Thailand Politics

[LaoMan]

I agree that the Bangkok Thai are arrogant. I also agree that they have done nothing for the people of Isaan. When Voldemort finally kicks the bucket the place will disintegrate. Voldemort and certain members of his family are desperate to hang on to the last vestiges of power.

Incidentally, there is a strong rumour here that the bomb was actually planted by a military stooge so that the self appointed PM has an excuse to impose martial law and postpone an election.

[TwoTimeTed]

Re Bangkok Bomb.

You may call me a neo colonial if you wish, be that as it may, but I hope you open your eyes and know the truth instead of being a sheltered little boy.

Fact is, the Thailand government has come out and said they guy is a "foreigner" and also said that it must have been an opposition Thailand based group. Does that put a question in your mind?

Yes, you are correct that a motor-taxi Thai had allegedly said, the man spoke no ENGLISH nor Thai, thus a foreigner. My fear is, the government broadcast that to quash any claim that it could be a Thai.

Again their arrogance. Furthermore. The Thai government to my readings also has turned down the help of the British (WHO HAVE EXPERIENCE IN BOMBINGS EVIDENCE).

It does not matter where I live, please try to leave that out of the equation.

As far as being more respectful, what is more respectful to you, questioning what happened or going along with whatever they say.

They won't even have an open mind to think that it may be a Thai that did it. Remember, right away they said it was a foreigner. Before they talked to the taxi man. Open your mind.

[AfAsia]

Why did the thai government close the crime scene so quick? Last night at work I actually watched a report by I think it was Al Jazeera, who were actually pulling bomb fragments as well as several ball bearings out of the wall, they then took this evidence down to the police who's response was of somewhat disinterest, wtf? If this were not so tragic an event it would be laughable. As for the suspect, he is well gone by now, could be anywhere outside Thailand and may never be apprehended. The suspect is said to be Middle Eastern as he spoke English according to bike taxi riders. It strikes me that the Thai government has not got the steel to deal with this cowardly act. Perhaps they aware who carried this out and wish for it to blow by in a hurry. Also what is striking is the unsophisticated nature of this bombing, a backyard manufacture if you like.

[Eric Swiss]

Bangkok Bomb.

I find the government's arrogance very abhorrent.

Just as fast as they pinpointed what person in the video was the bomber, they also made many references as to the bomber being a foreigner. A non-Thai.

On one of the videos, they fastly said " he's not Thai right?. With that kind of attitude I'm sure they will find the perpetrator very soon.

They just can't believe one of their own. A Thai could do a bombing. So right away it was a "foreigner". I believe the bomber is probably a Thai, but I have no backing to say that. As the Thai government has no backing to prove they are right.

Not sure if you live in Thailand, but if you do, and are a foreigner, as I presume, then you should be more respectful of the country that is hosting you and of the government that is in charge of organizing its affairs. Calling them arrogant and abhorrent is characteristic of a neo-colonialist mentality of superiority that tarnishes the reputation of foreigners. If you don't like it here, there are 192 other countries in the world that will gladly take your money.

For your information, the moto-taxi driver who picked up the terrorist at the bomb site said he was a foreigner. He would know more than the rest of us, wouldn't he?

In addition, the government said that the bomber is part of a network which includes Thai citizens. So they are not whitewashing their own, are they?

[Tomasb]

I am curious about the 3/4 length pants he was wearing in the video. These are also known as 'Thai' fisherman pants. I only lived in Bangkok last winter but I recall seeing this style of pants worn by younger Thai guys during the day. I am not sure if young westerners wear this style or not but perhaps someone can enlighten me. From my perspective, the sketch artist rendering of the alleged perpetrator appears to be of Asian descent. Perhaps Thai, maybe Malay, or from Singapore, but certainly not a white Westerner and for the police and government to outright dismiss him as Thai is suspect as to their motivations.

