Life in Thailand Poll #1 (Thaksin)

[STEVE G]

Personally I think he should stay out of Thailand for a while for the sake of calm and reconciliation.
He should really be allowed to return at some point as despite his other faults, the actual reasons for his ouster come into the realms of those things that we are not allowed to discuss and seem to be largely nonsense.
Perhaps the best course of action would be to stay away for a couple more years and then come back and join the ranks of ex-primeministers that actually seem to control Thailand from behind the scenes.
I certainly don't think he should ever be directly in power again, purely because it would be too divisive.
(I should add that I voted 'no' due to the actual wording of the question as a return probably wouldn't benefit Thailand in the short term.)

[richard]

Some very good responses BUT at the end of the day how the hell do we, as Farangs know?

East is east and west is west and never the twain.........

How many times have you guys out there fallen foul of trying to apply western logic to Thai situations?

Me? .........hundreds of times and often corrected or realised when talking to a 'seasoned' farang who has lived here 25 years or more

We are all still learning no matter how many years we have lived here we will never get to the root of the matter

[STEVE G]

How many times have you guys out there fallen foul of trying to apply western logic to Thai situations?

Very true Richard, for instance I've read an article that outlines the roll played in the 2006 coup by certain Thai "political astrologers" and also the vandalism of Phanom Rung historic site in 2008 shortly after a certain influential Buriram political figure had been invoking spirits there.

[lindosfan1]

Very good thread and comments. I voted no simply because Thaksin is corrupt. Any politician that could reduce the corruption in my view would be the one to vote for. The corruption is the one big problem in Thailand, especially the higher levels of corruption.

[richard]

Very good thread and comments. I voted no simply because Thaksin is corrupt. Any politician that could reduce the corruption in my view would be the one to vote for. The corruption is the one big problem in Thailand, especially the higher levels of corruption.

Corruption is worldwide

SE Asia are just blatently open about it.

Tell me of a high level politician, banker, lawyer, property dealer, estate agent who is not open to doing a corrupt deal?

OK, I'm generalising but you get the gist?

[lindosfan1]

Richard I agree corruption is world wide, The level of corruption is higher than in the western world, with the low wages in Thailand, the corrupt money should be going to help the poorer members of the community, this applies to all 3rd world countries. But this thread is about Thailand.

[richard]

Richard I agree corruption is world wide, The level of corruption is higher than in the western world, with the low wages in Thailand, the corrupt money should be going to help the poorer members of the community, this applies to all 3rd world countries. But this thread is about Thailand.

New thread material IMO

[Spitfire]

Already talked to a few Isaan bods I know around town and they are all eagerly awaiting his return.

That's because they fully expect him to come back through immigration with a long white beard and red outfit driving a sleigh, packed with gifts, pulled by reindeer chuckling "Ho ho ho ho".

[buksida]

Not to be picky Buksida, but Issan contributed 100 seats ( if I recall correctly) to Pheu Thai's 265. The region doesn't even make up half of his support.

Numbers are not as relevant as we'd like to think - this map tells the story as far as I'm concerned:

[shunpike]

Pretty map, but my point remains, there's a lot of red on that map that isn't located in Issan, in fact 165 out 265 seat's worth.

[buksida]

Okay ... a pedant would argue that "The North" and "The Northeast" are different so I'll let you have that point if it makes you happy.

They're both Thaksin strongholds and the fact remains that PT did not win Bangkok or any province south of it just as TRT/PPP didn't in either of the last two elections so nothing has really changed over the past ten years and the country is still very polarised - that was my point.

[shunpike]

How about this bit of pendantry: in Bkk and Central Thailand the Dems won 48 seats, while PTP won 51 seats. (breakdown: Central, D- 25 Bkk, D- 23. Central, PTP- 41 Bkk- 10)

So the PTP won the Northeast, the North and Central Thailand. The dems won Bkk and the South. Pendant that I am, this strikes me as a convincing victory.

[buksida]

Call me argumentative but I think you're making an argument just for the sake of it, in Bangkok the Dems won 23 constituencies, PT 10. In the south not a single province was won by majority PT support regardless of how many 'seats' they got. Ok, so maybe my initial post should have included the words "north and some central provinces" .... As said, nothing has changed on the political map - it looks the same as the one after the last election.

Edit: here is the map from the 2007 election which shows exactly the same thing, PT have simply enforced their stronghold on the north/northeast this time around and may have swung a couple of central provinces. The big rift still remains, half a country in one colour and half in another looks far from a convincing victory to me - you could draw a line down the middle.

Either way PT won by majority vote so they deserve to be in power.

In this poll 75% agree that Thaksin is bad news for the country, I am one of them, however this is only an opinion poll made by people whose opinion doesn't mean squat.

[cozza]

No, Thailand has had its biggest growth in 26 years or so, with out him. Simple.

On the other hand, a more personal issue. My daughter has just become a Thai citizen (she was born in Australia) so now she is dual. My wife tells me (dont know how she knows) that Thaksin wants to get rid of dual citizenship and that means my daughter MAY have to choose a country thus forfeiting any inherited land.

I think many Thai people do not like foreigners, especially those with power. I worry about underlying sentiment towards westerners on any other day, but when I hear about laws being made like this, I really wonder what is coming next.

Er, he's not prime minister, his sister is not yet prime minister and you are truly worrying about something that has no basis in fact. But just in case, your daughter could renounce Australia, problem sorted.

Caller, that is a daft statement...what post on this topic has any basis in fact, its all hypothetical on what our opinions are of Thaksin coming back and trying to GUESS what would happen on his return if it was good for Thailand or not. Unless you know something that 99% of the population dont know about what is in Thaksin's brain and what his intent would be on his return and if he returned to power.

Why would my daughter want to renounce Australia when she has inheritance here too?

There was another post about Thaksin's anti foreigner sentiment...so I guess I am not the only thinking that it would not be good for the average expat in Thailand...what about foreign investment?

[shunpike]

@Buksida: Hey I think Thaky's a shithead too, a poor man's Berlusconi. I voted 'yes' because he's still well popular so he's bound to come back at some point. Sooner better than later I say. Let him back in and take away his 'martyr' status. Let him get chucked out the old-fashioned way: at the ballot box.

Anyway, I enjoyed going back and forth with you. You seem to be a good guy and you do a lot of good work on this forum and the forum further south.
Cheers.