Thailand Slides Toward Civil War

The scurrent o-called 'Political Chaos' going on in Thailand now stems from a cheating ex-prime minister named Thaksin (a.k.a. thug + sin) who has been fleeing his jail term with enormous dirty money he had been collecting while in high office. Some of his supporters/rioters are (recent) jobless seeking daily pay, some are fools who really see him as the saviour, and many many are willing to share the loot that he robbed off Thailand. It is no political protest, but rather a riot, paid for by Convict Thaksin, who besides a jail term, has many wrong-doing cases in Thai Criminal Court.

Just like in some countries, Thai people have made a few mistakes for a few bad prime ministers. Still,they don't deserve a criminal ex-prime minister who is so willing to wreak havoc in his own Mother Land. And strange enough, some 'friendly countries' are still comfortable to facilitate him to further damaging the Royal Kingdom of Thailand.

Help save the world. But not Convict Thaksin, please.

Chumphol Sirinavin
Lampang, Thailand

And lastly, the PAD is the only thing that is preventing taksin from taking over the country. HIm and his moeny has almost infiltrate every instituiton in thailand (e.g. police, DSI, the parliament, businesses). The PAD is the force that prevent him from doing so and fighting against this evil force without them Taksin would have taken ove Thailand years ago. The PAD is made of people from over thailand (but mainly working, middle and high class), as they're the people who are educated and understand the situation and what is going on in Thailand. They able to make a right and judgemental decision. Do you think educated and rich people will just come out to rally??(from their confortable bed, maids and servants, air conditioning and the multiple luxuries they have at home). They have gathered together as they see this issue as a significant stance and sacrifice they must make for what best and benefit the country most, preventing guys like Taksin from controlling and manipulating us all. Coming out to stage a rally is not illegal by any measure and is part of the democratic process, even though the latest incident in taking over the airport might not be the best way but it's the most effective way for them to be heard and express their opinions. The UDD (pro government/taksin) on the other hand are completely the opposite. They are poor rural people from the country side with limited education. They were lured to their rallied by PPP's MP in exchange for a couple of hundred bath (approx. 500-1000 Bath), free food, free accomidation and a free trip into the big cities. we can call these people mercenaries making deal with the devil. You can see clearly from their appearance and the fact that they only rally for a couple of days and no more than that. After you have read my thought, i hope you can make a judgmental decision from what is right and wrong.

w

I believe this is one bogus article from newsweek, which is something that I've never expected from such a respected publishing. Firstly, the imformation that has been said about the judicial is not the "2006 coup" tool, they're bringing justice to those who were dishonest and are guilty to wrong doings. The first "puupet" primier Samak Sundhoravej who was convicted for doing the cooking show is clearly guilty, he received almost a million baht for doing the 2 episode of the show while he was primeminister and used this aspect to promote his show. From where i come from, I believe that by doing this it is considered wrong and dishonest, it would be alright if he didnt recieved any money from it but he did. The lastest convict is also very accurate, those political party fraud the election it's just fair for them to suffer the consequence for the thing they did.
Most importantly Taksin didnt do anything good for this country but instead he is a corrupted, low-life politician who only care for himself and is the one who's bring my country down. If you happen to stay in Thailand for a while you'll know the truth of Taksin. He gives contruction projects (e.g. the new airport, airport link etc) to his peers, taking brides, straight corruptions (taking the money right away from the budget), change the law to benefit himself and his peers, making deals which benefit himself even thought it destroy the country (IP start incident, for china to move its satellite so his satellite can monopolized the satellite business in thailand) for starters.

There is no civil war in Thailand, nor is there bound to be one. Some political wrangling, sure, but no more than that. Additionally, with the recent airport closure and expected reduction in the number of arrivals next year, there should be plenty of good hotel deals to be had. It is an excellent time to go to Thailand!

so when is this civil war going to happen? ah, american news

The PAD has support from 'the Lady'. That's why the police and the army can't do anything. The government is weak because of the extraconstitutional interventions perpetrated and delivered through her command. Although 'the Gentleman', devout and benevolent, has done so much for the people throughout his life, 'the Lady' seems to destroy his name and bite away the very foundation of her family. Sadly, Thailand is saying farewell to the 21st century as it is now attained a status of 'backward state' where the old traditional elites will once again roam the land and munch the poor for lunch. The right-wing traditional elites will do whatever they want by claiming their moral superiority over the people whom they consider as 'poor and uneducated'. Indeed, power is not vested in the Thai people. In this country, people sovereignty doesn't exist and majority doesn't rule. As a younger generation of Thai students educated overseas, I really want to return to Thailand to help developing my country. Nevertheless, the current political fiasco...the abuse of power by a group of people that crave for self-serving fascist-style 'New Politics'...the brainwashed antidemocracy crowd...sickening right-wing academics...they make me lose faith in Thailand. I'm so sad. I think I should stay away from Thailand at least for a while until stability is resurrected. Democracy in Thailand ? What democracy? It has always been a big fat lie. What a shame!

