Let’s not lose track of the real problem here. Some people do not want mother and father to be subject to criticism. Let us bring discussion into the open and let people decide for themselves where they stand on this issue. Don’t be afraid of comments from farangs or Thais. Discussion does not cause problems. Efforts to create taboo subjects beyond rational dialogue will not help Thailand to progress.
So what’s new? Royalists say this kind of thing all the time. The really interesting stuff is on ASTV where Thais who think differently are attacked in the most base ways. So much for all the Buddhism….
Ricky’s point (c55) about possibly halting work on the road projects (most a result of the previous govt’s stimulus package that included so much BJT-driven “pork”) is certainly worth considering. But the cost of even suspending let alone cancelling contracts that have already been signed may well prove self-defeating – not to mention the problems of dealing with “commissions” for those projects that have already been transacted.
On Vichai’s latest reiteration, I’m glad for his and his in-laws’ sake (as well as of the many other residents who have suffered so long) that their situation is at last being improved. Perhaps because the long pent-in water now has somewhere to go without risk to the shoes of central BKK folk?
Best I gloss over imaginative stuff like my supposed “rah-rah cheerfulness” – it’s self-evidently as accurate as nearly everything else Vichai has displayed here.
A real gem. Yesserreee!
“Farang are good at accepting their own people’s ideas but not the ideas of other races or nations. They don’t like to tailor shoes to fit people’s feet but prefer to cut others’ feet to fit their shoes.”
I guess this means Thailand’s lese majeste regime is more flexible than evil farang’s misguided view of the universe?
Is it not similar to cutting off people’s feet to shackle them then in chains because they offended someone with a shamelessly thin skin?
I wanted to remind you that Yingluck is no miracle worker here, you speak as if she can simply wipe her wand and the water will disappear. Well, things aint that simple, and no, I’m not making excuse for PT and Yingluck.
To your point, what with the sarcasm of Karun? he’s an MP, the only thing the guy can do is corroborate with the BMA, who actually own all the resource the fight the water and that Don Muang district is inside of BKK and is under the BMA’s authority.
Aint it bug you one bit, that the BMA had spent billions into project such as these
but I have to give you that at least you made it sounded like you admit that your earlier point doesn’t hold much water when SteveCM posted the series of news about Yingluck handling of the flood.
If you ever come to Chittagong, the southern part of Bangladesh, you’ll understand why Rohingya and Rakhine are one and the same. It is because the Bengalis from this particular place call the anyone from Rakhine State or Arakan as Rohingya in their own Chittagonian dialect. This name for an Arakanese has been hijacked by these illegal immigrants to demand a nonexistent kingdom inside Arakan or Rakhine State. This is the truth.
Even if the name Rohingya is there, it has nothing to do with these illegal immigrants of Bengali origin. The name Rohingya is another hoax, aimed at islamization of Arakan.
I noted that there were a few progressives in UMNO. I would say four actually. Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Nur Jazlan, Saifuddin Abdullah and Mustapha Mohamed. Progressive in the sense that although they are part and parcel of UMNO, they would not push Malaysia to the brink just to retain power.
Of the four, Saifuddin Abdullah, the Deputy Higher Education Minister has been a real breath of fresh air. Among others, he has fought hard to allow tertiary students to be politically active, something that is illegal now. However, even he admits that UMNO is dominated by hardliners, and reforms will be hard.
“In the first, there are those who believe in the transformation and talk about it regardless of whether Najib talks about it or not. However, the numbers are still small.
“The second group are those who support the transformation efforts when Najib says so, but when he is not saying this they remain idle.
The third and unfortunately the biggest group are those who feel comfortable with the present situation and feel that what it is doing is sufficient.”
The third group, he said, feels there is only a need to improve on the strategies and tactics to win the next general election.
Speaking to Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview recently in the run-up to the Umno General Assembly, Saifuddin admitted the third group, who are the hardliners, are the bigger group compared to the earlier two.
BBC puts out another controversial piece on the relentless persecution of the Rohingya, who have been in Burma for generations, by the Burma government:
I only seem to find new posts on NewMandala by chance and missed this completely. Considering all the hot air generated by Vichai maybe just as well.
Noting this quote from the first comment “After the floods recede, whoever is in charge needs to make this ( flood rehabilitation) the number one issue in the country – for the Thai people. ” prompts me to comment.
