Yingluck Seen As Weak, Lacking Leadership

[Chittychangchang]

loving all those statistics and referees- who makes up this?

Looking forward to her daddy returning to his rightfull throne.

She looks like a girl i met on soi 4 Nana a few years back, that night was average!

[tlansford]

- deleted -

A day is a long time in politics........................but a year is too short to expect results?

Well that is an easy one Mick

Give me a list of all the woes that confounded Thailand at the point Yinguck and PTP came into office

Then tell me which of these items you personally feel could be eradicated in one year

Then, list the items where PTP acknowledge there is an issue to be addressed....a starting point if you like

Let me start,

Centuries of entrenched corruption, not fixed by the previous government in 2 years, or any government previously

Outdated education system, not fixed by the previous government in 2 years

Railway inrfastructure, outdated system, not fixed by the previous government in 2 years

Information highway, largely enhanced by the private sector, little or no input from the previous government in 2 years

Wage structure, not adequately addressed by the previous government in 2 years

Flood defences, little or nothing done by the previous government in 2 years

Just a start Mick you are welcome to add to the list of woes

But the difference is many people did not expect great improvement in the above areas from the Democrats in a short time because they are huge challenges

They were therefore not disappointed

"What about the Democrats, what about the democrats?"

How long do we wait to talk about this government's achievements rather than the failings of past? This government carries none of the handicaps (such as forced co-alition and red riots) that faced the last. It has installed a multi-billion baht rice pledging scheme that everybody knew was a scam from day one, and concentrates on two major issues, getting Thaksin back and keeping themselves out of jail.

Thing is Mick when you have a government, you can criticise all you want, but you must be able to offer a viable alternative, the rather subtle point of my post above, is that I don't think the Democrats are equipped to improve the situation. So why not give PTP a chance

You make a point well because PTP may well be spending time trying to keep Thaksin out of Jail, the Democrats unfortunately appear to have spent most of their time trying to get him in Jail!!....and failed

You want to know what the major achievement of this government is, they have managed to fulfil at least one year in government, no mean feat given the situation in Thailand. They may well grow in confidence and move topics along throughout the term.

Now, if I expected to complete a 4 year term, I would plan to deliver in the 3rd and mainly the 4th year......just before the election........you and your fellow posters however would deliver all in the first 12 months......says it all really, anybody with any intelligence realises the main aim of a government is to carry the vote and carry on in government.

Yingluck has 3 years, all being well, to succeed where many have failed. If PTP fail to deliver I expect they will be voted out, and rightly so. I have said this so many times, this tenure is one of the most important in the development of Thailand. So why do you guys feel the insatiable need to shout down anybody who says let it run to the natural conclusion and whatever result it brings at the next election.

it is pretty humorous when people toss out the dismissal line of "another 'but the democrats' argument ", then turn around and say the abhisit gov't could perform "because they had to deal with the red riots".

One year without a coup, judicial or military, is an achievement for Thailand... Not that it wasn't threatened. To be honest, I'll be a bit surprised if the next change of government takes place based on an election. If it does, it seems (at the moment) that it will be a continuation of the current government... The bbc article on the elect-ability of the Democrats was interesting...

Yingluck's "weak" leadership - I laugh a bit as it seems that this is the worst label her opponents at The Nation can put on her - has allowed the government to stay put this year, make progress on all their initiatives, and still have a reasonable popularity (especially the PM).

You don't need to agree with the PM and think that everything she does is great to recognize that these childish attempts to disparage her, her "leadership, and her government result from the frustrations of her opponents over the fact that after one year she is still popular and all of the PTP programs are moving forward...

[tlansford]

yes, indeed it is. As you see above, there are times when one can save their breath / typing.

As for this government, I personally think that several programs are / were poorly conceived - some more so than others. And I have different levels of interest in their policies, so I pay less attention to some.

