Free food and fiery resentment at Thai protests

[moe666]

I use to go with a lady from Issan and she asked her dad one day why he voted for Big T the old man said they give me 500baht for my vote enough said.

[hyperdimension]

Peaceful protests can quickly turn violent, as seen in 2010 when soldiers spilled onto the streets firing live rounds at mostly unarmed protesters in a crackdown under the previous government that left 90 people dead and nearly 1,900 wounded.

They were "mostly unarmed protesters" however what made the 2010 protests different from most other protests, including the current one, was the use of war weapons like M79 grenade launchers and AK47s by militants that were hired by the anti-government side (possibly with the help of Seh Daeng, the military general who turned rogue, and who in interviews stated that Thaksin was the one who was behind the 2010 protests). Arisman even announced the existence of militants during his speeches. These facts should have been mentioned in the article in order to highlight the distinguishing fact that a high level of violence was condoned and carried out (and not just in self-defense) by the anti-government Red Shirts side in 2010.

[oldsailor35]

My wife, who is from Kanchanaburi, voted for Thaksins party ten years ago but she doesn't anymore.

Yeh, sad is'nt it, but some do go funny in the head as they get older.

[hellodolly]

The northeast people are good people, but they have been brainwashed by Thaksin

Amen. This is the key message that needs to be repeated 24/7. Everybody I have spoken to in Bangkok has always said that the people of the North deserve serious investment and improvements in quality of life across the board. The "us against them" rhetoric of the PTP is a fallacy, most ordinary Thais including Democrats, do genuinely want people in the North to have a higher standard of living. The irony is that the most divisive and outspoken party on the issue of the North and agrarian workers' rights (PTP) are the ones who have been in power for years and have done absolutely nothing to improve that situation.

Yes, I'm sure those in the NE will respond well to the accusation they've been brainwashed. You should definitely keep repeating it. As you say, 24/7. Especially at night, where they'll be lying awake, unable to sleep because of the constant yelling: 'Brainwashed! Brainwashed! Stupid! Buffalo! Brainwashed!' They'll be forced to listen, won't they? Don't forget to use a good megaphone because some of the old farmers and their wives up there are hard of hearing, you know. But I'm sure when they do hear your message, they'll rush out with garlands of flowers, thanking you effusively for finally awakening them from their terrible ignorance. Then you shall ride together for Bangkok to defeat the Shinawatra dynasty once and for all!

Aside from the brainwashing how do you explain the lack of improvements in the area considering all the promises and time the PTP and it's predecessors had to help them out. In the last 13 years Thaksin has had direct control over the actions of the government for 9 of them and yet the people are no better off than they were when he took over.

[Loles]

The northeast people are good people, but they have been brainwashed by Thaksin

Amen. This is the key message that needs to be repeated 24/7. Everybody I have spoken to in Bangkok has always said that the people of the North deserve serious investment and improvements in quality of life across the board. The "us against them" rhetoric of the PTP is a fallacy, most ordinary Thais including Democrats, do genuinely want people in the North to have a higher standard of living. The irony is that the most divisive and outspoken party on the issue of the North and agrarian workers' rights (PTP) are the ones who have been in power for years and have done absolutely nothing to improve that situation.

Yes Yunla, you are rights, with this amplification.

The northesat people are enough silly to recognize the mentioned brainwashing by Thaksin CAUSE the Bangkokian Chinese elite kept them in dark.

Let's go there and check out their schools. Like a pigsty.

BUT if something is useful before later strikes back and they can cry: this uneducated dirty lot .... bla bla bla.

THIS IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM HERE, you like it or not.

[fasteddie]

I use to go with a lady from Issan and she asked her dad one day why he voted for Big T the old man said they give me 500baht for my vote enough said.

Yeah yeah, so what, in phuket they pay up to 20,000baht to vote the other way.

[Yunla]

Says it all really. Succint

Re; the couple of quotes that people have dug up, of bigots making ugly statements about how they are superior to the farmers in the North. Yes, you will always be able to find a bigoted prejudiced snob, for a soundbyte. But that does NOT reflect the views of the majority.

I can hop on a plane and go to the UK, and find a Combat 18 neo-nazi member right now, in a pub somewhere, and get him to give me a quote about how black people are an inferior race and should be sent back to Africa. That fascist is in a pub in London the UK, today. Does that mean that majority of normal working citizens in London are racists. NO.

Cherrypicked isolated quotes by outrageous bigots does not reflect the overall situation on the ground. The only reason you would pull quotes like that is to accent division, for whatever agenda you are playing out.

Rice scheme does not improve anyones lives except corrupt middlemen. Two years of PTP is plenty of time for them to have done more infrastructure work and improving classrooms and education etc. Also minimum wage is no good unless you implement it along with restratified meritocratic wage brackets, where you get paid more if you are busting your back under the baking sun all day, than if you are pushing a pen.

The infrastructure / educational improvements in the North have not happened under PTP. And the rice scheme and minimum wage were both badly implemented, in the case of the rice scheme [imho] intentionally so.

[aussieinthailand]

No, it's condescending claptrap. As if those silly hillbillies don't know any better.

> The irony is that the most divisive and outspoken party on the issue of the North

> and agrarian workers' rights (PTP) are the ones who have been in power for years

> and have done absolutely nothing to improve that situation.

Wait, what? Incredible agricultural subsidies are being handed out; everybody disagrees if that was a good idea or not but you can't then ALSO argue that it doesn't amount to something. Same for the minimum wage hike which was as significant as it was LONG over due.

So don't call that nothing; from a PTP electorate point of view, they ARE delivering, as the Shinawatras/TRT/PTP have always done (healthcare for the poor, etc.) Again, the yellow/Dem side were fiercely opposed to that, largely for selfish reasons, but nobody denies that they ARE delivering. "Aboslutely nothing" can only mean you're not paying attention.

Finally after all those years the rural poor are a force to be reconed with, as you would expect in a (country that occasionlly pretends to be a) democracy. The 'yellow' side largely wants to undo all that, even if it means forcing another military coup d'etat.

Oh great, agricultural subsidies. Propping up inefficient and uneconomic primary industries with the tax money of those working efficiently. So how many years can hundreds of billions of baht be lost/stolen before the whole scheme collapses causing untold misery to those supposedly being helped? The answer appears to be less than 3.

I'm not saying otherwise. I was responding to a person who claimed that PTP is not delivering to their base. Clearly they are, in fact TRT/PTP's electoral success is based on delivering on promises, which was a radical departure from the old status quo.

Absolutely can you find fault with each and every one of those policies, but the 'clueless brainwashed country folk' tale doesn't hold up, because for the first time are they seeing a direct relation between their vote and their daily lives. That started with Thaksin. And yes, that also makes for an argument about the 'tyranny of the majority' which is a great discussion to have. But don't call it nothing.

They have done the easy stuff handing out tax payer money to mostly farmers who do not need it, the health care plan was actually a Democratic plan that couldn't be rolled out because of the 96-97 financial collapse, land reform was one of Yinglucks programs how many people have gotten title to their land since she came into office, very few if any. The really poor farmers who do not have land or enough land do not qualify for the rice scam

Really, Well I know a few people who now have the chanoht, land (title), so myth busted.

Some of my in-laws are famers and yeah they could definitely use the money, so myth busted.

[Spare]

My wife, who is from Kanchanaburi, voted for Thaksins party ten years ago but she doesn't anymore.

.... Now she vote for Yingluck party.