If the government is so bad...

[brit1984]

The government is bad ("if" not really required)... so why not just defeat them democratically?... if voters only voted for Pheu Thai in return for 500 baht bribes, then why not offer them more (via an income assistance program)...?

By my calculations, for much less the cost of the rice scheme, they could give the 20 MILLION poorest voters the same 500 baht PER MONTH EVERY MONTH (and most of the cash would be recycled into the economy via consumption almost immediately)... given the required swing in votes is ~2/3 mil voters, victory could therefore be achieved easily without the need for the FORCE of "peaceful protests"...

If (as i suspect) the support for the red-shirts goes much deeper than a 500 baht note then gaining power by force can only be temporary (it cannot lead to an equilibrium situation) and the justification given for bypassing the democratic process would therefore not be justified...

The only other explanation for the current actions is that the "democrats" believe most Thai people (i.e. a majority of the electorate) are not intelligent enough (too stupid) to see why the current government is bad (un-due influence of Thaksin, illogical economic policy, etc) but pushing out the government they voted for is only going to make them angry and making stupid people angry doesn't make them intelligent, it just makes them dangerous!

Going forward, the best path would surely be that Yingluck announces fresh elections on a specified date (subject to easing of tension by an earlier specified date) and the "democrats" start to engage properly with the electorate and accept that to get their votes they need to make a massive effort to show they understand them and want to help them (not just ignore / alienate them) and/or make some clear and significant financial pledges to win them over.

Is my logic wrong?.. or is my assumption of the presence of logic in the Thai political process wrong?

[Jingthing]

I agree that new elections now is a good idea. Yingluck would probably win again but by a lot less. Not sure what problems that would solve in the long term but it might be helpful in the short term.

The opposition to Yingluck will NEVER, not in 1000 elections accept a Thaksin clone as PM. They have logical reasons for this.

[Ulysses G.]

ALL the governments here are bad, but the Yellowshirts and the Redshirts just make the situation worse.

[sbk]

There are enough political threads you can post in running in News. Lets not fill General up with political threads thanks

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