I agree that that seems to be the most likely tactic available to them. Attacking and ultimately destroying Pheu Thai’s voter base must be their prime objective.
So stop being in denial if it’s so tiring. Really, it’s rather disappointing that 13 posters (to date) remain in apparent denial of the reality that every adult Thai is aware of (although evidently not always willing to acknowledge to non-Thais) i.e. Thaksin Shinawatra controls this government and his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra is his puppet (or “parrot” as indicated by the nickname given to her by the media) – and you will not find a reputable independent journalist or academic who seriously disputes these facts.
Fair question, but the evidence to date overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that this is a problem almost entirely of the government’s – i.e. Thaksin Shinawatra’s – making.
I am fully agree as you mentioned that need to modify to current policy.As a QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER ON RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP my study showed need current policy mainly small scale technical base manufacturer for the development of rural entrepreneurship.Also need IN MSIA researcher.
TQ.
Paul,UPM
How come the rice subsidy system has run into these problems right now I wonder? Could it be a bureacracy loyal to the Suthep movement that is putting spokes in the wheel? I wish a competent journalist would do some digging here.
The electorate is never the _best_ judge of who should rule and they keep choosing deeply flawed populists often, even when there are clearly more qualified alternatives available.
However, as Churchill famously said, “democracy is the worst from of government, except for all the others that have been tried”.
Elections are necessary to keep the gov’t accountable to the people, ensure legitimacy and allow for orderly transitions of power. They are not a mechanism for ensuring best (or even good) choices — unfortunately, there is no such mechanism. Also, although necessary, elections alone are not sufficient for good governance — there need to be other checks and balances plus a tradition of respecting them.
Everytime the Thaksin/Yingluck/Red Shirt camp faces judicial reckoning and could face very serious judicial consequences … because of their unconstitutional bent … is a ‘judicial coup’?
And the Red Shirts will then make threats against the Thai judiciary warning of consequences and such … if the judges rule against Yingluck or Peau Thai or Red Shirts.
This is just like listening to Jatuporn making his very inane riposte that the Red Shirts (at the latest Rachaprasong torching video clips) were throwing ‘fire extinguisher tanks’ and not LPG canisters at the Central Rachaprasong.
I would think the elite hopes that with the limited powers of a caretaker government it’s impossible to find a solution for the rice pledging scheme dilemma and so PT might loose support in it’s main heartland.
So I think they will try to nullify the election as fast as possible, but keep the government in this legal limbo for as long as possible.
Is a constitutional or judicial coup less likely to provoke a violent reaction than a military one? My guess is that there will indeed be judicial intervention but that it will stop short of ousting the Yingluck government. Instead it will aim to keep it hog-tied in its caretaker capacity. But there is no clear path for the “elite” – monarchists, “Democrats”, whatever – who are in a complete bind as to what to do next. Hogtied themselves, in fact!
“The political crisis playing out on the streets of Bangkok revolves around one central question – is the Thai electorate the best judge of Thailand’s political future?”
I support the elections; but I don’t think the electorate is necessarily the best judge of Thailand’s political future. What I am supporting is Thailand’s democracy, such as it is. According to UDD/red shirt TV commentators, they fully expect the Constitutional Court to nullify the elections after Feb 2 and perhaps impeach PM Yingluck. So, to get out of their dilemma, the anti-government protesters and their backers are betting on a constitutional coup rather than a military coup. The risks of a military coup are too great because it could possibly ignite a civil war and because there are too many watermelon soldiers (green outside, red inside) among the army ranks.
In this election voting “No” is the only option available to people who have previously voted “Democrat”. I think this is both more honest and appropriate as, in previous elections and judged by their rhetoric, to vote for the “Democrats” has never amounted to more than an anti-Thaksin statement. The fact is it is Thaksin’s parties alone that have set the political agenda for the last 13 years. The problem of course is that a “No” vote doesn’t actually put anyone into Parliament to make their opposition effective and that is the fundamental flaw in the “Democrats” strategy.
