Pro-govt Red Shirts to counter 'Bangkok shutdown'

[beautifulthailand99]

The Red Channel is showing a lengthy doom laden promo which starts with the 2010 deaths shown in graphic detail and then goes onto to show brutal African army violence and butchery which I assume is what they are saying could happen in the event of a civil war. Had a monk on this morning going on at length about Suthep and the cost of the shutdown for ordinary folk. Missus dissapointed in him taking such an interest in worldy matters but hey TIT and if you want to find a computer mall follow the robe.

[wirat69]

Problems in this paradise started the day Thailand was "colonised" by the thai chinese. Period.

You are short on history. The Chinese have been here for hundreds of years, participating and contributing to the Thai economy.

Nah... Thailand has been colonized by American TV/movies and by Steve Jobs (R.I.P.)

[Scamper]

According to Thida, Suthep has been a naughty man, actually deigning to suggest that the UDD has ever been prone to violence. The hypocrisy is numbing.

[hellodolly]

I'll see your 7 sites and raise you one. I don't think the yellow shirts will take to kindly to this. Sure the reds have exactly the same right to protest as the yellows do but this could get nasty.

Well that is the red shirt way of doing things isn't it.

City halls burned down fire engines burned up attempt to burn Bangkok down.

Throwing things at other parties rallies and in general trying to disrupt them.sorry If I missed any thing. O yes here in Chiang Mai throwing bottles and blocking a parade of anti government protesters.

Oh yes and armed attempt to over throw government.

You have A fine set of people on your side.

Real civic leaders. Democracy at the end of a gun and all that.

A fine group to look up to.

Going to save Thailand from those anti corruption do gooders.

[tingtongteesood]

PRDC is going to block 7 sites in BKK, and to counter this red shirts will block other sites outside BKK and in the north. How does this counter, rather than help, paralyse the city?

It isn't the 'shutdown' the reds are against, they don't care about that. It is the fact that anyone dare to not show their complete undying loyalty for their beloved wannabe tinpot dictator fugitive in Dubai. The reds are good at getting in the way as they did for 2 months in 2010. They don't give a crap about anyone else. If they weren't being paid to come then there would be maybe 1 or 200 people tops at each site, not a real problem. Depending on how much the pay is there may be more, let's wait and see. Unfortunately we know they have been told to try and make trouble on Monday. Good day to stay home.

[hellodolly]

Problems in this paradise started the day Thailand was "colonised" by the thai chinese. Period.

Today's problems can be traced to the last century;

1. The Anglo- Siamese Treaty of 1909: This sowed the seeds of the southern conflict,. The British colonial occupiers of Malaysia carved out the northern part of Malaya and gave the Sultanate of Pattani to Thailand. Had, the region been left with the region to which it belonged, we would not have a southern insurgency today.

2. The French Colonial rule in Indochina left the region messed up and sowed the seeds for successful anti colonial movements led by communists. The fear of communists led the USA to back any country that was "anti communist". Thailand played off this fear to the hilt taking advantage of the US generosity/largesse which put large amounts of money into play, sowing the seeds of mega corruption.

3. The failure of the allies after WWII to purge Thailand of the nationalists who had supported and emulated the Nazis &/Japanese. These ultra nationalists remained, causing a blight on the country and sowing the seeds for a reliance upon dictatorships and the suppression of basic human rights.

4. The refusal of the west to reprimand Thailand for its human rights abuses and defacto support of human trafficking. (The change in attitudes only came about recently after Australia and Canada came close to sending warships into Thailand's territorial waters in an effort to stop the deluge of bogus Tamil refugees who were using Thailand as a jumping off point. The tough response led by Australia sent a strong message never given before.) Unfortunately, the continued support of the USA to Thailand in the hopes of countering Chinese influence in the region reinforces the Thai presumption of being untouchable.

5. The quiet support the Chinese have shown to whatever regime suits its interests, also reinforces the Thai presumption of being untouchable.