I have seen no reports about channelizing the rivers and the way this speeds water downstream and thereby worsening floods.
Early 2010, if I recall correctly, the government announced a big budget for these works. At the time the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) protested to no avail. The practice involves destroying practically all the riparian vegetation which holds the banks and reduces erosion while providing habitat for many beneficial birds and insects.
I have seen the results in all provinces across the north from MaeHongSon to Nan and dredging and stream bank modification is still continuing despite the floods.
Likewise I saw extravagant road projects, still very much in the early ground clearing stage proceeding in Phrae and Chiang Mai these past two weeks.
Considering the need for so much money and construction effort needed to rehabilitate central Thailand, a responsible government should have ordered a halt to the destructive works I describe above.
However considering Chart Thai Pattana is still at the helm of the Agriculture etc Ministry who would be surprised that nothing has changed?
Let us hope Thaksin has the stamina to stand up to Banharn and have his agents tossed out of the government forthwith.
I’m not an authority on IMEIs or cell phone technology. All I know is what I read in the papers, in this case in the paper that Kerrie linked to and wikipedia article that the defense attorney mentioned and that I linked to.
From Kerrie’s link :
DTAC : ‘Thammanun also explains that the last digit of the IMEI number is not significant because the DTAC company always puts 0 at the end.’
True : ‘Chakrapan said that modifying the IMEI number for the imported phones is an old system and is not practiced anymore in the present days because newer phones are universally designed. Cross-examined, Chakrapan explains that IMEI modification can be done by any mobile shops.’
Pol. Col. Siripong Timula – Expert on Technological Forensic Science of the Technology Crime Suppression Division clarifies on the IMEI number that the last digit could vary.
Pol. Col. Siripong further says that the IMEI number cannot repeat itself but can be changed at phone kiosks/shops. The change will also have an impact on the database.
From wikipedia :
The International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI (play /a╔к╦Иmi╦Р/) is a number, usually unique.
There is a misunderstanding amongst some regulators that the existence of a formally-allocated IMEI number range for a GSM terminal implies that the terminal is approved or complies with regulatory requirements. This is not the case.
The linkage between regulatory approval and IMEI allocation was removed in April 2000, with the introduction of the European R&TTE Directive.
Since that date, IMEIs have been allocated by BABT (or one of several other regional administrators acting on behalf of the GSM Association) to legitimate GSM terminal manufacturers without the need to provide evidence of approval.
The IMEI number is not supposed to be easy to change… However this is not always the case: a phone’s IMEI may be easy to change with special tools.
“New IMEIs can be programmed into stolen handsets and 10% of IMEIs are not unique.” According to a BT Cellnet spokesman quoted by the BBC.
I realize that ‘engineers’ may have thought they were specifying a ‘hard and fast link between the physical handset and an identifying code’ in the early stages of design, but if it can be changed it will be, and has been. The hard and fast link just didn’t work out to be hard and fast.
If you don’t like the word ‘conventional’, how about ‘theoretical’?
That’s more in keeping with the MSM’s ‘conventional’ descriptions of contrary-to-fact assertions about how the ‘way the world out to work’.
It seems to me that an IMEI’s association with a particular handset can only be viewed as temporary and easily mutable by a court of law.
Excuses and excuses and more excuses . . . but Yingluck’s flood had not gone yet, s**t! Given more time, rather than cleaning up the stink and garbage from Yingluck’s flood, perhaps I too could read widely and be wise . . . like Shane and SteveCM.
But I have more important things to do and reading news headlines will suffice. Today I made another inspection of my in-laws property at Muang Ake. Despite Peau Thai Party thank-you-Khun-Arun-for-ridding-us-of-the-floods that continue to hang brightly at Muang Ake’s entrance, the even blacker smelly more diseased floods persist. Last Sunday it was waist-deep, this Sunday it was knee deep, but I had to rely on army trucks cum 300-baht-boat rides to navigate the floods and the garbage. The many small mountains of gargabe, I am told by the village guards, are accumulating and continuing tokens of appreciation by thankful Muang Ake residents for Froc hard work, and yes thank you Khun Arun.
Again the village guards told me that it was only last Saturday when a Japanese Team came with their pumps to assist Muang Ake village, and that was when flood waters dramatically eased. If the Japan Team is what SteveCM was referring to as ‘Thai Government hard at work’, then I am sincerely thankful.
