Does your Thai family support PAD?

[STEVE G]

What has left me a bit baffled by all this is why the PAD bothered to completely mess up the country by taking over the airport.
The Thai press has been reporting since about September that the constitutional court will disolve the PPP, and therefore the government, in mid December and all that has happened is that the’ve managed to get the hearing brought forward by a few days.
Obviously since everybody knows the result already and the court have now even dispensed with having any witnesses, you would have good ground for claiming that it’s not exactly an unbiased hearing.
Having got rid of one PM for making a 30 minute cooking programme, the courts are now going to disolve a whole government that had 26 million people vote for it, in a one day hearing with no witnesses.
The only reason I can think of is that they want to get this all over with in the middle of the rice harvest whilst the oppositions supporters are too preoccupied to react.

[Super Joe]

Pitching 50% of the North against the other 50%, should have positive results. Ahem.

SJ

[Wanderlust]

What has left me a bit baffled by all this is why the PAD bothered to completely mess up the country by taking over the airport.
The Thai press has been reporting since about September that the constitutional court will disolve the PPP, and therefore the government, in mid December and all that has happened is that the’ve managed to get the hearing brought forward by a few days.
Obviously since everybody knows the result already and the court have now even dispensed with having any witnesses, you would have good ground for claiming that it’s not exactly an unbiased hearing.
Having got rid of one PM for making a 30 minute cooking programme, the courts are now going to disolve a whole government that had 26 million people vote for it, in a one day hearing with no witnesses.
The only reason I can think of is that they want to get this all over with in the middle of the rice harvest whilst the oppositions supporters are too preoccupied to react.

Equally you could say that it is clearly an 'open and shut' case with such damning evidence that it should have been brought to court earlier. I think you are showing some surprising bias with your comment about Samak, who clearly broke the rules of being an MP (as I am sure many others do too). He could also unfairly boost his popularity by appearing on TV all the time (although that could also work the other way!), so by dismissing his removal the way you have is effectively saying 'one law for one side, another for the other'. All sides have been guilty of this but I do expect better of you Steve.

The 26 million votes is an interesting point to bring up when the whole point of the proceedings is that they were obtained illegally in large part, and thus the government is not a legitimately elected one. Incidentally I don't think grenades being lobbed at the protesters, seriously injuring many in separate attacks could be classified as being too preoccupied to react.

This is in no way saying that the PAD have been right in their airport closures but in all seriousness the last election was a farce which should have been investigated quickly and another one should have been held much sooner with proper neutral observers present. However the underlying problems are inherent in the whole society and no election system will solve that; equally it would make Thailand a completely different place and one which we all might find we don't like any more. I don't want to see it becoming another version of the UK or the US, although I would like the spoils to be shared a bit more equally for the whole population (or rather the tax money actually spent on everyone rather than a privileged few).

[Super Joe]

The 26 million votes is an interesting point to bring up when the whole point of the proceedings is that they were obtained illegally in large part, and thus the government is not a legitimately elected one.

This is a difficult one for me and hypocritical of PAD. The democratic party set out to win the last election with the aid of vote buying, which they partook in. However, they were out-bought by the winning party.

One party out-cheated the other cheating party you could say. But if the courts decide then that's that.

SJ

[STEVE G]

The 26 million votes is an interesting point to bring up when the whole point of the proceedings is that they were obtained illegally in large part, and thus the government is not a legitimately elected one.

Thats a fair point, but seeing as in the part of the 2006 election that I witnessed, the Democrats were paying out exactly the same amount as the PPP, I wonder when we are going to see them up before the constitutional court.

[buksida]

Thats a fair point, but seeing as in the part of the 2006 election that I witnessed, the Democrats were paying out exactly the same amount as the PPP, I wonder when we are going to see them up before the constitutional court.

I have no doubt they would be there if they had managed to get into power and extort billions of baht out of the country for their own personal gains.

[Super Joe]

Removed

[crazy88]

Sandman67 wrote

"whatever the village headman tells them to "

Best quote you have produced for a while SM67 .I have taken my partner to vote many times .First question anyone asks of the PYB is who they are voting for and then that is who they vote for .Never seen or heard of any bribes or incentives .Just seems to be a case of respect for the PYB's opinion in MY experience .Just hope that smiling moon looking down on us tonight is a good omen for the future .




Crazy 88

[caller]

The trouble is that each person here who has a N/NE spouse can only really relate their own personal experience and there's a lot of territory.

At the wife's village (near Korat) all the parties hand out money rolled up in leaflets and they don't blindly follow the headman.

But they're hacked off with PAD at the mo as many of them work at the airport - well did!

My wifes views? Well, she's just glad she's not in Thailand (something we have to resolve at some stage)!

[faq2mfh]

No real support for PAD in small town Nakhonsawan. What I am told is that everyone is talking about the Royal Families support of the PAD. It won't be long before they all fall in line like the little drones they are....