The rice program, for example, doesn't concern me too much. It may also be formulated less effectively than alternative programs - at least it appears to be, but I hesitate to say too much since I don't have too much information about it. Having had good friends in farming in the US - real family farms - I do support the efforts that provide some additional security & stability to small farmers. It's not clear that this program achieves that as it is structured now.

The minimum wage and the corporate tax rate reduction : I support the min wage increase and given the resistance from business, I am surprised that the government got what it did. It may have been due to the corporate tax rate reduction (which I view as a bribe to get support from the business community). The corporate tax reduction was, IMO, and extremely crude tool for compensating businesses for the minimum wage increase - for that reason, I feel it wasn't really for that specific purpose but really was just corporate welfare to get the tiny amount of buy-in to the min-wage increase that the government received. As you can see, there are reports about compliance issues, so there is work to be done.

The tablet program... I come out of IT, so given the timeframe when they started the procurement process and given that this is the first procurement project of this kind and this size for the gov't, I think they are doing OK on the project so far - not stellar, but it could have easily been much worse.

Flooding : the communication from the government during the floods was so bad that it is hard to know what the did right and what they did wrong. Most here would say they did nothing right and everything wrong. I doubt that is the case. In any case, it wasn't just the PT government but also the local governments which were involved in the flood efforts.

Reconciliation & charter changes : not one issue, but linked in most people's minds (it seems). I find it interesting that (1) this was the last of the campaign promises addressed and posters here see it as the only thing the gov't has done. (2) The government is doing what they said they would do during the election, so it should not come as a surprise. Likewise (3) the reconciliation bills may not be for only one man, but they certainly will / would benefit one man to which I would just ask, "are you surprised"?

As for reconciliation itself, looking at Thailand's history in dealing with these kinds of issues, the amnesty proposal did not surprise me at all. Even the conflicts in the 70's - much worse than 2010 - were basically swept under the rug... This may or may not be the right thing for Thailand - I don't think so, but then I am not Thai...

Oh, yes, Leadership and YS - I think she has done OK. The cosmetic things like her English skills don't bother me and her English is better than most here give her credit for. Parliament issues ? Not critical in my view. Dodging questions? Sure, what politician doesn't? And to be fair, what some call "dodging" is afterall a less confrontational style of governing.

Thanks for answering. Some interesting thoughts. Don't have time to go into them all in detail, but will say in general i feel you seem to afford this government quite a lot of slack and don't seem too demanding. I know you say that all governments make unrealistic pledges when they campaign that they never keep to, and you are right, to varying degrees, but does that mean simply accepting when pledges are not kept to and saying, "well that's ok, we never expected them to do that anyway"?

And as for:

the reconciliation bills may not be for only one man, but they certainly will / would benefit one man to which I would just ask, "are you surprised"?

i think it really is being a bit naive to think that the reconciliation bills may not be for only one man. This "reconciliation" bill is clearly not going to reconcile anybody and without it, the PTP would be under so much less pressure and have so much more time to devote to much more worthwhile projects. I have no doubt that without Thaksin to think of, it would have been ditched a long time ago. He and only he is what keeps it on the table.

nurofiend pointed out that governments make unrealistic promises, although I do agree with him.

"well that's ok, we never expected them to do that anyway"? "

I haven't seen anyone argue that position. But OTOH, that would be as appropriate as the rather childish and whining counter argument which posters do use "but it's not finished"

Again, for the reconciliation bills, this was the last project to get started by this government so I don't agree with the argument that the government is pursuing this Thaksin agenda to the detriment of all the other programs. BTW, the Thaksin agenda / reconciliation bills are important to this government and to the Thai people, but not to me personally. I don't defend the PTP on this point, I just recognize that they made reconciliation part of their campaign platform and are executing on that item like all of the rest...

