Thread: Thai elections 2011-Thai PM sets stage for tough election

Jittra in new attack on Abhisit

Jittra in new attack on Abhisit

By Kornchanok Raksaseri
The Nation
Published on June 22, 2011

The woman who coined the phrase "good only at giving big words" has launched another attack on caretaker prime minister and Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Abhisit sought to rebut the original claim by listing his government's achievements in his Facebook series "From My Heart", and said the phrase was a discourse invented by his opponents to turn public sentiment against him. This prompted an open letter on Facebook from his accuser, Jittra Kotchadej.

She said Abhisit should not assume that everything was politicised and that the poor could not think for themselves.

She referred to an event in March commemorating International Women's Day, where both she and Abhisit were guest speakers, and recalled what she wrote on that day:

"Today, I confronted a man. I was angry. I shouted: 'Murder, murder!' Nobody heard my voice, as they were glad with the event. That was totally different from my mood. I wanted to cry when I thought of the red shirts who were killed. I shouted again: 'Blood-stained hand!'

"I grabbed a pen and wrote on a blank piece of A4-size paper: 'Whose hand?'

"He was talking about the policies on International Women's Day. I raised the paper sign. He answered immediately that that day was Women's Day, and not related to politics. [He said] I should have listened to the House debate on whose hands were blood-stained.

"I showed my masterpiece sign: 'Yeah' I followed with 'good only at giving big words'."

Jittra said she was then taken into police custody and held for almost half an hour until Abhisit left the event.

Jittra's open letter quoted 16 of Abhisit's remarks made on different occasions since 2008, including his call for the Somchai Wongsawat government to accept responsibility for the clash on October 7, 2008, between protesters and the military.

She said Abhisit's government had not slowed down layoffs caused by the economic crisis, as it said it would, while its job-training scheme had failed to respond to the skills gained by the workers involved.

Jittra led workers who were protesting against the loss of their jobs in 2009 when their company, Triumph International, planned to relocate its factory. A warrant was issued for her arrest for causing public disorder during a street protest in the same year. The group of workers later launched a new brand of lingerie called Try Arm.

She said in her Facebook letter that the policy providing 15 years of free education was not true because the government's subsidies failed to cover the increased expenses parents were having to meet for their children's education.

She attacked the government for failing to solve the problems of the restive South over the past two years, and then moved on to increases in the minimum wage.

"You first said that a minimum wage of Bt250 would be enough to cover the cost of living. It was only in May that the wage was raised to Bt215," Jittra wrote. "Why [is it that] a prime minister's remark, once said, [is unable to] be done? Is this not 'good at giving big words'?

"When the House was likely to be dissolved, the Democrat Party then said it would lift the minimum wage to Bt300. We heard that and thought: 'You are the government. You couldn't even keep the previous promises. Why are you saying this to draw votes'?

"In writing this, I would like you to think ... while writing anything. Don't say what you can't do. Don't write what is not true. And you have to accept criticism. People must be able to criticise and examine you as a public figure; a politician who can use people's taxes. [If you do not wish] to be criticised or examined, you must stay away from administering people's taxes, and must not offer yourself as a politician or a country administrator," Jittra wrote.

Although Jittra was wrong about a Bt300 minimum-wage policy, which did not come from the Democrats, her letter illustrated how some people think of Abhisit and his party, and how his clarifications fail to change their minds.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

and how his clarifications fail to change their minds.

The only clarifications required fron abi and his morons is who killed the 91 innocent protestors?

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Assoc Prof Lae Dilokwitthayarat, of Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Economy, said wages should be determined on reality and the financial state of three crucial factors in the Thai economy - the employers, the employees, and the state authorities.

I agree, as Assoc Profs would end up on the minimum wage if this is the case.

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Only if you buy the line that the country is "equally divided"

right, because you know everything about what Thai people think, right ?

nutter,

Originally Posted by Calgary

Damn, I never thought of that Gerbil.

Very original and meaningful.

Your Posts come from someone truly engaged with his ears to the ground and in touch with the pulse of things as they happen.

I will continue to pay close attention and learn from your insights.

Calagary, the Thaksin shill and proud of it

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Khunying Kasama Varawan na Ayutthaya

Great name, and beautiful Chinese face too... I wonder how many shares she owns in Yellow Inc...

