Thaksin Shinawatra warns govt about Thailand’s economy

[Ricardo]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Depressing range of options, how about "none of the above" ?

[sawadee1947]

I agree 100% with Thaksin. It's a fact that Thailand was a prosperous country under his govt. Unfortunately the soldiers didn't learn how to "move Thailand forward" and seem unwilling to ask experts in economy, finance, law aso. All they know is what they need for their military stuff, as subs or tanks e.g. Wasted money anyway.

[sawadee1947]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Depressing range of options, how about "none of the above" ?

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

[sawadee1947]

Self-made Billionaires especially if they have come from non-privileged background are super intelligent if not genius. Unfortunately being ruthless is a part of the formula in the chemistry of their persona

He is just a lot cleverer than all of you. Having knowledge is not intelligence; intelligence is what you do with that knowledge.

The country has been on a downward spiral for tourist, ex pats and the peasant classes ever since the 2006 coup

He's definitely not "self-made" and has got to be the most stupid genius on the planet!

Tourist numbers are at record levels, there's a growing number of ex-pats due to easy immigration policy, and if I recall the first thing the Junta did after the last coup was to get the farmers paid what was owed from the rice debacle created by that intelligent knowledgeable billionaire genius.

first of all: stupid genius on the plane. I can't see that but you will give me examples, will you?

Also: there is no proof thet they would not have paid under Yingluck. She did not get the chance to pay, because the parliament blocked her partially.

So?

[sawadee1947]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Are you suggesting that a close relationship with a parasite might be mutually beneficial?

5555 of course he would be able to run the country to the better. And (the word parasite can be used for all govt.) why not use his knowledge and intelligence?

[metisdead]

Off topic posts have been removed.

[Now or Never]

Mr. Thaksin is right at home in the Lee Corporate Mafia Capital of Singapore who would love to get their hands on more Thai assets.

What else has he promised them for providing him safe refuge ?

[bark]

WE haven't heard much from him the past year. Sorry that he is back.

[jerojero]

And the exiled convict billionaire knows what's best, of course. They are all elitist.... yellow, red, or junta. All want the masses to pay homage to them, and let the poor remain poor.

[scorecard]

Self-made Billionaires especially if they have come from non-privileged background are super intelligent if not genius. Unfortunately being ruthless is a part of the formula in the chemistry of their persona

He is just a lot cleverer than all of you. Having knowledge is not intelligence; intelligence is what you do with that knowledge.

The country has been on a downward spiral for tourist, ex pats and the peasant classes ever since the 2006 coup

He's definitely not "self-made" and has got to be the most stupid genius on the planet!

Tourist numbers are at record levels, there's a growing number of ex-pats due to easy immigration policy, and if I recall the first thing the Junta did after the last coup was to get the farmers paid what was owed from the rice debacle created by that intelligent knowledgeable billionaire genius.

first of all: stupid genius on the plane. I can't see that but you will give me examples, will you?

Also: there is no proof thet they would not have paid under Yingluck. She did not get the chance to pay, because the parliament blocked her partially.

So?

Here we go again, blatant mistruths, and no hesitation to post misleading / untruthful comments.

[shunter]

Truth of the comment and the matter is the only economy affected to date been the Thaksin tribes economy which in its time had a direct link to the government coffers of Thailand.

Sawadee1947. post # 64

Also: there is no proof thet they would not have paid under Yingluck. She did not get the chance to pay, because the parliament blocked her partially.

So?

Wasn't that the puppet government whose maser puppeteer was no doubt concerned that that rice money was going to go to the farmers as opposed to him, his family and their associates?

[rixalex]

I agree 100% with Thaksin. It's a fact that Thailand was a prosperous country under his govt. Unfortunately the soldiers didn't learn how to "move Thailand forward" and seem unwilling to ask experts in economy, finance, law aso. All they know is what they need for their military stuff, as subs or tanks e.g. Wasted money anyway.