Reality check Thailand’s rice farmers are in deep dire straits after the Rice Pledge scheme. In fact, three rice farmers already committed suicide from desperation and failure of this scheme. The rice farmers are thus not only being impoverished by Yingluck’s inept and corrupt Rice Pledge Scheme, they are getting suicidal!
Rice farmers have started to protest at many provinces to air their grievances and desperation. And the Yingluck regime’s response, so far continue to be empty promises plus alarming intimidation tactics by the Red Shirts thugs against the protesting rice farmers groups.
I absolutely agree that every Thai citizen should brave the protests and turn out and vote on Sunday.
For a stark and pessimisstic view, everyone should read the latest Counterpunch commentary (“Elites F*** Up Bangkok! Down and Out in Thailand”, January 29, 2014) at counterpunch.org
Excerpts:
A manager of one of the international hotel chains operating in Bangkok, Joseph Yamdee, explained:
“I am sure that someone very big is behind all this. It is all organized so perfectly well. The guards and those who are sleeping on the streets; almost all of them are from the South. It is said that they are being paid 500 Baht per day (US$15). There is everything in place at the sites: huge electric generators, food and medical supplies.”
I asked Mr. Yamdee, what impact had Shinawatra’s reforms on his hotel chain had, on the employees, on the life of ordinary people in Thailand?
“Huge”, he replied. “The minimum wage was elevated to US$300 dollars a month. For instance, the receptionists used to make that amount in the past, and most of the receptionists belong to the middle class. We matched the wages of the cleaning ladies, to comply with the new minimum wage regulation, so suddenly everybody was making the same amount of money. Of course that was unacceptable for those who came from wealthy families… You see, it was not about receptionists making less money, but about others, those from the lower class, suddenly making the same wages.”
Mr. Thon, one of the owners of café Bake & Brew, at the Bangkok Creative Design Center, commented:
“Now everything is closing down early. We used to be open late, but now we shut down at 7pm. People are scared. I am against Shinawatra. I don’t want him to come back, although I can accept this government, the one led by his sister. But whatever I think about Shinawatra, I absolutely reject this blocking of elections, and bringing Bangkok to a full stop.”
“Shut Down Bangkok!” the slogans all around the city shout.
There is clear impunity in the air.
The army is waiting. The elites are waiting. The government is scared. One false move, and there will be a military coup.
[end quote]
Andre Vltchek makes a very stark forecast: Yingluck will win by a landslide on Sunday, there will be a military coup, and then the bloodshed will start because the countryside will refuse to accept it and descend on Bangkok in armed revolt.
Personally, I still doubt there will be a military coup and that we are in for another six months of stalemate. No one sane has a stomach for the violence that would follow from a coup, and most of the Democrats (like Abhisit) will most likely turn out and “vote no” rather than boycott because they don’t want to forfeit their right to serve in politics for 5 years if they do stay home.
Academics behaving badly…Hillarious! Loved it…what an excellent teacher…and standup comedian…great message too. I might just have a career in academia afterall.
Most of the problems that happened in Laos after 1954 are due to the agressiveness of the US who never supported any attempt to establish neutral government in Vientiane.
Waiting for the Barbarians.
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn’t anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city’s main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don’t our distinguished orators come forward as usual to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.
-Constantine Cavafy 1904
How do I channel my boiling middle-class anger against puppet Yingluck’s regime come Feb. 2nd election date? Choices:
(1) Do I join the Kamnan and follow his crowd’s ‘disturb the polls’ crazy antics just to show this illegitimate puppet Yingluck regime that I don’t give a s**t about her and her brother’s version of deceptive and corruptive democracy?
(2) Do I get a grip of my boiling anger, collect myself, then proceed to my polling booth and vote NO?
