R.N.England #44 re. the CP :
1) ” he does not appear to be the kind of person who would want to step straight into the job his more stoic father shaped for himself, with the company of grovelling, tiresome old men and the interminable court mumbo-jumbo.”
Indeed – the CP would not have to wait long for ” old men” to depart the scene.
In this he’s like Spain’s Juan Carlos, upon becoming king following Franco’s death.
2) Re:
” He may be prepared to sacrifice a good deal of this to give himself more time for pleasure”.
As an Englishman you probably know that one of England’s better kings was Charles The Second, who was renowned for enjoying his pleasure.
I agree with you – the CP is probably a victim of court rivalry and character assassination.
Thanks Les Abbey, for a nice counterpoint to the flood of pro-red democracy-championing posters on this site.
Once again, I’ll state that I’m not a yellow supporter and disagree with the 2006 coup. But why do so many observers seem to buy into the idea of the reds as some sort of geniune peoples movement rising up against a corrupt and self-serving ‘amart’ ? Can’t anyone see that once the UDD gets what it wants, and Peau Thai (or its lastest incarnation) forms the next government, that ordinary Thai folk will be led once again by just another set of of elites (many of them old faces who are currently out of the political loop)? This political game is primarily a power play between various groups, and what? – you think things will be oh-so-different with Charlerm or other such wonderfully clean-cut characters back at the helm…..
The reds have some fundamentally important and pertinent points to voice and input into the dialogue about how Thailand can move forward to a more equitable and just future, but their current grandstanding and provocations are no better than the PAD’s airport takeovers. Yes, sometimes ‘democracy’ has to be fought for, but I don’t feel a lot of the grassroots reds realise in who’s interest they are really shedding blood for……..
Literally a lot of the comments on this site make me feel physically sick. It is not just the culturally colonial rational/liberal imperialism, but more starkly the hypocrisy.
I mean Australia’s courting of Chinese Resource contracts in spite of a closed door trial of an Australian executive over there would presumably be more of an excuse to get excited. But when money is coming through the Australian back door people are all too ready to shut up.
But if there is an excuse to attack monarchic or authoritarian government where the baby-boomer neo-liberal mafia, their protégés, and academic propaganda machinery have a limited ability to gain an absolute grip on power – they go in all guns blazing from a hypocritical moral high ground.
Look at the social division in the United States where so many black people live below the poverty line, look at the people’s democracy where for so long power has rested only in the hands of two competing groups, look at how business giants and corporate monopolies manipulate the political system through lobbying.
But that’s ok right coz its mainly white people guarded by euro-centric notions of rights and democracy that have very little historical connection to Asian culture.
I support the Thai government, the Thai King, and Thailand’s right to non-interference and protection from the hypocritical agenda of Western academics who are too lazy and self satisfied to look at problems in their own society.
Let’s think about what the Australian government would do if there was another anti-capitalist protest, where the rioters had grenades and AK-47’s and occupied a shopping centre for over … See Morelike a month or something. I seem to remember a lot of police violence at the G8 summit when the protestors were students armed with traffic cones.
The bottom line is that there are problems within all societies but the monarchy in Thailand is a sacred non-rational social and political force. Thai people and the Thai nation is capable of evolving on its own terms without petty bourgeois hypocrites from Australian Universities and media organizations, or cashed up Chinese-Thai telecommunication tycoons, trying to colonize its political space with tired and flawed concepts from yesterday’s political science manifesto.
There are laws in Australia/Britain the US that prohibit preaching Jihad or Holy War, in the Thai context Lesse Majeste has a similar effect – but I guess you can’t get out of your hypocritical colonial mindsets and think about a society to which Eurocentric liberal notions of justice don’t exactly match.
The program spoke about Thailand and its laws and its sacred monarchy as though it was a case study in a high school text book. In many people’s minds this is the power of religion and the force of culture – too great for your 2nd rate academic analysis to frame I am afraid.
Long may the Thai monarchy reign over and protect Thailand. Long Live the King
The program undoubtedly had its’ flaws – eg. yet more boring CP bashing, and uncritical adulation of Handley.
