Thailand's Big Brother Drama

[JaiRai]

http://www.bloomberg...ther-drama.html

 

 

"But Thaksin raised the strategy to an art form, essentially making an entire nation about him. His tenure from February 2001 to September 2006 saw nothing less than the wholesale bastardization of Thai democracy. He neutered its institutions and enriched his family members and cronies in ways that would have made a Russian oligarch blush.

 

Like former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, Thaksin was a powerful tycoon who leveraged his business success to become leader. Thaksin, like Berlusconi, was later accused of bending the government to his will and in alignment with his business interests. He got away with it by literally bribing the rural communities that formed his power base. His “Thaksinomics†program of flooding the hinterlands with cheap loans was never more than Tammany Hall-like doling out of cash for support. The money did nothing to improve the economy’s fundamentals or capacity for innovation.

 

It’s a strategy Yingluck copied early and often after becoming prime minister in 2011. Take her disastrous rice-subsidy plan, which by the latest estimate has cost $19 billion since October 2011 and over time has recorded losses equivalent to 59 percent of that figure."

[Flashermac]

Abhisit's rating rises over Amnesty Bill

 

 

The popularity rating of opposition and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has increased while that of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra dropped following the Amnesty Bill controversy, according to a poll conducted by the research centre of Bangkok University.

 

The poll was conducted with a random sampling method on Nov 7-8 on 1,122 people throughout the country in a telephone interview.

 

As a result of the Amnesty Bill controversy, Mr Abhisit's popularity rose to 34.8% from 31.7% in June, while Ms Yingluck's popularity dropped to 26.7% from 40.4%.

 

The Democrat Party's popularity rose to 37.2% from 31.7% while the Pheu Thai Party's popularity dropped from 41.0% to 28.2%.

 

Asked whether the government should dissolve the House of Representatives, 41.1% of the respondents agreed, 38.7% disagreed, and 20.2% no comment.

 

Asked whether they believed the government would keep its promise not to reintroduce an amnesty bill throughout its term, 46.2% did not believe in it, 27% thought it would do so, 26.8% were not certain about this.

 

 

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/379080/abhisit-rating-rises-over-amnesty-bill