Amberwaves, I am heartened to read that you have spoken with some PAD supporters. I do not know with how many such supporters you have spoken, but I do not doubt that 80% of them spoke in the terms you have described. Even so, permit me to answer your question. No, I have not asked, and would not ask, such a naive and, frankly, pointless question about guns. As all Thais and many others know, many guns are carried in Thailand and I doubt that any interested observer would think that no “PAD guard” does carry, or has carried, a gun – particularly when there is recent televisual evidence to the contrary. You suggest that I think that “a movement that considers shaking plastic noisemakers at people the height of political discourse is a movement of intellectual rigor and honesty” (sic). No, sorry, that is not what I think. And nor do I think that you describe fairly or accurately all PAD supporters. As to whether you are fair or accurate in your assertion that I “haven’t a clue …”, I shall refrain from endevouring to respond to such inarticulate personal denigration. However, you are correct to say that (until now, perhaps) I have not sought to “rebut any of the ramblings [ I] criticise”. After all, the utility of endeavouring so to do was the very point of the post which drew your response. For the sake of accuracy, and contrary to the inference which may be drawn from your post: (1) I have not said that I have “friends” participating in PAD protests, (2) I have not said that anyone is “nice”, (3) I have not said that anyone in particular does not carry a gun or guns; and (4) a fortiori, I have not said that anyone in particular is “right”.
Ralph, no part of my post comprised an attempt to state or describe “what the PAD really stands for”. On the contrary, my object (plainly misunderstood by you) was to draw attention to the fact that not all supporters of the PAD are part of a homogeneous mass. As to the balance of your contribution, I shall continue to refrain from endevouring to respond to such inarticulate personal denigration.
Barry, I am pleased that you understand, share and have given voice to the view that there are, in fact, differences between the agendas of some PAD leaders and followers.
@ ralph – guess I should have said most widely associated with the American Civil war – I think most non nit-picking, semantic seeking individuals would have understood the reference.
And no I am not neutral, I am against the extremists on both sides; perhaps then proactive neutrality…
I agree with Ken. As a Thai, I think a great number of Thais can see through the whole propaganda, but we aren’t able to articulate what we think due to.. ‘you know what’..
There is a long way before this game of GO is played out fully. PAD, unfortunately for Thailand and all Thai citizens, may be the one that brings down the unspeakable.
Ralph Kramden: You’re observant. I don’t see any inconsistency here. There are two types of dissolution referred to: (1) dissolution of the house and (2) dissolution of a political party by the Constitutional Court.
When the house is dissolved, the minimum party-membership period for each candidate in the next election is 30 days; for other elections (e.g., end of the regular term), the minimum membership period is 90 days. (This provision addressed what many, especially the junta, saw as a too-heavy hammer that the PM (Thaksin) wielded: then, the minimum- membership period was 90 days, period; Thaksin could keep MPs in his party by the threat of calling a snap election and locking out anyone who had just left the party.) (This also raises the question, which The Great One alluded to, why did Samak resign? If a snap election were called, he’d be subject to the 90-day rule, because his change of party was not the result of a house dissolution.)
In the case of dissolution of a PARTY by the Court (which does not automatically result in house dissolution), each member of the party has 60 days to join another party and continue his/her house membership uninterrupted.
There might be a conflict between the two provisions you cited IF there were a judicial dissolution of the party followed shortly by a dissolution of the house. This may be one reason why Chaturon of the PPP is now urging a house dissolution before the Court can decree a dissolution of the PPP party.
Never in the history of Thailand’s fledgling democracy have so few done so much damage to the country.
Never in Thailand’s fledgling democracy have politicians stolen collectively as many baht as the PAD has from the Thai citizen in the last few weeks.
While never a true Ra Ra Thaksin supporter, I saw that he did have the betterment of the poor as part of his agenda, and he followed through on his promises. Was it for his own good?, history will will tell us in a hundred years. One thing is a certainty under the Thaksin administration the country prospered and the world community looked at Thailand as one of Asia’s glowing examples of an emerging nation.
Now with the PAD in the airports and the Reds possibly showing restraint for a few days more, will the Glow of Thailand to the world show as the embers left from the meltdown?