(3) Or just ignore Suthep and Yingluck camps altogether, ignore the elections, and after Feb 3rd just wait and see how these two polar opposing camps could resolve their political differences, hopefully non-violently?
(4) And if General Prayuth intervenes via military coup, should I be dismayed or be elated?
Like UMNO or not, after Turkey, Malaysia leads the Islamic World in literacy rates among Muslim women (Singapore female Malays have a higher literacy rate than their counterparts in Malaysia, but then Singapore is not predominantly Muslim). Facts are facts, and as a non-partisan non-UMNO supporter, the data is clear nevertheless, there are more Malay females in Malaysia’s colleges than Malay males. Whether you want to credit UMNO’s massive spending on education for males and females in 1970s and 1980s, or you want to credit female initiative among Malays, they lead their Arab (except perhaps Lebanese women), Persian, South and Central Asian counterparts far behind in literacy and college attendance. Indonesia being a close third or fourth. As Islam become more strident in Malaysia and Indonesia, as it has elsewhere in the Islamic World, these trends may change. Even former secular Turkey now sees 60 % of college-bound females wearing headscarves, when none wore them under, and after, Ataturk’s leadership (but before Erdogan who reversed all of Ataturk’s secular reforms). How many Malay females wore the tudung when the Tunku was installed as PM ? Care to guess ? Malay female literacy rates already exceeded most of the Islamic World 30 years ago, imagine where Malay women would be now, had Malaysia followed the Tunku’s approach and not Dr. Mahathir’s. Imagine, even more, where Malaysia and Malay females (or non-Malay females for that matter) would be if PAS sat in Putrajaya.
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Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
I agree that that seems to be the most likely tactic available to them. Attacking and ultimately destroying Pheu Thai’s voter base must be their prime objective.
Middle class rage threatens democracy
So stop being in denial if it’s so tiring. Really, it’s rather disappointing that 13 posters (to date) remain in apparent denial of the reality that every adult Thai is aware of (although evidently not always willing to acknowledge to non-Thais) i.e. Thaksin Shinawatra controls this government and his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra is his puppet (or “parrot” as indicated by the nickname given to her by the media) – and you will not find a reputable independent journalist or academic who seriously disputes these facts.
Thaksinomics, poverty and inequality
Fair question, but the evidence to date overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that this is a problem almost entirely of the government’s – i.e. Thaksin Shinawatra’s – making.
Reinvigorating rural Malaysia – new paradigms needed
I am fully agree as you mentioned that need to modify to current policy.As a QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER ON RURAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP my study showed need current policy mainly small scale technical base manufacturer for the development of rural entrepreneurship.Also need IN MSIA researcher.
TQ.
Paul,UPM
Thaksinomics, poverty and inequality
How come the rice subsidy system has run into these problems right now I wonder? Could it be a bureacracy loyal to the Suthep movement that is putting spokes in the wheel? I wish a competent journalist would do some digging here.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
The electorate is never the _best_ judge of who should rule and they keep choosing deeply flawed populists often, even when there are clearly more qualified alternatives available.
However, as Churchill famously said, “democracy is the worst from of government, except for all the others that have been tried”.
Elections are necessary to keep the gov’t accountable to the people, ensure legitimacy and allow for orderly transitions of power. They are not a mechanism for ensuring best (or even good) choices — unfortunately, there is no such mechanism. Also, although necessary, elections alone are not sufficient for good governance — there need to be other checks and balances plus a tradition of respecting them.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
Everytime the Thaksin/Yingluck/Red Shirt camp faces judicial reckoning and could face very serious judicial consequences … because of their unconstitutional bent … is a ‘judicial coup’?
And the Red Shirts will then make threats against the Thai judiciary warning of consequences and such … if the judges rule against Yingluck or Peau Thai or Red Shirts.