[OzMick]

Thing is Mick when you have a government, you can criticise all you want, but you must be able to offer a viable alternative, the rather subtle point of my post above, is that I don't think the Democrats are equipped to improve the situation. So why not give PTP a chance

You make a point well because PTP may well be spending time trying to keep Thaksin out of Jail, the Democrats unfortunately appear to have spent most of their time trying to get him in Jail!!....and failed

You want to know what the major achievement of this government is, they have managed to fulfil at least one year in government, no mean feat given the situation in Thailand. They may well grow in confidence and move topics along throughout the term.

Now, if I expected to complete a 4 year term, I would plan to deliver in the 3rd and mainly the 4th year......just before the election........you and your fellow posters however would deliver all in the first 12 months......says it all really, anybody with any intelligence realises the main aim of a government is to carry the vote and carry on in government.

Yingluck has 3 years, all being well, to succeed where many have failed. If PTP fail to deliver I expect they will be voted out, and rightly so. I have said this so many times, this tenure is one of the most important in the development of Thailand. So why do you guys feel the insatiable need to shout down anybody who says let it run to the natural conclusion and whatever result it brings at the next election.

it is pretty humorous when people toss out the dismissal line of "another 'but the democrats' argument ", then turn around and say the abhisit gov't could perform "because they had to deal with the red riots".

One year without a coup, judicial or military, is an achievement for Thailand... Not that it wasn't threatened. To be honest, I'll be a bit surprised if the next change of government takes place based on an election. If it does, it seems (at the moment) that it will be a continuation of the current government... The bbc article on the elect-ability of the Democrats was interesting...

Yingluck's "weak" leadership - I laugh a bit as it seems that this is the worst label her opponents at The Nation can put on her - has allowed the government to stay put this year, make progress on all their initiatives, and still have a reasonable popularity (especially the PM).

You don't need to agree with the PM and think that everything she does is great to recognize that these childish attempts to disparage her, her "leadership, and her government result from the frustrations of her opponents over the fact that after one year she is still popular and all of the PTP programs are moving forward...

Oh I love it - their biggest achievement in 12 months was not getting kicked.

Coups were threatened - by whom? Jatuporn sounded like Chicken Little, and looked like an idiot because of it.

Judicial coups - why the CC hasn't acted on blatant breaches of electoral law is amazing, and probably to avert the oft threatened violence which is the basis of this government.

I refer you to the BP poll running now on the value of this government. Of course you will discredit it as it only reflects the views of intelligent and educated people capable of reading english.

[rixalex]

Thing is Mick when you have a government, you can criticise all you want, but you must be able to offer a viable alternative,

It's not the public's job to provide an alternative to bad governance. That is for the opposition parties. If you take the view that if there is no alternative, the public should just keep stum about things they don't like, there will doubtfully ever be an alternative, and things will never improve.

So why not give PTP a chance

Criticising is not the same as not giving them a chance. Not giving them a chance would be doing something like taking to the streets and demanding they stand down or face death, destruction and mayhem. Or it would be a coup kicking them out. None of that is happening. They are getting their chance.

You make a point well because PTP may well be spending time trying to keep Thaksin out of Jail, the Democrats unfortunately appear to have spent most of their time trying to get him in Jail!!....and failed

Nothing unfortunate in trying to get a guilty man behind bars, the unfortunate part is the lengths that man has been prepared to go to, to destabilise and destruct, by way of a reaction.

[rixalex]

"well that's ok, we never expected them to do that anyway"? "

I haven't seen anyone argue that position.

Get a mirror.

[rixalex]

Oh I love it - their biggest achievement in 12 months was not getting kicked.

When they are kicked out, it's nothing of their own doing, when they aren't, it's their shining achievement.

[Nickymaster]

Oh I love it - their biggest achievement in 12 months was not getting kicked.

When they are kicked out, it's nothing of their own doing, when they aren't, it's their shining achievement.

By putting their family in charge of the Police, one might expect them to last at least 12 months.

I expect a government to deliver all 4 years.

Let them be the government for 4 years. Only then we can judge their achievements and see what they are really made of. Looking and talking around, I have noticed that life in Thailand is not getting easier for the average Thai.