But still I must confess to lack the rah-rah cheerfulness of both SteveCM and ShaneTarr that the Yingluck Team could indeed produce results to ‘to retain existing investment and continue to attract more’, if Yingluck Team/Khun Karun’s performance at Muang Ake will be the standard of excellence Thailand will be expecting now and tomorrow.
Thanks StevenCM for the references you provide. There is nothing like a few evidence driven assertions to counter the drivel that some people appear intent on dishing up.
c51 “Khun Vichai should read a bit more widely than he does.”
Yes, he should – but forgive me for doubting he’ll ever get further than cherry-picking tidbits that support his one-note opinionating.
Sanyo Semiconductor was acquired by Arizona-based ON Semiconductor corporation in January 2011 and its pre-flood Thai output made up just 5-10% of ON’s global production – this while ON reports spare capacity at its China, Malaysia and Philippines plants. No surprise then that ON took the view that they could not justify the cost of reinstating the Thai sites when they have ready-made cheaper options to increase output elsewhere. While obviously a blow for Thailand and the Thai employees, such is globalism.
Other recommended reading – though it’d probably upset Vichai’s digestion:
While Thailand’s floods offer a golden opportunity for automakers to diversify their investment across the region – hunting down cheaper suppliers in nearby Vietnam or Indonesia – the kingpin of the Thai market, Toyota, has no plans to go anywhere. “Toyota is so comfortable in Thailand, I don’t see any major move away any time soon,” said auto industry analyst Michael Dunne. “Thailand is a premier manufacturer without equal.”http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/15/toyota-remains-loyal-to-flood-hit-thailand/
And so on and so on…..
Of course, none of this is likely to dent what looks to be Vichai’s schadenfreude as he looks for ever more inventive rocks to throw. Not should anyone be complacent. Savvy manufacturers/investors are predictably extracting maximum advantage in the shape of tax waivers, BOI concessions and numerous other financial incentives – their version of “no money, no honey” perhaps. The Thai government plainly needs to work hard both to retain existing investment and continue to attract more. Contrary to Vichai’s endlessly repeated invective, they are doing just that.
[…] have been other anti-112 actions, with photos at some of these pages(via New Mandala), not all of which are currently available in Thailand (we are not sure why not as opposing lese […]
Having never had to sit as opposition in the Parliament, no BN leader will want to be be the first one to speak publicly about how they would handle being in the opposition. Therefore it is understandable that Muhyiddin would avoid giving a direct answer.
In any case, even if he were to say that the BN would “guarantee” not to declare an emergency just to cling to power, how much would those words mean? Can we hold him or anyone else to that promise?
The original question comes from the fear that the BN may handle the elections results dishonestly. If so why would we expect them to be honourable about an answer given somewhere far away from the captive Malaysian audience?
Khun Vichai should read a bit more widely than he does. Instead of bagging the current government for what it cannot possibly achieve in a few shorts days or even months a reader commenting on the closure of the Sanyo Semi-Conductor Plant in Thailand made the point that perhaps Thailand needs to move up the international value chain anyway.
Bula, the reader, makes the point that PHOTOVOLTAICS (PVs), which generate electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit this so-called photovoltaic effect (see WIKIPEDIA for a more detailed explanation) are becoming price competitive with the type of conventional semiconductor that Sanyo has been manufacturing in Thailand and other countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
This would imply that to move up the value chain and also provide greater material benefits to Thai workers (and of course Sanyo itself) the closure of such a plant (yes of course the immediate and direct impact on workers, their families and local communities is severe but cannot be blamed on the present government).
Khun Vichai would position himself better as he wants to bag the current government incessantly by assessing whether its policies towards upgrading the technical skills of the Thai workforce enable a company like Sanyo to reinvest in Thailand. Of course such changes do not occur overnight and are not directly related to the recent flooding but Khun Vichai would garner more credibility for his arguments if he were to sketch in some detail what type of policies the government could or should pursue leverage the flooding to improve the living standards of all Thais.
We read New Madala for opinions and open discussion. If course there are cases where one person has different opinion that others. Like you, you seem to have high opinion about the DPM while others don’t. Well, that’s life. The readers in here are not dumb please. The speeches made by the PM and DPM in UMNO general assembly and the ones made abroad to sugar coat foreign ears are entirely different.. and that rationality for you..