This is just like listening to Jatuporn making his very inane riposte that the Red Shirts (at the latest Rachaprasong torching video clips) were throwing ‘fire extinguisher tanks’ and not LPG canisters at the Central Rachaprasong.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
I would think the elite hopes that with the limited powers of a caretaker government it’s impossible to find a solution for the rice pledging scheme dilemma and so PT might loose support in it’s main heartland.
So I think they will try to nullify the election as fast as possible, but keep the government in this legal limbo for as long as possible.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
Is a constitutional or judicial coup less likely to provoke a violent reaction than a military one? My guess is that there will indeed be judicial intervention but that it will stop short of ousting the Yingluck government. Instead it will aim to keep it hog-tied in its caretaker capacity. But there is no clear path for the “elite” – monarchists, “Democrats”, whatever – who are in a complete bind as to what to do next. Hogtied themselves, in fact!
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
“The political crisis playing out on the streets of Bangkok revolves around one central question – is the Thai electorate the best judge of Thailand’s political future?”
I support the elections; but I don’t think the electorate is necessarily the best judge of Thailand’s political future. What I am supporting is Thailand’s democracy, such as it is. According to UDD/red shirt TV commentators, they fully expect the Constitutional Court to nullify the elections after Feb 2 and perhaps impeach PM Yingluck. So, to get out of their dilemma, the anti-government protesters and their backers are betting on a constitutional coup rather than a military coup. The risks of a military coup are too great because it could possibly ignite a civil war and because there are too many watermelon soldiers (green outside, red inside) among the army ranks.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
In this election voting “No” is the only option available to people who have previously voted “Democrat”. I think this is both more honest and appropriate as, in previous elections and judged by their rhetoric, to vote for the “Democrats” has never amounted to more than an anti-Thaksin statement. The fact is it is Thaksin’s parties alone that have set the political agenda for the last 13 years. The problem of course is that a “No” vote doesn’t actually put anyone into Parliament to make their opposition effective and that is the fundamental flaw in the “Democrats” strategy.
Thaksinomics, poverty and inequality
Reality check Thailand’s rice farmers are in deep dire straits after the Rice Pledge scheme. In fact, three rice farmers already committed suicide from desperation and failure of this scheme. The rice farmers are thus not only being impoverished by Yingluck’s inept and corrupt Rice Pledge Scheme, they are getting suicidal!
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Rice-pledge-catastrophe-could-be-final-straw-for-T-30225605.html
Rice farmers have started to protest at many provinces to air their grievances and desperation. And the Yingluck regime’s response, so far continue to be empty promises plus alarming intimidation tactics by the Red Shirts thugs against the protesting rice farmers groups.
Thailand’s electorate deserves respect
I absolutely agree that every Thai citizen should brave the protests and turn out and vote on Sunday.
For a stark and pessimisstic view, everyone should read the latest Counterpunch commentary (“Elites F*** Up Bangkok! Down and Out in Thailand”, January 29, 2014) at counterpunch.org
Excerpts:
A manager of one of the international hotel chains operating in Bangkok, Joseph Yamdee, explained:
“I am sure that someone very big is behind all this. It is all organized so perfectly well. The guards and those who are sleeping on the streets; almost all of them are from the South. It is said that they are being paid 500 Baht per day (US$15). There is everything in place at the sites: huge electric generators, food and medical supplies.”
I asked Mr. Yamdee, what impact had Shinawatra’s reforms on his hotel chain had, on the employees, on the life of ordinary people in Thailand?
“Huge”, he replied. “The minimum wage was elevated to US$300 dollars a month. For instance, the receptionists used to make that amount in the past, and most of the receptionists belong to the middle class. We matched the wages of the cleaning ladies, to comply with the new minimum wage regulation, so suddenly everybody was making the same amount of money. Of course that was unacceptable for those who came from wealthy families… You see, it was not about receptionists making less money, but about others, those from the lower class, suddenly making the same wages.”
