Bloomberg interview with Abhisit: 'It's time for reform. Why can't the govt accept that'

[englishoak]

Heres another one, he cant even let a question be asked without interrupting, every single time he trys to talk over the interviewer.

Mark is not very comfortable when put on the spot and he is not admitting mistakes and will not even admit armed protesters exist. lol sorry hes a talking head elite thats all.

Caveat: im not saying PTP arnt run by elite btw but Marky boy is just another one.

Edited February 7, 2014 by englishoak

[GeorgeO]

I despair at the blatant one-sided comments from those who are opposed to Abhisit (or indeed, anything Abhisit, Suthep or Democrat related), despite the fact that he put forward some very clear, articulate and sensible arguments (unlike the dear lady's miserable attempt on Al Jazeerah).

I have no doubt that if someone like Chalerm had put forward similar suggestions for improving democracy in the country, he would have been hailed as a visionary.

You show yourselves to be what you have always been, totally and utterly biased to the core.

[Publicus]

Haslinda added me on her FB friend list in 2008, in my opinion she is an incredibly intelligent person and all her interviews and reports are outstanding. Abhisit was lucky he didn't get burned down lol. In any case, he should be fighting for reform within the system, it is a slow process but it is the only way to achieve change legitimately. I actually supported Abhisit in 2010 because I admired the way he showed restraint and kindness for months in the face of the "burn the city, kill the elites" stage-speeches by the reds. But I stopped supporting him when he joined the overthrow movement recently, because the problems are state issues and should be resolved by relentless and thorough pressure within state, not on the streets. Overthrow movements, especially by suspect interests who refuse to outline their agenda, is a dangerous road to travel.

Abhisit has fallen through the floor in a catastrophic self-inflicted loss of esteem and respect among governments of the Western democracies and in other parts of the world such as East and SE Asia - Japan comes most immediately to mind, but there are many others of this region included.

The Western and other democracies of the world have experienced a similar journey as you have on an individual, personal level - Abhisit is a bust

Abhisit is trying a personally indulgent and superficial PR campaign to try the impossible, which is to rehabilitate his standing among democratic governments and among corporate investors. It's well known globally Abhisit and his party can't win an election, haven't won an election in many moons, and in 2011 as the incumbent government led by Abhisit got a swift kick out the door.

Almost anyone watching this interview, the kind of audience Bloomberg attracts, sees that Abhisit is a slimy slick talker who's too cute by a half. Abhisit can't salvage his reputation because viewers now know his rep was bogus, false.

The democracies of the world have lost all respect and esteem they once had for him as a potential leader of Thai democracy and of democratically pursued reforms, and the Bloomberg audience with other similar audiences can see him as he is, ie, a fast talking BS artist who's on TV only to try to save his own personal hide.

[GeorgeO]

Incredible bunch of hypocrites. I would love to have sen a real " hard talk" type of interview, he would have been ripped apart.

As I recall, Abhisit has been on Hard Talk before. He had his stronger moments on it, and his weaker moments, but don't ever recall him being "ripped apart".

And just the other week I saw on BBC an interview with him and Mr Head in which Mr Head certainly went at him all guns blazing, Hard Talk style. Again, Abhisit pretty much held his own.

Don't see anyone from the government side being brave enough to do anything other than carefully scripted interviews.

... not even interviews, a press release is their usual modus operandi...!!

[rixalex]

Heres another one, he cant even let a question be asked without interrupting, every single time he trys to talk over the interviewer.

Mark is not very comfortable when put on the spot and he is not admitting mistakes and will not even admit armed protesters exist. lol sorry hes a talking head elite thats all.

Caveat: im not saying PTP arnt run by elite btw but Marky boy is just another one.

I agree that his interviewing skills are far from perfect, but at least he does put himself forward for them. Can you, or anyone, link me to a similarly cut and thrust style interview with someone high up the chain on the government side, because i have yet to see one?

[binjalin]

cringe cringe cringe

what an embarrassment this man is

[potters]

As rich a vein of hypocrisy as you're ever likely to find. 'We support free and fair elections' says the guy who boycotted an election and whose associates did their best to prevent people from voting in a free and fair manner. A valuable insight into the thinking of a hypocrite.

He should not be allowed to be involved in anything remotely connected to politics in this country ever again along with many of his cronies.

Incredible bunch of hypocrites. I would love to have sen a real " hard talk" type of interview, he would have been ripped apart.

Good Idea

Gat PAXMAN over to interview the lot of em.

That should make some seriously good TV

[Silurian]

"I think in every democracy you have to have the rule of law. You don't allow the majority to put themselves above the law."

