Thailand: Everything is broken

[Frank James]

Complete garbage from western media that have no depth of understanding for the problems in Thailand. It sounds more like biased tabloid fodder

Quite right, the Economist is just a socialist tabloid rag. Everybody knows that.

[citizen33]

Those who say the Economist ignores the issue that dare not speak its name, should read its article from 6/5/14 - as somebody else said 'too hot' for TVF.

[chrisrazz]

Once again, an International publication has proved it has basically no idea of what is going on in Thailand by allowing an article like this to go out for general consumption, and the author of the article has written a biased piece deliberately omitting some very pertinent facts.

Oh, I forgot, a media organisation is in business of getting readers, viewers etc. any way they can, never mind letting the truth get in the way of a good Robin Hood type yarn that all the bleeding heart lefties just love to lap up and regurgitate ad-nauseum as the gospel truth.

Shame on you Editor at the Economist.

The best laugh of the day, for sure. The Economist pandering 'bleeding heart lefties'???? The western media is owned and controlled by powerful corporate entities who are not exactly known for their 'left leaning' tendencies.

Then, comments that farang don't understand Thainess. What is there to understand? There's nothing complicated about it all. Contrary to the views of Thais themselves, and, many TV contributors, Thais are human too,

[JohnThailandJohn]

Thaksin Shinawatra, himself ousted in a coup in 2006 and now in self-imposed exile.

Had to stop reading after this -- clearly not an unbiased or informed article. Why not describe him as what he is a fugitive who refuses to accept or fight a guilty verdict and jail sentence he received. .

[DrDweeb]

I also read the Economist - they are generally as clueless as the BBC.

Has anyone been watching RT or AJ? I cannot get them.

How has their coverage been?

Edited May 10, 2014 by DrDweeb

[retsdon]

I also read the Economist - they are generally as clueless as the BBC.

Has anyone been watching RT or AJ? I cannot get them.

How has their coverage been?

What coverage? All eyes are on Ukraine. Nobody cares about Thailand.

[mikemac]

the day that 7 stop selling ham and cheese toasties is the day that thailand will be called broken till then its just smoke and mirrors.

next.

I don't recall what they taste like because my wife tells me I only eat them when I am drunk. Apparently I have eaten quite a lot of them over the years.

[Thaiisnotrequired]

So ruination officially starts when?... Friday?

a rai na? .... starts?

[DrDweeb]

... Budgetary expenditures are lavished on Bkk way out of proportion to its population and share. of GDP. All other regions including the Central plains foot the bill for this disparity. But the inequality is worst of all in the Northeast and is reflected in measures of healthcare, education, housing etc. Inevitably low government spending on their education and healthcare results in low income in a vicious circle that no Central govt will ever bother to address properly.

Interestingly, you will find that this particular complaint can be fairly leveled at just about every western democracy, including the most democratic and stable one's in existence. That of course does not make it a good thing, nor does it exonerate the Thais from repeating the folly of everyone else.

In any case, after quite a bit more than a decade of almost uninterrupted Shin rule, isn't it time to stop drinking his "I am for the poor" kool-aid, and take account of his actions and the consequences of them. The poor are not better off than they were before TS. He and his acolytes constantly bleating that they are the champions of the poor must be examined objectively, and when necessary taken to task.

The fact that the quality of education seems to have declined (my personal view and experience) is sufficient to question whether TS rule has given anything lasting to the poor, other than debt now and for generations to come. I do not see any investment in their long term future, just a volley of self serving behaviour from his supporters and lots of pigs at the trough.

[Mister Fixit]

'Mr Thaksin won elections fair and square'?

Not if you understand that he paid voters 500 baht each to vote for him and also told villages that if they didn't vote for him they couldn't expect any help from his Government ...

[Thaiisnotrequired]

... Budgetary expenditures are lavished on Bkk way out of proportion to its population and share. of GDP. All other regions including the Central plains foot the bill for this disparity. But the inequality is worst of all in the Northeast and is reflected in measures of healthcare, education, housing etc. Inevitably low government spending on their education and healthcare results in low income in a vicious circle that no Central govt will ever bother to address properly.

I do not see any investment in their long term future, just a volley of self serving behaviour from his supporters and lots of pigs at the trough.

That is an incredibly separatist/divisionist comment to finish with, after a fair introduction of events.

There is greater investment, or has been should I say, into "Thaksin of the North lands" than any other areas, namely the South (including Thai, not only Muslim) and any other areas were there is a majority of (c.f. yellow shirts) anti-PTP action.

They've had plenty of investment in the North, but of course all of it never arrived at its destination and was returned to the investor, once the icing on the cake had been invested and the fruity part disappeared back to the chef!!

[ggt]

IMO...the military...albeit reluctantly...may have to step in to restore order...provide a provisional government...follow with peaceful elections...and once the new corrupt government is in place...start the cycle all over again...

