Thai govt turns to populist subsidies to ease farmer tensions

[phantomfiddler]

What,s wrong with calling it "Humanitarian Assistance" ? often called helping someone out when their luck is running low

[waldroj]

Just Reuters propaganda!

I’m waiting for the official spin from NNT, The Nation, or the broadcaster we can trust.

[MZurf]

Dejavoo time Prime Minister Prayut-O .......

Deja what time, 'chainawrong'? Oh, but, bien sûr, you meant the French expression '(c'est du) déjà vu'! For you then: time... to go kneel in the corner with the appropriate hat on your head, maybe?

Pointing out other posters spelling mistakes. How ingenious. You must be really, REALLY smart!!

Don't think so, just trying to avoid the few Thais reading our stuff on TV to be infected by the poor vocabulary and grammatics used by possibly undereducated Farangs here, the poor lads and gals already don't get much of an opportunity to learn decent English at school, do they?

Well, aren't you just endearingly magnanimous!

[ikke]

Dejavoo time Prime Minister Prayut-O .......

Deja what time, 'chainawrong'? Oh, but, bien sûr, you meant the French expression '(c'est du) déjà vu'! For you then: time... to go kneel in the corner with the appropriate hat on your head, maybe?

You must be a teacher who likes the Junta and is blind for the true .

blind for the true what ? Learning to spell can help you be understood

Another teacher ?

[losgrad]

It's considered a 'bad' or possibly an illegal idea if used to garner votes, but it is a 'good' idea if un-elected uses it to ease tensions.

[jesimps]

Big difference here is there is no ongoing election and no votes for sale.

It's very difficult to flog votes when voting isn't allowed. Also you and I know that in reality, if someone was offered money to vote a certain way he said "thank you very much" then voted for who he really supported. Have to be a mug not to.

[EnglishJohn]

the junta has been plagarizing the PTP policies since May 22nd. This is not new, it's just a new version of their attempt to keep enough people happy that a real resistance cannot spread.

The junta has maintained a stranglehold on the country and if there is any kind of opposition to their rule, they will need to crack down on it ... up to now, the opposition has been tamed through Art 44, LM, AA mini-vacations, and heavy censorship. I would imagine that these dinosaurs are not soooo dense as to ignore their own history and the impact of street-protests followed by a crackdown and killings. Think 1973 and 1976...

Wow, you live in the past. Is that because those people in 73 and 76 had a real reason to be on street and you are hoping a little of their credit rubs off on you ?.

Why not move to more modern times : 2010 for example. That one was entirely different and no wonder you avoided it. Paid thugs and mercenaries mingling with genuine protesters with the aim of making a bloodbath, a civil uprising and a certain megalomaniac coming home to save the country.

I'm not surprised you avoided that one. It's a bit embarrassing when you know the truth and not a shred of 'nobility' to be found.

You are still perfectly free to sit writing your red-shirt, anti-junta hypocrisy despite all the crackdowns you claim. How does that work ?.

[EnglishJohn]

Must be that Thainess so often invoked when the 'Good People with Guns' (with self-granted imunity), do the things they prosecute and pillage others for, yet assert they have higher moral ground. Falang just can't bend their brains to get the twisted logic. TIT

Which part of '500 billion lost from a 600 billion budget' do you having trouble understanding ?.

Maybe someone who has a small child here can get them to draw a picture for you if it helps.

[smutcakes]

Big difference here is there is no ongoing election and no votes for sale.

It's very difficult to flog votes when voting isn't allowed. Also you and I know that in reality, if someone was offered money to vote a certain way he said "thank you very much" then voted for who he really supported. Have to be a mug not to.

Maybe at some point in the future someone from the Junta will turn full time politician, or continue being a full time politician eg Prawit (people seem to forget when they go on about politician being corrupt that he has been a fully-fledged politician for years). Perhaps they could then be retroactively impeached and banned for life for this vote buying.

[FangFerang]

Big difference here is there is no ongoing election and no votes for sale.

Big difference is that the government was not elected and still has to appease the population, and no soldiers for sale (they're all rentals).

The last people used populism to get votes, like every politician in every representative democracy. The new people are using populism to keep unrest down. The first one bought votes, and this one is buying stability....

Same happy ending, same story,

just a different plot.

[elgordo38]

It was only a matter of time before he had to backdown to appease the rural folk.

You mean the masses.

Yes the voting masses but hey wait a minute there is no election pending? Why bother? The government has talked down "populist policies" from day one.

[bangrak]

the junta has been plagarizing the PTP policies since May 22nd. This is not new, it's just a new version of their attempt to keep enough people happy that a real resistance cannot spread.