Right there. That is a perfect statement to the mistaken belief that the majority rule is always correct. He just nailed it.

[RadKiter]

What a disingenuous piece of crap. He know's damn well a country can't have reform without electoral politics. His minority supporters simply want to replace the corrupt, but legitimately elected government with their own corrupt un-elected illegitimate government. <deleted> ridiculous.

[CockneyGit]

'It's time for reform. Why can't the govt accept that'

Absolutely. Reform is most certainly needed.

However, the leader of the current protest movement is himself covered with a history of corruption and you yourself Mark were just a puppet PM last time (much the same as we have now!).

The ''reform'' that is needed is to get the whole lot of you out of Thai politics and start all over again, although that will never happen as there's too much ''benefit'' to be made.

T.I.T

[Alwyn]

It's time for reform why can't the govrnment accept that... Says the man who wants to reform the reforms he made when in government....

"What have I done wrong? I respect the law. I respect the Constitution. I am exercising my rights." err... I know innocent until proven guilty but.. murder?

[h90]

He had a chance before. He is a pussy cat.

yes he wasn't that good as PM, but that doesn't make Yingluck any less evil.

Better a medium quality PM than a pure evil one.

[Artisi]

The good-old red brigade over and over, knocking, knocking, bleat bleat, anything and everything that isn't or doesn't fit in with the red rhetoric.

Give it a break guy / gals , at least he was there facing the interviewer, who in my opinion wasn't all that great anyway - and it was obvious she had her own agenda, appears to be full of herself and not that interested in what Abhisit had to say anyway, but back to the point - I would be interested in hearing some comment on how our current interim PM would shape up under a similar interview.

No real need to answer as it is already well known, having been demonstrated previously with the Al Jazeerah interview which would have been a better interview if they had discussed, shopping, cooking and kids school uniforms.

So until YL comes anywhere near to this interview in terms of having something to say, then this interview of Abhisit's is the best todate concerning the current situation.

[kingalfred]

All the Poo Thai red farang are out to attack a PM who left the economy in a healthy state and has something none of the lot who followed him,competence and intelligence.Mass Corruption and taking the country to collapse is what your barbie doll PM is doing.

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Edited February 7, 2014 by kingalfred

[rixalex]

Haslinda added me on her FB friend list in 2008, in my opinion she is an incredibly intelligent person and all her interviews and reports are outstanding. Abhisit was lucky he didn't get burned down lol. In any case, he should be fighting for reform within the system, it is a slow process but it is the only way to achieve change legitimately. I actually supported Abhisit in 2010 because I admired the way he showed restraint and kindness for months in the face of the "burn the city, kill the elites" stage-speeches by the reds. But I stopped supporting him when he joined the overthrow movement recently, because the problems are state issues and should be resolved by relentless and thorough pressure within state, not on the streets. Overthrow movements, especially by suspect interests who refuse to outline their agenda, is a dangerous road to travel.

Abhisit has fallen through the floor in a catastrophic self-inflicted loss of esteem and respect among governments of the Western democracies and in other parts of the world such as East and SE Asia - Japan comes most immediately to mind, but there are many others of this region included.

The Western and other democracies of the world have experienced a similar journey as you have on an individual, personal level - Abhisit is a bust

Abhisit is trying a personally indulgent and superficial PR campaign to try the impossible, which is to rehabilitate his standing among democratic governments and among corporate investors. It's well known globally Abhisit and his party can't win an election, haven't won an election in many moons, and in 2011 as the incumbent government led by Abhisit got a swift kick out the door.

Almost anyone watching this interview, the kind of audience Bloomberg attracts, sees that Abhisit is a slimy slick talker who's too cute by a half. Abhisit can't salvage his reputation because viewers now know his rep was bogus, false.

The democracies of the world have lost all respect and esteem they once had for him as a potential leader of Thai democracy and of democratically pursued reforms, and the Bloomberg audience with other similar audiences can see him as he is, ie, a fast talking BS artist who's on TV only to try to save his own personal hide.

I agree that partly due to some of his own questionable actions, and in no small part due to the ongoing and continual Amsterdam driven smear campaign against him, his image has suffered internationally and he is no longer considered the "poster boy" for Thai politics that he once was. I think it is fair to say the international community had high hopes for him, and he has failed to live up to them, and it is now too late to think he ever will.

Because hopes were high for him, his current standing seems perhaps somewhat lowly by comparison, but all it has really done, is bring him about on level with all the other Thai politicians, whom the international community never had any optimistic expectations of to begin with.

When a lot is expected of you, it's easy to disappoint... when nothing is expected of you, it's a lot harder... Yingluck has however proved that it is possible.