It reminds me a bit of how they arrested those Burma guys last year and decided they killed that young British couple on one of the islands after the police made statements dismissing the idea the killers could be Thai. Round up the usual suspects and all that. It took about a week for the USA Authorities to catch the Boston Marathon bombers. Let's see how long this takes. Any bets out there?

However, in this situation, world wide and Thai scrutiny will not allow the government to simply find a few fall guys with trumped up evidence. I would hate to simply look like that guy and have no alibi for that particular afternoon. They need to call in that detective from the John Burdett Bangkok novels but alas he is fictional.

Bangkok Bomb.

I find the government's arrogance very abhorrent.

Just as fast as they pinpointed what person in the video was the bomber, they also made many references as to the bomber being a foreigner. A non-Thai.

On one of the videos, they fastly said " he's not Thai right?. With that kind of attitude I'm sure they will find the perpetrator very soon.

They just can't believe one of their own. A Thai could do a bombing. So right away it was a "foreigner". I believe the bomber is probably a Thai, but I have no backing to say that. As the Thai government has no backing to prove they are right.

[TwoTimeTed]

Bangkok Bomb.

I find the government's arrogance very abhorrent.

Just as fast as they pinpointed what person in the video was the bomber, they also made many references as to the bomber being a foreigner. A non-Thai.

On one of the videos, they fastly said " he's not Thai right?. With that kind of attitude I'm sure they will find the perpetrator very soon.

They just can't believe one of their own. A Thai could do a bombing. So right away it was a "foreigner". I believe the bomber is probably a Thai, but I have no backing to say that. As the Thai government has no backing to prove they are right.

[Member #4591]

Last June some Thai friends told me before this is all over Yingluck will be in self-imposed exile, with her brother, to avoid going to prison. Now I read The Supreme Court has set March 19 to decide whether to accept for further proceedings the OAG's indictment of her; and the OAG will not seek a court order prohibiting her from traveling outside of the country. I have a hard time imaging the court will not find her guilty. I also have a hard time believing she will spend one night in prison. "How the mighty have fallen."

Let's move the bomb discussed here please.

[Paul Kausch]

Last June some Thai friends told me before this is all over Yingluck will be in self-imposed exile, with her brother, to avoid going to prison. Now I read The Supreme Court has set March 19 to decide whether to accept for further proceedings the OAG's indictment of her; and the OAG will not seek a court order prohibiting her from traveling outside of the country. I have a hard time imaging the court will not find her guilty. I also have a hard time believing she will spend one night in prison. "How the mighty have fallen."

[Crocodilexp]

Politics in this country are far too screwed up for so simple a solution as just giving Thaksin free reign.

Is this ignorance or perfidious inversion of the story? Indeed, the worst possible choice is giving one political group free reign, yet precisely this was done. The junta now has free reign. Thaksin, for all his authoritarian tendencies, never launched a coup, ripped up the constitution, declared himself above the law and banned all criticism. All of these the junta proudly did.

Instead, Thailand needed to build up the institutions and appropriate checks and balances (not just patronage networks tussling), starting with people being able to freely discuss political ideas and vote for / against those they dislike. While Thaksin was not exactly advancing democracy, political pluralism and institutions (too focused on advancing his own power / network), he was not blatantly destroying them either, as junta has done and keeps doing.

[Wendella]

PK,

I could write pages now, but I try to reduce this comment to the minimum.

As if the rice scheme were the start and end of the problems with the Thaksin governments. Seriously, what a remarkably cherry picked "minimum" list this was.

Politics in this country are far too screwed up for so simple a solution as just giving Thaksin free reign. Robert Mugabe, now there's a guy who can win elections. Democracy is always better, right? If only real life were that easy.

[HotShaneHot]

The Bangkok Post reports there were two loud explosions from a transformer at the Siam Central BTS station. Reuters reports 2 pipe bombs exploded outside Siam Paragon. Funny that the Post never refers to the explosions as being bombs even though Lieutenant General Prawut Thawonrsiri, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police stated that they were improvised explosive devices detonated by a digital clock. For some reason the Post missed that statement. Hmmm.