With regards to the fact that ‘People vote for BN because they support BN’.. well, a car non-working breaks can still travel from one end to the other.. but that doesn’t mean it is functioning at its optimum.. well, the general elections seems fair as BN lost 5 states in the General election but they should lose more if not of media controlling, gerry-mendering,.. etc… do you get what I mean? The election system is fair but your BN have been dirty in stopping ceramahs, hogging the media limelight, excessive spending etc. etc.. It is easy to say “after all the general elections, nobody dies’… but please, that is the ROLE of the government, not an achievement…
and please.. the government has conducted more than 12 general elections and have been in power since 1954.. how do you know that they will NOT declare emergency.. at the current juncture on how things are going in Malaysia, BN – who cannot even accept criticism can accept defeat? OF COURSE NORMAL INTELLIGENT PEOPLE WILL BE WORRIED….
With Gerry-mendering, giving illegals ICs, the whitening-process of illegal workers, money politics (5 million for Sarawak remember?).. do you actually the people who vote for BN are the majority or a pseudo farcical number generated by your DOS.. (the same dept that generates your unachievable 30% bumi equity figure)… I am insulted for being grouped into the people who have to accept BN in power because of these methods…
For me, the DPM speech is a collection of the gov document which trumpets the same mantra over and over again.. everything sounded so nice (of course it does.. gov documents are nothing but a platter filled with goodies but the hands who take them are selective).. the talk about moving into high income country has been there since 1990 Vision 2020, APITD, IMP2,3, etc etc.. you name you got it.. but we are still stuck in the middle income trap for only 1 reason.. racial economics… everything has been in place.. infrastructure, facilities, sending of humans for training.. bla bla bla read it in the repeated IMPs… everything else failed.. even the NEM which promises social inclusiveness is on life support because the government don’t have the balls to go against Perkasa (or course the government trumpets the success of ETPs from the NEM because they are easier to handle).. Never a day you do not hear this ‘fear’ that the Chinese will do better than Malays… but funny part is it always come from the latter group.. until the day you acknowledge that Malaysians should be in power (regardless race) you are nothing but Nazis, Hutus or even territorial ferrets
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Positions teaching “the future king of Thailand”
Erin when did you work there?
I mean in what year?
New Mandala: cowardly, stupid and lacking in wisdom
Let’s not lose track of the real problem here. Some people do not want mother and father to be subject to criticism. Let us bring discussion into the open and let people decide for themselves where they stand on this issue. Don’t be afraid of comments from farangs or Thais. Discussion does not cause problems. Efforts to create taboo subjects beyond rational dialogue will not help Thailand to progress.
New Mandala: cowardly, stupid and lacking in wisdom
So what’s new? Royalists say this kind of thing all the time. The really interesting stuff is on ASTV where Thais who think differently are attacked in the most base ways. So much for all the Buddhism….
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Ricky’s point (c55) about possibly halting work on the road projects (most a result of the previous govt’s stimulus package that included so much BJT-driven “pork”) is certainly worth considering. But the cost of even suspending let alone cancelling contracts that have already been signed may well prove self-defeating – not to mention the problems of dealing with “commissions” for those projects that have already been transacted.
On Vichai’s latest reiteration, I’m glad for his and his in-laws’ sake (as well as of the many other residents who have suffered so long) that their situation is at last being improved. Perhaps because the long pent-in water now has somewhere to go without risk to the shoes of central BKK folk?
Best I gloss over imaginative stuff like my supposed “rah-rah cheerfulness” – it’s self-evidently as accurate as nearly everything else Vichai has displayed here.
New Mandala: cowardly, stupid and lacking in wisdom
A real gem. Yesserreee!
“Farang are good at accepting their own people’s ideas but not the ideas of other races or nations. They don’t like to tailor shoes to fit people’s feet but prefer to cut others’ feet to fit their shoes.”
I guess this means Thailand’s lese majeste regime is more flexible than evil farang’s misguided view of the universe?
Is it not similar to cutting off people’s feet to shackle them then in chains because they offended someone with a shamelessly thin skin?
