bank payments, etc. It is the publics money and given the tools to get the information, someone will always look for the information and, basically, turn on the lights.

Did you know that he 26th day of January of each year shall be recognized and celebrated as "Motherhood and Apple Pie Day"?

[TackyToo]

Apologists, please step up to the plate.

Well done, Yingluck!!!

Yingluck launches anti-corruption campaign

http://www.nationmul...n-30182356.html

.

at least the country can claim to be another hub of hubs!

[h5kaf]

Isn't it remarkable how some people have studiously avoided this topic like the plague. MIA?

They realise that either you are a 'wind up merchant' or that your comments are so 'naff' as to not warrant a response.

[Reasonableman]

Isn't it remarkable how some people have studiously avoided this topic like the plague. MIA?

They realise that either you are a 'wind up merchant' or that your comments are so 'naff' as to not warrant a response.

This is not my topic, it's a TV topic open to all. If you have something more to contribute, please feel free

[sandro]

Apologists, please step up to the plate.

Well done, Yingluck!!!

Yingluck launches anti-corruption campaign

http://www.nationmul...n-30182356.html

.

Is she fighting her own brother now ???