But Thailand should n’t really complain : it was only shown in Australia : to ban it would have been an infringement of every Australians’ democratic right to free speach.
It was also a long overdue boost to making Australia more Asia-literate – for that Campbell should be especially congratulated.
curiously, so far no any media (ABC including) mentions one more important point :
urgent need of Finance Ministry (Korn) to ensure that the B400bln “stimulus” package, so hard pushed him through Parliament, is been legislated and ALL the mega-projects and other subsidies, etc. (“cake sharing”) at least start BEFORE dissolution takes place. those Korn yesterday was quoted again, being adamant :
“It would be very negative for the country in the long term”
but of course !!! 🙂 very negative indeed, for …. pockets of “Democrats”, their coalition partners, army, 33 banks, all the bureaucrats (each Ministry except 2-3, as Education Min – thus the “pink mob” 😉 – has already submitted their requests to FinMin) and many other elite / amart ! 😀
funny that this being as one of the MAIN reasons of why Abhisit stubbornly refuses to dissolve Parliament now – hardly anybody mentions this side of a story, even though it is all in the mainstream media (just do search for Korn, burrow, stimulus – on Nation website)
elite simply can NOT allow Abhisit to give in to red-shirts ! because that would mean delays or even total cancellation of the stimulus – or even if it still goes ahead, then some other players will “share the cake”, in a different way.
“Coup could not be justified, neither could Thaksin be justified in coming to power by bribing judges, buying votes.
But this is Thailand, a potential failed state, and now it is because Thai bureaucrats (Ammart in Thaksin’s parlance) allowed Thaksin and other politicians to become rich by giving them state concessions in return for a few million baht in bribe money.
Thaksin blamed elite bureaucrats for driving him from power (true), but he did not blame them when he bribed them to give him mobile phone concessions, satellite concessions and allowing his firms to amend the original contracts so many times that enrich himself and his family while the state got less concesssion money.
Who is the hypocrite? Blaming elite bureaucracy when they did not suit him. Kept silent when they helped him.
Thaksin is as bad or worse than corrupted military chief and his predecessor who when in power, procured unnecessary hardware, just so that they can receive a cut (commission).
It was also the case during Sarit, Thanom, Jiew. It is hard to find any chief who is not corrupted. But it is even harder to find a politician who is not corrupted. I can name a few who are not, but won’t put their names here. You should know.
I can say that there are only TWO army chiefs who are not totally corrupted. At least, they don’t try to enrich themselves and they are poorer than other army chiefs by the normal standard. Thaksin hate these TWO the most because Thaksin could not bribe them.”
There are more posts on this topic from Thailand. Here is the link that is being discussed in English in Thailand’s most popular website pantip.com
today’s action in James Bond style (Arisaman escape Suthep’s SWAT, who was ordered to shoot on sight) provides some clue.
and Panithan says :
“This is just a start”
so, more action is next, just as hollywood movies !
looks like not much mentioned important side of story :
WHY they tried to arrest Arisaman & his group of 30 redshirts at KS Hotel (BTW TPBS provided info that it belongs to / connected to Pojaman, Thaksin’s ex-wife)
the thing is : Arisaman was supposed to visit all TV channels in suit (w/o mob, not like at ThaiCom, but as business meeting) & request them to air UDD’s footage (many evidences – which naturally oppose gov / army/ yellow Thai MSM version). naturally Suthep just couldn’t let it happen ! in fact Suthep tried so hard to prevent it, that even gave orders to just kill them! police were shooting live ammo, throwing grenades – TV reports showed that several rooms in that hotel were badly damaged, holes from bullets, etc. later protesters presented to media those bullets, pins from grenades, etc.
well, looks like this thorough elaborate attempt to prevent information from being broadcasted has failed: now UDD has changed plan (to send Arisaman) and PT MPs now will deliver those materials instead. some group of them has already visited TPBS channel (it was also on news). although frankly, I doubt it very much that ANY TV channel would agree to air those materials – considering that they are all under rigid control, as well as most of them having owners who’re very same elite (Amart)
“Troops and police at a checkpoint in front of the Ministry of Finance on Rama VI Road have arrested six men in a pickup truck for possessing guns and a quantity of ammunition, Bang Sue police said on Friday morning.