This is a very very very good post. It explains why the police cannot touch the PAD’s terrorist. Military just sit and do totally nothing, eventhough police request them for helping. In fact, the PAD activists have been saying it our loud that they are the soldiers of “the unmentionable”. They shoot innocence people who love the way of democracy with his picture behind, etc.. and this has been happening for months, not only this week. International airports are places that is not totally belong to Thailand but has to follow international regulation too, like free zone areas, etc. Only PAD cannot do this alone. Everyone are talking about the invisible hands. The pictures are getting clearer who are behind this. The may be able to close eyes n’ ears of people in Thailand but not the rest of the world.
The PAD leadership definately have a different agenda to that of their followers.
The leadership knew early on that they really didn’t have the support of the majority of Thais. The process to aquire the support involved getting sympathy votes through being seen as innocent victims of police brutality. They have always hoped that the police will kill and injure enough of the PAD supporters to force a coup.
Every action that the PAD took, the police exercised constraint. So the PAD leadership have continually uped the anti.
Sondhi says that its a battle to the death, but you can be sure its not his death that he’s talking about. its only the death of the sheeple that follow him.
Paranoia? No external threats against Burma? There is no reason for 500,000 strong army in Burma?
Where are you guys living on, the trees? The Burmese civil war, started in 1948 right after the Independence, is now 60 years old, and the only reason that world’s longest civil war in modern time is still raging strong is the overt and covert helps from the foreign countries.
Have you guys ever heard of War by Proxy or Border Security Buffer Zone? Main forces of Thai Army has been stationed right behind the long border line with Burma and ready for the war. Recently they have invaded the Burmese territory and now illegally occupying a large area called Doi Lang near Mae Hong Song. (Should I mention the 5000 strong US special forces and a squadron of US airforce fighter jets there to assist the Thais too?)
One million strong South Western Army of PLA is also right behind the border with Burma, and also The Indian Army considers the border area with Burma a war-readied zone. And lately full two divisions of Bangladeshi Army has moved into the border area after the territorial dispute in the Bay of Bangal.
Ships from US seventh fleet and fifth fleet never leave the vicinity or even inside of the Burmese territorial waters while half of Indian Navy based at Andaman Island watch them. No wonder the Chinese have installed a radar station on Burma’s Cocos Island and listened their naval chatters. (There definitely is a cold war in the Indian Ocean!)
Technically Burma is still at war and the 500,000 manpower is nothing compared to the foreign forces amassing on her long and porous borders. For Burma, sadly and unfortunately for her sanctions-ravaged people too, the devastating Second World War has never finished.
In the seventies and eighties at the heights of the civil war, China with the help of Burmese Communists used to occupy the large Burmese territory east of Salween river and it took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Burmese Men and Boys as young as thirteen and fourteen from the army to fight back for that territory. I was there fighting, dropping my blood for the land, and I had witnessed the carnage with my own eyes.
Probably you Burmese haters like Mr. Charles F. and Moe Aung, yes Moe Aung you too, wouldn’t know these facts or blindly ignore them from your own pure hatred of Burma and Burmese, but I can assure you that Burmese will rather die on the battle fields than lose their mother country.
Anthony you really have missed the boat. What do you think ASTV and ASTV Manager are for? They are the official PAD media. Maybe you should read them and see what PAD really stands for.
polo: I agree, he gets lots of things wrong, and his history is terrible, but I thought these quotes interesting in the context of this thread. If you look at my last point and your last point, we agree.
US Observer: I need your assistance. I took your word for this, but when I had time I looked about a bit more. Now confused a bit on this issue.
I found this: “Section 101. A person having the following qualifications has the right to be a candidate in an election of members of the House of Representatives: …
(3) being a member of any and only one political party for a consecutive period of not less than ninety days up to the date of applying for candidacy in an election, or being a member of any and only one political party for a consecutive period of not less than thirty days up to the date of applying for candidacy in an election in the case where the general election is conducted on account of the dissolution of the House of Representatives…”.
Then, in another part: “Section 106. Membership of the House of Representatives terminates upon: …
(8) loss of membership of the political party in the case where the political party of which he is a member is dissolved by an order of the Constitutional Court and he is unable to become a member of another political party within sixty days as from the date on which the Constitutional Court issues its order. In such case, his membership shall be deemed to have terminated as from the day following the date on which such period of sixty days has elapsed…”.
Mutt lover:
Thompson got some things seriously wrong: that the palace has somehing to offer after they win the war against Thaksinism, and that the king will truly end this.
