Violence in Thailand grasps international attention

[Stan7444]

Not front page in the UK, the Ukraine has been the font page for weeks now, thankfully the what has happened in Thailand has not been as violent, what is a big pity with the BBC coverage is fails to mention it is mainly government supports shooting at the anti government protesters.

Bullocks. How do you personally know that it is the gov't supporters shooting the anti-gov't protesters. Please Please provide your evidence for all of us to see. Otherwise, you are guessing and wish you keep your speculative guessing to yourself.

[horsesr4all2luv]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Yes, there is no denying violence against and by civilians in connection with anti-government protests gets world attention. Look at all the attention in the past by international news media given to Cambodia, Mynamar, and Eqypt who needed a change in goverance for the sake of survival of its citizens. But I think the reality is that the world community does not view Thailand as an absolute democracy where all governing positions are elected, where police enforce the rule of law, where the military falls under civilian control, and where the only other independent federal agency is the Supreme Court appointed by an elected legislative body. Thailand is an anomoly in governance compared to the Ukraine and Venzuela.

I believe that the world community does not condone the acts of overthrowing an elected government by former government leaders who only came to power through military power, used violence themselves to keep their power, used State of Emergency to control open protests, seek to regain their power through disruption of the democratic process, who stand against the nation's constitution on the freedom to vote, who insist on an unelected "council" to rule the nation in place of an elected legislative body, etc. The case for attention on Ukraine and Venzuela protests are far more legitimate concerns for democracy than it is on Thailand.

Suthep's "yellow revolution" does not appeal to democratic nations who do not tolerate anarchy as a legitimate process for change in goverance. International news media naturally likes to report on violence, it's audience catching. But as you surely have witnessed in various world news media, coverage of Thailand anti-government protests is very lightweight, spoken with general platitudes such that a listener is unlikely to jump up and say, "Bully for you Suthep!" compared to the very media empathy and depth of coverage given to Ukraine and Venzuela.

A thoughtful post indeed.....

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE 8.2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Well Mr Suthep,,,,,,u have blood on your hands......

The BEST 2 QUOTES HERE! The rest are very biased it seems to me and very uninformed. I wonder what your former County or State would do if someone like Mr Suthep (or suspect) would do if they distroyed the tourism (over 2 million I hear) and then had the audacity to try to keep people from voting? I know where he would be right now in the US! Somewhere where he couldn't continue to EXCITE RIOTS! He started all this because, imho, he's too scared to wait for the appropriate time to "try" to run a legitmate campaign! Yes there are many problems in Thailand Government, but tell please of one Government in the world which has NONE?

[horsesr4all2luv]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Yes, there is no denying violence against and by civilians in connection with anti-government protests gets world attention. Look at all the attention in the past by international news media given to Cambodia, Mynamar, and Eqypt who needed a change in goverance for the sake of survival of its citizens. But I think the reality is that the world community does not view Thailand as an absolute democracy where all governing positions are elected, where police enforce the rule of law, where the military falls under civilian control, and where the only other independent federal agency is the Supreme Court appointed by an elected legislative body. Thailand is an anomoly in governance compared to the Ukraine and Venzuela.

I believe that the world community does not condone the acts of overthrowing an elected government by former government leaders who only came to power through military power, used violence themselves to keep their power, used State of Emergency to control open protests, seek to regain their power through disruption of the democratic process, who stand against the nation's constitution on the freedom to vote, who insist on an unelected "council" to rule the nation in place of an elected legislative body, etc. The case for attention on Ukraine and Venzuela protests are far more legitimate concerns for democracy than it is on Thailand.

Suthep's "yellow revolution" does not appeal to democratic nations who do not tolerate anarchy as a legitimate process for change in goverance. International news media naturally likes to report on violence, it's audience catching. But as you surely have witnessed in various world news media, coverage of Thailand anti-government protests is very lightweight, spoken with general platitudes such that a listener is unlikely to jump up and say, "Bully for you Suthep!" compared to the very media empathy and depth of coverage given to Ukraine and Venzuela.