On searching the vehicle, the security forces found .38 calibre and 9mm pistols, 100 rounds of ammunition and a 5-litre container half-filled with petrol.
They found six identity cards showing that the suspects are security guards for the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). They also found a number of membership cards for the New Politics Party…
They were detained for further interrogation to find out whether they plan to incite violence at the red-shirts rally site around Ratchaprasong intersection.”
on TV news they were quoted saying: “weapons are just for self-defense”. these 6 guys are from S. Thailand, Sonkgla.
curious: is it just a coincidence that they were arrested near Finance Ministry, or they are somehow connected to Korn’s undisguised support for PAD? recently Nation quoted him rallying Democrat MPs to oppose dissolution, urging gov. to step up UDD protests dispersal and saying “otherwise we’ll also collect our own mob”
and loh and behold – looks like this so called “colorless mob” (as they call themselves now – although BP blog provided evidence that leader of this group is staunch PAD guy) is now being seen rallying in support of gov. at Victory Monument and today even at 11th army base where Abhisit is pouting, avoiding talking even to Media. 🙂
so, what’s next ? 😉
considering all these things:
1) “just the start”, attempts to shoot Arisaman & others at KS hotel, consistent propaganda about “terrorists” in red-shirts camp (ala 6 Oct 1976 – similar claims that “we need to arrest terrorists”);
also
2) collecting the anti-anti-gov mob and evidently even fascist elements of PAD ;
and last but not the least
3) unprecedented information blackout – even blogs and rigid control of content on social networks (FB, twitter, etc)
The entire facade hanging around a monarch that has 36 Billion US Dollar in the bank and is therefore the richest monarch in the world, while he heads a country that has the biggest disparity between rich and poor in all of Asia and where tens of millions of people make not enough money to get three decent mails must come down quicker than we can imagine.
A family so rich with so much influence cannot be at the right side of the divide. A man who does not keep word and let Darunee rot in jail while he told his subjects that anyone convicted would receive a pardon does not deserve our utmost respect.
The case of Harry Nicolaides is by the way a example of foreigners who believe that although half the Thai are spying on the other half believe that nobody is paying attention to them. I happen to know Harry and Harry was forewarned by the authorities not to publish those few lines, although he later said that he had no clue.
I personally think that it will take less than 10 years before the monarchy falls in line with all others in the Western World. People may criticize Thaksin but at least he has empowered the poor to think for themselves. The Ghost will not go back in the bottle, notwithstanding the fact that the Thai school system is developed in such a way that people do not learn to think for themselves.
The rapid removal of the Queen her picture in Izan and the North tells the story. The people have woken up. This government can try to bully Australia, the press and lose any website they want, they are on the receiving end of the stick. I bet that a majority of the country will celebrate the soon to be expected passing of the 90 year old Prem.
Even when the Thai Crown prince will take over the chances that the country moves forward are significantly greater than with Bhumipol on the throne. Bhumipol is another example of a King who cannot say goodbye. He should have groomed his son or his daughter and he should have called it a day after the last massacre in 1992 where he refused to do anything for many many days.
Thailand will change forever due to the fact that the poor have woken up. It is to the elite to decide what kind of transition it will be. Smooth or a very bloody one. The elite should realize they cannot hang on to power and the King is fading away. Their child like demonstrations of a few hundred people with the silly portrait of the king that come out to defend this government makes me believe that they have lost part of their faith. If it becomes bloody the army should realize that the problem in the deep South is a walk in the park and that their foot soldiers cannot be trusted they are melons. Green outside , red inside
So some courtiers may be against him. I have heard of people who have a line to some of these courtiers, who say that they do see him as a significant problem. The fact they are prepared to talk to such outsiders may well indicate that some of them are up to no good.
That does, however, beg the question as to why they distrust him. It also begs the question as to why he is unable to control them. Conclusion = He just isn’t up to a very demanding job and should have the commonsense to get out and stay out. I’m sure a good pension will be available to ease the pain.
