Why are so many foreigners backing Suthep?

[kawaiimomo]

Why are so many foreigners backing fascist Suthep? The guy wants to remove a democratically elected government and put another without going through elections. You can disagree with the current government but you or Bangkok are not the whole Thailand, if there were elections tomorrow PT would still win (and everyone should respect that in democracy). And assaulting ministries and police headquarters... That is truly democratic. Also, accusing the government of corruption when the protest leader is a 2 times corrupt involved in the biggest corruption scandal in the democrat party, what a joke.

But the point is you are as fascist as him. Would you support this crap or a military coup in your own country? It looks as the next step will be to ban rural people from voting because they will always choose the one who does something for them. Of course, they will justify it by saying they are uneducated, ignoring the fact that those uneducated people are the ones who understand and respect democracy, and ignoring they never did something to improve their lifes or access to education while they were in power.

I am not a big fan of Thaksin due to his human rights record, but I am glad he came into power because something started to change in Thai society. The elites staging coups and this later fascist demonstration are clear signs of the change and the resistance by such elites. I am glad to see my taxes being spent on the farmers rather than on these $- in Bangkok.

[JetsetBkk]

"Why are so many foreigners backing fascist Suthep"

I'm not.

Next.

[lemoncake]

Did someone forget to take medication today?

[Mooner]

Who cares what they think? Can't vote! Irrelevant!

[Grant]

"I am glad he came into power because something started to change in Thai society"

​What exactly "started to change"?

[TVGerry]

That's a stupid thing to say. People have their own beliefs and just because one supports Suthep doesn't make one 'fascist'.

If you want to make things simple, then you can say people who support Thaksin and his cronies are corrupt thieves and murderers. After all, thousands died during his 'drug war' while there were various massacres in the South.

[lemoncake]

Below from OP is my favourite

uneducated people are the ones who understand and respect democracy

We give you 500 baht and you vote for us

We give you Chinese tablet and you vote for us

We buy rice from you for more than its worth and you vote for us

Yes, they most certainly do understand and respect democracy

[up-country_sinclair]

I don't think many foreigners are backing Suthep. I know I'm not. For me it's more of a case of the lesser of two evils.

[MAJIC]

Seems to me Suthep has identified the root cause of everything that is wrong with Thailand,which has struck a raw nerve with the people! who no longer believe the lies,that they will all become rich.

[roamer]

People don't change their political views when they move to Thailand.

[JoeLing]

I suppose, just because someone is agreeing to one or an other idea or comment of a person,
and even if that's a crocked person, doesn't mean he supports what ever idea or believes that
person has.

So if one believes that some ideas, comments or actions of Suthep, Thaksin, Abhisit or even
Yingluck made sense, doesn't instantly means, one is backing their party or their own agenda.

To Think like that would just be ridiculous

Edited December 10, 2013 by JoeLing

[clberger33]

I personally think that, as foreigners being guest in this country, we shouldn't involve in national matters that we mostly do not understand.

1- We have accepted (for different personal - good - reasons) to have no domestic right.

2- Paying taxes and spending money here didn't change our blood. None of us can become Thai nor can "think Thai"

3- Even after 10 or 20 years here, we will not understand totally the positions of each side.

4- If we want Thai people to respect us, let's start to be respectable. Let's be out of these national matters concerning Thais only.

5- Whatever the government is or will be, if we want to live in Thailand we must follow the rules.

6- If we are not happy, so let's go back to our countries and be fine there ;-)

I am totally against the foreigners who are taking position for this color or against that one, blablabla.

This is kid game played by old kids who have nothing to do in Thai people stories.

I am sure that most of Thai people do not appreciate this kind of behavior from some farangs...

My wife is Thai.

I share some of her points of view, I disagree with some others. I talk with her and try to help her comparing different possibilities, avoiding straight and strong positions.

At the end of the day, I will always back her (and protect her) just because she is my wife, and also because she is bright and totally involve in a positive social life.

But I will never go to protest in the streets, nor I will take any political position in public.

It doesn't mean that I cannot be an observer and have my own analysis of the country and current situation.

But I do know that can understand only a very small part of the problem.

