Thai Election Commission told to finish polls by March 4

[JAG]

Would you really trust any political party once they got into power to put in place meaningful reforms that hampered their own aspirations ?

We hear over and over again on here that all parties and politicians are as bad as each other, if this is true then how can any of them be trusted ?

Even if a party has only a small majority and with a strong opposition both sides will have an agenda which they wont want derailed with any restrictions reforms may impose.

No one has come up with any firm answers as yet and far be it from me to suggest any, however if reforms are going to happen it seems to me they should be free of political interference and that would mean separate from an election process.

As reforms would likely include additional restrictions on who could become an MP then it would be preferable if they were put in place before an election for if a Govt was already in place it would be another 4 years before any new restrictions could be put in place and a lot of mischief could happen in that time.

As restrictions on who could be a MP how about, to start with :

No one who has been convicted on a criminal offense in a court of law.

Anyone on bail awaiting trial on a criminal charge should be suspended from being an MP, if found not guilty the suspension is lifted if guilty the above applies.

Anyone previously banned from politics for corruption or election fraud.

The idea being to keep the system as untainted as possible.

After all have a look at the present party lists alone and ask yourself . "Are these the sort of people you would want as role models for your kids" ?

You raise some questions which I doubt anyone can answer. Imagine if it's not Thailand that we are talking about but a more developed and civilised country. What is the route that country would take? It would either be in the parliament or in the courts right? I am very sure that what is happening now in Thailand would not happen in any Western or Central European country.

Thailand is still in the infancy when it comes to being a democratic country. Like a child, it can only learn through it's own mistakes. But it must make mistakes in order to learn. Military and judicial coups merely set back that learning process, as has been obvious here.

'must make mistakes' and 'military / judicial coups set back ...'

Somehow I would have thought you'd put the coups under same heading 'mistakes' and hopefully something gets learned from it. Mind you even Fab4 stated 'checks and balances are present and work' so maybe you should stop the unjustified voicing of 'judicial coups'.

"Checks and balances" are one thing, and should be present to ensure good governance, but surely they are not the same thing as courts, and quasi judicial agencies, going after an elected government with the expressed intent to depose it. That is a judicial coup.

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[smedly]

If the reforms are good then the critical mass comes through a referendum - no sitting government is going to start this process least of all PTP, so another process outside even the constitution needs to take place, the only way I can see that happening is to freeze everything - like park democracy and the constitution in order to make the changes required

The problem with this is - can the PDRC put in place a council of experts that can make the changes required followed by a referendum and an election - I know I could make the changes required at a very top level, but forming a constitution is no easy task and making it so a sitting government cannot abuse it is fundamental to making things work here

I have voiced many times here that it is ridiculous that MP's convicted of crimes only get banned for 5 years - it needs to be a life ban

and the clause of immunity from prosecution needs to be binned

and actually putting people in jail that are convicted also needs to happen - it's a farce that we have people in government in public view that should actually be in jail - what sort of message is that sending

The weird thing is - Thais think they are an independent country and when push comes to shove they can hold their own on the world of hubs

What they really need to realise is that they have nothing of their own - they rely totally on foreign countries choosing to do business here, they have nothing of their own - name me a car or motorbike that is actually a Thai product - they could never have built roads - power stations - telecoms - buildings or any other infrastructure on their own because they simply don't have the expertise and yet most Thais think they did it all on their own and don't need outsiders, the truth is they would have nothing without outsiders

Why not seek outside help to sort out their constitution and political landscape - import it from somewhere like Australia

anyway, for a country that treats outsiders with so much disrespect it's about time they realised they would have the hub of nothing without us - why have other Asian countries flourished and got their shit together over the last 50 years and yet Thailand lives in a bubble of denial and spoofs of hubs - go on design a - car - motorbike - mobile phone - TV or anything for that matter manufacture it and market it on the world stage - Thailand the Hub of Nothing

Why have all the other major countries in SEA been able to develop and yet Thailand stands still for 60 years

[englishoak]

I agree smedly but this being Thailand has its own belief that they know best, they clearly don't just by the state of everything but this is how the elite like it, it keeps the status quo exactly the way they want it...the cost to them is nothing they already run the show so its of no concern if others pay for it... mores the pity.

Ask yourself really do you think this is all the making of one man or possibly a very strong ruling class in all ruling positions that matter used to having things their own way and would rather keep it that way than open up and have a total overhaul.

Your right of course they need the world far more than it needs them but up until now they have been able to manipulate it to their own satisfaction and agenda, this will have to change and i think what we see is simply a scape goat and nothing more than the tip of the iceberg of far bigger problems.

Edited February 6, 2014 by englishoak