[beautifulthailand99]

Some seriously LM comments on the linked article probably better if TVF took it down to be on the safe side.

[Benmart]

No foreigner can tell Thailand what to do or give advice.

No way.

Yes foreigner known nothing.

Look how much better Thailand's medical compared to the USA

Please expand on your statements.

[Benmart]

I also read the Economist - they are generally as clueless as the BBC.

Has anyone been watching RT or AJ? I cannot get them.

How has their coverage been?

What coverage? All eyes are on Ukraine. Nobody cares about Thailand.

I've yet to talk to everyone on the planet, so I can't speak with any degree of credibility about the caring or "eyes" issue.

[sawadee1947]

It would appear sadly that greed and stupidity will prevail. The writing has been on the wall for some time and at virtually every step the situation worsens.

A fresh new face is needed to lead Thailand away from the brink, however this face MUST HAVE Thailand's best interest at heart instead of its own. I see no such face on the horizon.

Certainly not the only country that's in turmoil ATM.

you are absolutely right to agree with the article.

But to be honest: we discuss this matter already 6 months and even longer. But we cannot change anything. We have NO influence. We are guests here! And we are not allowed to say what we are thinking. Also there is no free press. Probably many journalists have the same problem and so the truth will not come to Thai people. They will get what some politicians want them to believe.

And most Thais cannot get information from outside/other ASEAN states, because of unability understanding/reading English newspapers.

Thailand will go down the drain

[neverdie]

It would appear sadly that greed and stupidity will prevail. The writing has been on the wall for some time and at virtually every step the situation worsens.

A fresh new face is needed to lead Thailand away from the brink, however this face MUST HAVE Thailand's best interest at heart instead of its own. I see no such face on the horizon.

Certainly not the only country that's in turmoil ATM.

you are absolutely right to agree with the article.

But to be honest: we discuss this matter already 6 months and even longer. But we cannot change anything. We have NO influence. We are guests here! And we are not allowed to say what we are thinking. Also there is no free press. Probably many journalists have the same problem and so the truth will not come to Thai people. They will get what some politicians want them to believe.

And most Thais cannot get information from outside/other ASEAN states, because of unability understanding/reading English newspapers.

Thailand will go down the drain

Ye of little faith.

There's plenty of Thais that can read English, you know? But having said that, what English Newspapers that you talk of are worth reading, yet alone could even report what is remotely right for Thailand?

Don't you realise that for every farang that might have some understanding of what's going on here there's another 2500 that wouldn't have a clue.

I'm astounded you put so much faith in journalists.

Thailand WILL NOT go down the drain, get a grip of yourself, sure these are rocky times but Thailand will prevail, Thais are very resourceful people, they'll get through, eventually. don't go getting so caught up in all the farang type rants on here. BREATHE BREATHE BREATHE.

PS: You might be a guest here, I'm not

[Dr Bruce]

This article also promulgates a Western fantasy. Yingluck did not receive a " landslide " victory in 2011. She received 48.41 % of the vote. That's not a landslide. Phue Thai received 265 seats out of a possible 500. That's not a landslide. Thaksin invited a number of party leaders to cobble together a buffer coalition for his sister, resulting in about 300 seats. That also is not a landslide. This point should be beyond opinion. It is fact.

You are talking nonsense.In every democracy election results tend to be split more or less evenly, certainly the experience of the Uk and the US.PTP won 265 seats as you say and the Dems (from memory) about 140.Small parties picked up the rest but none more than about 30 seats.That's an easy victory for the PTP and if the Democrats had achieved that level of margin you would not have made this foolish post.

265 to 159 seems like a landslide to me.

[sawadee1947]

It would appear sadly that greed and stupidity will prevail. The writing has been on the wall for some time and at virtually every step the situation worsens.

A fresh new face is needed to lead Thailand away from the brink, however this face MUST HAVE Thailand's best interest at heart instead of its own. I see no such face on the horizon.

Certainly not the only country that's in turmoil ATM.

you are absolutely right to agree with the article.

But to be honest: we discuss this matter already 6 months and even longer. But we cannot change anything. We have NO influence. We are guests here! And we are not allowed to say what we are thinking. Also there is no free press. Probably many journalists have the same problem and so the truth will not come to Thai people. They will get what some politicians want them to believe.

And most Thais cannot get information from outside/other ASEAN states, because of unability understanding/reading English newspapers.

Thailand will go down the drain

Ye of little faith.

There's plenty of Thais that can read English, you know? But having said that, what English Newspapers that you talk of are worth reading, yet alone could even report what is remotely right for Thailand?

Don't you realise that for every farang that might have some understanding of what's going on here there's another 2500 that wouldn't have a clue.