This is my own way to show respect to Thai people who have welcomed me, and to give them a good picture about foreigners as well. As I told above, if we want to be respected we should start first to be respectable.

Any country out of mine that I have visited, I have never got any trouble with local people.

I can hear and read so many complains from foreigners here that I often wonder why they stay in Thailand...

Why do they want to get more trouble by involving in Thai private matters?...

Cheers ;-)

[kkerry]

"Why are so many foreigners backing fascist Suthep"

Their wife told them to...

[lemoncake]

"Why are so many foreigners backing fascist Suthep" Their wife told them to...

Or they have a brain to analyze instead of following some propaganda.

As if one with half a brain, really believes PTP cares about people or country

[benalibina]

Who cares about thai politics.

Just read the frontpage of Bangkok Post last 2 decades.

Same same. This 2 for next 2 decades.

[MB1]

Who cares about thai politics.

Just read the frontpage of Bangkok Post last 2 decades.

Same same. This 2 for next 2 decades.

I'm same same. .I Don't give a shit who's in power because things seem to never change. .

Thailand the hub of protests, corruption greed and puppeteers....Sad for Thailand really....

I'll just continue to come to Thailand and try and enjoy where I go and what I do...If I think it's too dangerous I have the option of leaving or cancelling arranged trips.

I said years ago I would never invest one baht in Thailand and I feel the same today..Far better and safer places to invest than Thailand IMO...

[Thai at Heart]

"I am glad he came into power because something started to change in Thai society"

​What exactly "started to change"?

They are changing back to the traditional corrupt ways instead.of the new fangled ones like trains and water projects.

[cunegonde]

"I personally think that, as foreigners being guest in this country, we shouldn't involve in national matters that we mostly do not understand.
1- We have accepted (for different personal - good - reasons) to have no domestic right.
2- Paying taxes and spending money here didn't change our blood. None of us can become Thai nor can "think Thai"
3- Even after 10 or 20 years here, we will not understand totally the positions of each side.
4- If we want Thai people to respect us, let's start to be respectable. Let's be out of these national matters concerning Thais only.
5- Whatever the government is or will be, if we want to live in Thailand we must follow the rules.
6- If we are not happy, so let's go back to our countries and be fine there ;-)"

Well. My husband is thai and for the time being he lives with me in France. Here in France, you do not have to change your "blood" to become french. Saying otherwise would appear as a fascist, xenophobist argument. So, my husband will in a soon future become french and be granted the right to vote. Until then, knowing that he lives in France, I am very happy if he has an opinion of the politics here and want to say this opinion publicly.

So I do not see why foreigners who live in Thailand should not have the right to discuss the political situation and take sides. As for the "national matters concerning Thais only" that you mention: those "Thais" can sometimes be a foreigner's own children, if they have married a thai citizen. Should they not be concerned about what the country has to offer to their Thai kids?

Not talking about the fight against Franco in spain in the 1930's: the involvment of many foreigners there to fight dictatorship is looked at as an act of heroism... So, does it still look so simple to you?

[Thai at Heart]

"I personally think that, as foreigners being guest in this country, we shouldn't involve in national matters that we mostly do not understand.

1- We have accepted (for different personal - good - reasons) to have no domestic right.

2- Paying taxes and spending money here didn't change our blood. None of us can become Thai nor can "think Thai"

3- Even after 10 or 20 years here, we will not understand totally the positions of each side.

4- If we want Thai people to respect us, let's start to be respectable. Let's be out of these national matters concerning Thais only.

5- Whatever the government is or will be, if we want to live in Thailand we must follow the rules.

6- If we are not happy, so let's go back to our countries and be fine there ;-)"

Well. My husband is thai and for the time being he lives with me in France. Here in France, you do not have to change your "blood" to become french. Saying otherwise would appear as a fascist, xenophobist argument. So, my husband will in a soon future become french and be granted the right to vote. Until then, knowing that he lives in France, I am very happy if he has an opinion of the politics here and want to say this opinion publicly.

So I do not see why foreigners who live in Thailand should not have the right to discuss the political situation and take sides. As for the "national matters concerning Thais only" that you mention: those "Thais" can sometimes be a foreigner's own children, if they have married a thai citizen. Should they not be concerned about what the country has to offer to their Thai kids?

