Strong Criticism on Front Page of The Nation

[Guest]

One might care what Indonesia's press thinks if you live in or visit Thailand. Or care about anything other than your own sanctimonious point of view.

 

Yes the top boys in Thai gov't do know what is happening ......... but fortunately don't have same brainwashing as you apparently do.

 

They will no doubt pay some attention to what their neighbour's press is saying.

[Nervous_Dog]

Zanemay, the top boys do know! Was discussed widely and severly. Some of Thaksins closest supporters are dismayed.

 

They allblame the pulling of troops and dismantling of intelligence operation a few years back (Intelligence in the old fashioned liason style, not spys) and turning the operations when troubles resurfaced to Police,

 

The police have been the ones to blame, have botched it totally, from the begining, so now no one trusts them.

 

People regularly "Arrested and then released" except, funny enough, they don't seem to make it home after leaving the station, never seen again.

 

That is what the high ups are discussing, how it was botched and to fix it. They are concerned and vast majority very worried.

 

DOG

[chuckwoww]

I'd say the massacre in Pattani was pretty shocking by any standards but I don't see much Thai domestic or international condemnation. Probably because it involved muslims. Muslims aren't exactly the flavour of the month lately. When something similar happened in Tienanmen Square the world was quick to condemn it.

 

Does anybody know why the Thais are so keen to hold on to Pattani? It must be more of a liability than an asset. Why not have a referendum and give them whatever it is they want?

 

Or could it be that the majority of the people there are happy to live under Thai rule and the protesters are just troublemakers like we're told? :: ::

[Guest]

>>>WTF cares what Indonesian press is furious about,<<<

 

 

have you ever heard of ASEAN?

of numerous political and economical treaties between indonesia and thailand put into jeopardy not just by the massaker of 78 humans, but even more by the highhanded and arrogant way our megalomaniac PM is brushing that serious issue aside?

 

 

 

>>>as it can be for the Buddhist population, remember them, the sweet, funny, gentle people?<<<

 

do you mean the same "sweet, funny, gentle people" who have last year massakered several thousand people, buddhist, animist and islamic during the drugwar, performed by deathsquads comprising of "sweet, funny, gentle people" of buddhist faith?

or the increasing youth gang violence, gang members being "sweet, funny, gentle people" of buddhist faith, slashing each other to pieces with samurai swords, shooting each other with zipguns and sawed off shotguns?

 

 

 

 

people with such an infantile understanding of worldpolitics should better not start opening their gob about political, religious and social topics of countries where the only thing they know is some streetwalker's pussy.

[Guest]

>>>Does anybody know why the Thais are so keen to hold on to Pattani? <<<

 

 

why is the UK so keen on holding on to northern ireland?

why is spain so keen on holding on to basque?

why is china so keen on holding on to tibet?

 

etc...

 

a conflict logical in a world made out of nationstates, with minorities forced against their will into nationstates fighting for their own nationstate, even if it would have no chance whatsoever to survive in a modern corperate world.

[zanemay]

chuckwoww said:

 

Does anybody know why the Thais are so keen to hold on to Pattani? It must be more of a liability than an asset. Why not have a referendum and give them whatever it is they want?

 

Hello!? Haven't you noticed? They want the World.

 

In Thailand, specifically, they want the country. All of it.

 

Give them Pattani? You might as well throw in Phuket if you do, cause they'll do the same thing there. Don't you see them moving northward from Malaysia right now?

 

The United States would not give up the South, China will not give up Taiwan. Strong countries will not cede terriitory to separtisits.

 

chuckwoww said:

I'd say the massacre in Pattani was pretty shocking by any standards but I don't see much Thai domestic or international condemnation. Probably because it involved muslims. Muslims aren't exactly the flavour of the month lately. When something similar happened in Tienanmen Square the world was quick to condemn it.

 

There is no parallel between students demonstrating against a communist government and these murders/terrorists/separatists. They have a declared purpose to take over the world. Until they do, they want to, and are, totally fucking it up. I know that my country does not deserve to live as it has to now. The threat hasn't been brought home to too many countries like it is here in the US. Except to Spain. Who showed no national integrity whatsoever, just "gave them what they want." Which inflames them to do more.

 

The Thai's know what is at stake. This is not from a distance. It is on them, all over them. They are under attack on their own soil.

 

Self-doubting Western thought cannot take on this threat. "We will track them down and bring them to justice," my government says. To suicide terrorists/beheaders!! That's about as effective as a strong letter. No one is that stupid of course, so there is a real plan somewhere.

 

The Thai's are looking at real solutions and I'm sure they are just panting to do what needs to be done to SAVE THAILAND. No worries, though. They will never be able to implement it. Mr T is not going to give up his good life to sit in a jail in the Hague.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

Zanemay, final warning. Lay of the racist crap or you will get your ass kicked off the board.

