Comments

He saw millions of Buddhists at the demonstration, did he? He must be a paid agent of the Thaksin regime, underestimating protest numbers like that. Surely he meant billions?

“I saw one Sikh, and of course millions of Buddhists.”

Re this “journalist” – he must have been very busy, running around asking millions of folks what their religion is. Or, can a Buddhist (other than monks) be ID’d by merely looking at them?

Does he have a name, Jorgen? Some journalists are not very good so I’d like to check that source.

The government ran out of money for the rice scandal long before the demonstrations started. Several farmers have killed themselves because they cannot pay their bills and cannot afford to plant new rice. The scheme has accumulated 570 billion baht in debts and much of the rice in stock is hardly possible to sell. If you borrow money to buy a commodity above market price, it’s only a question of tie before you go bankrupt. Even politicians know that. More than one million farmers are owed money and many of them are now in Bangkok, demonstrating against the government. However, many have been prevented to go by the reds. It was angry farmers who threw bottles, stones and shoes after Kittirat yesterday, not the yellows. How I know this? I’ve talked with people out in the provinces who are part of the action, and I am in Bangkok following the demonstrations. Many of those who demonstrate are my friends, and I can assure you: They are not rich people.

I agree fully that something has to be done to help the farmers, but this is not the way to do it. This is not helping the farmers. This is greedy politicians helping themselves.

Here’s an observation from a journalist present at the demonstration today:
“The wide demographics of the Protestors is astounding, crossing all social, economic and religious lines. For instance, huge numbers of the protestors are Muslims, many are Christians, I saw one Sikh, and of course millions of Buddhists. Everyone from rice farmers to scientists is represented.”

I’m sure many of them are royalists, but not many are the kind of royalists that this article write about.

I’m beginning to believe that whether we are sympathetic to red or yellow, democratic or reactionary, is written in our genes. It’s probably useless to argue and reason with the other side; however, when facts are misrepresented some attempt at correction should made. J├╕rgen Udvang calls it the rice scandal; he’s not to blame him if he gets most of his news from the conservative Bangkok Post and Nation newspapers . He doesn’t even seem to know that the Yingluck government is both willing and able to pay the rice farmers, which they have been doing for the past two years to the tune of 700 billion baht, if it weren’t for the obstructionist tactics of Suthep and his mob. Ergo the run on the Government Savings Bank to the tune of 20 billion baht in just one day. Even the allegations that rice has been stolen, has become inedible, or is unsaleable is just that, allegations. The responsible minister has invited media to inspect any rice warehouse they wish. Even the “farmers” coming out to protest Yingluck are of a faction that is probably being egged on and materially supported by the PDRC, from the whistles and tricolor some of them display. It is all part of the plan to discredit Yingluck in every possible way. Suthep is imposing Armageddon on us yet many see him as a viable alternative to an elected leader rather than the grim reaper he really is. I guess it’s in their genes.

They cannot just go in and get him when he is surrounded by supporters and armed guards, and drives in a convoy of several vehicles with around 40 armed guards without starting a unnecessary gun-battle which is lose/lose/lose. They are watching, and grabbing leaders when they can without trouble.

How is it possible to write an article about Thai politics today without mentioning the rice scandal and the fact that thousands of farmers are now in Bangkok protesting against the government they once supported? Why they do that? Because the Yingluck government has taken their rice but is unable or unwilling to pay the 130 billion baht they owe them. The result is that tens of thousands of farmers now lack money to pay loans and many even having problems planting rice for the next season. Yesterday, the finance minister, Khun Kittirat, had to make a runner when angry farmers started throwing bottles at him after he once again failed to tell them when they would get their money.

The article also fails to mention the methods the reds are using to make people vote for Phuea Thai in the province, like not getting services from red controlled government offices until they had placed a vote for Phuea Thai, or simple physical threats.

Is there any real evidence that any more than a small handful of Thais, of any section of society, are even remotely willing to follow the rule of law? I see no substantial evidence of that in the majority of my interactions. And until such time as Peua Thai and the Democrats start demonstrating that willingness, nothing is really ever going to change at the grassroots level either. By continuing to call this system a democracy, when there is no apparent willingness at any level in society to submit to the rule of law, we are just perpetuating a very old and worn-out myth (lie). Certainly, there are many people (in lower income brackets)of good general intention.(And it is in this bracket where it is usually best to try and conduct the majority of one’s business. Certainly don’t disappoint yourself by automatically expecting more ethical treatment from those who self-publicize their ‘education’.)The problem of the vast majority of the electorate continues to be that nothing in their current society is really conducive to more law-abiding conduct. The system pays rich people who cheat. The system is continually bodged by rich people (or aspiring rich people) so it is easily cheatable. And more ordinary citizens just end up as also-rans if they don’t in some measure (if somewhat reluctantly sometimes)either indulge in the same scofflawism or pledge economic allegiance to those who feel no great shame in deliberately bodging the system so it is open to widespread cheating.
There appears to be no great belief – among the so-called mainstream political parties – in the notion of the system being reformed from the basement up. Thaksinism is just another in a long chain of local belief systems that tells people what is ‘good’ for them – kamnan style. There is also very little evidence, that there is any grassroots movement capable of beginning a process of reform from the basement up. The current unrest does indicate a genuine lack of confidence in the ability of any particular government to enact meaningful change. But it is currently too easily coralled by the elite’s succession-hungry factions to represent any meaningful alternative.

The local thugs also get “protection” money from the shop keepers. Is that “accepted” by the shopkeepers?