Should we have any sympathy? No, none! If he has been deliberately cultivating links with Thaksin, he is not fit for the job.
“Tarrin // Apr 14 As much as I want to agree with you on the non-violence point. However, history has taught us times and again that no democracy can be “acquire” without bloodshed.”
You have forgotten the many that have already died since 1932. How ironic they should die for a cause in which the much of the current leadership haven’t yet figured out just who or what they are working for.
The biggest problem is that most of the redshirts are still playing the childish games of the money politics party-party world in which they began their careers in deviousness.
So are they engaged in a cop-out, are they just plain incompetent or is this all just a flat-out cynical power grab? Elements of all three by the looks of things. If people HAD to die, it would have been better if they had died for a cause that had some vision beyond rehabilitating their hero.
Of course, we do already know they may be on the point of ditching him. Something they should have done years ago. They may think they have been using him and his money, but its obvious that he still thinks he can control them. And having used the redshirts to get what he wants, maybe it doesn’t matter any more if they eventually turn against him. By then he may have secured the necessary foothold for a proxy Peua Thai government. Peua Thai MPs know exactly what they want out of all this, as most of them are the moneyseeking flip-flops of Thai politics. Ideology isn’t really their bag. These are the ‘loyalists’ who will take over when the goon squads have done their work.
Wonder how long it will take the three stooges to figure they have been fooled yet again?
Will your Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Kasit be charged with lese majeste for suggesting that the monarchy should be revamped? Everybody else who suggested this in the past has been ruined one way or the other.
QUOTE Are the Red Shirt protests all about a “people power” uprising?
The protests now, whatever the overall legitimate social and economic aspirations they reflect for the rural poor, are being run on the ground for very prosaic and immediate political goals: to engineer a situation in which Thaksin can return to Thailand and be pardoned. The snipers, the bombs at power stations, Sah Daeng and his shadowy supporters, are all a part of an immediate Machiavellian political game.
The unintended consequence is that Thaksin appears to have created a real rural movement that could be driven by progressive ideas and not controlled by Shinawatra family patronage. How this new power influx will be integrated into Thailand’s rapidly changing political system is anyone’s guess.
In any case, both Thaksin and his lawyers have several times stated they could end the movement completely if the government gives in to Thaksin’s demands. So at least Thaksin is under the impression that he has the on and off switch for the movement. It is likely that this also drives various Red Shirt faction leaders to steer their own course so that they cannot someday be shut down if Thaksin gets his way.
So we have both a nascent political grassroots block that could have enormous political implications in the future, but on the ground today, a political drama involving traditional political figures jousting for the immediate spoils of the country. UNQUOTE
“Here in Australia, we are a real democracy, not a mickey mouse police state dressed up to look like a democracy. So we don’t censor the media because that’s not what grown-ups do. So now, kindly feck off and stop huffing and puffing. Oh and by the way, if everyone loved the institution then it wouldn’t need protecting now, would it? So kindly take your propagandised little ass somewhere where they give a shit.
They should have known what reception to expect, but they live in hope that someone somewhere will take them seriously.
What was he thinking of? Kasit Piromya-“A Man for All Seasons”?
The governments most rabid monarchist/nationalist speaking in reasonable tones?
Then again like most of the nomenklatura he knows how to soothe fahrang sensitivities as well as being able to push the big buttons of the folk back home.
Or maybe he’d been at the mini bar before turning up? He did sound a bit tired and emotional at the start.
The most fascinating discourse of the week and shut down by his party.
Maybe the NYT should have asked if Kasit could have a role in a future government – and in which party??
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Kasit – role of the monarchy may be revamped
R.N.England #44 re. the CP :
1) ” he does not appear to be the kind of person who would want to step straight into the job his more stoic father shaped for himself, with the company of grovelling, tiresome old men and the interminable court mumbo-jumbo.”
Indeed – the CP would not have to wait long for ” old men” to depart the scene.
In this he’s like Spain’s Juan Carlos, upon becoming king following Franco’s death.
2) Re:
” He may be prepared to sacrifice a good deal of this to give himself more time for pleasure”.
