Thailand: Everything is broken

[noitom]

"Led by "firebrand" populist, Suthep Thaugsuban." This is a preposterous remark from a credible source like Economist. It illustrates complete lack of candor and forthrightness in the content as well as a lack of understanding of Thai drivers. For the Economist, this appears to be a big step down in worthwhile editorial commentary.

[Roadman]

LOOK on and despair. A decade ago Thailand was a shining examplerare proof that in South-East Asia a vibrant democracy could go hand-in-hand with a thriving economy. Contrast that with Thailand on May 7th, left in disarray after the Constitutional Court demanded that the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra (pictured), step down with nine members of her cabinet over her decision to remove the countrys head of national security in 2011, in favour of a relative.

-------------------

Not true because:

• Thailand was never a shining example or a vibrant democracy. The number of poor and second-class people in Thailand has always been high. Covering that fact up with political bull---t, as has been done for at least a decade is one of the problems in Thailand that can no longer be covered up, and THAT has been one of Thailand's real problems for years. It's just now become something the Thai apologists can no longer hide.
• Anyone who has actually lived here for a few years knows very well the corrupt and self-serving nature of Thai politicians and the institutional Thai political parties. The two main Thai political parties (along with other smaller political parties) are self-serving cliques whose real concern is obtaining power and maintaining that status-quo for their own profit and corruption. "Democracy", as practiced Thai style, has been a farce for many years and has only pretended to "serve the people". Now, the cracks simply can't be papered over any longer.
• Thirdly, anybody who isn't blind can see the real Political problems in Thailand actually derive from the all-pervading corruption and greed of ALL Thai politicians and their self-serving greed.
• Everything else comes from that greed. Don't be blinded by the bull---t fed to you by BOTH major Political parties.
• Wake up Thailand..... your being treated like a used condom by ALL Thai politicians.

And everything is NOT broken, it's simply time for a change.

Sometimes in order to build the new, first you have to tear down and remove the old and decaying.

That is what Thailand has to do,,

IMHO what thai's think is democracy is what has been ingrained in them for centuries and that's patronage. Agree that's why the stupidity of 'let's have another election' when the whole system is a broken down abused cesspit will never address the inner issues..jeez even monkeys have enough intelligence to know to do something different when repeating the same gives the same failed result.

The Thai politicial factions need to put aside their differences and combined find a solution or the Senate, courts and Army combined remove the lot of them from power and have the people find the solution or carry on with another election and have the same garbage dished up by the crap that pass's in Thailand as politicians.

[jayboy]

"Led by "firebrand" populist, Suthep Thaugsuban." This is a preposterous remark from a credible source like Economist. It illustrates complete lack of candor and forthrightness in the content as well as a lack of understanding of Thai drivers. For the Economist, this appears to be a big step down in worthwhile editorial commentary.

No informed person would see anything untoward about The Economist's description of Suthep.It's precise and accurate.

The confusion in your mind may be derived from the fact that The Economist editorial staff are highly educated journalists who understand the meaning and implications of "populist".In Thailand however among some of Suthep's sans culottes as well as some who ought to lnow better, the term has come to mean the policy of a political party focused on the well being of the majority.

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

[michaelscottfan]

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.

You can ad al-Jazeera, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Vice News, the BBC, ABC News, and essentially every major English speaking news source in the world to that list of "Biased" publications then. Your movement doesn't seem to have many friends, and the entire civilized world sees it for what it is. Maybe you'd have better luck teaming up with Russian or North Korean state media?

[sumtingwong]

The Economist puts out a cute headline [Thailand: Everything is broken] but they do not seem to realize or know that this is how Thailand politics have always worked since 1932. It is not broken to the Thais. It is the norm.

[jayboy]

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?

Very much the same as the rest of the international press.At one time AJ (more credible than RT which is essentially a Russia propaganda organ) was invoked by the yellow faction but a stream of unsympathetic articles ended that.

The position is that the anti government movement has no serious support from any credible international quarter whether academic, journalistic or political.Of course this doesn't imply unqualified support for the government - far from it.For example The Economist recently rightly identified the creepy aspect of Thaksin directing affairs from Dubai.But by and large credible international support has been entirely directed toward the government and highly critical of the Democrats, Suthep and the supine Bangkok middle class.

