Why are so many foreigners backing Suthep?

[hansnl]

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

​What exactly "started to change"?

The occurrence of a one issue government, the sole return of a fugutive from the law?

Or maybe:

More black money?

The poor got poorer?

The rich got richer?

The income of the kingdom squandered?

The financial future of the kingdom down the drain?

The red-shirt voters deceived?

The law giving body of the country (parliament) invaded by the law enforcing body on invitation of the PTP?

The extra judicial killings of 2500 "drug criminals"?

And so on.

Is that what was meant by the poster?

Edited December 11, 2013 by hansnl

[Bernard Flint]

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

All credibility diminishes when you see "the Guardian".

No mention of Thaksin's human rights issues, the war on drugs, Tai Bak. The last paragraph sums it up nicely. This writer, editor and newspaper see nothing wrong in a Prime Minister and her government doing what a convicted criminal fugitive tells them.

Of course, she implies the conviction was unjust, but offers no evidence to support that, or inquire why he didn't appeal and fight, or that his relation was PM at the time; fails to mention he has many more outstanding charges waiting or that the government have been trying to whitewash him for 2.5 years as their priority.

She doesn't mention the rice scheme and water management fiasco or the 2,2 trillion off budget loan. She doesn't mention vote buying and coercion or the illegal acts of the current government.

If you want pro Thaksin propaganda then The Guardian is a good place to look. They always support corrupt dictators providing the dictators pretend to be a peoples' party.

I don't support Suthep and his extreme ideas. But, the PTP regime lie, cheat, steal, ignore the law and parliamentary rules, and treat the Thai people with utter contempt. I know many Thais who protested not because they support Suthep but because they've seen through this scam of a government. They want them out .......... but the choice of replacement is somewhat limited too.

Sir

How many is many thais

[seajae]

its not a matter of taking sutheps side, it is a matter of wanting what is best for this country as a whole. Thaksin and his cronies/family have buggered the country, the only ones that cannot see this are the reds. What suthep wants is also a bit over the top apart from removing thaksin and his family from politics, it isnt red vs yellow, it is brainwashed(red and yellow) vs the people. The north are paid to support thaksin, the south the dems, a lot of people just dont really support either and they are the ones that need to be heard, they want the graft and corruption stopped and the country to be fixed. When you have uneducated people fed bullshit and given money for "nothing" they will do whatever you want including your dirty work. I just hope that in the coming election people are left to their own decisions and not bribed and bussed to attend polling stations, if they are that eager to vote they can find their own way to them otherwise it is not a "fair" election at all. It isnt red v yellow or even elite v uneducated, it is what is best for everyone, I just doubt this will happen.

[Dellie]

Foreigners support the democrats because they actually like foreigners. Thaksin has on several occassions expressed his loathe for expats and stated that Thailand should only have "quality" foreign visitors (Tourists) who come, spend money and then go home. It was also his government that put the 90 day per 180 days on tourist excemption rule into effect. A rule that was later removed by the democrats.

[rotary]

Because they have long noses and get involved with something that has nothing to do with them and in most cases their own

governments are worse than the Thai government.

[i claudius]

Personally i think they are all a bunch of crooks ,none of them care a flying fart about us foreigners so why should i care about them? as long as the pound goes higher and the Baht goes down ,thats what matters to us really ,so we can all pretend otherwise and moralise ,but in the end as far as i am concerned thats it ,sorry if i sound a nasty guy ,but my wife is Thai and she feels the same.

[wwest5829]

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

We will cover more people with medical insurance, we will bail out savings and loans or Wall Street or car makers or we will lower taxes on the wealthy or we will increase the minimum wage. It's the way our democracy's work. Want our support and vote? Then provide answers/ programs to help us. Thanks in, for all his ills, began doing more to address concerns of the poor. Thai Democrats could change their tact and provide answers rather than digging in their heals to protect their interests alone. In my humble opinion...

[bunuel]

Sorry, but facts are facts. Regardless of what you think of Suthep or fascism, his program is a textbook example of fascism. His reasoning is precisely the same as the white minority government in South Africa when they opposed the principle of " one man, one vote" - the great majority of people are too stupid and uneducated to make an intelligent choice.