As an Englishman you probably know that one of England’s better kings was Charles The Second, who was renowned for enjoying his pleasure.
I agree with you – the CP is probably a victim of court rivalry and character assassination.
Statement by students and academics at ANU
Thanks Les Abbey, for a nice counterpoint to the flood of pro-red democracy-championing posters on this site.
Once again, I’ll state that I’m not a yellow supporter and disagree with the 2006 coup. But why do so many observers seem to buy into the idea of the reds as some sort of geniune peoples movement rising up against a corrupt and self-serving ‘amart’ ? Can’t anyone see that once the UDD gets what it wants, and Peau Thai (or its lastest incarnation) forms the next government, that ordinary Thai folk will be led once again by just another set of of elites (many of them old faces who are currently out of the political loop)? This political game is primarily a power play between various groups, and what? – you think things will be oh-so-different with Charlerm or other such wonderfully clean-cut characters back at the helm…..
The reds have some fundamentally important and pertinent points to voice and input into the dialogue about how Thailand can move forward to a more equitable and just future, but their current grandstanding and provocations are no better than the PAD’s airport takeovers. Yes, sometimes ‘democracy’ has to be fought for, but I don’t feel a lot of the grassroots reds realise in who’s interest they are really shedding blood for……..
The Embassy and the ABC
Do Lese Majeste laws apply to Fufu?
Why wasn’t the likely power struggle between Thongdaeng and Fufu mentioned?
Reflections on Eric Campbell’s royal report
Literally a lot of the comments on this site make me feel physically sick. It is not just the culturally colonial rational/liberal imperialism, but more starkly the hypocrisy.
I mean Australia’s courting of Chinese Resource contracts in spite of a closed door trial of an Australian executive over there would presumably be more of an excuse to get excited. But when money is coming through the Australian back door people are all too ready to shut up.
But if there is an excuse to attack monarchic or authoritarian government where the baby-boomer neo-liberal mafia, their protégés, and academic propaganda machinery have a limited ability to gain an absolute grip on power – they go in all guns blazing from a hypocritical moral high ground.
Look at the social division in the United States where so many black people live below the poverty line, look at the people’s democracy where for so long power has rested only in the hands of two competing groups, look at how business giants and corporate monopolies manipulate the political system through lobbying.
But that’s ok right coz its mainly white people guarded by euro-centric notions of rights and democracy that have very little historical connection to Asian culture.
I support the Thai government, the Thai King, and Thailand’s right to non-interference and protection from the hypocritical agenda of Western academics who are too lazy and self satisfied to look at problems in their own society.
Let’s think about what the Australian government would do if there was another anti-capitalist protest, where the rioters had grenades and AK-47’s and occupied a shopping centre for over … See Morelike a month or something. I seem to remember a lot of police violence at the G8 summit when the protestors were students armed with traffic cones.
The bottom line is that there are problems within all societies but the monarchy in Thailand is a sacred non-rational social and political force. Thai people and the Thai nation is capable of evolving on its own terms without petty bourgeois hypocrites from Australian Universities and media organizations, or cashed up Chinese-Thai telecommunication tycoons, trying to colonize its political space with tired and flawed concepts from yesterday’s political science manifesto.
There are laws in Australia/Britain the US that prohibit preaching Jihad or Holy War, in the Thai context Lesse Majeste has a similar effect – but I guess you can’t get out of your hypocritical colonial mindsets and think about a society to which Eurocentric liberal notions of justice don’t exactly match.
The program spoke about Thailand and its laws and its sacred monarchy as though it was a case study in a high school text book. In many people’s minds this is the power of religion and the force of culture – too great for your 2nd rate academic analysis to frame I am afraid.
Long may the Thai monarchy reign over and protect Thailand. Long Live the King
War at Khao San
one of the most recent videos about Apr 10 :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLqLXgfQ7yU
red-shirts trying to help some wounded soldier & get shot at (in the end camera man is shot too ?)
somewhat useful Crispin’s analysis on Asia Times :
Thailand mulls a ‘half coup’
The Embassy and the ABC
The program undoubtedly had its’ flaws – eg. yet more boring CP bashing, and uncritical adulation of Handley.