I was bemused recently to note one member Arkady,an intelligent and experienced voice, described the Bangkok Pundit blogger as a "left leaning intellectual" as if to explain its opposition to the Dems and Suthep mobsters.That's not really fair to BP but it did remind me that the opposition in international terms has no intellectual support at all - none, zero, zilch.It's reduced to invoking a deranged freak like Tony Cartalucci or a hugely comical joke figure Michael Yon.Actually I have a soft spot for the latter and there is a kind of integrity too.

[jayboy]

And while I think of it in a recent Twitter cat fight between Michael Yon and Andrew "nothing relevant except the succession and if anybody questions me he is an idiot" Marshall, Michael easily got the measure of Marshall - not least through some hilarious photos.

[Suradit69]

But does anyone ever think anything through in LOS, no matter what the subject matter.?

Certainly not most of the self-important, self-absorbed ADHD posters on Thai Visa who seem to see everything solely in terms of how it affects them right now. Look at the current thread on border crossings.

It's all about:

And it drifts on and off topic according to whatever distracts the current poster:

Edited May 11, 2014 by Suradit69

[peterquixote]

so many completely dumb replies to Thailand on the brink,

so many idiot farangs saying we can not speak out minds,

even though we drag currency into his dirty country.

Well I am glad to hear of the end of Thaksin Shinawatra,

I would shoot him myself the soi dog

[emilymat]

I'm no great expert on the intricacies of the Thai mind-set and therefor have, to date, not felt it right to comment as an Englishman living in this country for 7 years.

However, I thought the article was a fair and concise resume of my understanding of the complex situation and I don't know why other readers think it's garbage.

Corruption and intrigue go hand in hand in this part of the world and I have learned to accept it exists, as there is nowt I can do except, as an individual, refuse to contribute in any way to the system.

I had a guy ranting on at me the other day about red shirts etc being funded by Shinawatra. That may be, but I gently reminded him about the airports being closed some years ago and ventured to suggest the yellow shirted occupants were not doing it for free.

That is why I avoid getting into these debates. Let's just hope the country can settle down eventually. It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion.

[Morch]

so many completely dumb replies to Thailand on the brink,

so many idiot farangs saying we can not speak out minds,

even though we drag currency into his dirty country.

Well I am glad to hear of the end of Thaksin Shinawatra,

I would shoot him myself the soi dog

Good someone sees the windmills, err...sorry, giants...for what they really are.

Now you just need to fuel up your trusty Honda Rocinante, and get sidekick Suthep Panza

to accompany you on your glorious exploits.

Have a nice Sunday.

[jpeg]

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.

Having read that article simply confirms my opinion the West has not a clue as to how culturally different SE Asia in general and Thailand in particular are. Wishing something were different does not make it so. Next idea for dragging this country up to speed? because this way (nor the other), will.

[Asiantravel]

I'm no great expert on the intricacies of the Thai mind-set and therefor have, to date, not felt it right to comment as an Englishman living in this country for 7 years.

However, I thought the article was a fair and concise resume of my understanding of the complex situation and I don't know why other readers think it's garbage.

Corruption and intrigue go hand in hand in this part of the world and I have learned to accept it exists, as there is nowt I can do except, as an individual, refuse to contribute in any way to the system.

I had a guy ranting on at me the other day about red shirts etc being funded by Shinawatra. That may be, but I gently reminded him about the airports being closed some years ago and ventured to suggest the yellow shirted occupants were not doing it for free.

That is why I avoid getting into these debates. Let's just hope the country can settle down eventually. It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion.

" It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion."

did you see this in Forbes from last November?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2013/11/04/thailands-bubble-economy-is-heading-for-a-1997-style-crash/

[tullynagardy]

Like most Economist articles, it's balanced, well written and to the point.

Brilliant article that outlines the way forward.

[emilymat]

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.

Agreed. 48% of the vote in a multi party election in any country would be a landslide. It's only North Korea etc where it would not be. UK governments are formed with, perhaps 37% of the votes. Are they undemocratic?

[emilymat]

I'm no great expert on the intricacies of the Thai mind-set and therefor have, to date, not felt it right to comment as an Englishman living in this country for 7 years.

However, I thought the article was a fair and concise resume of my understanding of the complex situation and I don't know why other readers think it's garbage.

Corruption and intrigue go hand in hand in this part of the world and I have learned to accept it exists, as there is nowt I can do except, as an individual, refuse to contribute in any way to the system.

