Thailand: Same Faces, New Crisis

[webfact]

Thailand: Same Faces, New Crisis
By Steve Finch

Attempts to pass an amnesty bill have taken Thailand to the brink of yet another political crisis

BANGKOK: -- At 5:11 pm on July 3, 2011, after all but winning Thailand’s most recent election, Yingluck Shinawatra posted a Facebook message outlining her two main priorities for office: prosperity and national reconciliation. As of November 2013, the signs aren’t promising.

On Tuesday, after at least 10,000 people marched across central Bangkok to protest a blanket amnesty bill that could smooth the return to Thailand of her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck appealed for calm amid a rising political storm. “If people learn how to forgive, the country will move forward,” she said in a nationally televised address.

Just over halfway through her four-year term and more than seven years into an enduring political battle, Thailand appears as divided as ever, and possibly on the brink of another crisis. While thousands of protesters accumulated around central Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, led by opposition Democrat Party MP Suthep Thaungsuban, anti-Thaksin protests were gathering numbers and momentum elsewhere.

Seven years after Thaksin was ousted in a coup and later sentenced to two years in prison in absentia for corruption following a probe by a military-appointed graft body, crowds heckled a blanket amnesty that could overturn the cases, and possibly unfreeze assets worth 46 billion baht ($1.47 billion). In Silom, another central district of the capital, business owners closed down a major road and blew whistles to show their discontent. By the end of Monday, Bangkok’s stock market had lost 2.85 percent as investors began to worry of yet further political chaos, wiping 776.75 million baht ($24.86 million) off Thai shares. [read more...]

Full story: http://thediplomat.com/2013/11/06/thailand-same-faces-new-crisis/

-- THE DIPLOMAT 2013-11-07

[Artisi]

Will Thai politicians never learn, they are supposedly elected for the good of the country and its people not elected for self-interest or brown-nosing others for fame and fortune.

[bigbamboo]

Same families, same crisis.

[slapout]

One of the problems is so many of those in positions to make law, over riding present law, etc are not elected but appointed or party list people who have no sesnse of responsibility to the general public. Its much easier to kiss one persons arse than to put in the effort to find and kiss several thousand pairs of cheeks. Especially if those cheeks are some what below your perceived height.

[h90]

Will Thai politicians never learn, they are supposedly elected for the good of the country and its people not elected for self-interest or brown-nosing others for fame and fortune.

What would be the profit on doing good for the country?

Politicians invest a lot money and time, they want the profit from this investment.

[Artisi]

Therein lays the problem.

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[chainarong]

The establishment have for to long taken for granted that they are the rulers of Thailand , this has been a play ground for the rich to ride rough shod over the population, winds of change now hover over Thailand and it is time to recruit from the general public , a mixture of the population on the benches is healthy , some of the worlds greatest leaders have had little or no education, I acknowledge that some despots also have had little education, what level did Thaskin go to.

[huanga]

The reply have me conjuring up pictures of how dogs greet (sniff) each other's axx. It's zoo politics, in short. What Thailand needs is definitely a new generation of politicians who will put general people's interest at heart over his own.

Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country! - JF Kennedy

Edited November 7, 2013 by huanga

[Sunisalom]

I can't believe the OP refers to a facebook quote from a clown.

What's a loss of multi-millions of baht from the exchange, when billions have been pocketed already for structures that are never going to happen?

To ask to depose or find closure to an opposition party in a democracy is simply insane.

So, there we have it. This current government is insane. It cannot contend with advice from the World Bank, divides itself from logic, and uses ailments as excuses.

I worry for what is coming soon. Alas, most of us know that when eventually people became aware of the corruption that they were held blind to, under pressure, then what we see today would arise. This isn't going to stop until something drastic happens. I FEAR for the coming week!

-Mel.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Sunisalom

[JoeThePoster]

Thailand: Same Faeces, New Crisis

Fixed it.