The coup/dem government has done more to set education back than any other in the last 20 years. Don't be fooled by pretty boy's sweet words, his/the coup government's actions are to cut the level of education (because their kids don't use it...).

When/if PT/Yingluck win the election outright, I certainly hope there will be no reticence in correcting the excesses of the post coup military administration, IE their military constitution, courts, judicial decisions to name but a few.

I faulted Samak for wasting his electoral plurality.

Even the slightest tampering with military imposed administrivia will cause a hue and cry, so one may as well take significant and firm action based on electoral legitimacy.

Just dare them to coercively sabotage a decisive electoral mandate. They will be radically exposed if they do that, and they will know it.

Should a strong PT electoral mandate be established, wot do the denizens of this Board think should be done with it in the first 100 days?

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

"It would be fine if the people gave their votes to No 1 [Pheu Thai Party] after listening to our side of the story," Korbsak said. "If they agree with us, vote for No 10." "The winner sets up the government while the loser becomes the opposition, that's the rule of the game," he said.

Is that why, when losing the dems pulled out of the 2006 election and supported a coup? Is that how the last election winner set up the government while the dems became opposition? Utter lies; coming thick and fast from the dems...

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The Election Commission (EC) gave the green light to the Democrats to go ahead with their plan to rally at Ratchaprasong tomorrow.

Indeed. Anybdy believe that PT would be allowed to do the same? It must be very nice for the dems to have so many cards stacked in its favour...

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

"As long as it is not against the law, everybody could do whatever they wanted," Wisut said.

Well, nobody believes that. Since 2006 it has been very clear that the law is interpretted very differently for different groups. How many yellows in prison? How about these PAD posters that have been banned and told to be removed; they've increased in number since; if that was PT then they'd be banned already... So, no neither the EC regulations and orders or the laws are 'fair and equal'.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

"If they listen to the other side of the truth, they would get a better understanding of the situation," he said

Excellent choice of words, Freudian?; the other side of the truth is called lies. & yes, Abhisit, Suthep and Chuan are set to roll out the lies and hate speeches...

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

The red shirts have used the bloodshed to antagonise the Democrats almost everywhere during the election campaign trail. Abhisit, in the deep South yesterday, faced a challenge from a Pattani resident who displayed a poster that said "He is only good at talking".

Typical reporting: red shirts... deep south... So, a Pattani resident displayed a poster saying "He is only good at talking", and it's suddenly the 'redshirts [are]using bloodshed to antagonise the Democrats'...

Non-stop propaganda from the press and TV... I was reading Monday's Bkk Post lettters section, and even these seem to be planted; have a look at the one by "Bob Peters" (a nice foreign sounding name) which is anti-Thaksin/pro-dems/pro-general prayuth's speech... Looks to be written by a Thai; and such a one-sided message which goes along with the other 'letters'. The Bkk Post has really gone too far in recent weeks, beyond shameful, it's a full-on propagandering machine for the army/dems...

Signs that the all powerful Thai army are preparing themselves for a post-election coup.

It just doesn't come any more clearer than this.


Source:- Parker/Penelope

^
Not sure that photo is indicative of anything Mr. Lick.

I have often experienced panicky predictions by the Red Shirts around me, of pending coups. They do this every time the military makes a move of some sort that is visible to them and seemingly out-of-the-ordinary.

Originally Posted by Calgary

Should a strong PT electoral mandate be established, wot do the denizens of this Board think should be done with it in the first 100 days?

Umm, how about ridding the country of corruption? What would you like to them to do, Calgary?

Originally Posted by Buksida

Originally Posted by Calgary

Should a strong PT electoral mandate be established, wot do the denizens of this Board think should be done with it in the first 100 days?

Umm, how about ridding the country of corruption? What would you like to them to do, Calgary?

Which country has done that?

Originally Posted by DroversDog

Originally Posted by Buksida

Originally Posted by Calgary

Should a strong PT electoral mandate be established, wot do the denizens of this Board think should be done with it in the first 100 days?

Umm, how about ridding the country of corruption? What would you like to them to do, Calgary?

Which country has done that?

None, that I know of. What would you like to see them do in their first 100 days?