 

Not every muslim is a terrorist, just like not every Buddhist or American is a peace-loving nice guy. You might want to remember that before you start spouting this kind of bullshit.

 

Sanuk!

[chuckwoww]

I guess if we kill enough of them the rest will see the error of their ways. Maybe they will convert to Christianity, buy up old Courtney Love CDs and get down to some serious Walmart shopping.

[Nervous_Dog]

Fly - interesting you used the analogy of peace loving buddhists, I used the same reasoning today elsewhere.

 

Like all things, this is more about politics and power than about religion.

 

However, religion makes a nice easy label for all of us to grasp and hate at.

 

Sad days indeed, and sadder toomorrow.

 

DOG

[Guest]

It is news in the serious business press, and that does matter. From today's Asian Wall Street Journal:

Clash Could Radicalize

Muslims in Thai South

 

By PATRICK BARTA

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

October 28, 2004; Page A12

 

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Two days after the latest turmoil in Thailand's troubled south, political, academic and religious leaders seem to be coming to the same unsettling conclusion: Violence in the predominately Muslim region is likely to get even worse in the months to come.

 

Islamic leaders denounced Thai officials for the deaths of more than 80 protesters and, in some cases, said there would be retaliation.

 

Military and political analysts said the brutal circumstances of the incident -- involving the suffocation of 78 detainees packed into military vehicles -- could further radicalize Thailand's minority Muslim population. In turn, they said, this could feed a possible separatist insurgency and increase the likelihood of antigovernment attacks, including in other parts of the country.

 

"This is the first time we have felt that southern violence has a real possibility of spreading to areas where it would be felt more deeply" such as major tourist destinations and Bangkok, said Andrew Stotz, an analyst at Macquarie Securities.

 

Thai officials have been struggling for months to contain unrest in the country's southernmost provinces, home to a large number of Muslims. Many Muslims -- who comprise a very small percentage of Thailand's population of 63 million -- have long felt discrimination at the hands of the central government of the predominantly Buddhist country. Although tensions seemed to ease during recent years, they flamed up again this year, which has seen more than 400 deaths in the region.

 

Unlike many of the recent clashes, in which police and security forces claimed to be responding to attacks by marauding Muslim insurgents, most of Monday's deaths couldn't be justified as self-defense.

 

"Local people were already on edge, and this may put them over the edge," said Panitan Wattanayagorn, a security expert and professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "It will add more weight to the radical extremists' goals to emerge as a real force" in southern Thailand.

 

The latest trouble appeared to begin after 2,000 Muslim youths gathered to stage a demonstration at a police station Monday. At least six protesters were shot and killed during riots that ensued.

 

Authorities later rounded up about 1,300 people and packed them into trucks for a six-hour drive to army compounds for interrogation. Officials of Thailand's Justice Department and a forensics expert said the deaths resulted from dehydration or suffocation as people were piled atop one another.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra apologized for the deaths yesterday, saying "there were some mistakes" made because of the lack of adequate transport. Even so, he insisted the government had used "the soft approach" in defusing the protest by refraining from firing indiscriminately into the crowd.

 

The government's handling of the episode is likely to dog Mr. Thaksin as he prepares for a national election that must be held by early 2005. Although he is widely expected to remain in office, many analysts believe his failure to quell unrest in the south could dim his chances of increasing his party's majority in the Thai Parliament, opening the door for more-robust political debate.

 

Privately, some Thai economists and securities analysts expressed anger over Mr. Thaksin's handling of the situation in southern Thailand, because they believe it undermines the country's reputation as a stable haven for foreign investment.

 

Indeed, negative economic fallout continued to spread yesterday, as the Stock Exchange of Thailand's main index fell 3.3% following a 1.6% decline on Tuesday. Even before Monday, concerns about the economy were rising amid signs Thailand's rapid growth is slowing because of high oil prices.

 

Economists are particularly worried that the unrest could jeopardize the massive Thai tourism industry, a key foreign-exchange earner. So far, that doesn't appear to have happened in the country's biggest tourist centers, such as Bangkok and the island of Phuket.

 

But that could change, some analysts said, especially because Monday's incident wasn't the first episode of violence to make international news this year. "If you are a foreign tourist and you hear of violence for a second time this year, you may get scared and steer away," said Thanomsri Fongarun-rung, an economist at Phatra Securities.

 

The unrest already has put a dent in business in the far south, a popular destination for tourists from neighboring Malaysia. At the Taba Plaza Hotel in Narathiwat province, about five kilometers from where Monday's riot occurred, a desk employee said that only one of the hotel's 50 rooms was occupied yesterday and that five were filled Tuesday. The employee said the hotel was often 75% full in the days before the trouble in the south began.