In the case of South Africa,the people elected Nelson Mandela, and most everyone agrees they averted a bloodbath. Even though some HiSo Thais live in a state denial, Thailand is part of the world,and does not inhabit some parallel dimension. Fascism is fascism, wherever it is.

By the way,supporters of Mr. Suthep would do well to consider the Buddhist proverb-

" When the water runs high, the fish eat the ants;

when the water runs low,the ants will eat the fish."

The only thing that can save Thailand from oblivion is negotiation and compromise. Whatever you think

about the government,they have shown a willingness to negotiate and compromise. That is why the democratically elected government has gotten a public vote of support from the US and the EU.

The Thai economy has already been seriously damaged by this seditiious campaign, and

one hopes that Jai Yen wins the day.

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.

[shiok]

this is yr answer how corrupt n dirty this govt is to

the innocent rural ones just read this article

in the Bangkok post

"Unpaid rice farmers threaten action Published: 11 Dec 2013 at 08.21Online news:

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/384243/unpaid-rice-farmers-threaten-action. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved."

[PAWNEESE]

Thai politics nothing to do with me but it is interesting to try and understand what is happening.

"Me thinks" if in Britain a Prime Minister was convicted of corruption and a family member got elected and tried to pass a law to give him an amnesty ... I would be seriously enraged. It makes it worse when you consider he left and has never seemed contrite.

I would be on the streets protesting.

I would STILL be unhappy even if re elected as is the prediction but would bow to democracy.

However I would also understand those who still carried on protesting as they want the new leader to go and be done with the family. The amnesty bill attempt will never be forgiven.

[dunque]

Why is Abisit so silent throughout all of this rabble rousing by Suthep.

Well, I would imagine that the real powers behind Suthep are keeping him away from the action so he can be used as the 'sensible compromise' candidate to be the acceptable face of their undemocratic coup.

[bigbamboo]

Every nation gets the government it deserves.... and never truer than in the case of Thailand.

If Thais are happy to sell their souls in the form of their vote for a few hundred baht that's their prerogative. Whoever they vote for will be putting themselves first too anyway, it's just a matter of degree. You can probably count the number of Thais who go into politics to serve their country on one hand and scarily most are in positions of power as a result of who they know not what they know. Here it's even possible to go into politics and start at the very top... if you know the right person.

[UncleJ]

The Nation newspaper has an agenda.

Many Thai Visa members mistakenly think they are reading the news and end up supporting the real crooks. (Army and Elite)

[tyler2208]

i support suthep.

I can vote.

[Misab]

Why Farangs don’t like Taksin family

Let me ask what have Yingluck done to help Farangs in Thailand. We are discriminated. We are treated like criminals on probation. Every 3 months we have to go and see our probation officer. Do they try to change that? Wouldn’t it be more fair to say: “Now you have been living in Thailand for 5 years, now you only have to come once a year”

Does Yingluck try to make it more human in Thailand for Farangs? We have to pay 5 times the price than Thai people do to see a nature attraction. We are generally cheated when we buy something.

I don’t know if it would be better with Suthep, but I don’t think it would be worse.

Does democracy work in Thailand when the majority do not take into account the minority?

[jerome2]

THE ONELY WAY TO DEAL WITH PUSHERS (DEALERS)

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.

[magnbol]

By Brian Klonoski, RYOT NewsThe recently rowdy streets of Bangkok were silent on Tuesday thanks to a national holiday, but that didn’t stop Suthep Thaugsuban — the former politician now leading protests — from giving speeches, issuing decrees and more or less attempting to establish a parallel government in Thailand.Despite lacking an ounce of authority, Thaugsuban continues to insist that his protest movement — which has drawn as many as 150,000 demonstrators in Bangkok — has more legitimacy than the elected government. In speeches on Monday and Tuesday, he issued the following brazen orders:That Prime Minister Yingluck be prosecuted on insurrection charges for “trying to overthrow the constitution.” FYI: That’s the same charge for which Thaugsuban faces an arrest warrant.That the police chief order all his men to withdraw from their posts. <snip>

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

http://www.ryot.org/protest-leader-suthep-thaugsuban-suddenly-thinks-hes-the-leader-of-thailand/495265