Mr. Thon, one of the owners of café Bake & Brew, at the Bangkok Creative Design Center, commented:
“Now everything is closing down early. We used to be open late, but now we shut down at 7pm. People are scared. I am against Shinawatra. I don’t want him to come back, although I can accept this government, the one led by his sister. But whatever I think about Shinawatra, I absolutely reject this blocking of elections, and bringing Bangkok to a full stop.”
“Shut Down Bangkok!” the slogans all around the city shout.
There is clear impunity in the air.
The army is waiting. The elites are waiting. The government is scared. One false move, and there will be a military coup.
[end quote]
Andre Vltchek makes a very stark forecast: Yingluck will win by a landslide on Sunday, there will be a military coup, and then the bloodshed will start because the countryside will refuse to accept it and descend on Bangkok in armed revolt.
Personally, I still doubt there will be a military coup and that we are in for another six months of stalemate. No one sane has a stomach for the violence that would follow from a coup, and most of the Democrats (like Abhisit) will most likely turn out and “vote no” rather than boycott because they don’t want to forfeit their right to serve in politics for 5 years if they do stay home.
I hope I am right.
Academics behaving badly
Academics behaving badly…Hillarious! Loved it…what an excellent teacher…and standup comedian…great message too. I might just have a career in academia afterall.
Puteri, wanita, … dan UMNO
That Malaysian women would do better under UMNO than PAS is a message that UMNO has previously referred to in its attempts to shore up support.
The colonel from Savannakhet
Most of the problems that happened in Laos after 1954 are due to the agressiveness of the US who never supported any attempt to establish neutral government in Vientiane.
Princess Chulabhorn’s politics
Waiting for the Barbarians.
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn’t anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city’s main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don’t our distinguished orators come forward as usual to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.
-Constantine Cavafy 1904
Puteri, wanita, … dan UMNO
And what, pray tell, was “Dr Mahathir’s approach”?
Middle class rage threatens democracy
How do I channel my boiling middle-class anger against puppet Yingluck’s regime come Feb. 2nd election date? Choices:
(1) Do I join the Kamnan and follow his crowd’s ‘disturb the polls’ crazy antics just to show this illegitimate puppet Yingluck regime that I don’t give a s**t about her and her brother’s version of deceptive and corruptive democracy?
(2) Do I get a grip of my boiling anger, collect myself, then proceed to my polling booth and vote NO?
(3) Or just ignore Suthep and Yingluck camps altogether, ignore the elections, and after Feb 3rd just wait and see how these two polar opposing camps could resolve their political differences, hopefully non-violently?
(4) And if General Prayuth intervenes via military coup, should I be dismayed or be elated?
Puteri, wanita, … dan UMNO
Like UMNO or not, after Turkey, Malaysia leads the Islamic World in literacy rates among Muslim women (Singapore female Malays have a higher literacy rate than their counterparts in Malaysia, but then Singapore is not predominantly Muslim). Facts are facts, and as a non-partisan non-UMNO supporter, the data is clear nevertheless, there are more Malay females in Malaysia’s colleges than Malay males. Whether you want to credit UMNO’s massive spending on education for males and females in 1970s and 1980s, or you want to credit female initiative among Malays, they lead their Arab (except perhaps Lebanese women), Persian, South and Central Asian counterparts far behind in literacy and college attendance. Indonesia being a close third or fourth. As Islam become more strident in Malaysia and Indonesia, as it has elsewhere in the Islamic World, these trends may change. Even former secular Turkey now sees 60 % of college-bound females wearing headscarves, when none wore them under, and after, Ataturk’s leadership (but before Erdogan who reversed all of Ataturk’s secular reforms). How many Malay females wore the tudung when the Tunku was installed as PM ? Care to guess ? Malay female literacy rates already exceeded most of the Islamic World 30 years ago, imagine where Malay women would be now, had Malaysia followed the Tunku’s approach and not Dr. Mahathir’s. Imagine, even more, where Malaysia and Malay females (or non-Malay females for that matter) would be if PAS sat in Putrajaya.