It's a fact that Thailand was a prosperous country under his govt.

Come now, that's only partly true.

He's been in and out of power quite a lot over the last 15 years, most recently with his sister playing the role of figurehead with him pulling the strings from behind (Thaksin thinks, PT acts), and the only time in which the economy can really have to been said to flourish was during his first spell in charge when the world economy was booming. On all the other occasions the economy has done nothing at all remarkable - quite the reverse.

[Ricardo]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Depressing range of options, how about "none of the above" ?

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

[sawadee1947]

Self-made Billionaires especially if they have come from non-privileged background are super intelligent if not genius. Unfortunately being ruthless is a part of the formula in the chemistry of their persona

He is just a lot cleverer than all of you. Having knowledge is not intelligence; intelligence is what you do with that knowledge.

The country has been on a downward spiral for tourist, ex pats and the peasant classes ever since the 2006 coup

He's definitely not "self-made" and has got to be the most stupid genius on the planet!

Tourist numbers are at record levels, there's a growing number of ex-pats due to easy immigration policy, and if I recall the first thing the Junta did after the last coup was to get the farmers paid what was owed from the rice debacle created by that intelligent knowledgeable billionaire genius.

first of all: stupid genius on the plane. I can't see that but you will give me examples, will you?

Also: there is no proof thet they would not have paid under Yingluck. She did not get the chance to pay, because the parliament blocked her partially.

So?

Here we go again, blatant mistruths, and no hesitation to post misleading / untruthful comments.

yes, I like this forum. Everybody can write even unqualified comments.

[JHolmesJr]

The only economy this greasy crook cares about is his own.

[penbe]

Ok. That makes sense...

[pnustedt]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Depressing range of options, how about "none of the above" ?

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

the data you are citing refers to the situation in 2006 so do not support your conclusion that everything is so bad

[Anon999]

Mr " T " is correct in the assumption that the Junta has no vision or economical sense , no junta in history has had this gift , as all junta's are Military inspired ideology , except for the limited few , Generals make poor leaders of nations , especially in the Asian part of the world , Prayut - O is now finding that out, the nation not necessarily agrees or salutes when he speaks............................. .

From where I'm standing there has been a significant improvement in the infrastructure over the last year and is ongoing as opposed to absolutely nothing being done during the previous ten years apart from mend and make do if no other choice. The money for that must come from the government (from taxpayers) while finding its way to where it was intended as opposed to elsewhere!.

[metisdead]

Some posts have been removed, While Thaksin may hold passports from other countries using another name, that name is not recognized in Thailand.

[JHolmesJr]

Mr. Thaksin is right at home in the Lee Corporate Mafia Capital of Singapore who would love to get their hands on more Thai assets.

What else has he promised them for providing him safe refuge ?

He sold them 96% of his company.

[sanukjim]

perhaps he could have given an estimate of how much money he and his family was going to steal before he took office as PM.

[candide]

Okay, okay, who will run Thailand in the best way ?

Thaksin ? Abhisit ? The present guys ?

Depressing range of options, how about "none of the above" ?

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

Obviously you are not as skilled in economics as your namesake! It's ridiculous to compare raw figures from different years without taking into account inflation and currency exchange rate.

For example if you take the gdp growth you get a different picture of the current economic performance.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-growth

[Ricardo]

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

the data you are citing refers to the situation in 2006 so do not support your conclusion that everything is so bad

"your conclusion that everything is so bad"

I made no such suggestion, did I ?

But the numbers do show that GDP-per-capita now is significantly higher than a decade ago, so things perhaps aren't quite as bad now as he (or some other posters) would wish to suggest.

I would say that life here has improved steadily over the past 15 years, I'd even agree that things went very well, during the global economic boom in the early-2000s.

"govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly"

Which is an interesting definition of "perfectly", because I was here back then, and remember it being rather less than perfect !