[Spalpeen]

"I think in every democracy you have to have the rule of law. You don't allow the majority to put themselves above the law."

Right there. That is a perfect statement to the mistaken belief that the majority rule is always correct. He just nailed it.

.

English translation "We want our turn at the trough".

[casualbiker]

It's time for reform why can't the govrnment accept that... Says the man who wants to reform the reforms he made when in government....

"What have I done wrong? I respect the law. I respect the Constitution. I am exercising my rights." err... I know innocent until proven guilty but.. murder?

Question! Do you actually think that Abhisit is guilty of murder? As in he told the troops to shoot to kill!

Sent from my XT1032 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[lostmebike]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

And you're the man to tell us that the Dems aren't corrupt!?

[Thait Spot]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

You are seriously trying to say the Dems are not involved in vote buying and corruption?

Come on you can't possibly be that naive can you?

Simple really....

Put up or shut up.

[Thait Spot]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

And you're the man to tell us that the Dems aren't corrupt!?

Post your proof or get back to looking for your bike.

[Thait Spot]

What a disingenuous piece of crap. He know's dam_n well a country can't have reform without electoral politics. His minority supporters simply want to replace the corrupt, but legitimately elected government with their own corrupt un-elected illegitimate government. <deleted> ridiculous.

I think youi are taking Suthep's words and putting them in Abhisit's mouth.

Which is very juvenile.

[Spalpeen]

I liked the bit where he says that he can't talk to the govt. because the govt. has set too many preconditions, and yet he's the one who refused to take part in an election until his preconditions were met. Classic!

[lostmebike]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

And you're the man to tell us that the Dems aren't corrupt!?

Post your proof or get back to looking for your bike.

Are you really saying the Dems aint corrupt?

Before you you continually bore us again with your 'proof, proof, proof' rhetoric, just do some research into that party and their corruption scandals. Sorry to say but the reports are endless.

Prove they aint corrupt or can't you get out of your 'Thait' ass this morning?

[Thait Spot]

As rich a vein of hypocrisy as you're ever likely to find. 'We support free and fair elections' says the guy who boycotted an election and whose associates did their best to prevent people from voting in a free and fair manner. A valuable insight into the thinking of a hypocrite.

And as rich a vein of meaningless blarney as you would find posted anywhere north, south, east or west of Cork!

If you have any proof that Abhisit supported the blocking of elections then please provide it. Otherwise read the article again. It's all in the words.

[Skywalker69]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

You are seriously trying to say the Dems are not involved in vote buying and corruption?

Come on you can't possibly be that naive can you?

Proof please!

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

[Timwin]

A load of hypocritical rubbish from a seemingly intelligent guy.

The unasked question was how can the Democrat Party, who themselves are mired in massive crony corruption and vote-buying, be trusted to do anything about corruption when their noses are in the trough once again? They have done nothing about it previously, so why suddenly now?

"massive crony corruption" - proof?

"vote-buying" - proof?

There are millions of articles in the public doamin showing the 2 offences above being committed by the Shinawatra administrations - but I think you're just posting nonsense

And you're the man to tell us that the Dems aren't corrupt!?

Post your proof or get back to looking for your bike.

Can you use Google or is it too hard for you?

"Question by Jonathan Head of BBC to Korn: Why are the Democrats always unable to win more votes in the Northeast?

Answer by Korn: …I can tell you what is not the issue. People like to divide the camps into rural and urban. The majority of the southern voters are rural. The popularity of Thaksin in the Northeast and to a lesser degree in the North is undeniable. It is also undeniable that traditionally they have been less politically active then southerners. It is also undeniable that money politics is less prevalent in the South. We we have less money than PPP. However I agree with Chris [baker], money “is the price you pay to play the game but it doesn’t dictate whether you win or lose”. “If a candidate today in Loei runs under the Democrat banner for him to try to win he would need to spend two or three times more than his PPP opponent in order to win and even then he still might lose.

This is exactly what happened in the last election. A number of the old TRT MPs in the Northeast defected to the new party Puea Paendin and “they outspent PPP three to one and they still lost”. This goes along way to confirming what Chris said, but money is no longer determinative of your success. What Thaksin did was to make that connection and make it directly relevant to his target group. We are less afraid to compete against vote-buying than the buying of MPs. I still believe at the end of the day that if you sold your vote it is still your decision in the ballot box. However, it would be very ineffective for the Democrats to buy a Northeastern MP. Simply at the end of the day we cannot go against the will of the people and no amount of money will help."

http://asiancorrespondent.com/116697/vote-buying-thaksin-and-the-democrats/

[Publicus]

Haslinda added me on her FB friend list in 2008, in my opinion she is an incredibly intelligent person and all her interviews and reports are outstanding. Abhisit was lucky he didn't get burned down lol. In any case, he should be fighting for reform within the system, it is a slow process but it is the only way to achieve change legitimately. I actually supported Abhisit in 2010 because I admired the way he showed restraint and kindness for months in the face of the "burn the city, kill the elites" stage-speeches by the reds. But I stopped supporting him when he joined the overthrow movement recently, because the problems are state issues and should be resolved by relentless and thorough pressure within state, not on the streets. Overthrow movements, especially by suspect interests who refuse to outline their agenda, is a dangerous road to travel.