I'm astounded you put so much faith in journalists.

Thailand WILL NOT go down the drain, get a grip of yourself, sure these are rocky times but Thailand will prevail, Thais are very resourceful people, they'll get through, eventually. don't go getting so caught up in all the farang type rants on here. BREATHE BREATHE BREATHE.

PS: You might be a guest here, I'm not

there was a speech of ROBERT AMSTERDAM supporting the red shirts. Suthep comment: bloody farang and bastard aso. The mob is ruling the country not any democrats, even they occupied the name.

And journalist I like to trust. Please remember those British and Germans who published/revealed Snowden's "secrets". I'm not talking about yellow press as you might think of.

Referring to Thais able to read English: I don't know where you are living, but I'm living with the majority on the country side, not with a handfull of educated in BKK....

And WE ARE GUESTS: or do you have rights to vote? Or do you have Thai citizenship? I doubt it. So think twice!

[zyphodb]

Complete garbage from western media that have no depth of understanding for the problems in Thailand. It sounds more like biased tabloid fodder

Hahaha.

They aren't trying to write war and peace. So which major details did they omit to say? Or is everything just hunkey dorey in the land of smiles/street protests?

I wonder if Thailand might not have been seriously damaged for FDI by this . This story is being read and listened to by a lot of people in the west. Some people are quite gobsmacked that u can just remove a PM like this, for such an apparently trivial thing.

This Thailand welly speshun, falang no undursatan rubbish is wearing thin.

Quite right thai at heart. run out of likes, & the other true thing that someone else said but the article didn't is that Thai's will never back down because of this ridiculous "face" thing, hard to see any good happening I'm afraid to say...

[neverdie]

^. Ok, ok, and yes.

[belg]

i just wonder what the next "elected" governement will try to push onto its people and with which lies will they get into power

[Sattahip2014]

Long in crisis, Thailand is close to the brink. Without compromises on both sides, it may well collapse.

​The Democrat Party has offered the government numerous opportunities to compromise but the government has refused to compromise anything.

Now Justice is running it's course and PTP are only a shell of a caretaker government which will soon be dealt with accordingly by Thai Justice.

[sumtingwong]

The Economist seems to believe that a democracy means once a politician is elected, the laws no longer apply to them.

[VINCENT2012]

bla bla bla.... ..to avoid that catastrophe...thailand need a real democracy with people who are not interested in fame and money but in the well being of the country and its people. .thats it.....of course this is as usual too much asking.

only when the country will be ruin they will realise what they have done.

[phantomfiddler]

The only way out of this mess is for the redshirts to totally distance themselves from the thaksin family and field their own hopefully intelligent and honest candidate. Everyone is aware of the acute need for a political system that recognizes the needs of the rural poor, and by their strange alliance with the most corrupt family in Thai history they are not doing themselves any favours. Redshirts, you have the numbers and the desire, so get your act together and get rid of your worst enemy !

[phutoie2]

Sent from my i-mobile IQ 2 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Edited May 10, 2014 by phutoie2

[Jean Pierre Jacquot]

He has transformed the life of the poorest? What a joke. Transformed yes, but certainly not for the better! Shit article with the usual rubbish rhetoric that this is about a fight between elites and the poor....5555...... This is a fight about power between elites and nothing else! How can The Economist be so silly? Because they are Yankees who usually are not aware that there are other foreign countries on earth apart of Mexico and maybe Canada?

[Mrgk]

The Economist seems to believe that a democracy means once a politician is elected, the laws no longer apply to them.

Nah, rather they take a dim view of the honesty, democratic legitimacy and competence of the "Independent" agencies.

[sumtingwong]

The Economist seems to believe that a democracy means once a politician is elected, the laws no longer apply to them.

Nah, rather they take a dim view of the honesty, democratic legitimacy and competence of the "Independent" agencies.

Sounds like the Constitutional Court got it right. imo

CONSTITUTION OF THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND (2007)

Section 268. The Prime Minister and a Minister shall not perform any act in violation of the provisions of section 266, except the performance of powers and duties for the administration of State affairs as stated to the National Assembly or as provided by law.

Section 266. A member of the House of Representatives and a senator shall not, through the status or position of member of the House of Representatives or senator, interfere or intervene the following matters, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of his own or other persons or of political party:

(1) the performance of official duties or routine works of a government official, official or employee of a government agency, State agency, State agency, an enterprise in which the State is a major shareholders or a local government organisation;

(2) the recruitment, appointment, reshuffle, transfer, promotion and elevation of the salary scale of a government official holding a permanent position or receiving salary and not being a political official, an official or employee of a government agency, State agency, State enterprise or local government organisation;

(3) the removal from office of a government official holding a permanent position or receiving salary and not being a political official, an official or employee of a government agency, State agency, State enterprise or local government organisation.