[473geo]

Thing is Mick when you have a government, you can criticise all you want, but you must be able to offer a viable alternative,

It's not the public's job to provide an alternative to bad governance. That is for the opposition parties. If you take the view that if there is no alternative, the public should just keep stum about things they don't like, there will doubtfully ever be an alternative, and things will never improve.

So why not give PTP a chance

Criticising is not the same as not giving them a chance. Not giving them a chance would be doing something like taking to the streets and demanding they stand down or face death, destruction and mayhem. Or it would be a coup kicking them out. None of that is happening. They are getting their chance.

You make a point well because PTP may well be spending time trying to keep Thaksin out of Jail, the Democrats unfortunately appear to have spent most of their time trying to get him in Jail!!....and failed

Nothing unfortunate in trying to get a guilty man behind bars, the unfortunate part is the lengths that man has been prepared to go to, to destabilise and destruct, by way of a reaction.

Your first 2 answers only show you did not absorb my comment about the timing of delivery of all or partial solutions, also 'the public' had their say at the latest elections, you should learn not to attach your unrealistic level of expectation onto the Thai electorate to excuse the constant tirade of criticism on a fledgling goverment just 1 year into a 4 year term. Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned. take out 10 experienced Democrat politicians, discount the 10% that don't even turn up to parliamentary sessions, and I doubt they would function at all!!,

Your third response is also shows you misunderstood the Thaksin element, the charge against Yingluck and PTP was the time wasted not spent on running the country, instead trying to 'keep Thaksin out of jail' my point being there was agreat deal of time wasted by the Democrats trying to get him into Jail and failing.

Remember when there were people threatening to pull down the flood barriers and let the water into central Bangkok and cause chaos, did it happen... no. Perhaps this government have already exercised a higher level of control than the previous one, but I guess you and Mick missed that one.

You also neglect to take into account one other important point, Yingluck must go very carefully, prime ministers in Thailand are too easy to remove for very minor reasons due to the control of power in the hands of the 'judiciary', it is crucial to PTP that Yingluck remains as a figurehead, so her behaviour cautious approach is to some point excusable in my opinion.

Edited August 9, 2012 by 473geo

[AleG]

Fantastic approach, "give this gang of double-faced, corrupt, criminals and bootlickers a chance to prove they can do good"

I don't know what could go wrong with that.

[rixalex]

Your first 2 answers only show you did not absorb my comment about the timing of delivery of all or partial solutions,

Your answer shows you did not absorb what was promised to the electorate when they voted, and just because you rush to explain those lies away with "well of course they were never going to do those things when they promised to, because those things they promised will obviously not be sustainable so if they implement them now, they'll get no benefit at the next general election", don't expect the non-party faithful to join you in those undemanding and forgiving cries.

also 'the public' had their say at the latest elections,

Another one who seems to think that the public gets their say once every four years (or however long the government lasts), and in the interim, has no say.

Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned.

Yes i am aware of that. It tells me something when so many people from one party manage to get themselves banned. No doubt though they were conspired against.

[rixalex]

Your third response is also shows you misunderstood the Thaksin element, the charge against Yingluck and PTP was the time wasted not spent on running the country, instead trying to 'keep Thaksin out of jail' my point being there was agreat deal of time wasted by the Democrats trying to get him into Jail and failing.

That's like saying that if the Inland Revenue fail to collect taxes owed, the time spent on trying to collect was a waste of time. It is their duty to continue trying, even when they fail. My annoyance is with those who do the dodging. My annoyance would be with tax collectors if they didn't don't bother trying.

Remember when there were people threatening to pull down the flood barriers and let the water into central Bangkok and cause chaos, did it happen... no. Perhaps this government have already exercised a higher level of control than the previous one, but I guess you and Mick missed that one.

With all the total mismanagement, misinformation and bad handling, that surrounded the floods, how anyone can dare to hold up anything related to it as being part of an example of government success, i have no idea. Suggest it would take either a party supporter or someone who was not affected by the floods - or a combination of the two - to attempt what you have just done there.