The junta has maintained a stranglehold on the country and if there is any kind of opposition to their rule, they will need to crack down on it ... up to now, the opposition has been tamed through Art 44, LM, AA mini-vacations, and heavy censorship. I would imagine that these dinosaurs are not soooo dense as to ignore their own history and the impact of street-protests followed by a crackdown and killings. Think 1973 and 1976...

'tbt', you're a work of art, your attitude reminds me of what a befriended criminal attorney was advising his clients to do: 'Deny, deny, deny, lie, lie, lie, maybe something of it might stick, but whatever happens, never ever, change your system' (translated)... Or Saddam Hussein's minister of propaganda who had gathered the international press in Bagdad to tell them the Americans had been pushed back into the sea, ...while the cameras rolling there could film humvees driving on the other bank of the river... When you truly believe the stuff you write, over and over again, I pity you.

and you are clearly a junta-hugger, so what do I care about your pity or your blindness to what is happening now and to what has been happening for the last 70 years?

Sorry, I must have touched a sensitive spot... I'm, alas, not sure at all you know more about the last 70 years, here and and in the world outside, than what has been spooned inside your mouth... As for blindness, you know, there is no worse blind than the ones who doesn't want to see, in this case, 'denialists' like you for instance...

[tbthailand]

the junta has been plagarizing the PTP policies since May 22nd. This is not new, it's just a new version of their attempt to keep enough people happy that a real resistance cannot spread.

The junta has maintained a stranglehold on the country and if there is any kind of opposition to their rule, they will need to crack down on it ... up to now, the opposition has been tamed through Art 44, LM, AA mini-vacations, and heavy censorship. I would imagine that these dinosaurs are not soooo dense as to ignore their own history and the impact of street-protests followed by a crackdown and killings. Think 1973 and 1976...

Wow, you live in the past. Is that because those people in 73 and 76 had a real reason to be on street and you are hoping a little of their credit rubs off on you ?.

Why not move to more modern times : 2010 for example. That one was entirely different and no wonder you avoided it. Paid thugs and mercenaries mingling with genuine protesters with the aim of making a bloodbath, a civil uprising and a certain megalomaniac coming home to save the country.

I'm not surprised you avoided that one. It's a bit embarrassing when you know the truth and not a shred of 'nobility' to be found.

You are still perfectly free to sit writing your red-shirt, anti-junta hypocrisy despite all the crackdowns you claim. How does that work ?.

I recall 2010 very, very, very, very well. And I know a helluvalot of info about the killing that went on.

So let's take your point,

Paid thugs and mercenaries mingling with genuine protesters with the aim of making a bloodbath, a civil uprising and a certain megalomaniac coming home to save the country.

you just go ahead and feel free to explain how that makes any sense at all and how it relates to any reality as normal people understand it when the army killed 90% of all of the people who died in 2010.

Clearly you have no clue why there were military personnel among the protestors fighting against the military in 2010...

pfft, you have kept yourself purposefully ignorant as is evident in your posts... I hardly expect a rational reply, ... but surprise me.

[tbthailand]

the junta has been plagarizing the PTP policies since May 22nd. This is not new, it's just a new version of their attempt to keep enough people happy that a real resistance cannot spread.

The junta has maintained a stranglehold on the country and if there is any kind of opposition to their rule, they will need to crack down on it ... up to now, the opposition has been tamed through Art 44, LM, AA mini-vacations, and heavy censorship. I would imagine that these dinosaurs are not soooo dense as to ignore their own history and the impact of street-protests followed by a crackdown and killings. Think 1973 and 1976...

'tbt', you're a work of art, your attitude reminds me of what a befriended criminal attorney was advising his clients to do: 'Deny, deny, deny, lie, lie, lie, maybe something of it might stick, but whatever happens, never ever, change your system' (translated)... Or Saddam Hussein's minister of propaganda who had gathered the international press in Bagdad to tell them the Americans had been pushed back into the sea, ...while the cameras rolling there could film humvees driving on the other bank of the river... When you truly believe the stuff you write, over and over again, I pity you.

and you are clearly a junta-hugger, so what do I care about your pity or your blindness to what is happening now and to what has been happening for the last 70 years?

Sorry, I must have touched a sensitive spot... I'm, alas, not sure at all you know more about the last 70 years, here and and in the world outside, than what has been spooned inside your mouth... As for blindness, you know, there is no worse blind than the ones who doesn't want to see, in this case, 'denialists' like you for instance...

you want to call me a "denialist"

As for Thai history, there are many sources out there, inside and outside of Thailand. Some are official propaganda, others come from academics and observers of different backgrounds. The same is true for current events. None of these sources came with a spoon.