I had a guy ranting on at me the other day about red shirts etc being funded by Shinawatra. That may be, but I gently reminded him about the airports being closed some years ago and ventured to suggest the yellow shirted occupants were not doing it for free.

That is why I avoid getting into these debates. Let's just hope the country can settle down eventually. It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion.

" It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion."

did you see this in Forbes from last November?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessecolombo/2013/11/04/thailands-bubble-economy-is-heading-for-a-1997-style-crash/

[emilymat]

Thank you.

[xylophone]

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.

Have read that article and it aligns with a copy of a report I saw which was written by a certain embassy here (cannot disclose embassy or source).

[Oscar2]

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

i didn't see the name of the author of this article on the Economist. did anyone else? but i agree it's a biased hogwash story. probably bought and paid for by one side.

[KarenBravo]

I stopped reading at the word compromise.....

Compromise is exactly what brought Thailand to that.

What is right must win and what is wrong must loose. No matter if it is Suthep or Thaksin. But a compromise will bring the same problem back 2 years later.

I stopped reading your post at the word "loose".

[zydeco]

I'm no great expert on the intricacies of the Thai mind-set and therefor have, to date, not felt it right to comment as an Englishman living in this country for 7 years.

However, I thought the article was a fair and concise resume of my understanding of the complex situation and I don't know why other readers think it's garbage.

Corruption and intrigue go hand in hand in this part of the world and I have learned to accept it exists, as there is nowt I can do except, as an individual, refuse to contribute in any way to the system.

I had a guy ranting on at me the other day about red shirts etc being funded by Shinawatra. That may be, but I gently reminded him about the airports being closed some years ago and ventured to suggest the yellow shirted occupants were not doing it for free.

That is why I avoid getting into these debates. Let's just hope the country can settle down eventually. It still amazes me that it appears so economically strong - although of course this may be an illusion.

You could have summed all that up in a single sentence.

[Thai at Heart]

"Led by "firebrand" populist, Suthep Thaugsuban." This is a preposterous remark from a credible source like Economist. It illustrates complete lack of candor and forthrightness in the content as well as a lack of understanding of Thai drivers. For the Economist, this appears to be a big step down in worthwhile editorial commentary.

They could have called him worse.

[Thai at Heart]

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

i didn't see the name of the author of this article on the Economist. did anyone else? but i agree it's a biased hogwash story. probably bought and paid for by one side.

Its just it criticises both sides, so dammit, which side paid????

[dude123]

A "highly centralised system of governance" is what many so called democracies still suffer from today. Most of the money tends to find it's way to the elite whilst the rest of the regions suffer from inequality on many levels as well as being underfunded due to relocation of funds that should have stayed and been used directly within the communites in the first place. Having a core set of values and governance consistent throughout the entire country is the best way to a brighter future and peace for all. Stripping regions of wealth and linning the pockets of the few who feel they are deserving is what is rapidly eroding societies around the globe..

--------------------------------

Yes.

My opinion ...... I've referred to it as "The creeping cancer of Corporate Capitalism"

Just my opinion.

Thanks. That's exaclty what it is, a "cancer" and Thailand is not the only country suffering from this. The top of the chain writes obscene laws to protect themselves at the expense of just about everyone else.

Edited May 11, 2014 by dude123

[aimbc]

We know how bias this article is. Just another of Thaksin propaganda. If this reporter, whatever his name is, go after the rice scheme and it's corruption, then I would say it's fair an bias judgement. Or go after how farmers have committed suicide and the government refuses to acknowledge that it was the fault of their criminal actions.

But nope. I don't think we will ever see that until the law start sending people to jail for withholding information. We all know withholding information is basically a delay tactic to cover up their corruption as much as possible.

I think the writer of the article should have written how the government abuse democracy and populist policy to ruin a nation for their own self interest. That would have been an appropriate title and a better article. Not some far fetch idea and some heavily sided opinion, just to mix up the world into falling into Thaksin godliness view of the world.

The Economist huh. I think everything is up for sale these days with US economy and the world economy suffering. Would anyone trust the US for anything when year after year, the government allow crooks to manipulate wall street. The US can't even get their own house in order. Yes the US used to be a great nation. But I think we know, money talks and sh*t walks. And US is no different than the rest of the world. The powerful controls everything. Similar to what is happening in Thailand, but Thais sophistication level is not as high as the US.