Best post of the day. Someone who knows what's what. Another British cock up of which I am not proud. As far as the present goes. The Chinese will decide, but it doesn't have to begin with Shin.

All countries have problems that can be traced back to years gone by.

Yes there is a lot of world problems that can be traced back to the English need to rape the world.

Lets have a look at one GK mentioned

1. The Anglo- Siamese Treaty of 1909: This sowed the seeds of the southern conflict,

fine and dandy but that could be traced back to an earlier problem.

When are people going to grow up and deal with 2014 with out dragging in an endless past of causes that we are completely powerless to do any thing about.

I think it was all caused by Eve tempting Adam to eat an apple. How is that for blaming the past and being unable to do any thing about it.

Besides I am not convinced that the southern provinces really want to be a separate country. The common every day people that go about their business in an orderly way do they want a separate country.?

Yes there are radicals there but there milatency can be traced back to their religion.

[Ulic]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

[HOOD Robin]

"Thida Thavornseth, leader of the pro-government United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), the Red Shirt group, today lashed out at protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban for alleged slander, charging the UDD with hiring people at Bt3,000 each to hold counter rallies."

=> isnt that exactly what the REDS are doing for many years already ??? Paying (and DEMANDING) those poor rice farmers so they can get in the PM chair....

(BTW wondering how this ugly woman and her gang can claim they are against "Dictatorship".... How is The Shinawatra clan supposed to be viewed ? )

[tezzainoz]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

[Ulic]

Problems can all be solved within Parliament, and by essential urgent augmentation of the current Parliamentary profile, achieved by high-level State discussion between the various modules of State. There is no further need for reds yellows pinks or greens to 'Hit The Streets'. We all know what everybody wants from each social group. The problem is that the current Parliamentary build is not customised to Thailand's specific problems re; corruption and lopsided underclass voting block. The solution in /macro-sentence ; greatly restricting PM/ruling party powers, making the PM and ruling-party position into an honourable but decorative title, where you get to be Boss and feel all 'Facey' but at the same time you are essentially doing State Events / foreign dinners / hand-shaking - you become the figurehead on the prow of the Democratic ship - but you are not steering it without clear debate-based Parliamentary consensus, and enacting a stricter consensus-directive on all Bills, and creating an external Parliamentary Watchdog run by Legal and other other high-State sovereign modules - this Watchdog's primary objective is the strict monitoring of policy-queueing systems - where policies that are Good For Thailand are green-lighted and go to the front of the line, policies that are okay but not priority are marked with a semi-tick and are put mid-queue and thereupon will eventually receive intense cross-party debate & never leave the floor of debate until there is consensus at which point the Watchdog will re-examine the agreed nexus-point and greenlight it based (again) on the Good For Thailand primary objective, and thirdly all policies that are entirely criminal or self-enriching (Thaksin Passport policy) would be marked with a red cross by the Watchdog, blocked from the debating floor, and sent to walk home barefoot while being laughed at.

Re; Corruption. The above system can filter out internal corruption, which always dies when it is exposed to enough debate and scrutiny. It can also achieve consensus on the best model for establishing a permanent and ironshod Corruption Agency, and funding thereof, to monitor corruption in State, business and official modules across Thailand. Obviously, lowering corruption slightly is the main goal. Nobody expects miracles.

Why this is ontopic is that the pointless street action is gearing up for another long hot summer, and while I personally do pray daily that nobody will receive so much as a stubbed toe in the whole situation, the actual point is that its pointless, and the whole problem can be solved by repairs to the existing Parliamentary system, and within said system.

While I agree this is a great plan, who is going to put forward and implement this plan.

