Human Rights Watch calls on Thai protesters to cease obstruction of voting

[MaxLee]

Human Rights Watch calls on protesters to cease obstruction of voting

They should rather call on criminal politicians who abuse the law, take the law into their own hands, push through witt their populist policy scams without any plan our asking the affected parties first and brainwash their minions at will until their brains are damaged and BUY their people's votes...

[iTravelNow]

I'm afraid Brad Adams thinks too much from a Western World perspective. He would do better to start talking about all democratic principles and not only on ballots and votes.

When regional political families 'control' 'their' voters those votes start to loose their democratic value. When a rice farming village doesn't (dare to) vote against their landlords or 'knows' what to expect in return from who they vote for as some poster wrote the democratic principles are totally distorted.

Under such conditions brought to the open by the undemocratic actions of the now caretaker government, an election just for the fun of it seems a futile exercise costing 3.7 billion Baht. Better spent of a reform forum.

But you don't want to imply with your answer, that this would change when another (PCAD) Government would rule this country.

Regarding the cost for the election. The demonstrations alone have currently absorbed around 300 million baht (assuming the 10 million per day mentioned earlier). If we add the incomes lost through Tourism and to other business entities due to the protests it pretend it would exceed 3.7 billion. Who are you going to blame for that?

Don't get me wrong, I am not defending corruption. I am only outraged how one guy can hijack the Government, the Economy and the people of Bangkok only because he is pi**ed off that Thaksin is more corrupt than himself.

Me deciding on which side to stand is not only of one topic (Thaksin) only they are angry at. Besides his undemocratic visions of a non elected council, I am also looking further such as: his body language that is arrogant since ever, his lies we can read about every time (a few days ago we can read "We don't obstruct election" and now we read "Election must be blocked"), and it seems he has no vision for "the day after". If I must choose between two bad options I would take the one I know already how bad they are. With Suthep, I fear, you are going to buy hot air that is going to burn you at the end.

Neither Thailand nor Thaksin have invented corruption. The world has, for the past 200 or more years tried to eradicate corruption. It is an endless fight that is lost long time ago. But one is sure, to me PT has proven they can run the Economy whereas the so called Democrat Party did not (when they where in power last time).

Just yesterday a friend (who is backing Suthep) told me he would go and vote because he want his voice to be heard and not being hijacked. I can only support this attitude.

Go and Vote - I wish Thailand good luck.

Edited January 29, 2014 by iTravelNow

[iTravelNow]

While farmers and others may decide not to vote for the PTP and desire to support the Democrats, the Democarts have no electorial candidates by their own design. So the options are either not vote at all (election defaults to the PTP) or vote for one of the other minority parties on the ballot (election goes to the majority PTP). Suthep's strategy has been an "all or nothing" strategy relying on either a military coup or abdication of the PTP government - neither not happening. He chose withdrawn from the parliament, not to register Democract candidates campaign, and use anarchy by the minority to intimidate the country into conceding majority rule to him and his People's Committee. He could have chosen to adhere to the democractic process of campaigning for farmers' vote, for the low income & poor peoples' vote and achieve a majority; but that would require him to abandon his dreams of a new reich of wealthy and elitests with himself as the leader.

Agree! You said that much better than myself.

[iTravelNow]

Suthep and his whistle blowers do not believe that everyone has an equal right to vote. He and the Bangkok Chinese think that the Thai people, in particular, in rural areas are not capable of making an informed decision since the rural Thais refuse to vote the way Suthep and his supporters want them to vote. Thus, they want to bypass the inconvenient democratic process.

As poster (#28) "rickirs" already mentioned - he seems to go for "all or nothing". I fear he will be left with "nothing" but to continue to hijack the nation.

[Publicus]

Suthep and his backers are determined to corrupt the political process and government by abolishing democracy in favor of an anonymous appointed council of the elites who have a still secret agenda for an unspecified period of time. In fact, as has been pointed out above, once you lose the vote you will never get it back.

Someone who is corrupting the political process and government cannot solve any problem of any kind concerning corruption in anything, anytime, anywhere.

Suthep and his feudal council eradicating corruption is the fox in the chicken coop investigating reports of a fox having been seen in the coup.

[PREM-R]

Brad Adams, needs to look at the past five elections in Thailand. How many of these democratic elections were thrown out because of fraud, voter intimidation and vote buying. Two of the political parties , which won the elections were later devolved by the court for corruption, and all these parties were funded by a convicted criminal. Brad, you should go see a doctor, you are coming down with the corrupt politics disease, which is highly contagious and is spread by the people you associate with.

"Two of the political parties , which won the elections were later devolved by the court for corruption...."

Probably says more about the courts than about the political parties.

Read the facts dopey before posting tripe,

Thaksin's proxy parties, and indeed members of his family engaged in politics have a history of convictions for fraud and corruption.

And you think they are all innocent?

Dream on Ram fan.

I will ignore your rudeness and offer this:

Asia Sentinel

Bangkok elites control the sinews of power.

They have used the country’s courts repeatedly to accomplish what they can’t at the voting booth, an act made doubly cynical by the fact that the very real corruption charges against politicians in surrogate parties established by allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra could be made against virtually any member of the political factions seeking to oust him.

So, are they innocent, probably not, but are they being victimised, most certainly.

[rubl]

I'm afraid Brad Adams thinks too much from a Western World perspective. He would do better to start talking about all democratic principles and not only on ballots and votes.

When regional political families 'control' 'their' voters those votes start to loose their democratic value. When a rice farming village doesn't (dare to) vote against their landlords or 'knows' what to expect in return from who they vote for as some poster wrote the democratic principles are totally distorted.