Edited December 11, 2013 by Tywais
Next time add link to source and only 2-3 sentences for fair use

[jerome2]

IT CAN SOMETIMES BE BETTER ,BUT IT CAN ALWAYS BE WORSE (human basic law)

Why Farangs don’t like Taksin family

Let me ask what have Yingluck done to help Farangs in Thailand. We are discriminated. We are treated like criminals on probation. Every 3 months we have to go and see our probation officer. Do they try to change that? Wouldn’t it be more fair to say: “Now you have been living in Thailand for 5 years, now you only have to come once a year”

Does Yingluck try to make it more human in Thailand for Farangs? We have to pay 5 times the price than Thai people do to see a nature attraction. We are generally cheated when we buy something.

I don’t know if it would be better with Suthep, but I don’t think it would be worse.

Does democracy work in Thailand when the majority do not take into account the minority?

[Stefan Steinfeld]

"I am glad to see my taxes being spent on the farmers rather than on these $- in Bangkok."

Are you also happy with you tax money being spent on failed attempts to manipulate (I know, big word for you) global rice prices, failed 1 tablet per child policy, failed flood protection, equally failing southern dilemma, etc.

Furthermore,

"And assaulting ministries and police headquarters"

so it was okay to burn down Central Word at Ratchamnoen? Or saying "burn down Bangkok" as the Red leader once spoke?

Please elaborate (once again, a big word for you)

You are generalizing. There are bad characters on both sides of the divide... people who would do anything to push their agenda. That does not mean that the movement as such is bad. I understand that the majority of Thailand's voters, i.e. the redshirts, were fed up after their democratically elected representatives were ousted in a military coup. kawaiimomo is spot on with his remarks.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Stefan Steinfeld

[Time Traveller]

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

well good for you. So why don't you just stay in your own lane, and not worry about what everyone else is doing or saying or backing?

[TVGerry]

THE ONELY WAY TO DEAL WITH PUSHERS (DEALERS)

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.

Typing in CAPS doesn't make your idiot statements any less idiotic.

Many of the thousands who died weren't even in the drug trade. And thousands of deaths later, the drug trade wasn't eliminated was it?

[Doc46]

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 ;-)

Well said )

[prvtdetdave]

kawaiimomo

Would you support this in your country. Yes actually it has happened only thing is that parties will disolve.

Then again I have a question for you.

Would you support having and escaped felon that robbed and defrauded the country for his own personal gain running your country and trying to come back to make it worse?

The arguments are not against a political party as much as they are against a family that is perceived to wants to run Thailand as their own entity.

These protests are a good thing for this country. Suthep has done something that needed to be done. He has woken up the young people and they are ow getting involved in the country instead of their smartphones.

This coutnry was about to waste billions of baht and if left alone ws going to absolve Thaksin and all his cronies on both sides of any legal responsibilities for life. that can not happen.

Courts have to be respected. Thaksin feels that he is above the law. No one is above it.

Missing the point. Completely. The point about this all is, is not whether Thaksin is good or bad. It is about whether he (or his sister) was democratically elected by the majority of Thai people.

To make it clear, there is only one person who should lead this country: it is the person/party that is elected by the majority of Thais - good or bad.

Understand yet?

Nonsense. A government that is elected by a majority, or in this case a large minority, still has to govern in accordance with the law and constitution of the country.

This government has tried to act above the law and change laws for its own benefit. It has been caught lying, which it admits, acting illegally, which it refuses to comment on, and cheating by ignoring correct parliamentary procedure. Not one single apology - simply: we're the government and we can do what we want. Well, no actually they can't as they are now finding out.

Democracies must have the power to remove corrupt regimes that are acting illegally and/or purely for self-benefit. In mature democracies, a government that has been caught out so many times as this lot would have been forced to resign.

More drivel & rubbish.

[Time Traveller]

I don’t know if it would be better with Suthep, but I don’t think it would be worse.

Does democracy work in Thailand when the majority do not take into account the minority?

So the Buddhists being the majority must take into account the wishes of the minority Muslims? Does this mean you support sharia law in Thailand?

Or are you just confused and contradicting yourself?