Not talking about the fight against Franco in spain in the 1930's: the involvment of many foreigners there to fight dictatorship is looked at as an act of heroism... So, does it still look so simple to you?

Have you ever listened to a political discussion among 99% of thai people.

It is like listening to 8.year olds, so yes I am quite glad I can't think like a thai. I think I have an obligation to encourage Thais to look at things from the most nuanced and advanced way possible.

The smart position would be to not support any of them until they purge their own parties of corruption. This is not a thaksin versus Suthep issue,this is a people versus corrupt ruling class issue.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Thai at Heart

[ChiangMaiThai]

Okay a few facts.

Both sides buy votes. If you're falling for this 'Thaksin' is corrupt and the other side is clean story then you're completely naive.

Suthep and friends can't win in an election. So now democracy (and that constitution) can be put aside because trust them, they and the minority know what's best.

Neither side cares that much about 'the people'. This is all about a massive power struggle at the very top. It's a game being played by true elites and it's not about what's best for the guy selling noodles on the corner.

This is about so, so much more than anyone can talk about in Thailand. Suggest you read a little zen journalist. Probably the most in depth analysis of what is really going on (with hard evidence to back up his claims). And of course he can never set foot here again.

Happy Wednesday!

[Somtamnication]

'cause they are stupid.

I would stay away from this circus. The tent is full of elephants and you will get hurt.

[pomchop]

Maybe because the only "side" of the story that many falangs read come from the anti Taksin media...as always there is two sides. Here is an interesting view from the pro Taksin media. I have no idea if the numbers quoted are correct but if so it would seem that there is good reason for so many people to support some of the programs he put into place.

BANGKOK – It has gone quiet in Bangkok, as the people who have been trying to overthrow the government tidy up the debris that litters the city after the last two weeks of demonstrations.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is taking an equally low-key approach. The Thai Army has removed the barbed wire that surrounded government offices, and protesters are wandering through the prime minister’s offices and picnicking on the lawns while she runs the affairs of state from some other location in the capital. But by next week the Civil Movement for Democracy will be back in action, and the final outcome is not clear.

The main thing that distinguishes the Civil Movement for Democracy is its profound dislike for democracy. In the mass demonstrations that have shaken Thailand since Nov. 24, its supporters have been trying to remove a prime minister who was elected only two years ago — and their goal is not another election.

“We don’t want new elections because we will lose anyway,” one protester told Reuters. “We want (the prime minister’s family) to leave the country.”

If they succeeded in driving Yingluck from power, they would skip the whole business of elections and hand the country over to an appointed “People’s Council” made up of “good men.”

These good men would naturally agree with protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban that the majority of the Thai people are too ignorant and flighty to be trusted with the vote. “From a Western point of view, “democracy” is an elected government serving as the people’s representative,” he told The Guardian. “Unfortunately, elections in Thailand do not represent people’s (real) choices because their votes are bought.”

They are “bought” not by bribes but by government spending on free health care and anti-poverty programs. In most democracies this is seen as part of the normal political process, but Suthep and his supporters, who include a high proportion of the country’s professional and middle classes, especially in the capital, regard it as illegitimate.

The current government has destroyed “the virtues and ethics of the people,” Suthep says, but with time and hard work the unelected People’s Council could make them moral again and “put the country on the path to perfect democracy.” We can even imagine that the poor might eventually become enlightened enough to be trusted with the vote again.

There is a conflict between the interests of the rich and the poor in most countries. In democracies it normally plays out in the electoral competition of right- and left-wing parties, and some compromise (always temporary and contentious) is arrived at via the ballot box. But in Thailand, the rich take to the streets.

They do so because they always lose the elections. In five elections since 2001, the winner every time has been Thaksin Shinawatra or somebody chosen by him. Thaksin is a man of humble origins who built the country’s largest mobile phone provider and then went into politics. He proved to be unbeatable.

His record in power has not been above reproach. He was careless of human rights, particularly in his war on drug dealers (he used death squads), and his family fortune benefited to some degree from his influence on government policy. But he wasn’t really in it for the money — he was already mega-rich before he went into politics — and he knew exactly what the poor needed. To the horror of relatively wealthy Bangkok and the south, he gave it to them.