Which is why I gave a few pointers to things that weren't running "perfectly" back then, and wonder whether the poster I quoted was also here in Thailand a decade before he joined ThaiVisa, or was/is he relying on someone-else's judgement, when he made that assessment ?

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ricardo

[Ricardo]

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

Obviously you are not as skilled in economics as your namesake! It's ridiculous to compare raw figures from different years without taking into account inflation and currency exchange rate.

For example if you take the gdp growth you get a different picture of the current economic performance.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-growth

"Obviously you are not as skilled in economics as your namesake!"

No need to flame, old chap ! You can make your point without that, can't you ?

Of course there are other factors, for example the growth in population over the decade, which is why I linked to per-capita numbers.

And the GDP-growth figures you link to are for January-2013 to date, so don't show how things were doing back in Thaksin's era, would you agree ?

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ricardo

[sawadee1947]

But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly. And it's a fact that this so called govt. cannot.

Pity that GDP-per-capita is so much higher now, than when under Thaksin, perhaps his good influence lasted long after he himself was gone ?

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp-per-capita

Inconvenient things, facts & statistics like that !

And they tell you nothing about the drugs-war, or the rebellion down South, or corruption, or denial of freedom-of-speech, under the former 'CEO'.

No, you're not convincing, I'll stick with "none of the above" thanks !

the data you are citing refers to the situation in 2006 so do not support your conclusion that everything is so bad

"your conclusion that everything is so bad"

I made no such suggestion, did I ?

But the numbers do show that GDP-per-capita now is significantly higher than a decade ago, so things perhaps aren't quite as bad now as he (or some other posters) would wish to suggest.

I would say that life here has improved steadily over the past 15 years, I'd even agree that things went very well, during the global economic boom in the early-2000s.

"govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly"

Which is an interesting definition of "perfectly", because I was here back then, and remember it being rather less than perfect !

Which is why I gave a few pointers to things that weren't running "perfectly" back then, and wonder whether the poster I quoted was also here in Thailand a decade before he joined ThaiVisa, or was/is he relying on someone-else's judgement, when he made that assessment ?

things that weren't running "perfectly" back then

you are right. 10 years ago I was still working and only for holidays here. It was my impression that Thaksin's govt. "moved Thailand forward". Police was catching drug dealers here in CM and hill tribes were controlled many times. At that time as a result of control hill tribes were poor indeed. (today good income again?). And many projects were very successful (sky train in BKK, airport). And freedom of speech e.g. Thaksin got a "bigger picture" of Thailand whereas today I see only provincial outlook. Maybe it was my feeling only?

[scorecard]

"But it's a fact that the elected govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly."

There's an interesting attempt at humor.

Murdering 2,500+ citizens of his own country, nobody every brought to justice, families who lost their loved ones never any access to the justice system - ahha 'perfect'.

[Valentine]

the data you are citing refers to the situation in 2006 so do not support your conclusion that everything is so bad

"your conclusion that everything is so bad"

I made no such suggestion, did I ?

But the numbers do show that GDP-per-capita now is significantly higher than a decade ago, so things perhaps aren't quite as bad now as he (or some other posters) would wish to suggest.

I would say that life here has improved steadily over the past 15 years, I'd even agree that things went very well, during the global economic boom in the early-2000s.

"govt under Thaksin ran that country perfectly"

Which is an interesting definition of "perfectly", because I was here back then, and remember it being rather less than perfect !

Which is why I gave a few pointers to things that weren't running "perfectly" back then, and wonder whether the poster I quoted was also here in Thailand a decade before he joined ThaiVisa, or was/is he relying on someone-else's judgement, when he made that assessment ?

things that weren't running "perfectly" back then

you are right. 10 years ago I was still working and only for holidays here. It was my impression that Thaksin's govt. "moved Thailand forward". Police was catching drug dealers here in CM and hill tribes were controlled many times. At that time as a result of control hill tribes were poor indeed. (today good income again?). And many projects were very successful (sky train in BKK, airport). And freedom of speech e.g. Thaksin got a "bigger picture" of Thailand whereas today I see only provincial outlook. Maybe it was my feeling only?