All the prestigious world bodies that routinely calculate the financial progress and medical welfare of peoples around the world unanimously agree that common Thai people leaped ahead under Thaksin???s policies. This, to a far greater degree than ever before in the history of Thailand. For the first time ever the gap between the rich and poor narrowed, people have noticed and the genii of democracy is now out of the bottle. Yet virtually every comment below is obsessed with whether Thaksin himself was corrupt. Regardless of whether true, this thinly disguised red herring is offered by those would deprive the Thai masses the right to self-governance. The sole purpose of People???s Alliance for Democracy is to quash the democratic movement in a bid to keep the monarchy, the elite families that surround it, the wealthy Bangkok business owners and the corrupt military leaders in power, as they have been for the last 300 years. They did not stage a ???protest???; instead they committed blatant criminal trespass and extortion in an attempt to gain what they could not through free elections. Their people populate the court that carried off the latest coup. I hope Thai citizens and the world do not simply stand by and watch as these thugs try once again to stamp out the spark of freedom so briefly enjoyed by the Thai people.

USA's FBI again makes headlines with arrest of Ill. Governor Rod Blagojevich for blatant corruption. That is US democracy at work.

In Thailand the Thai judiciary bans three political parties who had grievously violated constitutional election laws. Westerners are aghast.

I'm at a confusion as to why the comments below ended up being this Chinese and Thai heritage thing. Honestly, who cares? What matters is whether democracy is being practiced and whether the right thing is being done. As an American, when I first heard about all that was going on in Thailand, I thought that democracy was at risk there, a bunch of middle-class people who think they are better than the people living in the rural areas. But it was when I looked into the whole issue further that I realized it could also be seen as democracy being abused by Thaksin. He may have won, but it would be troublesome if all the vote-buying monetary pandering were true. While I think it is wrong for the PAD to refuse rural Thais the right to vote, their argument that the rural Thais don't understand the issues and are easily fooled by the government isn't completely off either. We tend to think of everything from an American-centric view, and not realize that democracy and the people that make up it are different throughout the world. I'm not trying to necessarily advocate one side or another, but I do think people need to be able to see both sides of the story, especially those Westerners (like me) who most likely didn't even pay any attention to Thailand at all until these events

Let us be fair to newsweek, this article is written with as much knowledge as any journoe can muster. It is easy to critise any writer on the basis that he does not know because he is not residing on the ground, but journoes are by their profession called ut to any location where troubles arise, so why not an American reporter doing a story on Thailand ?

However the facts as I see it is that like Malaysia (I used to be a citizen of Malaysia) the middle class are made up of a clutchful of Elites who hold a death grip on power and it just never occured to them that government belongs to every citizens of the nation.

Thailand is a democcracy no matter what these middle class charlatans may want to hold themselves as the self appointed guardians of the nations government. This is the same situation, and democracy is claimed by the elite by not practised by them. Thailand is a poor developing country and 80% of her people live in the rural countryside; that said who has more claim to the right to govern the nation in a democcracy. Let us not talk about the dominant position of ethnic Chinese, we are dominant in South East Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Fillipines etc. ; but by the way these Chinese are citizens of the nations where they live and do business. Therefore what is the justification for wanting to hold them in contempt. Chinese do not rob the locals we are all belonging to one nation and being citizens we are also the equals of the rest.

Let us admit that the call of the local people to hod the Chinese in comtempt come from those who hold erroneously to the view that THERE ARE TWO classes of CITIZENS, the natives are deemed to have more claim on the rights and priviledges of citizenship than we Chinese. This view are held firm in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Fillipines, but contrary to my previous opinion, this view it looks like is held in Thailand too. Let us not talk of corruption because corruption is endemic in Thailand. Let me assure you that this Limthonkul is no saint. No man can be rich if he is ethical anywhere in the world. This is not a valid criticism. I can see that there will be no solution, either army coup or civil war. ,

Sadly, Bangkok has been engulfed by sheer madness.

Strange as it may appear, some members of the opposition remark that one-citizen one-vote will not work in Thailand.
Such is their definition of democracy. Has the world any objection?

It is but another unscrupulous yet prolonged quest for dirty power.

It's amazing how so called Experts don't seem to understand that what the PAD did with its protests was to peacefully extract a new direction by a government that had changed nothing when it replaced Thaksin with one of his close cronies and then his brother-in-law SomChai. Now there are many in the former goverment clammoring to get away from Thaksins perceived influence and willing to at least appear to be willing to share power and compromise. If this isn't a victory (not a civil war) then nothing is. Give this rather crazy process a chance, there is more than caous afoot here.