Yer.

On Thai TV it was say it was a boom.

[Goatscrot]

PK,

I could write pages now, but I try to reduce this comment to the minimum.

The yellow side of the political spectrum has run this country for nearly 60 years, and they did NOTHING for the poor people of the North / North-East. TRT, PT etc. Is not the action, it is the REACTION!

Now. I would never expect me to write anything to justify what the Shins have done to this country, and I really don't want this to be misunderstood as such. But at least they have initiated MORE POSITIVE developments for the poor in the first 5 years of their governance than those yellow governments in nearly 60 years. Yellow governments are those elected (long time ago), those appointed (several), those following coups that installed benevolant interim governments (e. G. 2006), those following coups when the military took over positions as PM and developed a kind of dictatorship (yeah, this happens from time to time) and those coups that simply installed tyrants (Thanom etc.).

I also did not like the rice scheme, and I have written about this before. Nevertheless this is a different issue. Or do you think it gives a general the right to overthrow a democratically elected government? Do you really believe that the rice scheme was the reason for this coup? Do you really believe that the possible death Thai people caused by the PDRC demonstrations justify this coup?

The PT government tried before to change the constitution from 2007 that all senators should be elected, no senator to be appointed any more. For me as a simple democrat this makes sense. For the Constitutional Court decided:

"The majority of the nine judges ruled that making the Senate fully elected would 'destroy the checks and balances' and could lead to a seizure of power in the Parliament. ".

Ahhhh. Later then there was the strong movement of the yellows to get all those impeached who had voted IN FAVOUR of this constitutional amendment. There were even several calls and court cases to charging those parliamentarians with Lse-majest.

Now we have the situation that somebody simply overthrows the constitution that was approved from the people (with a VERY small margin, because it was already a YELLOW constitution) and signed by the King! And this is - Ok? No Lse-majest? No protest from the Constitutional Court? No nothing, all good?

Look, guys, I don't understand this! Somebody might explain this to me. Show me the chapter of the constitution that allows a general to overthrow a government for certain reasons. I have missed this chapter up to now. But I cannot read Thai.

But then - there are mechanisms in all constitutions that allow institutions or specific people to dissolve a parliament under certain circumstances. A very respected person here in Thailand could do this, and the people would accept this. The same person has signed the constitution and the rice scheme related laws!

But as I know - none of those people have asked the Generals to take over power.

So what? You want to talk about the rice scheme? Or - some others come up with Hugo Chavez? Or with arguments like "Democracy = Mob Rule" ?

That's ridiculous!


Giotto

Agree with you 100% Giotto!

[Goatscrot]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/o...for-bad-acting


Giotto

Awesome!! Great op-ed.

[Paul Kausch]

The Bangkok Post reports there were two loud explosions from a transformer at the Siam Central BTS station. Reuters reports 2 pipe bombs exploded outside Siam Paragon. Funny that the Post never refers to the explosions as being bombs even though Lieutenant General Prawut Thawonrsiri, a spokesman for the Royal Thai Police stated that they were improvised explosive devices detonated by a digital clock. For some reason the Post missed that statement. Hmmm.

[Paul Kausch]

PK,

I could write pages now, but I try to reduce this comment to the minimum.


Giotto

Giotto,

I do not disagree with you. I just believe both parties exploit the average people in Thailand in different ways. I don't know how you develop a modern democratically elected republic in Thailand, or any other developing country for that matter. I sure wouldn't use the USA as an example of a country Thailand should strive to emulate. Perhaps the countries in northern Europe or Canada are good models, but there paths to where they are today are so different than Thailand's recent past. Seems you have to develop a strong, well-educated middle class and quality civil institutions. I'm not a political historian and know very little about these things.

Paul.