Thompson says: “But the government all but placed in power by him failed to move in the way desired. Even direct encouragement by the palace to the ministers to get on with their mission seemed to fail.”
It failed in fact mainly because the palace had nothing to offer as an alternative to Thaksin.
” they came to believe that any means was legitimate to rid Thailand of this bromide, but it hid badly their underlying determination to rule themselves.”
Not really: they weren’t determined to rule themselves because they are scared that they can’t handle it. What it “hid badly” was their lack of someone to rule lamely on their behalf — that’s different.
“Just wait – the king will wave his magic wand and the crisis will be over. … It will end not with bang but a whimper.”
Bang or whimper is not the issue here. The issue is, will it end? And I don’t think so. This is about the old king, older Prem, a whole bunch of old farts up there far more out of it than John McCain, and a new generation of people who are now even more embittered about the throne than they were before. How it will proceed is the question. The airports might reopen, and government house too. But it will not “be over.”
Actually many of us have talked to PAD supporters. Including in some cases the ones wearing masks and carrying sharpened iron rods, not just your nice middle aged women friends.
It is no exaggeration to say that at least 80 percent of the time they say nothing beyond a sort of mantra that “Thakisn is bad, we are fighting to save the country. ” That’s as far as it goes. In some cases, in response to specific questions, they have replied “I don’t know, they haven’t told us about that yet.”
Did you ask them if they know PAD guards carry guns? What was the answer?
You are really kidding yourself if you think that a movement that considers shaking plastic noisemakers at people the height of political discourse is a movement of intellectual rigor and honesty.
It’s also pretty clear that you haven’t a clue about the demagoguery that emanates from the stage and is uncritically echoed by the PAD rank and file.
It’s quite noticeable that you haven’t even tried to rebut any of the “ramblings” you criticize. I’m sure your middle-aged women friends are very nice. And they don’t carry guns. But that doesn’t make them right.
Hla Oo,
Let me see if I have your argument correctly.
The Burmese junta is angry at the British for some perceived wrong committed over 65 years ago.
So, in retaliation, they murder their own people. Steal from their own people. Commit genocide on a grand scale against their own people. Sell their women into sexual slavery. Manufacture and smuggle drugs.
That pretty much sum it up?
Wow, they sure are showing their former colonial masters.
There is an extraordinary air of unreality about many of the observations set out above. Participants in and supporters of the PAD protests include many well-educated, well-travelled and thinking Thai people. Among those whom I know personally are many women, some of whom are academics and successful business-women. Many of them are middle-aged. It is a complete nonsense, born of ignorance or idealogical blindness (I am unsure which), to suggest that these people have as their goal the provocation of violence. One of the problems with fora such as this is that they are filled with the ramblings of pundits commenting on the ramblings of commentators and vice versa. Rather than speculate about the motives of PAD participants and supporters why not ask them to state them? There is nothing particularly difficult about this: there is no secret as to who they are, where they are or what they are doing.
In the land of smiles, people see things differently. To understand Thailand, one need a New English-English Dictionary of Thailand.
A
academic circle = a group of bias PhD. and professors who can’t think out of a circle.
adult = high authority
ashame = know no shame
authority = legalized mafia
B
bads = bad people by propaganda
Bangkok = see Krungtep
Burma = (1) Myanmar’s past, (2) Thailand’s future
C
compromise = (1) to yield, (2) to do what I want and you’ll be O.K.
D
democracy = dictatorship
democratic party = (1) dictatorship party, (2) upper-class party, (3) right-wing party
dictator government = a democracy government elected by majority
Don-Muang Airport = Government House
double standard = a common practice
E
educated, middle class, and elites = educated and uneducated people who support dictatorship
election fraud = a way to win an election by accusing the winning party of fraud
F
fair trial = trial by majority votes of the judges
freedom and justice for all = freedom and justice are distributed to all people unequally
free press = free propaganda
free speech = speechless
G
general = a god father
goods = good people by propaganda
government = a powerless entity if elected by majority
Government House = PAD’s Farm House
grassroots = educated and uneducated people who support democracy
guilty beyond any reasonable doubt = guilty with some doubts still
H
Human Rights Organization of Thailand = Right-wing Organizations of Thailand
I
independent organizations = coup-appointed organizations
invisible hands = the untouchables
J
judiciary system = a system without a jury
free judiciary system = depend on who will go free
K
Krungtep = see Thailand
L
land of smiles = land of lies
government lotto = unlawful lotto due to conflict of interest with the underground lottos.
M
majority of the people = minority who shout loudest
the media = the bias
medical doctor = one who practices medicine only to the people one’s care about.
N
news = same old things
NGO = When pronounced in Thai means stupid. However, it actually means a group of non-government organizations who ask for foreign moneys in the name of democracy to support dictatorship in Thailand.
O
one man one vote = a taboo speech that could put you in jail.
oracle = a political analyst
P
People Power Party (PPP) = Powerless Poor People (PPP)
People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) = People’s Alliance for Dictatorship (PAD)
Prime Minister = a prime suspect
poll = phony trend
Q
question = answer
R
red shirts = anti-coup, pro-elected-government, and pro-democracy groups
Rules of Law = Laws of Whom?
S
Sondhi = a Thai cult leader
cooking show = an illegal act if done by a prime minister
legal show = a legal act if done by a judge
suspect = guilty until you can prove yourself otherwise
T
Thailand = see Bangkok
Thaksin = (1) A universal blame for all nation’s problems, (2) A miracles cure to all nation’s problems.
30:70, 50:50, 0:100 = trial and error democrazy formulas proposed by PAD (e.g., 30% elected and 70% appointed).
U
UN = Unwanted Nations
V
vote buying = an excuse used by a political party when losing an election
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Restraint is discredited
Amberwaves, I am heartened to read that you have spoken with some PAD supporters. I do not know with how many such supporters you have spoken, but I do not doubt that 80% of them spoke in the terms you have described. Even so, permit me to answer your question. No, I have not asked, and would not ask, such a naive and, frankly, pointless question about guns. As all Thais and many others know, many guns are carried in Thailand and I doubt that any interested observer would think that no “PAD guard” does carry, or has carried, a gun – particularly when there is recent televisual evidence to the contrary. You suggest that I think that “a movement that considers shaking plastic noisemakers at people the height of political discourse is a movement of intellectual rigor and honesty” (sic). No, sorry, that is not what I think. And nor do I think that you describe fairly or accurately all PAD supporters. As to whether you are fair or accurate in your assertion that I “haven’t a clue …”, I shall refrain from endevouring to respond to such inarticulate personal denigration. However, you are correct to say that (until now, perhaps) I have not sought to “rebut any of the ramblings [ I] criticise”. After all, the utility of endeavouring so to do was the very point of the post which drew your response. For the sake of accuracy, and contrary to the inference which may be drawn from your post: (1) I have not said that I have “friends” participating in PAD protests, (2) I have not said that anyone is “nice”, (3) I have not said that anyone in particular does not carry a gun or guns; and (4) a fortiori, I have not said that anyone in particular is “right”.
Ralph, no part of my post comprised an attempt to state or describe “what the PAD really stands for”. On the contrary, my object (plainly misunderstood by you) was to draw attention to the fact that not all supporters of the PAD are part of a homogeneous mass. As to the balance of your contribution, I shall continue to refrain from endevouring to respond to such inarticulate personal denigration.
Barry, I am pleased that you understand, share and have given voice to the view that there are, in fact, differences between the agendas of some PAD leaders and followers.
Conflict in Bangkok: Open thread
@ ralph – guess I should have said most widely associated with the American Civil war – I think most non nit-picking, semantic seeking individuals would have understood the reference.
And no I am not neutral, I am against the extremists on both sides; perhaps then proactive neutrality…
End of the royal taboo?
With the 35 Billion dollar royal fortune at stake (http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/20/worlds-richest-royals-biz-richroyals08-cz_ts_0820royalintro.html) and a political newcomer like Thaksin and his clan challenging the regime, it is easy to see why the vested powers are threatened and are choosing to support the PAD.
End of the royal taboo?
This, I hope, will be the start of something that will help nudge Thailand towards a better future.
End of the royal taboo?
I agree with Ken. As a Thai, I think a great number of Thais can see through the whole propaganda, but we aren’t able to articulate what we think due to.. ‘you know what’..
End of the royal taboo?
There is a long way before this game of GO is played out fully. PAD, unfortunately for Thailand and all Thai citizens, may be the one that brings down the unspeakable.
Too late for royal intervention?
Ralph Kramden: You’re observant. I don’t see any inconsistency here. There are two types of dissolution referred to: (1) dissolution of the house and (2) dissolution of a political party by the Constitutional Court.
When the house is dissolved, the minimum party-membership period for each candidate in the next election is 30 days; for other elections (e.g., end of the regular term), the minimum membership period is 90 days. (This provision addressed what many, especially the junta, saw as a too-heavy hammer that the PM (Thaksin) wielded: then, the minimum- membership period was 90 days, period; Thaksin could keep MPs in his party by the threat of calling a snap election and locking out anyone who had just left the party.) (This also raises the question, which The Great One alluded to, why did Samak resign? If a snap election were called, he’d be subject to the 90-day rule, because his change of party was not the result of a house dissolution.)
In the case of dissolution of a PARTY by the Court (which does not automatically result in house dissolution), each member of the party has 60 days to join another party and continue his/her house membership uninterrupted.
There might be a conflict between the two provisions you cited IF there were a judicial dissolution of the party followed shortly by a dissolution of the house. This may be one reason why Chaturon of the PPP is now urging a house dissolution before the Court can decree a dissolution of the PPP party.
Restraint is discredited
Never in the history of Thailand’s fledgling democracy have so few done so much damage to the country.
Never in Thailand’s fledgling democracy have politicians stolen collectively as many baht as the PAD has from the Thai citizen in the last few weeks.
While never a true Ra Ra Thaksin supporter, I saw that he did have the betterment of the poor as part of his agenda, and he followed through on his promises. Was it for his own good?, history will will tell us in a hundred years. One thing is a certainty under the Thaksin administration the country prospered and the world community looked at Thailand as one of Asia’s glowing examples of an emerging nation.
Now with the PAD in the airports and the Reds possibly showing restraint for a few days more, will the Glow of Thailand to the world show as the embers left from the meltdown?
End of the royal taboo?
This is a very very very good post. It explains why the police cannot touch the PAD’s terrorist. Military just sit and do totally nothing, eventhough police request them for helping. In fact, the PAD activists have been saying it our loud that they are the soldiers of “the unmentionable”. They shoot innocence people who love the way of democracy with his picture behind, etc.. and this has been happening for months, not only this week. International airports are places that is not totally belong to Thailand but has to follow international regulation too, like free zone areas, etc. Only PAD cannot do this alone. Everyone are talking about the invisible hands. The pictures are getting clearer who are behind this. The may be able to close eyes n’ ears of people in Thailand but not the rest of the world.
Restraint is discredited
The PAD leadership definately have a different agenda to that of their followers.
The leadership knew early on that they really didn’t have the support of the majority of Thais. The process to aquire the support involved getting sympathy votes through being seen as innocent victims of police brutality. They have always hoped that the police will kill and injure enough of the PAD supporters to force a coup.
Every action that the PAD took, the police exercised constraint. So the PAD leadership have continually uped the anti.
Sondhi says that its a battle to the death, but you can be sure its not his death that he’s talking about. its only the death of the sheeple that follow him.
Help
Paranoia? No external threats against Burma? There is no reason for 500,000 strong army in Burma?
Where are you guys living on, the trees? The Burmese civil war, started in 1948 right after the Independence, is now 60 years old, and the only reason that world’s longest civil war in modern time is still raging strong is the overt and covert helps from the foreign countries.
Have you guys ever heard of War by Proxy or Border Security Buffer Zone? Main forces of Thai Army has been stationed right behind the long border line with Burma and ready for the war. Recently they have invaded the Burmese territory and now illegally occupying a large area called Doi Lang near Mae Hong Song. (Should I mention the 5000 strong US special forces and a squadron of US airforce fighter jets there to assist the Thais too?)
One million strong South Western Army of PLA is also right behind the border with Burma, and also The Indian Army considers the border area with Burma a war-readied zone. And lately full two divisions of Bangladeshi Army has moved into the border area after the territorial dispute in the Bay of Bangal.
Ships from US seventh fleet and fifth fleet never leave the vicinity or even inside of the Burmese territorial waters while half of Indian Navy based at Andaman Island watch them. No wonder the Chinese have installed a radar station on Burma’s Cocos Island and listened their naval chatters. (There definitely is a cold war in the Indian Ocean!)
Technically Burma is still at war and the 500,000 manpower is nothing compared to the foreign forces amassing on her long and porous borders. For Burma, sadly and unfortunately for her sanctions-ravaged people too, the devastating Second World War has never finished.
In the seventies and eighties at the heights of the civil war, China with the help of Burmese Communists used to occupy the large Burmese territory east of Salween river and it took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Burmese Men and Boys as young as thirteen and fourteen from the army to fight back for that territory. I was there fighting, dropping my blood for the land, and I had witnessed the carnage with my own eyes.
Probably you Burmese haters like Mr. Charles F. and Moe Aung, yes Moe Aung you too, wouldn’t know these facts or blindly ignore them from your own pure hatred of Burma and Burmese, but I can assure you that Burmese will rather die on the battle fields than lose their mother country.
Restraint is discredited
Anthony you really have missed the boat. What do you think ASTV and ASTV Manager are for? They are the official PAD media. Maybe you should read them and see what PAD really stands for.
End of the royal taboo?
polo: I agree, he gets lots of things wrong, and his history is terrible, but I thought these quotes interesting in the context of this thread. If you look at my last point and your last point, we agree.
Too late for royal intervention?
US Observer: I need your assistance. I took your word for this, but when I had time I looked about a bit more. Now confused a bit on this issue.
I found this: “Section 101. A person having the following qualifications has the right to be a candidate in an election of members of the House of Representatives: …
(3) being a member of any and only one political party for a consecutive period of not less than ninety days up to the date of applying for candidacy in an election, or being a member of any and only one political party for a consecutive period of not less than thirty days up to the date of applying for candidacy in an election in the case where the general election is conducted on account of the dissolution of the House of Representatives…”.
Then, in another part: “Section 106. Membership of the House of Representatives terminates upon: …
(8) loss of membership of the political party in the case where the political party of which he is a member is dissolved by an order of the Constitutional Court and he is unable to become a member of another political party within sixty days as from the date on which the Constitutional Court issues its order. In such case, his membership shall be deemed to have terminated as from the day following the date on which such period of sixty days has elapsed…”.
Am I missing something in this long document?
End of the royal taboo?
Mutt lover:
Thompson got some things seriously wrong: that the palace has somehing to offer after they win the war against Thaksinism, and that the king will truly end this.
Thompson says: “But the government all but placed in power by him failed to move in the way desired. Even direct encouragement by the palace to the ministers to get on with their mission seemed to fail.”
It failed in fact mainly because the palace had nothing to offer as an alternative to Thaksin.
” they came to believe that any means was legitimate to rid Thailand of this bromide, but it hid badly their underlying determination to rule themselves.”
Not really: they weren’t determined to rule themselves because they are scared that they can’t handle it. What it “hid badly” was their lack of someone to rule lamely on their behalf — that’s different.
“Just wait – the king will wave his magic wand and the crisis will be over. … It will end not with bang but a whimper.”
Bang or whimper is not the issue here. The issue is, will it end? And I don’t think so. This is about the old king, older Prem, a whole bunch of old farts up there far more out of it than John McCain, and a new generation of people who are now even more embittered about the throne than they were before. How it will proceed is the question. The airports might reopen, and government house too. But it will not “be over.”
Restraint is discredited
Anthony –
Actually many of us have talked to PAD supporters. Including in some cases the ones wearing masks and carrying sharpened iron rods, not just your nice middle aged women friends.
It is no exaggeration to say that at least 80 percent of the time they say nothing beyond a sort of mantra that “Thakisn is bad, we are fighting to save the country. ” That’s as far as it goes. In some cases, in response to specific questions, they have replied “I don’t know, they haven’t told us about that yet.”
Did you ask them if they know PAD guards carry guns? What was the answer?
You are really kidding yourself if you think that a movement that considers shaking plastic noisemakers at people the height of political discourse is a movement of intellectual rigor and honesty.
It’s also pretty clear that you haven’t a clue about the demagoguery that emanates from the stage and is uncritically echoed by the PAD rank and file.
It’s quite noticeable that you haven’t even tried to rebut any of the “ramblings” you criticize. I’m sure your middle-aged women friends are very nice. And they don’t carry guns. But that doesn’t make them right.
Help
Hla Oo,
Let me see if I have your argument correctly.