[Ulic]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

[rickirs]

Problems can all be solved within Parliament, and by essential urgent augmentation of the current Parliamentary profile, achieved by high-level State discussion between the various modules of State. There is no further need for reds yellows pinks or greens to 'Hit The Streets'. We all know what everybody wants from each social group. The problem is that the current Parliamentary build is not customised to Thailand's specific problems re; corruption and lopsided underclass voting block. The solution in /macro-sentence ; greatly restricting PM/ruling party powers, making the PM and ruling-party position into an honourable but decorative title, where you get to be Boss and feel all 'Facey' but at the same time you are essentially doing State Events / foreign dinners / hand-shaking - you become the figurehead on the prow of the Democratic ship - but you are not steering it without clear debate-based Parliamentary consensus, and enacting a stricter consensus-directive on all Bills, and creating an external Parliamentary Watchdog run by Legal and other other high-State sovereign modules - this Watchdog's primary objective is the strict monitoring of policy-queueing systems - where policies that are Good For Thailand are green-lighted and go to the front of the line, policies that are okay but not priority are marked with a semi-tick and are put mid-queue and thereupon will eventually receive intense cross-party debate & never leave the floor of debate until there is consensus at which point the Watchdog will re-examine the

A re-examination of the whole Thailand parliamentary system might be a good idea to explore. Perhaps something more akin to Jordon's parliamentray system or a hybrid of parliamentary system such as Russia with the King essentially serving as an unelected President who presides over the constitutional and supreme court and nominates the prime minister confirmed by a partially elected federal assembly.

[Yunla]

@ All the various responses to my posts. I have read your various replies with interest, and I thank you all very kindly. My angle on all this, if it helps to respond to your points, is that I see 3 possible situations open at present.

Number 1 : Suthep's Assembly takes over, unelected, so-far fairly conceptual and vague with 'reform first' being the priority, and some sub-sections under the reform-first offering. Problems (imho) it is unelected, it may be just as corrupt and autocratic than the current mess, it will lead to a huge angry Hulk Smash response from people who went to the polls and voted-in the PTP Govt.

Number 2 : Do nothing. Let the elections come and PTP walk in again, by base and boosted by all the people who got sick of the recent protests. And leave the mechanisms of Parliament unchanged and unregulated. More of the same.

Number 3 : What I was trying to suggest, in my own severely handicapped way, is that elections go ahead but that the opposition parties insist on reform within parliament. And that other high ranking members of society who understand basic economics and know where all this *circus of endless revolts/upheavals is already and will lead Thailand*, and don't wish to see this situation continue, and demand further regulation and reform <importantly> within the democratic parliamentary system.

One specific point was raised re; debate and this being nulled by majority voting, in the forms I suggested is a more sophisticated diffusion of power/control, which fractionalises and means that while individual votes count, power domination is not possible. This is maths, and is not an issue anyway because under my proposal, there is a Goldstar system at the endpoint of the debate/voting, which is that the policy has to be for the "benefit of Thailand" : this being the top card that holds the table over anything.

Also, under what I suggested, the "Amnesty-bill" would have got blocked pre-debate. Criminals who have broken the law do not get amnesty, its a ludicrous idea. The very proposal of this is by its very nature pro-crime, and under a strict system would be blocked at step one, and not even debated.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Yunla

[rubl]

"Problems can all be solved within Parliament,"

Like with blanket amnesty bills and off budget infrastructure bills.

Under the improvements listed, these proposals would not be able to be Steamrollered through. They would be assessed pre-debate, and then debated until nexus-point of near-consensus, and then re-assessed.

But they weren't 'steamrollered through' though, were they? Government tried it with the amnesty bill. There was a public backlash and they pulled it. Isn't that exactly how the parliamentary system is supposed to work? You can always push a bill through parliament if you have the numbers but the public can act as a check and balance by protesting. They did and deserve great credit for it.

Those same protests have now morphed into something else entirely though.

'pulled it' ?

The government was telling all 'don't protest, lots of procedures to follow, go home' when the first details of the modified 'blanket amnesty bill' became known and protests started. Then two readings and two votes in hardly more than 24 hours. Followed by another 'please wait, go home, the senate ...'. Well if the senate hadn't heard voices of discontent they might have though 'no protest, so OK'. Now that bill is waiting for a 180-day period, it's not pulled'. Only six other amnesty bill proposals still waiting for reading in parliament were 'pulled'.

