Thaksin: Let People Decide Leadership

[sabaijai]

Thaksin: Let people decide leadership

2006/3/3

BANGKOK, Thailand, AP

Hundreds of supporters cheered Thailand's embattled prime minister Thursday as he urged the opposition to abandon its boycott of next month's snap elections so that the people decide who runs the country.

Thaksin Shinawatra pushed through crowds chanting "Thaksin, Fight!" as he and members of his Thai Rak Thai party registered for April 2 elections that he set into motion in hopes of renewing his mandate and defusing growing street protests calling for his ouster.

Supporters thrust red roses at the leader and waved party flags at Bangkok's National Stadium, where candidates registered for the polls with election officials.

Thaksin's ruling party is widely expected to win the election because of its massive financial resources and solid support among rural voters. But the looming polls have only deepened a political crisis for Thaksin, with opposition parties saying they will boycott the vote, leaving his candidacy virtually uncontested.

The three main opposition parties -- Democrat, Chart Thai and Mahachon -- say they will boycott because Thaksin refused to consider their proposals for constitutional reform. One of the proposals called for the prime minister to step down from office until the elections are held.

"I am appealing to the opposition parties ... to enter the election," said Thaksin, who dissolved Parliament last week and called for new national elections -- three years earlier than scheduled. "Let the people make their own decision."

The opposition shouldn't snub the democratic process and should remember that some countries lack any democracy and arrest dissidents, Thaksin said, citing Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We have an election set by the rules, but the opposition is boycotting it," Thaksin told reporters. "I think they should consult Aung San Suu Kyi, who sacrifices everything for democracy."

source: Associated Press

[Sunny Valentine]

Thaksin: Let people decide leadership

2006/3/3

BANGKOK, Thailand, AP

......

The opposition shouldn't snub the democratic process and should remember that some countries lack any democracy and arrest dissidents, Thaksin said, citing Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We have an election set by the rules, but the opposition is boycotting it," Thaksin told reporters. "I think they should consult Aung San Suu Kyi, who sacrifices everything for democracy."

source: Associated Press

It has been a year back, or so, that some paper cited Thaksin saying something around the lines that he understands why troublemakers like Aung San Kyi are imprisoned .....

What a pathetic <deleted>!

Sunny

[billd766]

Is this the same leader who agrees with the Myanmar generals that the legal winner of a properly run election should be kept under house arrest?

Does that mean that he should be under house arrest or all the opposition party leaders should be under house arrest and that the government of the country should be a dictatorship?

When was the last election held in Myanmar, sometime in the early 1990s, and what happened to the winner?

[PeaceBlondie]

When the best thing that PM That's Sin can think of is to compare himself to the greatest nonviolent leader of democracy in east Asia, he's grasping at the last straw, or his megalomania knows no bounds.

He has trampled democracy under his Shinful feet.

But to keep the Thai storm troopers from trampling ME under their boots, let me add a smiley as if I'm just joking.

[ratcatcher]

I may have posted these photos before. However, as Peace Blondie reminds us, how can the man having drinks with the Burmese generals seriously expect the rest of the sane and thinking population of Thailand to believe that he's a champion of democracy.

Thaksin is a believer in accumulating wealth and power in the hands of a few rich people who can control the rest of the poorer population at any cost. No doubt he was in Rangoon with the goons trying to sell his satellite and telecommunications services at the time.

Maybe Thailand should do a swap. Allow Thaksin to go to Burma and sort that pathetic country's economy out and allow the gracious Aung San Suu Kyi to come here and show the Thai people what real democracy means. However, I would not really want to wish him upon the long suffering Burmese citizens.

The irony is that if ever Burma did manage to get it's political situation under control thus opening the doors to the rest of the world, Thailand's economy and related tourist industry would take a smahing blow. Imagine a relatively pristine country at least 40 years behind Thailand, with clean undeveloped beaches and touriist destinations? Imagine.

Edited March 4, 2006 by ratcatcher

[penzman]

Thaksin: Let people decide leadership

2006/3/3

BANGKOK, Thailand, AP

Hundreds of supporters cheered Thailand's embattled prime minister Thursday as he urged the opposition to abandon its boycott of next month's snap elections so that the people decide who runs the country.

