Thailand Needs New Elections

[ALHOLK]

I don't know much about British constitution but I do more about Swedish which should be quite similar to Swedish. Here it requires either a vote in the parliament to start legal proceedings against a member of cabinet or that the aforementioned member is kicked out of the cabinet by the PM (minister of state). A court of law that isn't elected can never bring down a government.

[ALHOLK]

Hi!

 

I have come to to Thailand for many years and been there during several elections. Furthermore I have followed most elections in international media and I can't recall a single election in the last 20 years that would be deemed democratic according to the western democratic view of democracy. There have also been a couple of military coups which haven't occured in Europe since I was quite young.

 

I happened to be there during Thaksins latest elections and I was there for 3+ months so I followed the political situation to some extent. The reactions in both Thai (English) media as well as foreign media was that of course there was vote buying and vote rigging but not enough too change the election result.

The Members of Parliament vote on forming the government.

This is how it works in most western democrasies.

But if the parliament itself is corrupt then so is the parliament they choose. This was how Thaksin became PM and all following and probably most previous PMs came to to power.

 

Botom line facts:

 

• 
   
   
  Thaksin was elected in an election that was grantedly not democratic according western standards but still elected (via parliament elections).
  He was overthrown in a military coup.
  After the military government a civilian government was elected in what could be understood as democratic election according to Thai standards.
  This government was brought down by a bunch of thugs in yellow shirts(PAD).
  Pad is not a democratic movement. I.e they don't believe in "one person - one vote".
  The current government is a result of a constitutional coup and they are based on a middle class in Bangkok which are not a majority.
   
  

P.S: This response was much longer but the board software decided to truncate it.

[ALHOLK]

What an incredible eloquent and intellectual response. I'm standing in awe before someone who so obviously is intellectually superior to me and has managed to land a well paying job in Thailand instead of scraping out a meager living in west world.

[zzzz]

If there were to be an election and the red shirts win -- likely outcome the last time I checked -- the yelow shirts would likely not accept the outcome and will be out in force fighting again to take over the government. They managed to take power by convincing some red shirt Parliament Members to their side, so they will not likely go along with the idea of a new election.

 

The root of the problem is that yellow shirts believe that their vote is worth more -- i.e., with the minority of votes, yellow shirts still want to rule. In a democratic society, it's one person one vote regardless of class, income level, or region -- and majority rules -- yellow shirts seem to have a problem going along with this.

[bust]

Thailand needs to start educating their people....I wonder how many of the protesters really understand what they were putting their lives at risk for?

 

Who in their right mind would put their lives at risk to help some fat cat billionaire who really doesnt give a fuck about them just wants to reclaim his power and ways to abuse it.

[shygye]

... because that fat cat billionaire was the first to give them a slice of the economic pie.

[..]

As I've asked several times this week, yet no red supporter seems able to answer: just what *exactly* did Thakky give them?

 

B30 healthcare? Un, no. That's a failure and has only served to decimate the rural public healthcare providers.

 

The village fund? All that did was to get them further in debt because no education/regulation re: what it was for and how loans work was provided (but AIS made out well with all the mo-by phones the farmers bought)

 

Oh, wait, they got some nice roads! Yeah, that's worth deifying a douchebag and dying over! If Thakky were *really* interested in the poor, he would have invested in education for all as *that's* the core issue...but that's too hard a program to suck off millions as compared to road building.

 

Seems to me I've been reading that the Abhisit's gummint is giving more to the Issan folks than Thakky did, yet no one talks about that.

 

No one I know (referring to middle class Thais) begrudges the Issan folks for getting some help/money. What *IS* an issue is using that tax money to enrich yourself ala Thaksin & croneys. Hence the yellow revolt.

 

Cherrs,

SD

[Flashermac]

Did anyone else happen to notice that the one ministry the Red Shirts tried to burn was ... the MINISTRY OF EDUCATION!

 

 

We should never forget that "democracy" was brought to Thailand in 1932 by a coup that established a legislature half elected by the people and half appointed by the coup makers. This was hardly a good begining for "real democracy".

 

<< Seems to me I've been reading that the Abhisit's gummint is giving more to the Issan folks than Thakky did, yet no one talks about that. >>

 

Somebody did ... Mr Talksome Shitalot himself. He complained that the Democrat Party was copying him. Apparently, he thinks he has a copyright on rural development aid.

 

 

[Faustian]

What an incredible eloquent and intellectual response. I'm standing in awe before someone who so obviously is intellectually superior to me and has managed to land a well paying job in Thailand instead of scraping out a meager living in west world.

 

Oh dear, you appear to have lost your mind.

 

 

Please find it again.

 

[Torneyboy]

Very well put ..so this will just go around until a real solution is found..someday somehow