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Vichai N
I wanted to remind you that Yingluck is no miracle worker here, you speak as if she can simply wipe her wand and the water will disappear. Well, things aint that simple, and no, I’m not making excuse for PT and Yingluck.
To your point, what with the sarcasm of Karun? he’s an MP, the only thing the guy can do is corroborate with the BMA, who actually own all the resource the fight the water and that Don Muang district is inside of BKK and is under the BMA’s authority.
Aint it bug you one bit, that the BMA had spent billions into project such as these
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi2iNyIUzmM
but I have to give you that at least you made it sounded like you admit that your earlier point doesn’t hold much water when SteveCM posted the series of news about Yingluck handling of the flood.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
Dear Ne Myo Win
If you ever come to Chittagong, the southern part of Bangladesh, you’ll understand why Rohingya and Rakhine are one and the same. It is because the Bengalis from this particular place call the anyone from Rakhine State or Arakan as Rohingya in their own Chittagonian dialect. This name for an Arakanese has been hijacked by these illegal immigrants to demand a nonexistent kingdom inside Arakan or Rakhine State. This is the truth.
Even if the name Rohingya is there, it has nothing to do with these illegal immigrants of Bengali origin. The name Rohingya is another hoax, aimed at islamization of Arakan.
Thanks
Will UMNO give up power?
I noted that there were a few progressives in UMNO. I would say four actually. Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Nur Jazlan, Saifuddin Abdullah and Mustapha Mohamed. Progressive in the sense that although they are part and parcel of UMNO, they would not push Malaysia to the brink just to retain power.
Of the four, Saifuddin Abdullah, the Deputy Higher Education Minister has been a real breath of fresh air. Among others, he has fought hard to allow tertiary students to be politically active, something that is illegal now. However, even he admits that UMNO is dominated by hardliners, and reforms will be hard.
BBC under fire on Rohingyas
BBC puts out another controversial piece on the relentless persecution of the Rohingya, who have been in Burma for generations, by the Burma government:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4793924.stm
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
I only seem to find new posts on NewMandala by chance and missed this completely. Considering all the hot air generated by Vichai maybe just as well.
Noting this quote from the first comment “After the floods recede, whoever is in charge needs to make this ( flood rehabilitation) the number one issue in the country – for the Thai people. ” prompts me to comment.
I have seen no reports about channelizing the rivers and the way this speeds water downstream and thereby worsening floods.
Early 2010, if I recall correctly, the government announced a big budget for these works. At the time the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) protested to no avail. The practice involves destroying practically all the riparian vegetation which holds the banks and reduces erosion while providing habitat for many beneficial birds and insects.
I have seen the results in all provinces across the north from MaeHongSon to Nan and dredging and stream bank modification is still continuing despite the floods.
Likewise I saw extravagant road projects, still very much in the early ground clearing stage proceeding in Phrae and Chiang Mai these past two weeks.
Considering the need for so much money and construction effort needed to rehabilitate central Thailand, a responsible government should have ordered a halt to the destructive works I describe above.
However considering Chart Thai Pattana is still at the helm of the Agriculture etc Ministry who would be surprised that nothing has changed?
Let us hope Thaksin has the stamina to stand up to Banharn and have his agents tossed out of the government forthwith.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
about how the ‘way the world out to work’ => about how the ‘way the world ought to work’.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
Pete S at 33
I’m not an authority on IMEIs or cell phone technology. All I know is what I read in the papers, in this case in the paper that Kerrie linked to and wikipedia article that the defense attorney mentioned and that I linked to.
From Kerrie’s link :
From wikipedia :
I realize that ‘engineers’ may have thought they were specifying a ‘hard and fast link between the physical handset and an identifying code’ in the early stages of design, but if it can be changed it will be, and has been. The hard and fast link just didn’t work out to be hard and fast.
If you don’t like the word ‘conventional’, how about ‘theoretical’?
That’s more in keeping with the MSM’s ‘conventional’ descriptions of contrary-to-fact assertions about how the ‘way the world out to work’.
It seems to me that an IMEI’s association with a particular handset can only be viewed as temporary and easily mutable by a court of law.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Excuses and excuses and more excuses . . . but Yingluck’s flood had not gone yet, s**t! Given more time, rather than cleaning up the stink and garbage from Yingluck’s flood, perhaps I too could read widely and be wise . . . like Shane and SteveCM.
