Does your Thai family support PAD?

[BaaBaa.]

Unfortunately this poll will get a very northern biased view. It seems from other posts that most people on this forum have wives and girlfriends from Isan. For whatever reasons, Thaksin is still revered by some and PAD are disliked.

All my family are avid PAD supporters. All the locals here in BS are PAD supporters except for the few that have come down from the North for work.

I cannot agree that the Democrats (the party, not PAD) take care of the better off and Thaksin took care of the poor. The Thaksin era was a time of worldwide prosperity. Anybody could have given a few Baht to the poor.

The fact is that Thaksin is a convicted crook. Anybody that continues to support him or his family and cronies must therefore condone his activities.

Sorry to make such and extreme example but Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Pol Pot made vast improvements for their supporters but look at the cost for the majority.

Support for PAD, that's another issue. They get support because they are opposed to Thaksin. My guess is that they don't have a great deal of support as a political party in their own right. Hopefully they will never become one.

Are you drunk or tired Guess?

Ive seen more fire in one of your exchange rate posts.

[BaaBaa.]

47 injured in explosion inside Government House
By The Nation

4 in serious condition, 3 more explosions heard at ASTV station and Don Mueang Airport

A grenade was launched into the Government House compound minutes late Saturday night, injuring 47 people.

The explosion occurred at 12:10 am Sunday when the protesters were preparing to rest and leaders of the People's Alliance for the Democracy were about to stop the activities on the stage.

The bomb fell on the roof of a tent on the left side of the stage and fell onto the ground and exploded.

PAD leaders said three of the protesters were seriously injured.

The injured were rushed to Vajira and Ramathibody hospitals.

The bomb, believed by the PAD to be an M79 grenade, exploded just 200 metres away from the PAD's main stage inside the Government House. It was fired outside the rally ground from a similar direction of the recent attack at the site.

Suriyasai Katasila said guards saw a flash from the direction of the Benjamabophit Hospital so it was believed the grenade was launched from the direction.

Two explosions were heard at ASTV station on Phra Arthit Road at 12:30 am Sunday morning, just around 20 minutes after the attack at Government House.

Witnesses also heard the gunfire lasting about 10 minutes. No injury was reported.

Later on at 3:55 am, a bomb exploded near a bunker made of tyres at the Don Mueang Airport.

The explosion occurred at the main entrance to the passenger terminal.

Before the explosion occurred, about 7 gunshots were heard from the direction of a warehouse deeper inside the airport compound.

No one was injured in the explosion.

The explosion prompted the PAD to resume its activities on the stage after the activities were ended at 2 am.

[Guess]

Are you drunk or tired Guess?

Ive seen more fire in one of your exchange rate posts.

I am never drunk but always tired. (don't drink, don't sleep).

Just trying to show a bit of decorum but also the topic is quite specific. There are at least another two that more suitable for a rant.

I do (seriously), hold with the point I made about the poll sample though.

I am not knocking the poll but am surprised by the results so far.

There will always be the north/south divide with the influential Bangkok really holding the trump cards. At the moment Bangkok seems to be split down the middle.

Added. Missed first time.

........ but the North believe it and its their vote that matters at end of day..............
If the family are anti-law breakers like Thaksin, why do they condone other law-breakers. Yet to be convicted is not an acceptable excuse for me, they've seen them breaking the law with their own eyes etc.

Not aimed at your family Guess, mine's same, but many people seem to condone this law breaking in the name of Thaksin's law-breaking. It's a bit hypocritical to me.

SJ

Yes I agree.

The North (if you include Isan, Lan Na and the Chao Prayha valley) is over half the population of Thailand so they have a point.

I do aim the hypocrisy rationale at my family. It is always an argument you will never win though. Loyalty to the King and rebellion against what they see as tyranny has been a feature of South Thailand for centuries.

Law breaking, terrorism and armed rebellion are OK if it's for a good cause. Everybody has a different view of what is a good cause so everybody ends up supporting lawlessness or breaking the law themselves.

However, Thaksin is still a crook and has been tried by his own people and found guilty. Nobody will convince me that the embezzlement of billions of dollars did anything to help Thailand. He may have helped the poor a little but could have done much more. He did what was necessary to buy the votes

It does not justify law breaking by the opposition though, and it looks like that it what is it has come to.

Unfortunately the preachers of democracy haven't a clue as to what it is. They are as democratic as the Nazis (National Socialists) were Socialist.

[buksida]

Unfortunately this poll will get a very northern biased view. It seems from other posts that most people on this forum have wives and girlfriends from Isan. For whatever reasons, Thaksin is still revered by some and PAD are disliked.

This is very true, we had a poll a while back which showed results of upto 70% with wives/family from Issan so the political opinions are likely to be skewed also.

I had to vote yes, my family doesn't support PAD but they're all from the south and vote democrat, the current government has done nothing for them for years so they'd like nothing more than to see it removed. There is still a very wide division between Thai people and unless you've spent a lot of time in the south you'll never see it and carry on with this flawed concept of a 'majority'.