He set up programs like village-managed micro-credit development funds and low-interest agricultural loans. He created a universal health care system and provided low-cost access to anti-HIV medications.

Yet between 2001 and the coup that overthrew him in 2006, GDP grew by 30 percent, public sector debt fell from 57 per cent of GDP to 41 per cent, and foreign exchange reserves doubled. He even managed to balance the budget.

Income in the northeast, the poorest part of the country, rose by 41 percent. Poverty nationwide dropped from 21 percent to 11 percent, and the prevalence of HIV/AIDS declined. Thaksin even allowed the 2.3 million migrant workers in the country to register and qualify for health coverage.

From the point of view of the opposition Democratic Party, all this was just “buying the people’s votes.” When Thaksin won the 2005 election with an increased majority, it conspired with the military to overthrow him. He was then tried on corruption charges, but fled the country before the inevitable verdict and has since lived in exile, mostly in Dubai. But his party, reformed and renamed, goes on winning every time there is an election.

That’s why his 46-year-old sister is now the prime minister. She probably does do what he says most of the time, but there’s no crime in that: The voters who put her there were really voting for Thaksin. And if the current insurrection in Bangkok overthrows her, they will vote for whoever else represents Thaksin next time there is an election. The right in Thailand should really grow up and get over it.

by Gwynne Dyer

[zeichen]

Funny OP.

My wife is and has been 100% anti Thaksin for years as well as their family. However none of them support this latest move. None of them could be called Yingluck supporters but they are not against her nor do they think that she has done anything wrong. been elected

They do realize that as soon as a caretaker government is put in place that hasn't been elected that the red shirts will now organize and force another disolvement and chaos.

The only problem with the assumptions the OP made is that he believes that anyone in this country is democratically elected. Corruption is so rampant and pervasive in this entire country that no one in either party is clean. I kind of like the idea that a new government should be formed out of people that have never held an elected position. Or to make one party out of the least corrupt members of both parties and force them to work together making an orange shirt party.

The final solution would be for Thaksin to give up, do his jail term, stay out of Thai politics and let his sister and a neutral party filled with people that don't lead coups and violent protests.

Finally to address the specific question of the OP. Perhaps many support the yellow shirts because more and more foreigners are marrying middle and upper class Thais not the uneducated farm girls that support the Thaksin Regime.

[simondan]

Democracy is a system not an election result. You can disagree with the result but if you want to live in a democratic society under the rule of law you have to respect it. Or have another system, not democracy. Since when in a modern democracy has education level or percieved sophistication (or lack thereof) been a reason to deny an adult the vote? If it is illegal to buy votes, address this through the courts with evidence. If you dont like the party in power, vite against them next time and if you lose because you are in a minority, just be thankful you live in a country where you have the right to vote. If a country continually uses non-democratic means to maintain its democracy, its not a democracy.

By the way, this isnt a complaint, its a comment. Its another benefit of living in a democracy.

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

[simondan]

Incidentally, who said the democratic system came up a perfect result everytime? A large number of voters will generally be unhappy with the result in most cases (except in Zimbabwe where everyone votes for Mugabe!). But tell me a better or fairer way to measure and implement the will of the majority?

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

[Water Buffalo]

Perhaps we would like a government which doesn't treat expats and their Thai families as unreasonably as the current one.

[Alwyn]

Below from OP is my favourite

uneducated people are the ones who understand and respect democracy

We give you 500 baht and you vote for us

We give you Chinese tablet and you vote for us

We buy rice from you for more than its worth and you vote for us

Yes, they most certainly do understand and respect democracy

I don't know which country you come from but I would bet anything vote buying goes on in your country too. Anything.

[Alwyn]

People don't change their political views when they move to Thailand.

Agreed. An anarchist is always an anarchist!

[DiamondKing]

In answer to the OP's question

YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID

[crazykopite]

The uneducated of the UK vote labour. what is the difference you vote for the party that suits your needs whoever is elected will be facing the same problems and issues in two years SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT.