[…] available in half a dozen posts from our archives (15 November 2006, 15 March 2007, 23 March 2007, 2 April 2007, 13 April 2007 and 27 April 2007). Those posts, and the wide-ranging debates they generated, may […]
[…] coverage of the preamble to the conference is available in half a dozen posts from our archives (15 November 2006, 15 March 2007, 23 March 2007, 2 April 2007, 13 April 2007 and 27 April 2007). Those posts, and […]
If indeed the Constitution does fail then Nakharin Mektrairat should be made to resign from his position as Dean of Political Science at Thammasat; not only for willingly serving a royalist-miliary junta which came to power and remains in power purely out of the threat of violence, but also because of his total misunderstanding of the politics of his own country, supposedly his field of expertise. If academics want to play politics (as opposed to teaching and researching it) then let them run for office and be accountable to the people who pay their salaries. This is the problem with Thailand’s academics: they want the power and glory but refuse to be accountable.
nganadeeleg expresses the expected opinion. The ignorant savages in the villages need re-education. I wonder how many of the ignorant and unwashed cross his/her path? Frankly, most of these so-called ignorant rural masses are far more politically savvy than most of the taokey masquerading as middle class cruising around Bangkok.
But even if we were to agree that they (and others) need more political education, where are they going to get it from? The inadequate school system? The controlled media that produces almost no political news and feeds the people a diet of North Korean like propaganda about the government, the military and the obscenely wealthy royals and their obsequious minions?
The royalists and Bangkok elite and some of the middle class as so scared of the masses having a say in anything that they run to hide behind the military’s guns and the royalist ideology every time they see a taxi driver speak of politics.
Whatever its content, this Constitution will always have the stigma of being the “Dictator’s Constitution”. Even if it were passed it will always carry the whiff of illegitimacy, which would enable it to be easily attacked by its enemies. But I would actually be surprised if we even got to hold the referendum, given the anti-CNS movement that has started now. But if the referendum were held, this would be an interesting test of the loyalty of the Thai Rak Thai voter base. If it is still loyal, and Thai Rak Thai were to campaign to reject the Constitution, then the Constitution is dead. Then what?
On the “Octoberists” and Thai Rak Thai: There has been a lot of analysis (before the coup, as well as after) about the significance of the “Octoberists” in the Thai Rak Thai party (Pansak, Jaturon, Sutham, etc.), and this comes out in the report on Surin’s ANU presentation. The suggestion is that the “leftists” / communists are using Thai Rak Thai to implement their socialist agenda. But as we all know, many, if not most of the October generation, and those sympathetic to its ideals (especially the academics, NGOs), joined the movement to oust Thaksin, even if many of them were under the influence of the “song mai ao” ideology. (We could call this group the “orangists”: reds mixed with yellow). Apart from their royalist-nationalist ideology the orangists are also animated by a strong anti-capitalist, anti-globalization sentiment, expressed in terms of a rejection of “Thaksinomics” and a disgust at businessmen and politicians, especially those with a business background. This anti-capitalist sentiment of the orangists was later exploited by the King with his sufficiency economy “theory”.
This “split” in the October generation has also been discussed in Fa Dio Kan and elsewhere.
The funny thing is, much of what Thai Rak Thai has done to date (within the constraints of the political realities) has demonstrated it to be animated NOT by communist ideology but by liberalism and populist nationalism with a welfare safety net (even though like all parties it is a mixture of ideologies, private interests, egos, alliances of convenience, etc.): emphasis on elections for political legitimacy, reform of the state bureaucracy, the privatization of state enterprises, free trade agreements and regional economic integration, as well as the 30 baht health scheme, village development funds, “eua athorn” projects, etc.
So, mutatis mutandis, not unlike the successful formula of New Labour.
If there is an example of a living communist ideology in Thailand, surely it is to be found not in Thai Rak Thai but in the ratchakan state, which shares many of the classic characteristics of a Communist Party: unelected, unaccountable, inefficient, illiberal, hierarchical, anti-capitalist, and fearful of the outside world. The kharatchakan are like Communist Party members: privileged for life, see themselves as an ideologically pure class above the masses, dependent on the state and the Party Leader. The Party Leader (for life) is the King, surrounded by a state promoted personality cult of the same order as that of Mao or Kim Il Sung. As in Mao’s “little red book”, the sayings of the King are promoted as official political morality. Sufficiency economy is the anti-capitalist economic dogma. The discourse of “khon di” is similar to that of Soviet or Maoist campaigns eulogizing those who hold up the ideals of communist orthodoxy – in the Thai case the loyal kharatchakan. The ratchakan discourse of “democracy” is comparable to the “democratic centralism” of Leninist states – which explains the inability of kharatchakans to understand the fundamentals of liberal democracy, especially the legitimacy of elections. (This also explains how both the ratchakan state and the Thai Rak Thai- anti-CNS movement can both mobilize the discourse of “democracy”, when the substance is quite different). Like the Communist Party ideologists, the ratchakan state’s propagandists (academics, media commentators) think “for the People”, because the People are insufficiently ideologically sound and so can not be trusted to think for themselves.
So if we regard the ratchakan state as in fact, a quasi-communist state, we can better understand the horror of the kharatchakans and their allies at Thaksin. His liberal nationalism, empowered by a mass party, threatens not only the existence of the ratchakan state and its ideology, but also its feudal head.
Sufficiency mass transit: anybody for a Thai-designed and built mass transit system?
“Suwat said self-reliance in technology and human resources was needed if Thailand was to reduce construction costs and operating and maintenance expenses.
“Otherwise, we will have to import both technology and experts, as we do today,” he said.
Nakorn of the SRT supported Suwat. He said the current Skytrain and underground services were dependent on foreign technology and experts.
“Half of the cost of these projects is for foreign companies’ technology and experts. People who control their operation and maintenance are foreigners,” Nakorn said.
Suwat suggested looking to Korea. “It has planned its mass-transit projects well. Instead of importing technology and experts, it funded its own human resources with the cooperation of the state, universities and industry.
“After the first project was completed it had a great skill asset able to develop a second, and so on. Now Korea is looking to export this talent and technology.
“We are still dependent on foreigners even after we have built two mass-transit projects,” Nakorn said.”
The Nation, June 10, 2007
Next suggestion would be to start a Thai-led re-invention of the car, the computer, and the mobile phone. It might work if the Thais were Koreans or Japanese…
Nakharin Mektrairat, the dean of the faculty of political science at Thammasat University, predicted that there won’t be more than 1 million no votes. Reasoning: the anti-TRT verdict had opened the people’s eyes and ears, and they wanted an election as soon as possible. I wonder whether this is not wishful thinking based on a Bangkok aircon academic’s world view. Also, he did not mention the massive and very well-funded propaganda campaign that seems to have been planned by a number of agencies, including his own CDA. (reported in Bangkok Post, June 10, 2007, p. 3)
I work in a prominent Thai company, listed on the stock exchange. I frequently have conversations with the Thai elite – Benz-driving, overseas educated, bangkok Thais – as well as a large number of rural people.
I promise you that broadly speaking rural Thais have a better understanding of politics that the spawn of Chula, Thammasart, etc. In fact, if you had a political quiz show pitting taxi drivers against Chul Poli-Sci grads, my money would be on the taxi drivers.
The Nation and the elite choir is obsessed with self-interested poor people. Don’t they realize that if they just stopped oppressing them, maybe then they could rise up a little bit more? For years, I have heard the elite deride the uneducated masses, but never do they call to educated them. Giving a few more scraps to the needy is not pandering, it is justice.
You write about Thaksin being stymied by the monarch and his network intefering in the political system. It has long been accepted by most Thais, if not by you, that the monarch has some legitimate spheres of influence – the military and the judiciary being chief among them, even according to Handley. Please note that according to the 1997 constitution the commander in chief of the armed forces is the monarch, not the prime minister.
Thaksin, in his ego-driven, winner-take-all style, clearly was trying wrest these institutions from the influence of the monarch. The rural masses did not elect him to do that. Nor were they very aware – thanks to government control of the media – of the tensions and conflicts over Thaksin’s attempts to do this. It is highly unlikely they would have supported his agenda.
Furthermore, while you excuse Thaksin’s misdeeds on the grounds that he was being interfered with, you cut the monarchy, the military and the judiciary no slack in defending their turf when they were being interfered with – unconstitutionally by Thaksin. A relative of Thaksin who was a high-ranking official at the Justice Ministry did visit the judge presiding of the Shin Corp case against media activist Supinya Klangnarong to pressure him to find in favor of Shin. Yet I don’t see you complaining about Thaksin interfering with the judiciary. And the monarch telling the judiciary to do its job and apply the law is not the same as him instructing them what decisions to make. He did say “political parties must exist” in his address to the judges. You are also ignoring the fact that TRT clearly and repeatedly broke the law.
In his five years in office, Thaksin was blatantly anti-democratic and corrupt. It seems, however, that in your virulent anti-monarchist stance that you are willing to accept his dictatorial program because he was willing to challenge the monarchy. It’s okay if he’s a dictator because he’s “your dictator.”
Never mind what’s good for the country.
I think the fact that you are making insinuations about the death of King Ananda betrays a severe intellectual bias. Wow. Some people never let the B.S. rest, even after 60 years.
I doubt very much whether rural voters can be confused by silly opposing politics. The villagers are never found to be wanting of opinions . . . in fact they are ample rich of it but destitute of everything else.
These villagers may easily be conned into going into more debts just to buy those newspapers heavily advertised Jatukams, or, rush to the next big tree on rumours of heavenly penned digits at its trunk by which to wager his last baht at the underground lottery. But when it comes to politics, it won’t be easy to change their minds that elections do bring immediate cashable social welfare benefits to spend for one more Jatukam amulet.
It is very easy to predict the rejection of the junta influenced new constitution only because appointees in the parliament is a disturbing doctrine to the village masses enamored of elections. I am with the these village masses of course! I reject the newly proposed constitution with exactly the same suspicion and animosity I carry for appointees in parliament.
And tanks and bullets do not scare me. I carry enough amulets with warranties to bullet proof but I am amazed that with the half-dozen Jatukams I hang like medals around my neck each day, those ample wealth that would put the Shinawatra to shame have not yet materialized.
Will this referendum so baffle rural Thais that they can’t grasp the key issues?
It will take more than a few months to change a lifetime of ignorance.
Even if it was a near perfect consitution, there would be those that would push for it’s rejection just because of the way it came about.
IMO, politics will be the deciding issue, rather than the actual content of the draft constitution.
It’s also a shame that certain Buddhists persist in demeaning the religion by continuing their push to have it declared the state religion – those monks are either very ignorant, or there is something more sinister going on behind the scenes.
This dark, unknown, frightening monster “rural masses”… The MoI has a project to recruit 10-15 million democracy volunteers. One of their tasks will be to convince their fellow villagers to vote for a constitution they will hardly know the content of (I am not sure what the “key issues” are — that this constitution was prepared by a body hired by the military junta and that TRT was dissolved, or are they about the content of the constitution?). The government has allocated 500 million baht for the CDA’s public relations drive. One is not mistaken to assume that this is not about explaining the pros and cons of the document in a neutral fashion. Finally, ISOC and others will also have their part in urging villagers to vote “yes.”
[…] pieces that will help to provide context for today’s brief post. The Nation’s recent report on Andrew’s seminar in Bangkok highlights many of the enduring […]
Add a footnote to para 2, #20. On hi-thaksin you can download two mobile phone ring tones, “khor mor chor ork pai!” and “song phra jaroen” (so everyone on NM can be happy). Interestingly ICT has just lifted their blocks of pro-Thaksin websites.
Thaksin’s anomalies are not ‘erased’. How can that be? Thaksin’s anomalies, if examined a little bit more closely, were in fact felonies.
(a) The election fraud by top TRT executives was a serious feloniy. And I hear the Election Commission will in fact start criminal proceedings against a few TRT executives, Thaksin certainly included, soon.
(b) The tax evasion by the Shinawatra clan is also a felony. Thaksin being the head of the clan, and the tax evasion happening conveniently during his rule allowing him to influence Thailand’s Revenue Department Chief, should make for a strong case to criminally charge Thaksin for employing his office to carry out the tax cheating.
(c) The extrajudicial rampage of the village police hicks during the anti-yaa baa of 2002-05, with Thaksin doing the directing and goading and the rewarding, that led to thousands needlessly slaughtered must be a felony!
(d) The Rajadisek land scandal imbroiling both wife Potjaman and Thaksin into some criminal liability is also a felony.
(e) Some corruption scandals may later on find its way into Thaksin’s or Potjaman’s doorsteps.
Thaksin’s anomalies are not erasable. But those anomalies could earn Thaksin a lot of jail time.
Republican have you started writing a new movie script about Thai Rak Thai party and its battle with the Thai monarch?
Republican you do carry a lot of fantasy in your head. First you had your grudge against the Thai monarchy and their speeding motorade because a Thai policeman won’t dare give HMK or The Prince a speeding ticket . Now you are trying to rabble rouse the Thai Rak Thai party (certainly a party of thugs if we can recall Newin leading his TRT paid goons besieging Nation and Manager headquarters) to a bloody insurrection!
Republican you just as mad as your Khmer voodoo worshipping idol Thaksin!!
Facebook 
Twitter 
Soundcloud 
Youtube 
Rss
Boycotts and boundaries
[…] available in half a dozen posts from our archives (15 November 2006, 15 March 2007, 23 March 2007, 2 April 2007, 13 April 2007 and 27 April 2007). Those posts, and the wide-ranging debates they generated, may […]
Thai Studies Conference, Bangkok, 2008
[…] coverage of the preamble to the conference is available in half a dozen posts from our archives (15 November 2006, 15 March 2007, 23 March 2007, 2 April 2007, 13 April 2007 and 27 April 2007). Those posts, and […]
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
If indeed the Constitution does fail then Nakharin Mektrairat should be made to resign from his position as Dean of Political Science at Thammasat; not only for willingly serving a royalist-miliary junta which came to power and remains in power purely out of the threat of violence, but also because of his total misunderstanding of the politics of his own country, supposedly his field of expertise. If academics want to play politics (as opposed to teaching and researching it) then let them run for office and be accountable to the people who pay their salaries. This is the problem with Thailand’s academics: they want the power and glory but refuse to be accountable.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
nganadeeleg expresses the expected opinion. The ignorant savages in the villages need re-education. I wonder how many of the ignorant and unwashed cross his/her path? Frankly, most of these so-called ignorant rural masses are far more politically savvy than most of the taokey masquerading as middle class cruising around Bangkok.
But even if we were to agree that they (and others) need more political education, where are they going to get it from? The inadequate school system? The controlled media that produces almost no political news and feeds the people a diet of North Korean like propaganda about the government, the military and the obscenely wealthy royals and their obsequious minions?
The royalists and Bangkok elite and some of the middle class as so scared of the masses having a say in anything that they run to hide behind the military’s guns and the royalist ideology every time they see a taxi driver speak of politics.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
Whatever its content, this Constitution will always have the stigma of being the “Dictator’s Constitution”. Even if it were passed it will always carry the whiff of illegitimacy, which would enable it to be easily attacked by its enemies. But I would actually be surprised if we even got to hold the referendum, given the anti-CNS movement that has started now. But if the referendum were held, this would be an interesting test of the loyalty of the Thai Rak Thai voter base. If it is still loyal, and Thai Rak Thai were to campaign to reject the Constitution, then the Constitution is dead. Then what?
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
On the “Octoberists” and Thai Rak Thai: There has been a lot of analysis (before the coup, as well as after) about the significance of the “Octoberists” in the Thai Rak Thai party (Pansak, Jaturon, Sutham, etc.), and this comes out in the report on Surin’s ANU presentation. The suggestion is that the “leftists” / communists are using Thai Rak Thai to implement their socialist agenda. But as we all know, many, if not most of the October generation, and those sympathetic to its ideals (especially the academics, NGOs), joined the movement to oust Thaksin, even if many of them were under the influence of the “song mai ao” ideology. (We could call this group the “orangists”: reds mixed with yellow). Apart from their royalist-nationalist ideology the orangists are also animated by a strong anti-capitalist, anti-globalization sentiment, expressed in terms of a rejection of “Thaksinomics” and a disgust at businessmen and politicians, especially those with a business background. This anti-capitalist sentiment of the orangists was later exploited by the King with his sufficiency economy “theory”.
This “split” in the October generation has also been discussed in Fa Dio Kan and elsewhere.
The funny thing is, much of what Thai Rak Thai has done to date (within the constraints of the political realities) has demonstrated it to be animated NOT by communist ideology but by liberalism and populist nationalism with a welfare safety net (even though like all parties it is a mixture of ideologies, private interests, egos, alliances of convenience, etc.): emphasis on elections for political legitimacy, reform of the state bureaucracy, the privatization of state enterprises, free trade agreements and regional economic integration, as well as the 30 baht health scheme, village development funds, “eua athorn” projects, etc.
So, mutatis mutandis, not unlike the successful formula of New Labour.
If there is an example of a living communist ideology in Thailand, surely it is to be found not in Thai Rak Thai but in the ratchakan state, which shares many of the classic characteristics of a Communist Party: unelected, unaccountable, inefficient, illiberal, hierarchical, anti-capitalist, and fearful of the outside world. The kharatchakan are like Communist Party members: privileged for life, see themselves as an ideologically pure class above the masses, dependent on the state and the Party Leader. The Party Leader (for life) is the King, surrounded by a state promoted personality cult of the same order as that of Mao or Kim Il Sung. As in Mao’s “little red book”, the sayings of the King are promoted as official political morality. Sufficiency economy is the anti-capitalist economic dogma. The discourse of “khon di” is similar to that of Soviet or Maoist campaigns eulogizing those who hold up the ideals of communist orthodoxy – in the Thai case the loyal kharatchakan. The ratchakan discourse of “democracy” is comparable to the “democratic centralism” of Leninist states – which explains the inability of kharatchakans to understand the fundamentals of liberal democracy, especially the legitimacy of elections. (This also explains how both the ratchakan state and the Thai Rak Thai- anti-CNS movement can both mobilize the discourse of “democracy”, when the substance is quite different). Like the Communist Party ideologists, the ratchakan state’s propagandists (academics, media commentators) think “for the People”, because the People are insufficiently ideologically sound and so can not be trusted to think for themselves.
So if we regard the ratchakan state as in fact, a quasi-communist state, we can better understand the horror of the kharatchakans and their allies at Thaksin. His liberal nationalism, empowered by a mass party, threatens not only the existence of the ratchakan state and its ideology, but also its feudal head.
Sufficiency and the rich
Sufficiency mass transit: anybody for a Thai-designed and built mass transit system?
“Suwat said self-reliance in technology and human resources was needed if Thailand was to reduce construction costs and operating and maintenance expenses.
“Otherwise, we will have to import both technology and experts, as we do today,” he said.
Nakorn of the SRT supported Suwat. He said the current Skytrain and underground services were dependent on foreign technology and experts.
“Half of the cost of these projects is for foreign companies’ technology and experts. People who control their operation and maintenance are foreigners,” Nakorn said.
Suwat suggested looking to Korea. “It has planned its mass-transit projects well. Instead of importing technology and experts, it funded its own human resources with the cooperation of the state, universities and industry.
“After the first project was completed it had a great skill asset able to develop a second, and so on. Now Korea is looking to export this talent and technology.
“We are still dependent on foreigners even after we have built two mass-transit projects,” Nakorn said.”
The Nation, June 10, 2007
Next suggestion would be to start a Thai-led re-invention of the car, the computer, and the mobile phone. It might work if the Thais were Koreans or Japanese…
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
Nakharin Mektrairat, the dean of the faculty of political science at Thammasat University, predicted that there won’t be more than 1 million no votes. Reasoning: the anti-TRT verdict had opened the people’s eyes and ears, and they wanted an election as soon as possible. I wonder whether this is not wishful thinking based on a Bangkok aircon academic’s world view. Also, he did not mention the massive and very well-funded propaganda campaign that seems to have been planned by a number of agencies, including his own CDA. (reported in Bangkok Post, June 10, 2007, p. 3)
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
I work in a prominent Thai company, listed on the stock exchange. I frequently have conversations with the Thai elite – Benz-driving, overseas educated, bangkok Thais – as well as a large number of rural people.
I promise you that broadly speaking rural Thais have a better understanding of politics that the spawn of Chula, Thammasart, etc. In fact, if you had a political quiz show pitting taxi drivers against Chul Poli-Sci grads, my money would be on the taxi drivers.
The Nation and the elite choir is obsessed with self-interested poor people. Don’t they realize that if they just stopped oppressing them, maybe then they could rise up a little bit more? For years, I have heard the elite deride the uneducated masses, but never do they call to educated them. Giving a few more scraps to the needy is not pandering, it is justice.
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
to Republican:
You write about Thaksin being stymied by the monarch and his network intefering in the political system. It has long been accepted by most Thais, if not by you, that the monarch has some legitimate spheres of influence – the military and the judiciary being chief among them, even according to Handley. Please note that according to the 1997 constitution the commander in chief of the armed forces is the monarch, not the prime minister.
Thaksin, in his ego-driven, winner-take-all style, clearly was trying wrest these institutions from the influence of the monarch. The rural masses did not elect him to do that. Nor were they very aware – thanks to government control of the media – of the tensions and conflicts over Thaksin’s attempts to do this. It is highly unlikely they would have supported his agenda.
Furthermore, while you excuse Thaksin’s misdeeds on the grounds that he was being interfered with, you cut the monarchy, the military and the judiciary no slack in defending their turf when they were being interfered with – unconstitutionally by Thaksin. A relative of Thaksin who was a high-ranking official at the Justice Ministry did visit the judge presiding of the Shin Corp case against media activist Supinya Klangnarong to pressure him to find in favor of Shin. Yet I don’t see you complaining about Thaksin interfering with the judiciary. And the monarch telling the judiciary to do its job and apply the law is not the same as him instructing them what decisions to make. He did say “political parties must exist” in his address to the judges. You are also ignoring the fact that TRT clearly and repeatedly broke the law.
In his five years in office, Thaksin was blatantly anti-democratic and corrupt. It seems, however, that in your virulent anti-monarchist stance that you are willing to accept his dictatorial program because he was willing to challenge the monarchy. It’s okay if he’s a dictator because he’s “your dictator.”
Never mind what’s good for the country.
I think the fact that you are making insinuations about the death of King Ananda betrays a severe intellectual bias. Wow. Some people never let the B.S. rest, even after 60 years.
Scenes from Sipsongpanna
[…] few days ago I posted several images of Sipsongpanna, taken during my recent (brief) visit there. My selection of images […]
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
I doubt very much whether rural voters can be confused by silly opposing politics. The villagers are never found to be wanting of opinions . . . in fact they are ample rich of it but destitute of everything else.
These villagers may easily be conned into going into more debts just to buy those newspapers heavily advertised Jatukams, or, rush to the next big tree on rumours of heavenly penned digits at its trunk by which to wager his last baht at the underground lottery. But when it comes to politics, it won’t be easy to change their minds that elections do bring immediate cashable social welfare benefits to spend for one more Jatukam amulet.
It is very easy to predict the rejection of the junta influenced new constitution only because appointees in the parliament is a disturbing doctrine to the village masses enamored of elections. I am with the these village masses of course! I reject the newly proposed constitution with exactly the same suspicion and animosity I carry for appointees in parliament.
And tanks and bullets do not scare me. I carry enough amulets with warranties to bullet proof but I am amazed that with the half-dozen Jatukams I hang like medals around my neck each day, those ample wealth that would put the Shinawatra to shame have not yet materialized.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
Will this referendum so baffle rural Thais that they can’t grasp the key issues?
It will take more than a few months to change a lifetime of ignorance.
Even if it was a near perfect consitution, there would be those that would push for it’s rejection just because of the way it came about.
IMO, politics will be the deciding issue, rather than the actual content of the draft constitution.
It’s also a shame that certain Buddhists persist in demeaning the religion by continuing their push to have it declared the state religion – those monks are either very ignorant, or there is something more sinister going on behind the scenes.
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
To summarise Republican’s posts: The Finland Plan is alive and kicking.
Will rural voters be “confused to death”?
This dark, unknown, frightening monster “rural masses”… The MoI has a project to recruit 10-15 million democracy volunteers. One of their tasks will be to convince their fellow villagers to vote for a constitution they will hardly know the content of (I am not sure what the “key issues” are — that this constitution was prepared by a body hired by the military junta and that TRT was dissolved, or are they about the content of the constitution?). The government has allocated 500 million baht for the CDA’s public relations drive. One is not mistaken to assume that this is not about explaining the pros and cons of the document in a neutral fashion. Finally, ISOC and others will also have their part in urging villagers to vote “yes.”
The Nation on the rural constitution
[…] pieces that will help to provide context for today’s brief post. The Nation’s recent report on Andrew’s seminar in Bangkok highlights many of the enduring […]
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
Add a footnote to para 2, #20. On hi-thaksin you can download two mobile phone ring tones, “khor mor chor ork pai!” and “song phra jaroen” (so everyone on NM can be happy). Interestingly ICT has just lifted their blocks of pro-Thaksin websites.
Mekong Currents
[…] most recent monthly installment at Mekong Currents is a wide-ranging discussion titled “What to do with Burma?“ that focuses on regional […]
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
Thaksin’s anomalies are not ‘erased’. How can that be? Thaksin’s anomalies, if examined a little bit more closely, were in fact felonies.
(a) The election fraud by top TRT executives was a serious feloniy. And I hear the Election Commission will in fact start criminal proceedings against a few TRT executives, Thaksin certainly included, soon.
(b) The tax evasion by the Shinawatra clan is also a felony. Thaksin being the head of the clan, and the tax evasion happening conveniently during his rule allowing him to influence Thailand’s Revenue Department Chief, should make for a strong case to criminally charge Thaksin for employing his office to carry out the tax cheating.
(c) The extrajudicial rampage of the village police hicks during the anti-yaa baa of 2002-05, with Thaksin doing the directing and goading and the rewarding, that led to thousands needlessly slaughtered must be a felony!
(d) The Rajadisek land scandal imbroiling both wife Potjaman and Thaksin into some criminal liability is also a felony.
(e) Some corruption scandals may later on find its way into Thaksin’s or Potjaman’s doorsteps.
Thaksin’s anomalies are not erasable. But those anomalies could earn Thaksin a lot of jail time.
Erasing Thaksin’s “anomalies”
Republican have you started writing a new movie script about Thai Rak Thai party and its battle with the Thai monarch?
Republican you do carry a lot of fantasy in your head. First you had your grudge against the Thai monarchy and their speeding motorade because a Thai policeman won’t dare give HMK or The Prince a speeding ticket . Now you are trying to rabble rouse the Thai Rak Thai party (certainly a party of thugs if we can recall Newin leading his TRT paid goons besieging Nation and Manager headquarters) to a bloody insurrection!
Republican you just as mad as your Khmer voodoo worshipping idol Thaksin!!