[Thai at Heart]

We know how bias this article is. Just another of Thaksin propaganda. If this reporter, whatever his name is, go after the rice scheme and it's corruption, then I would say it's fair an bias judgement. Or go after how farmers have committed suicide and the government refuses to acknowledge that it was the fault of their criminal actions.

But nope. I don't think we will ever see that until the law start sending people to jail for withholding information. We all know withholding information is basically a delay tactic to cover up their corruption as much as possible.

I think the writer of the article should have written how the government abuse democracy and populist policy to ruin a nation for their own self interest. That would have been an appropriate title and a better article. Not some far fetch idea and some heavily sided opinion, just to mix up the world into falling into Thaksin godliness view of the world.

The Economist huh. I think everything is up for sale these days with US economy and the world economy suffering. Would anyone trust the US for anything when year after year, the government allow crooks to manipulate wall street. The US can't even get their own house in order. Yes the US used to be a great nation. But I think we know, money talks and sh*t walks. And US is no different than the rest of the world. The powerful controls everything. Similar to what is happening in Thailand, but Thais sophistication level is not as high as the US.

If there is such massive and obvious corruption in the rice deal, why isn't there one single conviction yet ?

NOT ONE!

Couldn't they at least organise that to make it appear just a little less of a witch hunt.

[Emptyset]

And while I think of it in a recent Twitter cat fight between Michael Yon and Andrew "nothing relevant except the succession and if anybody questions me he is an idiot" Marshall, Michael easily got the measure of Marshall - not least through some hilarious photos.

I also had something of a "soft spot" for Yon, despite myself, until I saw his campaign yesterday to get someone fired from his job for some words exchanged in a bar. Whatever the guy said, it didn't need to go further than that. Yet Yon used his followers (most of whom he knew would follow him blindly) to attack the guy and approach his school. I wouldn't say I respected him before, I saw him more as a Rob Ford type comic figure. Of course, I was well aware he was little more than a huckster trying to make a few bob from the credulous* and delusional but I didn't dislike him. But from what I saw yesterday, there's something not right there. Anyone who wants someone to lose their job because of a political disagreement and carries out an online campaign to that effect... well, clearly they're an alphabet short of a letter, at best.

*Incidentally, I have a good Thai friend who is a moderate supporter of the PDRC, yet is still astonished that more people can't see Yon for what he is. Especially after he posted asking for donations for an 18,000 dollar computer to update his FB. He was sickened by Yon's posts yesterday and I don't think that response is untypical. It might not bode well for Yon. Certainly it's got more people, people who would've tolerated him before, interested in his legal status. Not all attention is welcome.

[hawker9000]

We know how bias this article is. Just another of Thaksin propaganda. If this reporter, whatever his name is, go after the rice scheme and it's corruption, then I would say it's fair an bias judgement. Or go after how farmers have committed suicide and the government refuses to acknowledge that it was the fault of their criminal actions.

But nope. I don't think we will ever see that until the law start sending people to jail for withholding information. We all know withholding information is basically a delay tactic to cover up their corruption as much as possible.

I think the writer of the article should have written how the government abuse democracy and populist policy to ruin a nation for their own self interest. That would have been an appropriate title and a better article. Not some far fetch idea and some heavily sided opinion, just to mix up the world into falling into Thaksin godliness view of the world.

The Economist huh. I think everything is up for sale these days with US economy and the world economy suffering. Would anyone trust the US for anything when year after year, the government allow crooks to manipulate wall street. The US can't even get their own house in order. Yes the US used to be a great nation. But I think we know, money talks and sh*t walks. And US is no different than the rest of the world. The powerful controls everything. Similar to what is happening in Thailand, but Thais sophistication level is not as high as the US.

If there is such massive and obvious corruption in the rice deal, why isn't there one single conviction yet ?

NOT ONE!

Couldn't they at least organise that to make it appear just a little less of a witch hunt.

'Little thing called a trial needed. You know, with charges & indictments and all that juristrivia. There have been a few other minor distractions lately. Like the dissolution of parliament and the dismissal of the PM and several of her cabinet members. You know; little details. Just pipe down, relax and stay tuned. It's coming.

[brfsa2]

YAPG

("Yet another propaganda garbage" from the media)

[Hugh Geen]

I notice metice and RogueExpat made no attempt to back up their assertions.