And of course the (trying to) pull wool over our eyes

[rubl]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

I know the people at one of the banks here regularly join lunch and/or evening protests, on a voluntary base and certainly UNPAID for. Just repeating what they have told me and as far as I can tell / judge

[Morakot]

counter ‘Bangkok shutdown’

What will a counter shutdown be? A "switch on"?

Edited January 10, 2014 by Morakot

[andyww]

Just spotted a group of around 200 people on trucks and motorbikes on Lad Prao rd making a lot of noise waving placards with "Bangkok open 24/7".

They were wearing white shirts

Edited January 10, 2014 by andyww

[chooka]

I'll see your 7 sites and raise you one. I don't think the yellow shirts will take to kindly to this. Sure the reds have exactly the same right to protest as the yellows do but this could get nasty.

Well that is the red shirt way of doing things isn't it.

City halls burned down fire engines burned up attempt to burn Bangkok down.

Throwing things at other parties rallies and in general trying to disrupt them.sorry If I missed any thing. O yes here in Chiang Mai throwing bottles and blocking a parade of anti government protesters.

Oh yes and armed attempt to over throw government.

You have A fine set of people on your side.

Real civic leaders. Democracy at the end of a gun and all that.

A fine group to look up to.

Going to save Thailand from those anti corruption do gooders.

My side what is my side? The criminal Thaksin and his band of thugs or the dangerous raving Lunatic Suthep and his thugs.

[tezzainoz]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

Please tell me if this is true

where can my thai wife get money to protest

we could do with some extra money

[hellodolly]

I'll see your 7 sites and raise you one. I don't think the yellow shirts will take to kindly to this. Sure the reds have exactly the same right to protest as the yellows do but this could get nasty.

Well that is the red shirt way of doing things isn't it.

City halls burned down fire engines burned up attempt to burn Bangkok down.

Throwing things at other parties rallies and in general trying to disrupt them.sorry If I missed any thing. O yes here in Chiang Mai throwing bottles and blocking a parade of anti government protesters.

Oh yes and armed attempt to over throw government.

You have A fine set of people on your side.

Real civic leaders. Democracy at the end of a gun and all that.

A fine group to look up to.

Going to save Thailand from those anti corruption do gooders.

My side what is my side? The criminal Thaksin and his band of thugs or the dangerous raving Lunatic Suthep and his t

Not to hard to figure out when you have one side proven to be the way you state them to be and the other side just your unsubstantiated accusations. Now why would you make them?

Indeed raving lunatic. Raving about cleaning up corruption in Thailand.

Is that your idea of a lunatic?

If so Thailand needs more of them.

[beautifulthailand99]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

Please tell me if this is true

where can my thai wife get money to protest

we could do with some extra money

Wised up Thais always know where the money is .....

[Emptyset]

"Problems can all be solved within Parliament,"

Like with blanket amnesty bills and off budget infrastructure bills.

Under the improvements listed, these proposals would not be able to be Steamrollered through. They would be assessed pre-debate, and then debated until nexus-point of near-consensus, and then re-assessed.

But they weren't 'steamrollered through' though, were they? Government tried it with the amnesty bill. There was a public backlash and they pulled it. Isn't that exactly how the parliamentary system is supposed to work? You can always push a bill through parliament if you have the numbers but the public can act as a check and balance by protesting. They did and deserve great credit for it.

Those same protests have now morphed into something else entirely though.

'pulled it' ?

The government was telling all 'don't protest, lots of procedures to follow, go home' when the first details of the modified 'blanket amnesty bill' became known and protests started. Then two readings and two votes in hardly more than 24 hours. Followed by another 'please wait, go home, the senate ...'. Well if the senate hadn't heard voices of discontent they might have though 'no protest, so OK'. Now that bill is waiting for a 180-day period, it's not pulled'. Only six other amnesty bill proposals still waiting for reading in parliament were 'pulled'.

