Credibility Of Opinion Polls At Stake As Most Tipped Ponsapat: Bangkok

[GazR]

I think what that means is that, althought the electorate is generally 'underwhelmed' by Moo Sukhumband the incumbent, once getting down to actually cast their vote their distrust of Thaksin the Terrorist and his Peua Thai candidate came to the fore.

[GazR]

The Amart are "Old Money" ultra wealthy families of mostly Chinese descent who have for decades controlled Thailand through their political wing known as the Democrat party, their military wing known as the Royal Thai army and in recent years by their para-military group known as "yellow shirts". Remember the take over of the Airports? The Amart/Invisible hand control rice exports, construction materials, transport and almost everything that has large government contracts. "Tiocfaidh ár lá" (Our Day will come), google is your friend.

As opposed to the party that consists of a criminal billionaire tax dodging aristocrat from a powerful political family, who's MPs primarily consist of millionaires from powerful political dynasties with connections to mega corporations, whose primary policy achievement once in office consist of lowering income tax on corporations and whose primary goals are tax avoidance for the rich and the implementation of corporate backed free trade agreements. They are a party for corporations and the rich whose main policy goals are furthering those groups. The most pressing problem Thailand faces is getting the mega rich like Thaksin to pay their taxes so that the government has funds to use for infrastructure and social programs, PTP is dedicated to the concept that the rich do not have to pay their share. All while harping on and on to the ignorant about the 'amart'

PREM-R

Is once again falling into the old I don't know any thing red shirt response. Allude to nameless individuals or families. I wonder how he knows if they are friends or enemies if he dosen't know them. sorry I forgot Jatuporn told him.

Was that what the red shirts tought in their red shirt schools on democracy? You all remember them they were put for training before they sent democratic heroes to burn Bangkok down. They failed at that also.

[Mackie]

Money buys you anything and everything in Thailand. So opinion polls can be 'ordered' for the right amount of money. No? I really am glad they lost it in Bangkok. I still vividly remember the carnage they caused. Some of those guys should've been locked up for a long time - instead they are public figures and participate in politics. Thailand is truly an amazing country.

[hellodolly]

Aaah! now I see, you are confusing me with the guy with a similar name to me, he will surely be able to supply all the information you require on the Amart including addresses and phone numbers. I am sure he will be able to supply similar information on the senior army generals also.

.

Nope.

No confusion of your name at all.

Just hoping to have the simple straight-forward questions asked of you by Pimay to be answered.

Instead, it's yet more obtuse side-stepping and bizarre over-exaggeration of what is being asked for.

Even a "I don't know, I have no idea" response from you would be preferable to the current obfuscation.

.

O.K. just for you "I don't know, I have no idea" maybe they do not exist, a figment of my imagination eh! 555

I was wondering if you were ever going to drop the mysterious powers farce and admit yiou were clueless.

You are not alone in that however. Check back through the thread and you will see other believers in a super rich super secret society that rules Thailand.

[hellodolly]

Just shows that the "invisible hand" of the Amart is sill tightly clasped around the throat of Bangkok, never mind, Tiocfaidh ár lá (for mods "our day will come")

You have made a definite statement. Can you please tell us who the "invisible hand" and the Armart are? I hear this statement from the red supporters but none of them can define who these people are. Would you be so kind as to enlighten us my friend? Evidently you know.

Secondly who is "our" in your statement "our day will come"?

You might want to check up on Thaksin's background. If he's not Amart my old man's a kipper.

Your old man's a kipper then.You are not only wrong but spectacularly wrong.Thaksin's family is from Chiangmai, relatively wealthy certainly and of Chinese extraction, but not amart.He is regarded and was regarded as noveau riche, and is looked down by those that matter.Frankly your mistake is to use terms you don't fully understand.

Any chance of you identifying the amart. Knowing who is not in it indicates that you know every one in it.

It would seem there are a lot of amart believers who all have one thing in common they don't know who is an amart. Maybe they have their own secret club with passwords and secret handshakes.

[DeepInTheForest]

Some alternative thoughts: This thread, as is common in these pages, has similarities to a Rorschach test for posters, who are inclined to project their own desires and fears onto virtually any Thai political event.

How about this for a narrative: Polling in Thailand is an inexact art, that has not developed to the point where it can reliably predict results. Polling in developed countries, while employing sophisticated techniques, developed over many decades, often at considerable expense, is similarly fraught-- the recent US presidential election being one example.

Exit polls, once thought to be reliable, are not as safe a predictor as they once were, as people round the globe grow to resent the intrusion of pollsters into what should be a process controlled by voters.

Hotly-contested elections draw higher turnouts. This may be an indication of good things occuring in Thai democracy. Voter turnout in Bangkok was 64% on a rainy day. The last municipal election in London could muster only 38%.

(from wiki: "The turnout was 38.1%, a decrease from 45.33% in the previous election^."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_mayoral_election,_2012#Results" )

Thai voters may indeed be wary of one party controlling too much of the country. This is not unheard-of in developed countries as well.

There is little mention of vote-buying on this thread. That seems odd-- like when something familiar has unaccountably gone missing.

Edited March 4, 2013 by DeepInTheForest

[hhiser]

I'm sure the pollsters are aware, but are reluctant to admit openly, that most Thai's (a.k.a., the silent majority) really like to keep their political choices close to their chest except maybe when talking to close friends/family. They may openly imply a choice when pressed in a close friend/family discussion, but much less likely to be as open in other cases like a pollster asking survey questions or just talking to their neighbor a few houses down the soi. The great majority are not hard core like the Red, Yellow, etc., Shirt groups that get so much media attention....sure many will lean towards the Red or Yellow Shirts causes but they don't get hard core/radical/unbending about it. Remember, most Thai's don't like to cause conflict...even friendly but heated discussions which can arise when talking politics. I also think many, many Thai's can be easily swayed for their vote in the final days of an election as compared to what we may be use to in western nations.

And most Thais when pressed will tell you exactly what they think you want to hear.

[who]

The pollsters asked Thais and Thais lie a lot.