A thoughtful post indeed.....

Sent from my i-mobile i-STYLE 8.2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Well Mr Suthep,,,,,,u have blood on your hands......

The BEST 2 QUOTES HERE! The rest are very biased it seems to me and very uninformed. I wonder what your former County or State would do if someone like Mr Suthep (or suspect) would do if they distroyed the tourism (over 2 million I hear) and then had the audacity to try to keep people from voting? I know where he would be right now in the US! Somewhere where he couldn't continue to EXCITE RIOTS! He started all this because, imho, he's too scared to wait for the appropriate time to "try" to run a legitmate campaign! Yes there are many problems in Thailand Government, but tell please of one Government in the world which has NONE?

Sorry, that's "Country" not County!

[shrimpythailand]

IMHO - been here 13 years - have a day job and not a teacher...ahem...I think it will be a military take over soon enough... ala 2006.. you have too much S*** going on for an election or whatever to change anything... maybe the article about the grenade attack on sunday in bkk and the Trat attack will be enopugh for the army to have to step in... polus YS meeting on thursday about the rice scam and corruption there.... 700 Billion baht gone to who? the farmers? yah except the 3040% corruption rule of thumb here... any government deal involves say 30-40% of money under the table... so yes farmers have gotten paid but... the gov could have done some juggling BEFORE dissolving parliment and paid the 1 million farmers that voted for Badluck.. plus all the other schemes/scams.... the new car deal hasn't been talked about much lately but that is also a 3 Billion+ $ government handout with 1.2 million new cars... so if the gov didn't have any money BEFORE Suthep started the protests they sure as heck can't do much this week to pay all the farmers off...before YS date with the NACC meeting... anyway we will all see... but totally at an impass on all sides so the only logical? thing is for the military to step in peacefully and have a 3 month or so reform and run the country until some reason can be brought to an election... yes a bunch of politico's should be told they can't run in a next election just to clear the decks of some of the dead wood...but seriously the military would probably run the country better than YS AND Suthep and without a lot of the BS vote getting country bankrupting schemes that YS and TS have been using for years.... again we can only wait and see - hopefully before anymore kids and people are killed and wounded by radical grenade throwing and gun firing crazies keep hitting on the protest sites...

[SantiSuk]

"grabbed" was the English verb you were looking for oh Nation, not "grasped"

[Tokay]

I can't understand the concept of there being so called ''Red Farangs'' or ''Yellow Farangs'' on here.

The truth of the matter, from an ex-pat/farang point of view, is surely that the country that we choose to call home is going through a huge revolution and none of us know which way it will end.

It's pointless choosing sides, as whoever is in power, does it really affect us that much..?? No, not really.

All we should be hoping for is that all sides of this current situation are ousted from Thai politics all together and that there is some kind of satisfactory conclusion whereby both the Thai people and the expats who are here trying to make an honest living can have at least a little respect for not only the Government but also the authorities in general.

Sadly, corruption is so ingrained in Thai society (at all levels), that any satisfactory outcome is a very long way off.

All this Reds v Yellows nonsense is just a convenient excuse for much deeper issues.

I wish I could like this post more than once. Well said.

Agreed, the yellow farang vs red farang nonsense is exactly that, nonsense. Some of you guys need to step away from your computers and clear your heads. Some of you are bordering on lunacy.

BTW... this post was made while I was wearing no shirt at all.

[Professor Kevin]

Why do you think it is wrong?

It is the truth.... and don't bother asking for proof,

You see Im one of these old fashioned types that demands rationale and proof for everything I do. Just like when a wealth manager is convincing me of where to store capital, Ill demand to see proof of why it is likely to rise, in this case Ill need more than a faceless guy on a forum saying "its the truth."

The simple fact is you cant be sure its the truth and all you can do is make a guess based on political preference.

The people who benefit more from such atrocities are Sutheps crew, so it`s more likely that the attacks emanate from that side. That is an educated guess, it could be wrong, but likely to be true.