And of course the (trying to) pull wool over our eyes

Senate rejected it because govt told their Senators to reject it. But the anti-govt group of 40 appointed senators were trying to keep it alive for as long as possible in order to encourage the protesters. Of course, if I were them I would've done exactly the same. They could've pushed for its amendment back to the original proposal of just ordinary people if they'd wanted to make sure it was completely dead (per Alongkorn's suggestion - and he is someone I feel genuinely cares about the national interest). Anyway, you sure the bill can still be reaffirmed after 180 days even though the house has been dissolved? Even if it can, it's pretty irrelevant now. Do you think govt would try to reaffirm it after an election and have all this on their hands again? I mean, I know these guys are pretty dumb, but...

Anyway, the govt did backtrack which is a sign it isn't quite the autocratic govt that people accuse it of being. Remember, in the UK, a much bigger protest failed to stop the Iraq war (consent 'steamrollered' through parliament after only 10 hours of debate), and the government had lied about the basis for going to war too. Was Blair an autocrat? I mean there have been many protests in the UK, some relatively violent, and I can't remember the last thing the government - whether this one or the last one - changed their mind on.

This links in to the reform issue. Thais have an idealized vision of western democracy whilst doing down their own. Take this, I feel like I've just read something quite ridiculous: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/760033830691006?stream_ref=10

'Our current Constitution has bred a system of capitalist autocracy, which is an autocracy by a group of capitalists in the form of a political party, operating under a parliamentary system. This is the result of the following three provisions of the Constitution: (1) Members of Parliament must belong to a political party; (2) a political party can expel its members for disobeying party resolutions (resulting in such members losing their MP status); and (3) a Prime Minister must be a Member of Parliament. (Thailand is the only country on earth that has such rules.) This system of capitalist autocracy, in which those with money buy votes and obtain absolute power of the State in a parliamentary system, has led to gross corruption. It is a seizing of absolute power by a group of capitalists.'

I'd actually agree that MPs shouldn't have to belong to a party, but how many 'independent' MPs are there in countries which allow independent candidates anyway? In the UK I think there are like 6? And it's not that difficult in Thailand can register a party pretty easily and run as MP. The reason they put this rule in was to try to become more like other countries which have established political parties. It's not going to change much if you remove it. Points (2), and (3) seem to me to be obvious nonsense. In the UK, at least, of course a party can suspend or expel you if you refuse to follow the party whip.

It's just part of a continuing theme of Thai exceptionalism. The guy actually admits other democracies have been through this stage. Yet his solution seems to be to overthrow it, rather than going down the route countries that now have stable democratic systems did, which is to muddle on through. Protest, yes, vigorously or even violently. That's part of democracy and part of improving democracy. But continually tearing up constitutions and throwing out elected governments, no. Continued commitment to democratic process instead of relying on 'outside forces' is what achieved stable and relatively clean, responsive, democratic systems in the West.

Still leaves a lot to be desired, even in the West, but the continual struggle is how to improve it, not overthrow it.

[Donnie Brasco]

Problems can all be solved within Parliament, and by essential urgent augmentation of the current Parliamentary profile, achieved by high-level State discussion between the various modules of State. There is no further need for reds yellows pinks or greens to 'Hit The Streets'. We all know what everybody wants from each social group. The problem is that the current Parliamentary build is not customised to Thailand's specific problems re; corruption and lopsided underclass voting block. The solution in /macro-sentence ; greatly restricting PM/ruling party powers, making the PM and ruling-party position into an honourable but decorative title, where you get to be Boss and feel all 'Facey' but at the same time you are essentially doing State Events / foreign dinners / hand-shaking - you become the figurehead on the prow of the Democratic ship - but you are not steering it without clear debate-based Parliamentary consensus, and enacting a stricter consensus-directive on all Bills, and creating an external Parliamentary Watchdog run by Legal and other other high-State sovereign modules - this Watchdog's primary objective is the strict monitoring of policy-queueing systems - where policies that are Good For Thailand are green-lighted and go to the front of the line, policies that are okay but not priority are marked with a semi-tick and are put mid-queue and thereupon will eventually receive intense cross-party debate & never leave the floor of debate until there is consensus at which point the Watchdog will re-examine the agreed nexus-point and greenlight it based (again) on the Good For Thailand primary objective, and thirdly all policies that are entirely criminal or self-enriching (Thaksin Passport policy) would be marked with a red cross by the Watchdog, blocked from the debating floor, and sent to walk home barefoot while being laughed at.