Under such conditions brought to the open by the undemocratic actions of the now caretaker government, an election just for the fun of it seems a futile exercise costing 3.7 billion Baht. Better spent of a reform forum.

But you don't want to imply with your answer, that this would change when another (PCAD) Government would rule this country.

Regarding the cost for the election. The demonstrations alone have currently absorbed around 300 million baht (assuming the 10 million per day mentioned earlier). If we add the incomes lost through Tourism and to other business entities due to the protests it pretend it would exceed 3.7 billion. Who are you going to blame for that?

Don't get me wrong, I am not defending corruption. I am only outraged how one guy can hijack the Government, the Economy and the people of Bangkok only because he is pi**ed off that Thaksin is more corrupt than himself.

Me deciding on which side to stand is not only of one topic (Thaksin) only they are angry at. Besides his undemocratic visions of a non elected council, I am also looking further such as: his body language that is arrogant since ever, his lies we can read about every time (a few days ago we can read "We don't obstruct election" and now we read "Election must be blocked"), and it seems he has no vision for "the day after". If I must choose between two bad options I would take the one I know already how bad they are. With Suthep, I fear, you are going to buy hot air that is going to burn you at the end.

Neither Thailand nor Thaksin have invented corruption. The world has, for the past 200 or more years tried to eradicate corruption. It is an endless fight that is lost long time ago. But one is sure, to me PT has proven they can run the Economy whereas the so called Democrat Party did not (when they where in power last time).

Just yesterday a friend (who is backing Suthep) told me he would go and vote because he want his voice to be heard and not being hijacked. I can only support this attitude.

Go and Vote - I wish Thailand good luck.

"I am only outraged how one guy can hijack the"

Mind you it's not just 'one man', it's lots of THai people who really wonder about the corruption level of the Yingluck government, the 'blanket amnesty bill' and why it should cover her first two years in office. Fyurthermore it should be clear that new elections with the same old bunch of corrupt people will not bring any progress.

To keep hammering on "let's have elections, it's democratic" is ignoring other aspects of a democracy which are equally if not more important. The right to protest and voice your opinion for one.

[iTravelNow]

I'm afraid Brad Adams thinks too much from a Western World perspective. He would do better to start talking about all democratic principles and not only on ballots and votes.

When regional political families 'control' 'their' voters those votes start to loose their democratic value. When a rice farming village doesn't (dare to) vote against their landlords or 'knows' what to expect in return from who they vote for as some poster wrote the democratic principles are totally distorted.

Under such conditions brought to the open by the undemocratic actions of the now caretaker government, an election just for the fun of it seems a futile exercise costing 3.7 billion Baht. Better spent of a reform forum.

But you don't want to imply with your answer, that this would change when another (PCAD) Government would rule this country.

Regarding the cost for the election. The demonstrations alone have currently absorbed around 300 million baht (assuming the 10 million per day mentioned earlier). If we add the incomes lost through Tourism and to other business entities due to the protests it pretend it would exceed 3.7 billion. Who are you going to blame for that?

Don't get me wrong, I am not defending corruption. I am only outraged how one guy can hijack the Government, the Economy and the people of Bangkok only because he is pi**ed off that Thaksin is more corrupt than himself.

Me deciding on which side to stand is not only of one topic (Thaksin) only they are angry at. Besides his undemocratic visions of a non elected council, I am also looking further such as: his body language that is arrogant since ever, his lies we can read about every time (a few days ago we can read "We don't obstruct election" and now we read "Election must be blocked"), and it seems he has no vision for "the day after". If I must choose between two bad options I would take the one I know already how bad they are. With Suthep, I fear, you are going to buy hot air that is going to burn you at the end.

Neither Thailand nor Thaksin have invented corruption. The world has, for the past 200 or more years tried to eradicate corruption. It is an endless fight that is lost long time ago. But one is sure, to me PT has proven they can run the Economy whereas the so called Democrat Party did not (when they where in power last time).

Just yesterday a friend (who is backing Suthep) told me he would go and vote because he want his voice to be heard and not being hijacked. I can only support this attitude.

Go and Vote - I wish Thailand good luck.

"I am only outraged how one guy can hijack the"

Mind you it's not just 'one man', it's lots of THai people who really wonder about the corruption level of the Yingluck government, the 'blanket amnesty bill' and why it should cover her first two years in office. Fyurthermore it should be clear that new elections with the same old bunch of corrupt people will not bring any progress.

To keep hammering on "let's have elections, it's democratic" is ignoring other aspects of a democracy which are equally if not more important. The right to protest and voice your opinion for one.

Sorry to correct you: "One man is hijacking an the others are following blindly".

Ok that is simple and provocative I am aware. Here in BKK we think so many are demonstrating, Go a bit out of the city and the picture is starting. I have being in the south over the weekend and have not seeing any disruptions like in the capital. And the amount of people here are hardly the majority of Thailand unless you declare people in the north to be "buffalo" who don't know what they are voting for.

... Fyurthermore it should be clear that new elections with the same old bunch of corrupt people will not bring any progress.

To keep hammering on "let's have elections, it's democratic" is ignoring other aspects of a democracy which are equally if not more important. The right to protest and voice your opinion for one.

You don't believe that any other Government form here - and I do mean ANY - would change that? Khung Suthep is as corrupt as the current one. I repeat myself; if I have to choose between two bad options I would go for the one I know how bad they are. Suthep has no plan for "the day after". That makes it hardly an option for me.