[473geo]

rixalex.....we have noted your depressing pessimism, no doubt we will be subjected to another display tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.......

I accept that you feel in 12 months the government has not delivered solutions.......just accept that in my opinion and I am not going to change it.........to harshly criticise and judge an inexperienced government on their first 12 months is a grossly unrealistic approach

I bid you good day. I need to get back to real life and positive people

[Buchholz]

Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned.

Yes i am aware of that. It tells me something when so many people from one party manage to get themselves banned. No doubt though they were conspired against.

Actually, it was their conspiracy to commit electoral fraud that got them banned. Same as the racketeers done in by the RICO Act, these hucksters and cheats were done in the same way as crime syndicates.

By all means, bring back the professional criminals with proven track records for dishonesty.

"experienced politicians" translates to, in this case, The A-Team of Corruption, The Fraudster All-Stars, Nepotism Gold Medalists, etc.

The absurdity of championing their return as sort of some solution to the problems of the country is astounding.

.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Buchholz

[473geo]

Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned.

Yes i am aware of that. It tells me something when so many people from one party manage to get themselves banned. No doubt though they were conspired against.

Actually, it was their conspiracy to commit electoral fraud that got them banned. Same as the racketeers done in by the RICO Act, these hucksters and cheats were done in the same way as crime syndicates.

By all means, bring back the professional criminals with proven track records for dishonesty.

"experienced politicians" translates to, in this case, The A-Team of Corruption, The Fraudster All-Stars, Nepotism Gold Medalists, etc.

The absurdity of championing their return as sort of some solution to the problems of the country is astounding.

.

looks like the fabricator has arrived......"championing their return"......where did you see that then........get real.....

Thread is dead for me now - thanks to those who attempted reasonable discussion

Edited August 9, 2012 by 473geo

[rixalex]

rixalex.....we have noted your depressing pessimism, no doubt we will be subjected to another display tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.......

I accept that you feel in 12 months the government has not delivered solutions.......just accept that in my opinion and I am not going to change it.........to harshly criticise and judge an inexperienced government on their first 12 months is a grossly unrealistic approach

I bid you good day. I need to get back to real life and positive people

I don't think this is an issue of pessimism or optimism, this is just a case of standards and where we are respectively setting the bar. You are setting it terribly low (in my opinion of course) and it is this attitude of, "well yes they failed to do what they said they would, but don't all politicians?" that must come as great comfort to politicians around the world and keep them safe in the knowledge that they can keep on failing and the electorate, or at least ones like you, will not think too harshly of them.

By the way, what is with the "we". To which group am i addressing?

[Buchholz]

Remember when there were people threatening to pull down the flood barriers and let the water into central Bangkok and cause chaos, did it happen... no. Perhaps this government have already exercised a higher level of control than the previous one, but I guess you and Mick missed that one.

With all the total mismanagement, misinformation and bad handling, that surrounded the floods, how anyone can dare to hold up anything related to it as being part of an example of government success, i have no idea. Suggest it would take either a party supporter or someone who was not affected by the floods - or a combination of the two - to attempt what you have just done there.

a party supporter not being in Thailand explains it.

Agree wholeheartedly that the government's mosh-pit quagmire of response to the last floods would be at the end of the list of good governance. 800+ dead bodies.

.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Buchholz

[Buchholz]

Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned.

Yes i am aware of that. It tells me something when so many people from one party manage to get themselves banned. No doubt though they were conspired against.

Actually, it was their conspiracy to commit electoral fraud that got them banned. Same as the racketeers done in by the RICO Act, these hucksters and cheats were done in the same way as crime syndicates.

By all means, bring back the professional criminals with proven track records for dishonesty.

"experienced politicians" translates to, in this case, The A-Team of Corruption, The Fraudster All-Stars, Nepotism Gold Medalists, etc.