The Burmese junta is angry at the British for some perceived wrong committed over 65 years ago.
So, in retaliation, they murder their own people. Steal from their own people. Commit genocide on a grand scale against their own people. Sell their women into sexual slavery. Manufacture and smuggle drugs.
That pretty much sum it up?
Wow, they sure are showing their former colonial masters.
Restraint is discredited
There is an extraordinary air of unreality about many of the observations set out above. Participants in and supporters of the PAD protests include many well-educated, well-travelled and thinking Thai people. Among those whom I know personally are many women, some of whom are academics and successful business-women. Many of them are middle-aged. It is a complete nonsense, born of ignorance or idealogical blindness (I am unsure which), to suggest that these people have as their goal the provocation of violence. One of the problems with fora such as this is that they are filled with the ramblings of pundits commenting on the ramblings of commentators and vice versa. Rather than speculate about the motives of PAD participants and supporters why not ask them to state them? There is nothing particularly difficult about this: there is no secret as to who they are, where they are or what they are doing.
Grade 4 travel advisory…for Bangkok
In the land of smiles, people see things differently. To understand Thailand, one need a New English-English Dictionary of Thailand.
A
academic circle = a group of bias PhD. and professors who can’t think out of a circle.
adult = high authority
ashame = know no shame
authority = legalized mafia
B
bads = bad people by propaganda
Bangkok = see Krungtep
Burma = (1) Myanmar’s past, (2) Thailand’s future
C
compromise = (1) to yield, (2) to do what I want and you’ll be O.K.
D
democracy = dictatorship
democratic party = (1) dictatorship party, (2) upper-class party, (3) right-wing party
dictator government = a democracy government elected by majority
Don-Muang Airport = Government House
double standard = a common practice
E
educated, middle class, and elites = educated and uneducated people who support dictatorship
election fraud = a way to win an election by accusing the winning party of fraud
F
fair trial = trial by majority votes of the judges
freedom and justice for all = freedom and justice are distributed to all people unequally
free press = free propaganda
free speech = speechless
G
general = a god father
goods = good people by propaganda
government = a powerless entity if elected by majority
Government House = PAD’s Farm House
grassroots = educated and uneducated people who support democracy
guilty beyond any reasonable doubt = guilty with some doubts still
H
Human Rights Organization of Thailand = Right-wing Organizations of Thailand
I
independent organizations = coup-appointed organizations
invisible hands = the untouchables
J
judiciary system = a system without a jury
free judiciary system = depend on who will go free
K
Krungtep = see Thailand
L
land of smiles = land of lies
government lotto = unlawful lotto due to conflict of interest with the underground lottos.
M
majority of the people = minority who shout loudest
the media = the bias
medical doctor = one who practices medicine only to the people one’s care about.
N
news = same old things
NGO = When pronounced in Thai means stupid. However, it actually means a group of non-government organizations who ask for foreign moneys in the name of democracy to support dictatorship in Thailand.
O
one man one vote = a taboo speech that could put you in jail.
oracle = a political analyst
P
People Power Party (PPP) = Powerless Poor People (PPP)
People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) = People’s Alliance for Dictatorship (PAD)
Prime Minister = a prime suspect
poll = phony trend
Q
question = answer
R
red shirts = anti-coup, pro-elected-government, and pro-democracy groups
Rules of Law = Laws of Whom?
S
Sondhi = a Thai cult leader
cooking show = an illegal act if done by a prime minister
legal show = a legal act if done by a judge
suspect = guilty until you can prove yourself otherwise
T
Thailand = see Bangkok
Thaksin = (1) A universal blame for all nation’s problems, (2) A miracles cure to all nation’s problems.
30:70, 50:50, 0:100 = trial and error democrazy formulas proposed by PAD (e.g., 30% elected and 70% appointed).
U
UN = Unwanted Nations
V
vote buying = an excuse used by a political party when losing an election
W
why = (1) don’t ask, (2) unacceptable question, (3) pretend dumb
X
xxx = (1) a forbidden truth, (2) a naked truth, (3) an well-known political variable
Y
yellow shirts = pro-coup, pro-appointed-government, and pro-dictatorship groups
Z
zigzag = a direct way to power
Too late for royal intervention?
To the question asked of me by Ralph Kramden (post 15), the answer is no.