Thread: Taksin and the expats

This is a question that bugs me for some time now.


Taksin is not a very honest person to say the least. But from what I see there is nobody around who is much better with the exception of HM the King (of course)!

But why is it, that so much hate of Expats is concentrated on Taksin?

I have the vain believe, that I have a very basic understanding of the powerplay going on within Thai society. Some of that comes from drawing parallels between Philippines powerplay and Thai. But the hate of expats against Taksin I really don't understand.

Thai Visa has a very efficient Taksin Hate brigade, the same people very much pro PAD, which I do understand even less. Reading the posts on TV, one can oberve whenever some new major nonsense comes out of PAD, the anti Taksin people remain silent for some time and then they come out in force with a coordinated attack.

So can anybody enlighten me please?

We smarter like.

Keep looking high-up and you will find the answer.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

But why is it, that so much hate of Expats is concentrated on Taksin?

Possibly, when he was in power a lot of expats hated him.

Now, seeing the mess since his demise, many would love to see him back. Me included.

Despite basing himself in London and buying Manchester City etc. Thaksin, like a lot of Thai Chinese big fish didn't have much fondness for the farang. What you give you shall receive.

Originally Posted by gjbkk

Keep looking high-up and you will find the answer.

Sorry, I don't get this at all. How would looking higher up help me to understand the reaction of Farang to Taksin?

Originally Posted by Begbie

Despite basing himself in London and buying Manchester City etc. Thaksin, like a lot of Thai Chinese big fish didn't have much fondness for the farang. What you give you shall receive.

OK that makes some sense to me. But would things be different under another government? It doesn't seem so to me but I am outside, shure don't get everything.

Thaksin did get and obviously still does get a lot of of bad publicity from the royalist press here in thailand.

A lot of the farangs do believe what they read is news and not an opinion.

However, apart from the obvious greed Thaksin did hit out at some of the farangs with the change in immigration rules and restricting the sale of alcohol.

I've noticed the same Takeovers, but I think it has something to do with the fact that there are very few observers who are real Thaksin-supporters, so even those critical of the PAD will argue in a slightly more differentiated way, and will not ignore the short-comings of Thaksin. I for one, dislike the PAD in its current form very much, it started right from the moment where civil disobediance was abused and resulted in a coup d'etat. Before that moment Thaksin did more and more bad things, so it got quite difficult to defend his economic policies etc in light of his corruption. From this era many outright Thaksin-haters erupted in the farang lines. And once they took sides, they simply downplayed, excused and denied any shortcoming from those who were against Thaksin, like them. It's a black and white thinking that a more intelligent oberserver cannot pursue, and since it's neither black or white, but mostly dark grey, non-PAD supporters will stay silent when Thaksin is criticized, or even agree with those pro-PAD farang because there is little to defend. So if you aren't familiar with the exact positions of every forum member you might easily think that everyone "hates" Thaksin.

Its funny that the PAD and the courts have ignored Thaksin's real crimes; the war against drugs and what he did in the south.

Thanks plorf

That explains a lot. Yes I have observed that few defend Taksin and I see the reasons for that. The intensity of hate is still amazing.

I like your fanboy distribution explanation.

Probably my view is not balanced because my close observation started only a short time after the last coup.

Some of the posters here don't really understand whats going on in Thai politics and so just focus on the superficial aspects like in a movie where its easy to pick out the bad guys from the good guys. Once they get that in their simple little brains they just go off attacking Thaksin as the baddie in their imagined real life movie. And of course once they have made a few posts expounding their ignorance they cant back down and change their stance or they would look like the total idiots they are.

You see a lot of them coming up with sarcastic one-liners. But they rarely get involved in any real discussion or debate.

Originally Posted by Panda

You see a lot of them coming up with sarcastic one-liners. But they rarely get involved in any real discussion or debate.

I mainly didn't mean TeakDoor. It is very strong on TV. The anti Taksin - pro PAD mob there is very articulate and well organized.

There are Taksin haters on TeakDoor too, but nothing like that pressure group on TV.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So can anybody enlighten me please?

Basically, he made the bars close earlier. Simple really.

Under Taksin- The top Mafia Warlord (Who planned to be dictator for life) we had
His darker sides - abuses of power, human rights violations, arrogance, corruption (basically the only corruption allowed was the corruption that flowed through him.)
Good side- people were empowered (especially the poor), middle class grew, country wide corruption lessened, exports increased, economy flourished, poor got electricity, economic benefits (OTOP), improved health care, etc...
Fatal flaw- The poor and middle class got richer meaning the ultra rich lost money. Also previously corrupt people were hindered in collecting their (under the table) dues unless it went through the war-chief Toxin. A coup was inevitable.
Many of us miss the way that this corrupt mafia warchief did away with lots of corruption in the land (except his own of course)
The coup leaders promised to make things better. They fired anyone who had skill at their jobs. Now we can add "ineptness" to "disorganized."
Anyone who complains about the military are attacked as saying ill of the king.
The only possibly good thing is that there seems to be slightly less violence in the south.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Originally Posted by Takeovers

So can anybody enlighten me please?

Basically, he made the bars close earlier. Simple really.

OK thats it! Now I understand!

^^ and slightly more violence in the center.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

But why is it, that so much hate of Expats is concentrated on Taksin?

Taksin was a powerful rich Thai shithead and farangs do not fancy powerful rich Thai shitheads

It's not what we can say, but rather what we can't say.

Originally Posted by Takeovers

Taksin is not a very honest person to say the least. But from what I see there is nobody around who is much better with the exception of HM the King (of course)!

By not including the extended royal family and their cohorts and sprog you are guilty of lese majeste . . . sad, but true.

Taksin was a megalomaniac who abused his power that led to his self-enrichment and on the other end of the scale, to the deaths of many innocents.

I believe the reason so many expats can't stand the guy is because is simply because they don't understand how so many Thais adore the thug . . . nothing one says changes the minds of these trogs . . .

'You don understan, it is Thailan Way'

For all his faults (and there were many!) I would still have to say IMHO Thaksin was the best President this country has had, that aint saying a lot, but believe it to be true!

^ Couldn't say if he was the best ever, but he was certainly far better than the ones before and after him in the last few years. First to be PM for 4 and 8 years, which is imo a minimum period to actually change something.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

For all his faults (and there were many!) I would still have to say IMHO Thaksin was the best President this country has had, that aint saying a lot, but believe it to be true!

Thats true enough, my wife is a benign Thaksin supporter, when asked why she says the same thing, best of a corrupt self serving bunch of crooks.