But I have more important things to do and reading news headlines will suffice. Today I made another inspection of my in-laws property at Muang Ake. Despite Peau Thai Party thank-you-Khun-Arun-for-ridding-us-of-the-floods that continue to hang brightly at Muang Ake’s entrance, the even blacker smelly more diseased floods persist. Last Sunday it was waist-deep, this Sunday it was knee deep, but I had to rely on army trucks cum 300-baht-boat rides to navigate the floods and the garbage. The many small mountains of gargabe, I am told by the village guards, are accumulating and continuing tokens of appreciation by thankful Muang Ake residents for Froc hard work, and yes thank you Khun Arun.
Again the village guards told me that it was only last Saturday when a Japanese Team came with their pumps to assist Muang Ake village, and that was when flood waters dramatically eased. If the Japan Team is what SteveCM was referring to as ‘Thai Government hard at work’, then I am sincerely thankful.
But still I must confess to lack the rah-rah cheerfulness of both SteveCM and ShaneTarr that the Yingluck Team could indeed produce results to ‘to retain existing investment and continue to attract more’, if Yingluck Team/Khun Karun’s performance at Muang Ake will be the standard of excellence Thailand will be expecting now and tomorrow.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Thanks StevenCM for the references you provide. There is nothing like a few evidence driven assertions to counter the drivel that some people appear intent on dishing up.
Thailand’s latest lese majeste disgrace
So one has to ask, with all the condemnation of Article 112 in the West, when will free democracies start to exact actual sanctions upon Thailand?
Actions speak louder than words. The time for frank discussion seems to have been exausted.
Perhaps, sanctions of some sort are in order. Like those against other societies that do not respect the rights of citizens.
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
c51 “Khun Vichai should read a bit more widely than he does.”
Yes, he should – but forgive me for doubting he’ll ever get further than cherry-picking tidbits that support his one-note opinionating.
Sanyo Semiconductor was acquired by Arizona-based ON Semiconductor corporation in January 2011 and its pre-flood Thai output made up just 5-10% of ON’s global production – this while ON reports spare capacity at its China, Malaysia and Philippines plants. No surprise then that ON took the view that they could not justify the cost of reinstating the Thai sites when they have ready-made cheaper options to increase output elsewhere. While obviously a blow for Thailand and the Thai employees, such is globalism.
Other recommended reading – though it’d probably upset Vichai’s digestion:
“Globally and regionally, Thailand remains an attractive investment destination. We won’t expect lot of businesses to relocate,” Annette Dixon, the World Bank’s country director, at a press conference yesterday. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Thailand-remains-attractive-investment-destination-30170838.html
“I think that most companies will stay in Thailand,” says Setsuo Iuchi, regional president of JETRO, the official Japanese trade organisation… Other Southeast Asian countries have their own pitfalls. Thailand is centrally located, reasonably cost-efficient and consistently pro-investment. “It’s a good business environment,” says Iuchi. http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2011/11/22/floods-dampen-thai-manufacturing-appeal-but-dont-bet-on-an-exodus/
While Thailand’s floods offer a golden opportunity for automakers to diversify their investment across the region – hunting down cheaper suppliers in nearby Vietnam or Indonesia – the kingpin of the Thai market, Toyota, has no plans to go anywhere. “Toyota is so comfortable in Thailand, I don’t see any major move away any time soon,” said auto industry analyst Michael Dunne. “Thailand is a premier manufacturer without equal.” http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/15/toyota-remains-loyal-to-flood-hit-thailand/
And so on and so on…..
Of course, none of this is likely to dent what looks to be Vichai’s schadenfreude as he looks for ever more inventive rocks to throw. Not should anyone be complacent. Savvy manufacturers/investors are predictably extracting maximum advantage in the shape of tax waivers, BOI concessions and numerous other financial incentives – their version of “no money, no honey” perhaps. The Thai government plainly needs to work hard both to retain existing investment and continue to attract more. Contrary to Vichai’s endlessly repeated invective, they are doing just that.
Thailand’s Fearlessness: Free Akong
[…] have been other anti-112 actions, with photos at some of these pages(via New Mandala), not all of which are currently available in Thailand (we are not sure why not as opposing lese […]
Will UMNO give up power?