Re; Corruption. The above system can filter out internal corruption, which always dies when it is exposed to enough debate and scrutiny. It can also achieve consensus on the best model for establishing a permanent and ironshod Corruption Agency, and funding thereof, to monitor corruption in State, business and official modules across Thailand. Obviously, lowering corruption slightly is the main goal. Nobody expects miracles.

Why this is ontopic is that the pointless street action is gearing up for another long hot summer, and while I personally do pray daily that nobody will receive so much as a stubbed toe in the whole situation, the actual point is that its pointless, and the whole problem can be solved by repairs to the existing Parliamentary system, and within said system.

Translation into English please . . .

jl@@@9

He wants you to cut your explanation of this complex explanation down to a tweet.

[rubl]

But they weren't 'steamrollered through' though, were they? Government tried it with the amnesty bill. There was a public backlash and they pulled it. Isn't that exactly how the parliamentary system is supposed to work? You can always push a bill through parliament if you have the numbers but the public can act as a check and balance by protesting. They did and deserve great credit for it.

Those same protests have now morphed into something else entirely though.

'pulled it' ?

The government was telling all 'don't protest, lots of procedures to follow, go home' when the first details of the modified 'blanket amnesty bill' became known and protests started. Then two readings and two votes in hardly more than 24 hours. Followed by another 'please wait, go home, the senate ...'. Well if the senate hadn't heard voices of discontent they might have though 'no protest, so OK'. Now that bill is waiting for a 180-day period, it's not pulled'. Only six other amnesty bill proposals still waiting for reading in parliament were 'pulled'.

And of course the (trying to) pull wool over our eyes

Senate rejected it because govt told their Senators to reject it. But the anti-govt group of 40 appointed senators were trying to keep it alive for as long as possible in order to encourage the protesters. Of course, if I were them I would've done exactly the same. They could've pushed for its amendment back to the original proposal of just ordinary people if they'd wanted to make sure it was completely dead (per Alongkorn's suggestion - and he is someone I feel genuinely cares about the national interest). Anyway, you sure the bill can still be reaffirmed after 180 days even though the house has been dissolved? Even if it can, it's pretty irrelevant now. Do you think govt would try to reaffirm it after an election and have all this on their hands again? I mean, I know these guys are pretty dumb, but...

Anyway, the govt did backtrack which is a sign it isn't quite the autocratic govt that people accuse it of being. Remember, in the UK, a much bigger protest failed to stop the Iraq war (consent 'steamrollered' through parliament after only 10 hours of debate), and the government had lied about the basis for going to war too. Was Blair an autocrat? I mean there have been many protests in the UK, some relatively violent, and I can't remember the last thing the government - whether this one or the last one - changed their mind on.

This links in to the reform issue. Thais have an idealized vision of western democracy whilst doing down their own. Take this, I feel like I've just read something quite ridiculous: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelYonFanPage/posts/760033830691006?stream_ref=10

'Our current Constitution has bred a system of capitalist autocracy, which is an autocracy by a group of capitalists in the form of a political party, operating under a parliamentary system. This is the result of the following three provisions of the Constitution: (1) Members of Parliament must belong to a political party; (2) a political party can expel its members for disobeying party resolutions (resulting in such members losing their MP status); and (3) a Prime Minister must be a Member of Parliament. (Thailand is the only country on earth that has such rules.) This system of capitalist autocracy, in which those with money buy votes and obtain absolute power of the State in a parliamentary system, has led to gross corruption. It is a seizing of absolute power by a group of capitalists.'