The government gains nothing from them. All they have to do is sit back and watch the protests fizzle out which they have done. They have won the PR battle at every stage so far its hard to see why they would change now.

First you say

Im one of these old fashioned types that demands rationale and proof for everything I do

Then you say

The people who benefit more from such atrocities are Sutheps crew, so it`s more likely that the attacks emanate from that side. That is an educated guess, it could be wrong, but likely to be true.

That is neither rational and you certainly can't prove it. So how educated is that?

The government may not have anything to gain

huh?

I didnt say I could prove it, I said its an educated guess based on the fact the government has nothing to gain from such actions. Look you even said so yourself at the bottom of your post.

Perhaps you could give a detailed explanation of how the killings could possibly help Suthep.

And don't say because he wants the army to step in because that is just BS.

The only one who can benefit from the killings is Chalerm. He has ben slapped in the face by the courts more than once and must be hurting.

He desperately wants to get his SOE in full operation and the only way he can get that is through an escalation of violence to try to prove that it is needed.

Whether you want to argue that he represents the Govt or not is up to you, but you could have an educated guess.

__________________________________________________________

Violence against the yellow shirts would benefit whom?

Back home, a guy running for the mayors office would throw a brick thru his own window and immediately blame the opposition.

If you have read the wikileaks cables it reveals that is exactly what the yellow team was doing in their previous attempts to get rid of the Thaksin crowd. Instigating violence so the Army has their excuse to take over the government.

I wonder why The Nation never covered that story?

Edited February 24, 2014 by Professor Kevin

[plachon]

All weekend in UK, Ukraine, Olympics , rugby and Liverpool winning.

Thais having a political spat and being unable to understand democracy is hardly new.

They probably need an underwater, katoey, 24 hour kissing contest to get on the news.

"They probably need an underwater, katoey, 24 hour kissing contest to get on the news."

Wasn't that covered in a Panorama special report last week?

[sonar6ca]

Red shirts at the War Drums meeting in Khorat cheering news of deaths and injuries caused pro-Thaksin terrorists at Trat.

All the "intellectuals" "Nobel Prize lariats" gather in Korat to cheer the killings of children.

Need I say more?

[Thai at Heart]

Red shirts at the War Drums meeting in Khorat cheering news of deaths and injuries caused pro-Thaksin terrorists at Trat.

All the "intellectuals" "Nobel Prize lariats" gather in Korat to cheer the killings of children.

Need I say more?

Laureate.....

[geriatrickid]

Shouldn't that read a lot of posters think that a protesters life is not as valuable as a policeman's which evidently seems to be the case.

Have you never noticed that when there is a plane crash a British newspaper will say 257 people died 25 BRITISH as if the others don't count quite so much!!

Nothing unusual in that. A UK newspaper is showing relevance of the story to the reader. However, as most news stories are sourced from one of the 2 major newsfeeds the stories tend to include a breakdown of nationalities and will emphasize interesting aspects of the story, such as if it was an old age group, or school kids, or families. Editors will edit to reach their target readers. You are interpreting an editorial action to agree with your own perception.

[brewsterbudgen]

Red shirts at the War Drums meeting in Khorat cheering news of deaths and injuries caused pro-Thaksin terrorists at Trat.

All the "intellectuals" "Nobel Prize lariats" gather in Korat to cheer the killings of children.

Need I say more?

No. But perhaps you should say less.

[LomSak27]

Sadly for The Nations Journos it ranks a distant fourth behind

The Ukraine and Venezuela.(with Syria still out there as the real Numbah One)

[jpeg]

Not front page in the UK, the Ukraine has been the font page for weeks now, thankfully the what has happened in Thailand has not been as violent, what is a big pity with the BBC coverage is fails to mention it is mainly government supports shooting at the anti government protesters.

The reason why Ukraine is headlining in the UK is because of the EU. Thailand isn't applying to join, last I heard. And please, The BBC???

Edited February 25, 2014 by jpeg