Having never had to sit as opposition in the Parliament, no BN leader will want to be be the first one to speak publicly about how they would handle being in the opposition. Therefore it is understandable that Muhyiddin would avoid giving a direct answer.
In any case, even if he were to say that the BN would “guarantee” not to declare an emergency just to cling to power, how much would those words mean? Can we hold him or anyone else to that promise?
The original question comes from the fear that the BN may handle the elections results dishonestly. If so why would we expect them to be honourable about an answer given somewhere far away from the captive Malaysian audience?
The toll of flooding on lives and politics
Khun Vichai should read a bit more widely than he does. Instead of bagging the current government for what it cannot possibly achieve in a few shorts days or even months a reader commenting on the closure of the Sanyo Semi-Conductor Plant in Thailand made the point that perhaps Thailand needs to move up the international value chain anyway.
Bula, the reader, makes the point that PHOTOVOLTAICS (PVs), which generate electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit this so-called photovoltaic effect (see WIKIPEDIA for a more detailed explanation) are becoming price competitive with the type of conventional semiconductor that Sanyo has been manufacturing in Thailand and other countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
This would imply that to move up the value chain and also provide greater material benefits to Thai workers (and of course Sanyo itself) the closure of such a plant (yes of course the immediate and direct impact on workers, their families and local communities is severe but cannot be blamed on the present government).
Khun Vichai would position himself better as he wants to bag the current government incessantly by assessing whether its policies towards upgrading the technical skills of the Thai workforce enable a company like Sanyo to reinvest in Thailand. Of course such changes do not occur overnight and are not directly related to the recent flooding but Khun Vichai would garner more credibility for his arguments if he were to sketch in some detail what type of policies the government could or should pursue leverage the flooding to improve the living standards of all Thais.
CHEERS!!!!!!!
Will UMNO give up power?
Aiyooo Marzuki…
We read New Madala for opinions and open discussion. If course there are cases where one person has different opinion that others. Like you, you seem to have high opinion about the DPM while others don’t. Well, that’s life. The readers in here are not dumb please. The speeches made by the PM and DPM in UMNO general assembly and the ones made abroad to sugar coat foreign ears are entirely different.. and that rationality for you..
With regards to the fact that ‘People vote for BN because they support BN’.. well, a car non-working breaks can still travel from one end to the other.. but that doesn’t mean it is functioning at its optimum.. well, the general elections seems fair as BN lost 5 states in the General election but they should lose more if not of media controlling, gerry-mendering,.. etc… do you get what I mean? The election system is fair but your BN have been dirty in stopping ceramahs, hogging the media limelight, excessive spending etc. etc.. It is easy to say “after all the general elections, nobody dies’… but please, that is the ROLE of the government, not an achievement…
and please.. the government has conducted more than 12 general elections and have been in power since 1954.. how do you know that they will NOT declare emergency.. at the current juncture on how things are going in Malaysia, BN – who cannot even accept criticism can accept defeat? OF COURSE NORMAL INTELLIGENT PEOPLE WILL BE WORRIED….
With Gerry-mendering, giving illegals ICs, the whitening-process of illegal workers, money politics (5 million for Sarawak remember?).. do you actually the people who vote for BN are the majority or a pseudo farcical number generated by your DOS.. (the same dept that generates your unachievable 30% bumi equity figure)… I am insulted for being grouped into the people who have to accept BN in power because of these methods…
For me, the DPM speech is a collection of the gov document which trumpets the same mantra over and over again.. everything sounded so nice (of course it does.. gov documents are nothing but a platter filled with goodies but the hands who take them are selective).. the talk about moving into high income country has been there since 1990 Vision 2020, APITD, IMP2,3, etc etc.. you name you got it.. but we are still stuck in the middle income trap for only 1 reason.. racial economics… everything has been in place.. infrastructure, facilities, sending of humans for training.. bla bla bla read it in the repeated IMPs… everything else failed.. even the NEM which promises social inclusiveness is on life support because the government don’t have the balls to go against Perkasa (or course the government trumpets the success of ETPs from the NEM because they are easier to handle).. Never a day you do not hear this ‘fear’ that the Chinese will do better than Malays… but funny part is it always come from the latter group.. until the day you acknowledge that Malaysians should be in power (regardless race) you are nothing but Nazis, Hutus or even territorial ferrets