The absurdity of championing their return as sort of some solution to the problems of the country is astounding.

..."championing their return"......where did you see that then..

I've seen it in the news and in other posts, but not necessarily by you.

Don't take it personally, sorry if it came across that way.

I presume then that you agree it's the wrong path to return the 111?

.

[Nickymaster]

rixalex.....we have noted your depressing pessimism, no doubt we will be subjected to another display tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.......

I accept that you feel in 12 months the government has not delivered solutions.......just accept that in my opinion and I am not going to change it.........to harshly criticise and judge an inexperienced government on their first 12 months is a grossly unrealistic approach

I bid you good day. I need to get back to real life and positive people

An inexperienced government? Why didn't they put experienced, smart people in the government?

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they only have chosen people that could serve Thaksin instead of serving the country. Take the FM for example. NO experience in the field and poor English. But....he is Thaksin's buddy. Most are buddies or relatives. I am not even going to mention YS because it is too obvious.

They could have created a perfect government that could serve ALL the people but they didn’t.

Edited August 9, 2012 by Nickymaster

[MunterHunter]

Don't get me wrong fella's - I'm not trying to take sides or anything in your discussion - i just saw an opportunity to highlight what i see the main problem is with the whole Thai politics/reconciliation issue

[Robby nz]

Give the lady a fair go fellas.

Cant be easy working with the crumbs from the bottom of the cookie jar.

[rixalex]

Don't get me wrong fella's - I'm not trying to take sides or anything in your discussion - i just saw an opportunity to highlight what i see the main problem is with the whole Thai politics/reconciliation issue

I got the point you were making.

[Skywalker69]

It's difficult being objective in a subject that's totally based on opinion. That being said, I wish there were some positive things that I could say about Yingluck as a Prime Minister but I find it difficult to indicate any. I'm not sure if my bias against her is too strong for me to see any good in her or there really just isn't any?

Would you call dodging debates and playing the "i don't know" card a positive trait of hers? If yes, please explain how so that we can see from your perspective.

Out of her populist policies, which ones were successful? Rich pledge? Minimum Wage? Tablets? Again, please indicate which.

Is she improving the lives of the people? If so, how?

These are just some of the questions and notice I tried to refrain from projecting any negativity. I'd just like to be enlightened on some of the positive things about her that I have missed.

There were many negative remarks but as you've said that they were biased strongly against her. So what other remarks might you accept as being unbiased?

"Would you call dodging debates and playing the "i don't know" card a positive trait of hers?"

definitely not.... as i said, just because im not a staunch anti-ptp/yingluck/thaksin/red shirt hater doesn't mean that i am not critical about any of their/her actions.

"Out of her populist policies, which ones were successful? Rice pledge? Minimum Wage? Tablets?"

i can't say whether they were successful or not, as it's early days for all of them.

i'm very wary about the rice scheme atm.

i think the tablets could be a great investment for the future, but who knows, not i, not you... but it's definitely part of the future of education.

minimum wage could prove a good move, it could prove a bad move, these are all still debatable atm, and outside economic factors will be an obvious factor in this.

"So what other remarks might you accept as being unbiased?"

first off, clarify what remarks in particular that i suggested were biased, i suggested that a lot of critcisms in general from posters on here come from a biased angle, is that something you think i'm making up, do you think that's all in my head?

Show us one of your posts critical to PM Yingluck. Thanks.

who's 'us'?

use the search function if you're that bothered.

and just a heads up, i don't think you can put smileys in the search bar.

Excellent answer. Thank you. Now I know you cant answer my question.

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and baiting posts have been removed.

[metisdead]

It seems some members seem to think a valid reply to a post is to use emoticons only, if words fail to come to mind, don't bother posting. I have removed posts using emoticons only and will continue to do so.

A baiting post has been removed as well.

Edited August 10, 2012 by metisdead

[metisdead]

Off topic posts better suited for a discussion by private message have been removed. Back on topic please.