Surely you mean killing alleged drug dealers or weeding out the opposition. As for the skytrain & airport those projects were initiated many moons before Mr T was in power. In the rush to get the airport completed there are still problems with the runways today.

[Ricardo]

things that weren't running "perfectly" back then

you are right. 10 years ago I was still working and only for holidays here. It was my impression that Thaksin's govt. "moved Thailand forward". Police was catching drug dealers here in CM and hill tribes were controlled many times. At that time as a result of control hill tribes were poor indeed. (today good income again?). And many projects were very successful (sky train in BKK, airport). And freedom of speech e.g. Thaksin got a "bigger picture" of Thailand whereas today I see only provincial outlook. Maybe it was my feeling only?

FWIW I too found my view of Thailand changed, once I stopped visiting annually, and moved to live here, I think that must be a common experience ?

Life in Thailand did undoubtedly improve in the early-2000s, there was a global economic-boom on, and Thailand benefited, I doubt we'll ever see growth at those levels again, the question is whether this was all down to Thaksin, as is sometimes claimed by his supporters ? It couldn't possibly have been, is my own view.

The drugs-problem was massive, allegedly over a million yabba-addicts, in fact the ability of Thai workers to work hard for long shifts may have been partly due to supposedly being handed a tablet when they started-work. It might have worked, but is still an unpleasant thought, to us farangs. Thaksin's War-on-Drugs was drastic, some 2,500 murdered, but many of the dead weren't dealers & I doubt whether any of the real big-bosses were caught by it. Death without trial, and nobody 'knows' who carried it out, not quite a perfect solution ?

Many hill-tribe people remain non-citizens to this day, even though they were born within Thailand, another wrong which still remains to be righted. Their living-conditions improved, as did many of the poor's lives, but they are still preyed-upon by the BiBs IME.

Some major projects were completed, Suvarnabhumi being one, but a decade on the cracks are showing, sometimes literally. Along with the progress there was also corruption, there always has been, so one more reason for seeing the government of that era as less-than-perfect. Not irrelevant, not totally ineffectual, just less-than-perfect.

Freedom-of-speech has also been a long-term problem in Thailand, the billion-baht suing of people who disagreed with Dear Leader became a bit of a running-joke, were it not so serious. Given a society still emerging from feudalism, and with a long way still to go, this is to be expected, and to be applauded when progress is made, which isn't often enough.

But the idea of an era when any government here was running things perfectly is IMO mistaken, hence my choice (partly in-jest) of "none of the above", because unless one recognises the failings & problems of all those options then there's no hope of ever doing better.

[rixalex]

things that weren't running "perfectly" back then

you are right. 10 years ago I was still working and only for holidays here. It was my impression that Thaksin's govt. "moved Thailand forward". Police was catching drug dealers here in CM and hill tribes were controlled many times. At that time as a result of control hill tribes were poor indeed. (today good income again?). And many projects were very successful (sky train in BKK, airport). And freedom of speech e.g. Thaksin got a "bigger picture" of Thailand whereas today I see only provincial outlook. Maybe it was my feeling only?

I won't say all, as i'm sure there are some exceptions, but i think the majority of those who hark back to those Thaksin years in charge as being a happy and prosperous time, are those who weren't here, but who, like you, have got the impression from afar of things all being hunky dory back then. Of course it wasn't all bad. Some good things did happen. But there was a lot of bad too.

[PlastikbinLina]

All the mismanagement, high debts, high cost while productivity remains low, stemmed from Thaksin and his puppets. And now he wants to teach?

Perhaps he should first pay back the damages caused to Thailand from his rice scam policy?

As it appears you as an expert on the economic misdemeanors of the Thaksin era, you should perhaps consider writing a book on the subject. I for one would buy it. Always good to hear from someone with inside info on Thai matters