^ I will take care of it on your behalf, red is my favorite color

I owe a few to mid also after he repeatedly red me with his mod power,

Why north-east Thailand backs Thaksin Shinawatra - Monsters and Critics

Why north-east Thailand backs Thaksin Shinawatra

By Peter Janssen Jun 22, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Khon Kaen, Thailand - Most voters in Thailand's impoverished north-east seem set to cast their ballots for Thaksin Shinawatra as the July 3 general election approaches.

The appeal of the convicted former prime minister and de-facto leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party remains so strong in the region that the party's official candidates are finding campaigning easy.

'Even if Pheu Thai fielded a dog as their candidate here, we would vote for it,' said Rassamee Klaithongdee, 43, of Khok Sung village in Khon Kaen province, 400 kilometres north-east of Bangkok.

Thaksin, who has been living overseas to avoid a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power, is not running, but the prime minister from 2001 to 2006 has remained a pivotal player in Thai politics and effectively in control of Pheu Thai.

A billionaire telecommunications tycoon before he entered politics, Thaksin has declared that he wants to return to Thailand by December - presumably not to serve his prison sentence.

He picked his sister, Yingluck, 44, to be Pheu Thai's candidate for prime minister, calling her his political 'clone.'

Yingluck, a good-looking former businesswoman with no political experience, appears to have won over some new supporters in Bangkok, a bastion for the ruling Democrat Party in the 2007 election.

But in the north-east region of Isaan, home to nearly a third of Thai voters and Pheu Thai's traditional stronghold, her arguments do not really matter.

'Villagers in the north-east only care that Yingluck is Thaksin's sister,' said Buapan Promphaping, professor at the Faculty of Social Science at Khon Kaen University. 'They think that if Pheu Thai wins, Thaksin will come back, and that's why they will vote for the party.'

Winning Isaan is crucial to Pheu Thai's chances of moving up from its current 188 seats in the 500-strong House of Representatives and becoming a majority government.

The region, home to 21 million of the country's 65 million people, holds 127 of the 375 constituencies to be contested in next month's election. And 70 per cent of voters list Pheu Thai as their favourite party, according to a poll published in The Nation newspaper this week.

Pheu Thai's popularity in Isaan goes back to Thaksin's first campaign under his since-disbanded Thai Rak Thai party, which won the 2001 general election on a raft of populist policies.

The party promised each village nationwide a fund of 1 million baht (33,333 dollars) to be used as it liked as well as write-offs of farmers' debts and a free health scheme.

The strategy was particularly effective in Isaan, Thailand's most impoverished region, where vote-buying had been rife. The practice remains rampant, but its effectiveness has diminished.

'Nowadays, the villagers know that if a candidate buys their vote they will just look out for their own interests once in government,' said Taworn Sansombat, former village headman in Baan Kamplalai, also in Khon Kaen province.

Attitudes started to change after the first Thaksin government, he said. 'I think Thaksin is loved for the clarity of his policies, and the fact that he delivered on them,' Taworn said.

A coup that ousted him and his 2008 corruption conviction did not reduce his fan base in Isaan. Instead, the region contributed large numbers of members to the United Front for Dictatorship against Democracy, the street movement affiliated with Pheu Thai, which organized anti-government demonstrations from March to May last year in Bangkok that were put down by police and troops. Ninety-two people died, including Rassammee's brother, Praison Thiplom.

'Before Praison's death, I was not interested in politics,' she said, 'but now I feel we have not gotten justice. I think under a Pheu Thai government things will improve.'

The Democrats in their two and a half years in office have delivered their own pro-poor policies that have brought widespread benefits to Isaan, including a price guarantee scheme for farm products and 15 years of free education per child.

However, these programmes - as well as Democratic Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's contention that Thaksin was responsible for last year's violence and used his followers for personal gain - are unlikely to transform into political support.

'People just remember the bad things Abhisit did,' Buapan said. 'The good things he did, Isaan people don't pay attention to.'

Bangkok Post : Abhisit pans Pheu Thai plan for South

Abhisit pans Pheu Thai plan for South

Authority of state will be eroded, says Prayuth

• Published: 22/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva slammed the Pheu Thai Party proposal to turn the three southern border provinces into a special administrative zone, saying it would create a divide between authorities and local residents.

