Prayut needs to win the hearts of more red shirts

[thelonius]

I asked for a link to evidence that the current PM ordered troops to fire on civilians, as Solomon alleged.

prayuth was Army Chief during the events of 2010. Suthep as DPM issued orders via CREs to the Army. Amongst those orders was authorisation to shoot protesters who used firearms against the military AND the use of Snipers:

‘In the case when [the authorities] find flagrant offences in which the perpetrators are using firearms against officials, or use weapons or explosives against military positions and important premises as specified by the CRES, the authorities are authorized to use firearms against the perpetrators to stop their actions. But, if the perpetrators are mingling among the protesters to the extent that such use of firearms might endanger innocent people, the use of firearms is prohibited, except in cases where military units have already deployed marksmen sufficiently able to shoot to stop the activities. In addition, if military units find targets but cannot themselves carry out the shooting, for example, because the targets are shielded, etc., the units can ask for support from snipers from the CRES.’ http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/3330

Fair enough, but as we know this was not always the case, one example being the the shooting of the 6 innocents in the temple which prayuth denied the army was responsible for, and having not recanted that denial must therefore still be of that mindset, disturbing though it is. The army chief accepted these orders and was responsible for having them carried out - however as the results of the autopsies that have been carried out have shown, the "rules of engagement" were interpreted somewhat loosely. Ergo prayuth was responsible for the results of those orders.

Or are the "role of responsibility" and "reaping what you sow" mantras that you have rigidly insisted should apply to Yingluck, not applicable in this case?

Edited November 17, 2015 by thelonius

[tbthailand]

You! , yes you, red shirt, ... tell the Thai people how much you love me ... or it's a week of military AA vacation camp for you...

If he really wanted to win their hearts he just needs to copy Thaks and pay them off. Not hard to do.

yeah, not really. The people in isaan want a better life - like any one else in the world. What they know is that the governments pre-Thaksin didn't do anything to make their lives better - for decades and decades... Look at the stats, people are poor here.

But they have woken up over time... the short version is that people here understand democracy better here than all those PDRC / yellow shirts in BKK and they liked the fact that they could chose their leaders in BKK and have a party there which did something good for them. No one I know here liked everything that any government did, but they like having their say about who that government is... You and I understand that as "self-governance" aka "democracy"...

So if you call a government that spends moderately more of it's resources on programs for people outside of BKK "paying them off", then you're right. As you should probably know, there is still a lot of ground to make up before the Thai government spending comes close to being spread proportionally around the country rather than being hoarded to support the interests of the BKK elites.

"Look at the stats, people are poor here".

So you admit that the money Thaksin supposedly splashed out on them over his 15 years or so tenure in it's various guises with him holding the reins didn't exactly help them out financially!! It just goes to show how much he tricked and fooled so many gullible people in the pretence that he was making their lives more tolerable when in fact it was all to do with enriching himself and his cronies.

The 'democracy show', whereby you cheat, lie and buy your way to win at the polls and then disregard everything in the 'democracy book' illustrates just how flawed the Thai version of democracy was. They must change the rules so that it is a level playing field with the PTP bribes of unjustifiable and unaffordable populist policies outlawed and if necessary (as seems the case) find a way to prevent the PTP from ever governing again for the interests of the Thai population as a whole.

So you admit that the money Thaksin supposedly splashed out on them over his 15 years or so tenure in it's various guises with him holding the reins didn't exactly help them out financially!!

no, that is not what I said.

[Bluespunk]

''Prayut needs to win the hearts of more red shirts''

Not handing out yellow shirts at cabinet meetings might help.