Abhisit has fallen through the floor in a catastrophic self-inflicted loss of esteem and respect among governments of the Western democracies and in other parts of the world such as East and SE Asia - Japan comes most immediately to mind, but there are many others of this region included.

The Western and other democracies of the world have experienced a similar journey as you have on an individual, personal level - Abhisit is a bust

Abhisit is trying a personally indulgent and superficial PR campaign to try the impossible, which is to rehabilitate his standing among democratic governments and among corporate investors. It's well known globally Abhisit and his party can't win an election, haven't won an election in many moons, and in 2011 as the incumbent government led by Abhisit got a swift kick out the door.

Almost anyone watching this interview, the kind of audience Bloomberg attracts, sees that Abhisit is a slimy slick talker who's too cute by a half. Abhisit can't salvage his reputation because viewers now know his rep was bogus, false.

The democracies of the world have lost all respect and esteem they once had for him as a potential leader of Thai democracy and of democratically pursued reforms, and the Bloomberg audience with other similar audiences can see him as he is, ie, a fast talking BS artist who's on TV only to try to save his own personal hide.

I agree that partly due to some of his own questionable actions, and in no small part due to the ongoing and continual Amsterdam driven smear campaign against him, his image has suffered internationally and he is no longer considered the "poster boy" for Thai politics that he once was. I think it is fair to say the international community had high hopes for him, and he has failed to live up to them, and it is now too late to think he ever will.

Because hopes were high for him, his current standing seems perhaps somewhat lowly by comparison, but all it has really done, is bring him about on level with all the other Thai politicians, whom the international community never had any optimistic expectations of to begin with.

When a lot is expected of you, it's easy to disappoint... when nothing is expected of you, it's a lot harder... Yingluck has however proved that it is possible.

A viable post, yes.

I'd add that if Amsterdam is being effective in his arguments concerning Abhisit, it would be because the arguments have traction among the global elites in government power and the monied corporate investor world. The global elites know the story of YS, TS, AV and all the rest of 'em.

Further, murky Mark was installed in 2008 by a "silent coup," supported and executed by the same people who presently back Suthep, yet AV still couldn't covert the gift the elites gave him at the polls in 2011. Suthep and Abhisit in their relationship are not dissimilar to the IRA and Sinn Fein although I don't say or imply the T word here.

Abhisit's new, the rest of his life problem is the age old problem, self-inflicted, that when one is up, you're up, and that when one is down, he's down. Which of course means that, yes, when you're up you can fall but one doesn't necessarily fall. But when you're down, it's because people have lost confidence in the person, lost trust, lost any connection to you they once may have had. The damage thus is personally and professionally catastrophic.

To the global community, AV is down and given the total picture of recent years to the present, AV is also out, which is where he's going to stay, because AV's future excludes legitimate elections and democracy. This is true In Thailand too in respect of the vast majority of Thais, the Thailand political center middle occupied by the democratic mass of the Thai people.

Abhisit has put himself into a political body bag.

[Spalpeen]

Proof please!

.

.

'Proof' seems to have become the latest obsession-word for the tin foil hat brigade. This follows previous favourites like 'caretaker', 'constitutional' and '500 baht'. Always a sure sign that they don't have a good argument.

[Timwin]

From the above link I posted:

"The poll surveyed 1,289 between June 24-25, 2011. The answers were that 65.94% said they would not sell their votes, 26.3% said they would accept the money but would not vote for the person they were paid to vote for, and 4.11% said they would take the money and vote for the person they were paid to vote for."

The vote buying is today not a big issue unlike 20+ years ago. The rural people are not THAT poor anymore. Of course they will accept the money from multiple candidates (stupid not to) but they vote the way they themselves want anyway.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Timwin

[jcsmith]

'It's time for reform. Why can't the government accept that'

Because they are they are elected by the democratic system? I can't believe the party that calls themselves Democrats can push for an unelected people's council, lose election after election only to try to find a way to overthrow the other side, discourage voting, and make these types of statements. There's a name for planting whoever you want in power without an election, and it has nothing to do with democracy.