[Super Joe]

Hua Hin reminds me of my little hometown, once a beautiful place then gets overtaken and ruined by Norferna's and foreigners.
It's a London thing

SJ

[MrPlum]

The g/f's family know Thaksin is a crook but nevertheless defends him since he put a stop to the drug trade or at least put a dent in it. Dealers were selling drugs outside the schools and all that has gone.

They support PAD but not the actions at the airports.

A pragmatic statement.... 'Why yellow not pay money and kill him, then everything finished'.

[little imp]

I am Thai from Bkk, this has been simmering for the last few years and now with the PPP taking a anti monarchy stance things can only get worse , if they think taskin can come back, then it would be a civil war, people in Bkk would kill him before he reached jail or whatever.

before taskin it was the royal family who gave the farmers rice fields and help with crops, helped them when there was natural disasters, they soon forget.

we need a complete change and thinking on goverment, no more corruption.

[hhfarang]

Thanks for that post little imp. It's good to hear a Thai point of view and I'm sure we would all like to hear more of what the citizens of this country think about what's going on at the moment!

[Big A]

Stay in regular contact with the Thai family and the answer is no way!

Bogus bunch of thugs/ idiots damaging the economy of the country.

Their opinion not my mine but I certainly agree.

[faq2mfh]

Get feeling that many view not supporting the PAD is support Mr T...

[cozza]

Many would base their opinion on the views of their partners. They have the insight and translate most of the time and foreigners very rarely get a 'real' insight into Thai culture as they do not even fully understand the language. I would fall into this category because I really can only speak to those who speak English or can understand my bad sounding Thai, so my view on Thailand and people would be heavily influenced by my wife and her family (who I talk to).

Since most western men have Northern Thai partners, of course that will influence there perspective.

At the end of the day, I think most foreigners do not really understand the situation at hand fully.

[caller]

I am Thai from Bkk, this has been simmering for the last few years and now with the PPP taking a anti monarchy stance things can only get worse , if they think taskin can come back, then it would be a civil war, people in Bkk would kill him before he reached jail or whatever.

before taskin it was the royal family who gave the farmers rice fields and help with crops, helped them when there was natural disasters, they soon forget.

we need a complete change and thinking on goverment, no more corruption.

Quite strong comments! It actually demonstrates how Thaksin got the rural vote, if all they got in the past, when in need, was support from the Royal family. Maybe if the politicians had done something....?

[Wanderlust]

While it is clear that Thaksin did use some government money to help the North and North east, I am beginning to wonder firstly how much, and secondly if it was more a smoke and mirrors trick? If anyone has access to figures I'd appreciate if they could post them, or links to them, that compare pre Thaksin spending to what he and his parties have done, as well as how much debt these people were and are in, as I believe that was also one of the things that made him popular initially. I do suspect that the popularity of Thaksin in those areas is mainly because the village heads and equivalents make a few bob and tell their people who to vote for. I travelled to Isaan in the pre Thaksin days and remember being told that the infrastructure (roads mainly) had been improved massively in the year or two previous, and I was indeed surprised how good they were compared to many parts of Bangkok at the time (1999); I don't recall being told if anything else had been improved but it is certainly a myth that those areas had been ignored by previous governments, and I suspect that it is just as much a myth that Thaksin has really helped them. Given that he denied the following governments the money that he stole when he sold his interests to Singapore, i would say that he has done a lot more harm than good for them, not least in dividing the country which helps no one.

[Super Joe]

PAD - Bangkok Protesters Aim to 'Re-educate' Rural Thais - Dec. 1 (Bloomberg)
If they win what they have dubbed their "final battle," Bangkok-based People's Alliance for Democracy members say they will start a campaign to tell "the truth" to the country's rural majority, which has elected parties linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra four times since 2001.
"Rural people have good hearts but they don't know the truth like we do in Bangkok," said Noppakoon Lagum, 37, a surgeon helping to occupy the main international airport. "It is our duty to re-educate them"
Oh good they are going to improve the education system in North

A year ago, the People Power Party won the first election since Thaksin was ousted, taking 75 percent of seats in the northeast, the country's poorest region. Thaksin, a billionaire- turned-politician, won rural votes by slashing health-care costs, handing out low-cost loans and propping up crop prices.
"Rural people are blinded by corrupt media (Jockey wrote that part for them) and need to listen to ASTV," said Thanapol Buranasombati, a protester, referring to Sondhi's station that broadcasts the rallies around the clock. "When the poor farmers know the truth about what is happening they will side with us"
Oh good they are going to improve the education system in North

"We don't need to convince all northeasterners to join us, just maybe 50 percent," said Patcharaporn Vijitpanon, 58, who has joined the protests for months. "If we do that then we can have a new election and the Democrat party can win."
Oh shoot, so they only want to help provide improved education for enough of them to win the next election

SJ

[buksida]

Sad isn't it.

Any party that only concentrates its efforts on half the country is going to piss off the other half that are getting ignored. Education standards need improving everywhere!