I'd actually agree that MPs shouldn't have to belong to a party, but how many 'independent' MPs are there in countries which allow independent candidates anyway? In the UK I think there are like 6? And it's not that difficult in Thailand can register a party pretty easily and run as MP. The reason they put this rule in was to try to become more like other countries which have established political parties. It's not going to change much if you remove it. Points (2), and (3) seem to me to be obvious nonsense. In the UK, at least, of course a party can suspend or expel you if you refuse to follow the party whip.

It's just part of a continuing theme of Thai exceptionalism. The guy actually admits other democracies have been through this stage. Yet his solution seems to be to overthrow it, rather than going down the route countries that now have stable democratic systems did, which is to muddle on through. Protest, yes, vigorously or even violently. That's part of democracy and part of improving democracy. But continually tearing up constitutions and throwing out elected governments, no. Continued commitment to democratic process instead of relying on 'outside forces' is what achieved stable and relatively clean, responsive, democratic systems in the West.

Still leaves a lot to be desired, even in the West, but the continual struggle is how to improve it, not overthrow it.

The truth will set you free, dear Empty.

The PM had said it's up to the Senators. She also said not to interfere with it or pressure senators. Lots of senators also refused to be pressured into a quickly moved forward session of the senate on debating of and voting on the bill as frantically tried to push by the Senate House Speaker.

Edited January 10, 2014 by rubl

[kirk0233]

The level of chaos presently seen in Bangkok could have been avoided if the PTP had paid attention to the signal associated with the king and queen moving to Hua Hin at the end of July when the debate regarding amnesty grew more heated. Now the nation is paying for this oversight.

[lostmebike]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

Well that's confirmed it then

[lostmebike]

Problems in this paradise started the day Thailand was "colonised" by the thai chinese. Period.

Yes and all the while the Thai-Chinese control government offices and own all of the cities in LOS, there will be a continued gulf between the wealthy and the piss poor.

[tezzainoz]

Suthep knows exactly what the UDD is paying its protesters because he is paying his protesters the same.

My Thai wife and her girlfriend are part of this protest and have not been paid 1 baht

so either you tell big fibbies or they and thousands of other are being ripped of by not being paid

I think the 1st one fits you

Just repeating what my lady friend has told me her friends were offered.

Well that's confirmed it then

Thaskin could not have answered the question better

Answer it with a general statement that does not show you are telling a direct lie

seems to me these style of answers is what has caused the problem we are in today

My thai wife and all of her friends protest, because they what the lies and curruption to stop, or at least be a penilty if caught, they are no looking for money, so could it be true that the majority feel the same way

There will always be a few that do it for money, but why must you low life's put all Thais down to the same low level as your selves

Sorry If love Thailand

and have met many good people in the 10 years I have been here

Shame there are many TV commentaters who do not fit in the sam category

[smileydude]

Just spotted a group of around 200 people on trucks and motorbikes on Lad Prao rd making a lot of noise waving placards with "Bangkok open 24/7".

They were wearing white shirts

They are known as the 3rd group trying to advocate no coup, no violence, pro-vote on Feb 2.

They are actually led by red shirts (Korkaew Pikultong) masquerading as civil people to deceive those who believe Suthep is too radical, to join them in order to lull us into voting, which of course will turn into a farce as the EC plans to store the ballot boxes at Police Stations nationwide.

They plan to lead a candle lit protest.

Of course the candles will come in handy when you want to burn things.

[Maha Sarakham Marty]

Just spotted a group of around 200 people on trucks and motorbikes on Lad Prao rd making a lot of noise waving placards with "Bangkok open 24/7".

They were wearing white shirts

They are known as the 3rd group trying to advocate no coup, no violence, pro-vote on Feb 2.

They are actually led by red shirts (Korkaew Pikultong) masquerading as civil people to deceive those who believe Suthep is too radical, to join them in order to lull us into voting, which of course will turn into a farce as the EC plans to store the ballot boxes at Police Stations nationwide.

They plan to lead a candle lit protest.

Of course the candles will come in handy when you want to burn things.

Hmmmm... Yet another Red Shirt Leader violating his bail conditions.

Korkaew Pikultong

Edited January 10, 2014 by Maha Sarakham Marty