But Thailand should n’t really complain : it was only shown in Australia : to ban it would have been an infringement of every Australians’ democratic right to free speach.
It was also a long overdue boost to making Australia more Asia-literate – for that Campbell should be especially congratulated.
The Embassy and the ABC
“However, the Australian government does not and cannot control content run by Australian media organizations,”
yes and why are you trying to act all big and mighty??
ABC TV on Thai politics
curiously, so far no any media (ABC including) mentions one more important point :
urgent need of Finance Ministry (Korn) to ensure that the B400bln “stimulus” package, so hard pushed him through Parliament, is been legislated and ALL the mega-projects and other subsidies, etc. (“cake sharing”) at least start BEFORE dissolution takes place. those Korn yesterday was quoted again, being adamant :
but of course !!! 🙂 very negative indeed, for …. pockets of “Democrats”, their coalition partners, army, 33 banks, all the bureaucrats (each Ministry except 2-3, as Education Min – thus the “pink mob” 😉 – has already submitted their requests to FinMin) and many other elite / amart ! 😀
funny that this being as one of the MAIN reasons of why Abhisit stubbornly refuses to dissolve Parliament now – hardly anybody mentions this side of a story, even though it is all in the mainstream media (just do search for Korn, burrow, stimulus – on Nation website)
elite simply can NOT allow Abhisit to give in to red-shirts ! because that would mean delays or even total cancellation of the stimulus – or even if it still goes ahead, then some other players will “share the cake”, in a different way.
Reflections on Eric Campbell’s royal report
“Coup could not be justified, neither could Thaksin be justified in coming to power by bribing judges, buying votes.
But this is Thailand, a potential failed state, and now it is because Thai bureaucrats (Ammart in Thaksin’s parlance) allowed Thaksin and other politicians to become rich by giving them state concessions in return for a few million baht in bribe money.
Thaksin blamed elite bureaucrats for driving him from power (true), but he did not blame them when he bribed them to give him mobile phone concessions, satellite concessions and allowing his firms to amend the original contracts so many times that enrich himself and his family while the state got less concesssion money.
Who is the hypocrite? Blaming elite bureaucracy when they did not suit him. Kept silent when they helped him.
Thaksin is as bad or worse than corrupted military chief and his predecessor who when in power, procured unnecessary hardware, just so that they can receive a cut (commission).
It was also the case during Sarit, Thanom, Jiew. It is hard to find any chief who is not corrupted. But it is even harder to find a politician who is not corrupted. I can name a few who are not, but won’t put their names here. You should know.
I can say that there are only TWO army chiefs who are not totally corrupted. At least, they don’t try to enrich themselves and they are poorer than other army chiefs by the normal standard. Thaksin hate these TWO the most because Thaksin could not bribe them.”
There are more posts on this topic from Thailand. Here is the link that is being discussed in English in Thailand’s most popular website pantip.com
http://www.pantip.com/cafe/library/topic/K9111403/K9111403.html
What next?
what’s next ?
today’s action in James Bond style (Arisaman escape Suthep’s SWAT, who was ordered to shoot on sight) provides some clue.
and Panithan says :
so, more action is next, just as hollywood movies !
looks like not much mentioned important side of story :
WHY they tried to arrest Arisaman & his group of 30 redshirts at KS Hotel (BTW TPBS provided info that it belongs to / connected to Pojaman, Thaksin’s ex-wife)
the thing is : Arisaman was supposed to visit all TV channels in suit (w/o mob, not like at ThaiCom, but as business meeting) & request them to air UDD’s footage (many evidences – which naturally oppose gov / army/ yellow Thai MSM version). naturally Suthep just couldn’t let it happen ! in fact Suthep tried so hard to prevent it, that even gave orders to just kill them! police were shooting live ammo, throwing grenades – TV reports showed that several rooms in that hotel were badly damaged, holes from bullets, etc. later protesters presented to media those bullets, pins from grenades, etc.