[tlansford]

Although some 70.4 per cent of the respondents wanted the female Puea Thai premier to remain in office, 98 per cent of them said they wanted a new Cabinet reshuffle and 5.2 per cent even wanted Premier Yingluck to resign.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsworld.php?id=686079

This report :

Continuity in Yingluck's Cabinet (70.4%)

Cabinet reshuffle (9.8%)

Yingluck's stepping down (5.2%)

Any tips on which one is right or what the real results were?

[Noistar]

Your first 2 answers only show you did not absorb my comment about the timing of delivery of all or partial solutions, also 'the public' had their say at the latest elections, you should learn not to attach your unrealistic level of expectation onto the Thai electorate to excuse the constant tirade of criticism on a fledgling goverment just 1 year into a 4 year term. Another point you may wish to take into account is the fact that over 100 experienced politicians who support this party were banned. take out 10 experienced Democrat politicians, discount the 10% that don't even turn up to parliamentary sessions, and I doubt they would function at all!!,

Your third response is also shows you misunderstood the Thaksin element, the charge against Yingluck and PTP was the time wasted not spent on running the country, instead trying to 'keep Thaksin out of jail' my point being there was agreat deal of time wasted by the Democrats trying to get him into Jail and failing.

Remember when there were people threatening to pull down the flood barriers and let the water into central Bangkok and cause chaos, did it happen... no. Perhaps this government have already exercised a higher level of control than the previous one, but I guess you and Mick missed that one.

You also neglect to take into account one other important point, Yingluck must go very carefully, prime ministers in Thailand are too easy to remove for very minor reasons due to the control of power in the hands of the 'judiciary', it is crucial to PTP that Yingluck remains as a figurehead, so her behaviour cautious approach is to some point excusable in my opinion.

'The public had their say'. It doesn't end there. The public want what they asked for, not what the ruling party want. A subtle, but important difference.

The Democrats are the Opposition, trying unsuccessfully to perform their role with a ruling party holding a significant majority. Opposition parties are not optional (at least in a Democracy).

The obsession with 'the Thaksin element' is 100% of the ruling party's making.

If this 'fledgling government' spent more time on policies to benefit Thailand, and less time furthering their own political objectives, they might mature.

Governments are SUBJECT to the law, not CONTROLLED by the law. Perhaps the subtle, but important difference should be appreciated. Why should Governments be permitted to govern in contravention of the law?

An interesting statement that Yingluck is a 'figurehead'.

If she was (performing the role of) the Prime Minister she might actually take her role seriously. You justify her lack of involvement in her Government as a means of survival. Previous Prime Ministers (in recent times), have been removed for 'violating Section 267 of the Constitution', and 'election fraud in the 23 December 2007 general election.'. Not what I'd consider 'very minor reasons'. The judiciary making the Government accountable to the law is not a 'control of power'. It makes me wonder if you feel that she has indiscretions up her sleeve

Another 3 years of this and Thailand won't be the same. I doubt it will be better

IMHO

[Buchholz]

The link http://www.thailandt...politics/policy and links provided there give the English translation of the policy statement read by PM Yingluck in August, 2011.

Really soon now we'll get the triumphant report on the first year's achievements

Not so soon... stand by for the final official report in another two months.... or so

Prime Minister's Office Minister Nivatthamrong Boonsongpaisal said the compilation of the government's one-year performance report had progressed by 90% so far. He affirmed that the government wanted to make the report as complete as possible for the public good.

According to the Minister, the report will mainly detail the progress of the government's 16-point policy, which covers such continuous projects as the women's fund, the rice pledging scheme, educational development projects, the "First Home" project and projects to prevent flooding.

The preliminary report will be publicized to the general public in the forms of leaflet, broadcasting and online content late this month or in early September. Its final draft will be presented to the Cabinet for approval on September 28 before it is submitted to Parliament in mid-October.

-- NNT 2012-08-15

Edited August 15, 2012 by Buchholz