Some of these Thais on this board made racist comments reminiscent of Nazi propaganda and ranting of Mugabe against Whites in his country. Only losers resort to racists and nativism as they lack of moral and intellectual faculty. Jewish Americans and Blacks in this country (US of A) will not be amused by all these anti-Chinese talks of some Thais seeking U.S. green cards!

Posted By: trueman08 @ 12/07/2008 6:37:26 AM
Comment: This article painting Thaksin as a hero of democracy is another example of Americans' lack of understanding of the old world or other world. Thaksin is the most corrupt politician in Thailand's history. And Thaksin family practise the worst form of nepotism. And the Thaksin family/clan is Chinese, not real Thai. Thaksin clan's family name "Shinawatra" means something like Great China. Patriotic Thai people, although they do not say it openly, are worried about a super-corrupt ultra-nepotic chinese clan becoming a power house in Thailand. Even American government was not very happy with Thaksin's overly friendliness towards China.

---------------------------------------------

Your playing race card will backfire here in America. Americans, even those that worry a rising China, will find your ranting revulsive. Beisdes, Chinese are light-skin people while native Thai dark-skin - the choice is obvious for the most American racists. The yellow-clad protesters are a bunch of anti-democrats who wants an authoraritarian regime serving the rich and wannabes. The Thai king behaves like a Dark Age king in Europe, can this bozo behave more like Queen of England or King of Spain and stays out of the politics?

Posted By: trueman08 @ 12/07/2008 6:37:26 AM
Comment: This article painting Thaksin as a hero of democracy is another example of Americans' lack of understanding of the old world or other world. Thaksin is the most corrupt politician in Thailand's history. And Thaksin family practise the worst form of nepotism. And the Thaksin family/clan is Chinese, not real Thai. Thaksin clan's family name "Shinawatra" means something like Great China. Patriotic Thai people, although they do not say it openly, are worried about a super-corrupt ultra-nepotic chinese clan becoming a power house in Thailand. Even American government was not very happy with Thaksin's overly friendliness towards China.

---------------------------------------------
Truemano8 and Educated9:

Your playing race card will backfire here in America. Americans, even those that worry a rising China, will find your ranting revulsive. Beisdes, Chinese are light-skin people while native Thai dark-skin - the choice is obvious for the most American racists. The yellow-clad protesters are a bunch of anti-democrats who wants an authoraritarian regime serving the rich and wannabes. The Thai king behaves like a Dark Age king in Europe, can this bozo behave more like Queen of England or King of Spain and stays out of the politics?

Posted By: trueman08 @ 12/07/2008 6:37:26 AM
Comment: This article painting Thaksin as a hero of democracy is another example of Americans' lack of understanding of the old world or other world. Thaksin is the most corrupt politician in Thailand's history. And Thaksin family practise the worst form of nepotism. And the Thaksin family/clan is Chinese, not real Thai. Thaksin clan's family name "Shinawatra" means something like Great China. Patriotic Thai people, although they do not say it openly, are worried about a super-corrupt ultra-nepotic chinese clan becoming a power house in Thailand. Even American government was not very happy with Thaksin's overly friendliness towards China.

---------------------------------------------

Your playing race card will backfire here in America. Americans, even those that worry a rising China, will find your ranting revulsive. Beisdes, Chinese are light-skin people while native Thai dark-skin - the choice is obvious for the most American racists. The yellow-clad protesters are a bunch of anti-democrats who wants an authoraritarian regime serving the rich and wannabes. The Thai king behaves like a Dark Age king in Europe, can this bozo behave more like Queen of England or King of Spain and stays out of the politics?

Posted By: trueman08 @ 12/07/2008 6:37:26 AM
Comment: This article painting Thaksin as a hero of democracy is another example of Americans' lack of understanding of the old world or other world. Thaksin is the most corrupt politician in Thailand's history. And Thaksin family practise the worst form of nepotism. And the Thaksin family/clan is Chinese, not real Thai. Thaksin clan's family name "Shinawatra" means something like Great China. Patriotic Thai people, although they do not say it openly, are worried about a super-corrupt ultra-nepotic chinese clan becoming a power house in Thailand. Even American government was not very happy with Thaksin's overly friendliness towards China.

---------------------------------------------

Your playing race card will backfire here in America. Americans, even those that worry a rising China, will find your ranting revulsive. Beisdes, Chinese are light-skin people while native Thai dark-skin - the choice is obvious for the most American racists. The yellow-clad protesters are a bunch of anti-democrats who wants an authoraritarian regime serving the rich and wannabes. The Thai king behaves like a Dark Age king in Europe, can this bozo behave more like Queen of England or King of Spain and stays out of the politics?