well, looks like this thorough elaborate attempt to prevent information from being broadcasted has failed: now UDD has changed plan (to send Arisaman) and PT MPs now will deliver those materials instead. some group of them has already visited TPBS channel (it was also on news). although frankly, I doubt it very much that ANY TV channel would agree to air those materials – considering that they are all under rigid control, as well as most of them having owners who’re very same elite (Amart)
adding to the plot of “what’s next”:
on TV news they were quoted saying: “weapons are just for self-defense”. these 6 guys are from S. Thailand, Sonkgla.
curious: is it just a coincidence that they were arrested near Finance Ministry, or they are somehow connected to Korn’s undisguised support for PAD? recently Nation quoted him rallying Democrat MPs to oppose dissolution, urging gov. to step up UDD protests dispersal and saying “otherwise we’ll also collect our own mob”
and loh and behold – looks like this so called “colorless mob” (as they call themselves now – although BP blog provided evidence that leader of this group is staunch PAD guy) is now being seen rallying in support of gov. at Victory Monument and today even at 11th army base where Abhisit is pouting, avoiding talking even to Media. 🙂
so, what’s next ? 😉
considering all these things:
1) “just the start”, attempts to shoot Arisaman & others at KS hotel, consistent propaganda about “terrorists” in red-shirts camp (ala 6 Oct 1976 – similar claims that “we need to arrest terrorists”);
also
2) collecting the anti-anti-gov mob and evidently even fascist elements of PAD ;
and last but not the least
3) unprecedented information blackout – even blogs and rigid control of content on social networks (FB, twitter, etc)
looks like “what’s next ?” is pretty gloom !
ABC TV on Thai politics
The entire facade hanging around a monarch that has 36 Billion US Dollar in the bank and is therefore the richest monarch in the world, while he heads a country that has the biggest disparity between rich and poor in all of Asia and where tens of millions of people make not enough money to get three decent mails must come down quicker than we can imagine.
A family so rich with so much influence cannot be at the right side of the divide. A man who does not keep word and let Darunee rot in jail while he told his subjects that anyone convicted would receive a pardon does not deserve our utmost respect.
The case of Harry Nicolaides is by the way a example of foreigners who believe that although half the Thai are spying on the other half believe that nobody is paying attention to them. I happen to know Harry and Harry was forewarned by the authorities not to publish those few lines, although he later said that he had no clue.
I personally think that it will take less than 10 years before the monarchy falls in line with all others in the Western World. People may criticize Thaksin but at least he has empowered the poor to think for themselves. The Ghost will not go back in the bottle, notwithstanding the fact that the Thai school system is developed in such a way that people do not learn to think for themselves.
The rapid removal of the Queen her picture in Izan and the North tells the story. The people have woken up. This government can try to bully Australia, the press and lose any website they want, they are on the receiving end of the stick. I bet that a majority of the country will celebrate the soon to be expected passing of the 90 year old Prem.
Even when the Thai Crown prince will take over the chances that the country moves forward are significantly greater than with Bhumipol on the throne. Bhumipol is another example of a King who cannot say goodbye. He should have groomed his son or his daughter and he should have called it a day after the last massacre in 1992 where he refused to do anything for many many days.
Thailand will change forever due to the fact that the poor have woken up. It is to the elite to decide what kind of transition it will be. Smooth or a very bloody one. The elite should realize they cannot hang on to power and the King is fading away. Their child like demonstrations of a few hundred people with the silly portrait of the king that come out to defend this government makes me believe that they have lost part of their faith. If it becomes bloody the army should realize that the problem in the deep South is a walk in the park and that their foot soldiers cannot be trusted they are melons. Green outside , red inside
Kasit – role of the monarchy may be revamped
So some courtiers may be against him. I have heard of people who have a line to some of these courtiers, who say that they do see him as a significant problem. The fact they are prepared to talk to such outsiders may well indicate that some of them are up to no good.
That does, however, beg the question as to why they distrust him. It also begs the question as to why he is unable to control them. Conclusion = He just isn’t up to a very demanding job and should have the commonsense to get out and stay out. I’m sure a good pension will be available to ease the pain.
Should we have any sympathy? No, none! If he has been deliberately cultivating links with Thaksin, he is not fit for the job.