Edited December 11, 2013 by Time Traveller

[UncleJ]

THE ONELY WAY TO DEAL WITH PUSHERS (DEALERS)

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.

Typing in CAPS doesn't make your idiot statements any less idiotic.

Many of the thousands who died weren't even in the drug trade. And thousands of deaths later, the drug trade wasn't eliminated was it?

Funny, the drug deaths were not investigated by Thaksin's enemies, no?

Why?

It was done for someone way up the food chain, way, way up.

They don't mind Thaksin getting the blame.

[A1Str8]

Nobody backs Suthep, not even his grandma.

[sawadee1947]

kawaiimomo:

I agree with you.

I can't understand people who are supporting a brainless mob leader like him.

Yingluck is the first PM who take steps for water and flood management and is getting investors into this country just to develop infrastructure.

And Suthep? Only to stop her and doing her so far good job.

Suthep is not a future for this country, but a desaster for Thai reputation and economy. Everybody is to stop HIM

[Stefan Steinfeld]

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

All credibility diminishes when you see "the Guardian".

No mention of Thaksin's human rights issues, the war on drugs, Tai Bak. The last paragraph sums it up nicely. This writer, editor and newspaper see nothing wrong in a Prime Minister and her government doing what a convicted criminal fugitive tells them.

Of course, she implies the conviction was unjust, but offers no evidence to support that, or inquire why he didn't appeal and fight, or that his relation was PM at the time; fails to mention he has many more outstanding charges waiting or that the government have been trying to whitewash him for 2.5 years as their priority.

She doesn't mention the rice scheme and water management fiasco or the 2,2 trillion off budget loan. She doesn't mention vote buying and coercion or the illegal acts of the current government.

If you want pro Thaksin propaganda then The Guardian is a good place to look. They always support corrupt dictators providing the dictators pretend to be a peoples' party.

I don't support Suthep and his extreme ideas. But, the PTP regime lie, cheat, steal, ignore the law and parliamentary rules, and treat the Thai people with utter contempt. I know many Thais who protested not because they support Suthep but because they've seen through this scam of a government. They want them out .......... but the choice of replacement is somewhat limited too.

"But, the PTP regime lie, cheat, steal, ignore the law and parliamentary rules, and treat the Thai people with utter contempt." - and you think Suthep doesn't? Check out his behaviour in Phuket land sales in the 90s....

... and what do you mean by "and treat the Thai people with utter contempt"? Do you want to imply that the elite/royalists/urban middle class who are behind the protests and behave undemocratically are the Thais and the other people are not?

[prvtdetdave]

te

Why Farangs don’t like Taksin family

Let me ask what have Yingluck done to help Farangs in Thailand. We are discriminated. We are treated like criminals on probation. Every 3 months we have to go and see our probation officer. Do they try to change that? Wouldn’t it be more fair to say: “Now you have been living in Thailand for 5 years, now you only have to come once a year”

Does Yingluck try to make it more human in Thailand for Farangs? We have to pay 5 times the price than Thai people do to see a nature attraction. We are generally cheated when we buy something.

I don’t know if it would be better with Suthep, but I don’t think it would be worse.

Does democracy work in Thailand when the majority do not take into account the minority?

I don't think Ying Luck has anything to do with you being cheated by a merchant or paying a different price to go to a park.

That was all here before her or her brother.

[IMA_FARANG]

Would you support this crap or a military coup in your own country?

In my personal case ..... yes I would if I thought it was necessary.

I don't think it's come to that yet ... but it could.

And I'm from the (increasingly dictatorial) U.S.A.

But that's neither here nor there.

I don't "support" Suthep.

He has problems with his political stance also.

But I DO believe it's time for a major change in Thailand and particularly with it's phony "money buys Democracy" form of Thai government.

And, at least, Suthep has changed and is changing the perception of the corrupt and non functional Thai "Democracy".

Thai Democracy has been sick for many years .... it's dysfunctional ..... like a old broken down automobile.

It needs to go to the garage .... and be rebuilt from the chassis up.

Like that old vehicle it's time to get it off the highway, and into the garage for repair.

For all it's worth .... not much from a Farang without a vote ... that's my opinion.