Thaksin Shinawatra pushed through crowds chanting "Thaksin, Fight!" as he and members of his Thai Rak Thai party registered for April 2 elections that he set into motion in hopes of renewing his mandate and defusing growing street protests calling for his ouster.

Supporters thrust red roses at the leader and waved party flags at Bangkok's National Stadium, where candidates registered for the polls with election officials.

Thaksin's ruling party is widely expected to win the election because of its massive financial resources and solid support among rural voters. But the looming polls have only deepened a political crisis for Thaksin, with opposition parties saying they will boycott the vote, leaving his candidacy virtually uncontested.

The three main opposition parties -- Democrat, Chart Thai and Mahachon -- say they will boycott because Thaksin refused to consider their proposals for constitutional reform. One of the proposals called for the prime minister to step down from office until the elections are held.

"I am appealing to the opposition parties ... to enter the election," said Thaksin, who dissolved Parliament last week and called for new national elections -- three years earlier than scheduled. "Let the people make their own decision."

The opposition shouldn't snub the democratic process and should remember that some countries lack any democracy and arrest dissidents, Thaksin said, citing Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We have an election set by the rules, but the opposition is boycotting it," Thaksin told reporters. "I think they should consult Aung San Suu Kyi, who sacrifices everything for democracy."

source: Associated Press

Here's something Thaksin said about Aung Saan Suu Yi on his radio show in 2004...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23258

But Thaksin has riled his neighbors with some of his comments. He said Malaysia and Indonesia had a hand in Thailand's troubles in the Muslim south, prompting fierce complaints, especially from Malaysia, which borders Thailand. "We do not see an outside hand in this," the State Department official pointedly said, adding that the United States has "no information" to back up Thaksin's claims. "If Thaksin has that information, he should share it with the Malaysian government."

Meanwhile, as the rest of Southeast Asia has increasingly distanced itself from Burma, Thaksin has sought an ever closer embrace.

Speaking on his weekly radio broadcast after a visit to Rangoon, Thaksin said Burma's military leaders had said political instability caused by Suu Kyi's release could split the country along ethnic lines.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, "will be torn apart into many different countries," Thaksin quoted the senior military leader, Gen. Than Shwe, as saying. "The country will be a mess -- nothing will be left."

"These are the reasons they gave [for holding Suu Kyi], which are reasonable enough and convincing," Thaksin told the radio program.

His comments have prompted concern among administration officials and lawmakers who think his policy of engagement with Burma has failed. "The regime has stiffed him," said a senior U.S. official.

David I. Steinberg, head of Asian studies at Georgetown University, called Thaksin's comments on Suu Kyi "really bad" and said his voicing them "endears him to no one."

The State Department official said the administration has raised questions with Thai officials about Thaksin's remarks. The problem, the official said, is that "our normal interlocutors in the foreign ministry are scratching their heads like we are, so it's kind of difficult to get what he had in mind when he says things like that."

--Washington Post 2004-12-25

I wasn't surprised when yesterday he said he was ready to hang himself along with a protester if...

Edited March 4, 2006 by penzman

[asd]

I highly recommend you guys go to www.f0nt.com.

Dragostea din Tei >>> Dragostea din Thaksin

**** http://www.f0nt.com/temp/ ****

It's a really funny flash animation for you to enjoy !!!

Thaksin ! Get Out !

[Plus]

Mai ya he? Mai ya who?

This is brilliant.

There will be two Thailands now - one that doesn't know anything, doesn't want to know, and doesn't care if there's anything to know, and the other, the proper Thailand, the Thailand that cares about its life, its future, its people ten years from now - Thailand worth fighting, and dying for.

[Ricardo]

If he really believed in democracy, she would be his first call on any trip to Burma, rather than the generals. She is a shining example to the free world.

But then, if he really believed in democracy, he would have given long-enough warning of the election here, to permit his own MPs to vote with their feet.

It was interesting how he humbly asked his many early friends, now departed from TRT, to forgive his autocratic-style & give him another chance. He's forgotten that the whole election was unnecessary, his own departure was all that was required, not his party's, but then again he probably believes that he himself is the party.

Having seen Blair do this, to the UK & the Labour-Party, some of us have been inoculated, however.