War at Khao San
“Tarrin // Apr 14 As much as I want to agree with you on the non-violence point. However, history has taught us times and again that no democracy can be “acquire” without bloodshed.”
You have forgotten the many that have already died since 1932. How ironic they should die for a cause in which the much of the current leadership haven’t yet figured out just who or what they are working for.
The biggest problem is that most of the redshirts are still playing the childish games of the money politics party-party world in which they began their careers in deviousness.
So are they engaged in a cop-out, are they just plain incompetent or is this all just a flat-out cynical power grab? Elements of all three by the looks of things. If people HAD to die, it would have been better if they had died for a cause that had some vision beyond rehabilitating their hero.
Of course, we do already know they may be on the point of ditching him. Something they should have done years ago. They may think they have been using him and his money, but its obvious that he still thinks he can control them. And having used the redshirts to get what he wants, maybe it doesn’t matter any more if they eventually turn against him. By then he may have secured the necessary foothold for a proxy Peua Thai government. Peua Thai MPs know exactly what they want out of all this, as most of them are the moneyseeking flip-flops of Thai politics. Ideology isn’t really their bag. These are the ‘loyalists’ who will take over when the goon squads have done their work.
Wonder how long it will take the three stooges to figure they have been fooled yet again?
The Embassy and the ABC
Will your Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Kasit be charged with lese majeste for suggesting that the monarchy should be revamped? Everybody else who suggested this in the past has been ruined one way or the other.
War at Khao San
Thought you might like to see this link:
http://2bangkok.com/10/100414SituationUpdate.shtml
QUOTE Are the Red Shirt protests all about a “people power” uprising?
The protests now, whatever the overall legitimate social and economic aspirations they reflect for the rural poor, are being run on the ground for very prosaic and immediate political goals: to engineer a situation in which Thaksin can return to Thailand and be pardoned. The snipers, the bombs at power stations, Sah Daeng and his shadowy supporters, are all a part of an immediate Machiavellian political game.
The unintended consequence is that Thaksin appears to have created a real rural movement that could be driven by progressive ideas and not controlled by Shinawatra family patronage. How this new power influx will be integrated into Thailand’s rapidly changing political system is anyone’s guess.
In any case, both Thaksin and his lawyers have several times stated they could end the movement completely if the government gives in to Thaksin’s demands. So at least Thaksin is under the impression that he has the on and off switch for the movement. It is likely that this also drives various Red Shirt faction leaders to steer their own course so that they cannot someday be shut down if Thaksin gets his way.
So we have both a nascent political grassroots block that could have enormous political implications in the future, but on the ground today, a political drama involving traditional political figures jousting for the immediate spoils of the country. UNQUOTE
The Embassy and the ABC
“We consider this an issue matter of national security… because the royal family, the monarchy, in our constitution is above politics.”
That should be made into a bumper sticker.
The Embassy and the ABC
In other words…
“Here in Australia, we are a real democracy, not a mickey mouse police state dressed up to look like a democracy. So we don’t censor the media because that’s not what grown-ups do. So now, kindly feck off and stop huffing and puffing. Oh and by the way, if everyone loved the institution then it wouldn’t need protecting now, would it? So kindly take your propagandised little ass somewhere where they give a shit.
They should have known what reception to expect, but they live in hope that someone somewhere will take them seriously.
Alas, not this time.
ABC TV on Thai politics
Time to renew the Pommy passport…
Kasit – role of the monarchy may be revamped
What was he thinking of? Kasit Piromya-“A Man for All Seasons”?
The governments most rabid monarchist/nationalist speaking in reasonable tones?
Then again like most of the nomenklatura he knows how to soothe fahrang sensitivities as well as being able to push the big buttons of the folk back home.
Or maybe he’d been at the mini bar before turning up? He did sound a bit tired and emotional at the start.
The most fascinating discourse of the week and shut down by his party.
Maybe the NYT should have asked if Kasit could have a role in a future government – and in which party??
The Embassy and the ABC
“However, the Australian government does not and cannot control content run by Australian media organisations,” he told AFP.
Good for him, and add “should not” also