Speaking on the campaign trail in Yala, Mr Abhisit said the proposal for the zone in the South, which is part of Pheu Thai's election campaign policy platform, would only jettison local administrative bodies, which act as a conduit for information from and cooperation with the central government.

Mr Abhisit said the Democrat Party's approach had focused on justice and development by introducing new forms of local administration. Public participation is also a key feature of the party's decentralisation policy.

He also said residents were increasingly accepting of the new structure of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC).

Mr Abhisit said Pheu Thai could not implement the proposal effectively if it became the next government because the party to date has not provided details of the plan.

Mr Abhisit also said the Democrat Party hoped to gain more seats in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in this election after receiving a good response from local voters.

Mr Abhisit, along with party members, yesterday started campaigning in Yala's Raman district before travelling to Pattani and Narathiwat.

Raman district is part of Yala's Constituency 2, where Pheu Thai's Sugarno Matha, a younger brother of former parliament president Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, and the Democrats' Abdulkarim Dengrakeena are squaring off.

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha also disagrees with Pheu Thai's proposal to designate the three southern border provinces a special administrative zone.

Gen Prayuth said he was concerned that the proposal was too risky and could undermine the state authority.

"Any risky action that will weaken the state authority is a concern," Gen Prayuth said.

Thailand is not a big country and there is no need to transfer too much power from the central government to the area, Gen Prayuth said.

He stressed that the solution to the southern violence must be through understanding and public participation.

Gen Prayuth said the SBPAC must help lead development in the three southern border provinces with support from other government agencies. Thus, the central government must have a strong working relationship with regional municipalities.

"Thailand still needs administration at both central and regional levels," Gen Prayuth said.

Bangkok Post : Buri Ram shapes as a key battleground

Buri Ram shapes as a key battleground

SPECIAL REPORT: Despite the Newin factor for the Bhumjaithai Party, Pheu Thai thinks it can win one third of the seats in this crucial province.

• Published: 22/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

Buri Ram may be known as the home turf of the Bhumjaithai Party - its de facto leader Newin Chidchob hails from the province which has returned him to parliament every election since 1985 until his political ban - but the Pheu Thai party aims to carve out as much as one third of the nine House seats up for grabs in the province.

Sophon Phetsawang, a former Buri Ram MP and now a Pheu Thai list candidate, said his party was confident of victory in constituencies 6, 7 and 8.

In Constituency 6, Pheu Thai has fielded Pornchai Srisuriyanyothin, former vice-president of the Buri Ram provincial administrative organisation. Ironically, the candidate used to work for Mr Newin, an influential figure in this northeastern province. Mr Sophon said the candidate was popular among voters there.

Mr Pornchai defected to Pheu Thai after Bhumjaithai decided not to field him.

If Mr Pornchai manages to clinch victory, it would be due to three factors: his popularity, Mr Sophon's support base in Nang Rong district and the popularity of Pheu Thai and Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Sophon said Mr Pornchai could beat Bhumjaithai's candidate Traithep Ngamkamol whose elder brother is deputy governor of Buri Ram.

In Constituency 7, Pheu Thai has fielded Nudaeng Wankangsai, a former MP candidate who has strong voter support in Nong Ki district, which has the highest number of eligible voters among the four districts in the constituency.

In Constituency 8, Pheu Thai's Kachornthon Judto, a former MP, can defeat Somnuek Hengwanit, also a former MP who defected from Bhumjaithai to the Chart Pattana Puea Pandin Party, Mr Sophon said.

He predicted Mr Kachornthon will win in Ban Kruat district, while Mr Somnuek should take Lahan Sai, his home district. The deciding factor will be how people in Non Dindaeng district vote.

The voter base for Rungroj Thongsri, the Bhumjaithai's candidate in Constituency 8 is outside the constituency, so his chances are not promising.

Meanwhile, Sanong Thep-aksornnarong, Bhumjaithai's candidate in Constituency 1, predicted his party would win seven out of nine constituencies in Buri Ram because Mr Newin had worked for the province for a long time and had good ties with locals.

Mr Sanong is upbeat about victory in Constituency 1, saying he has been assisting area residents there for more than two decades.

He also said Bhumjaithai could put up Mr Newin's father, former House speaker Chai Chidchob, to counter Pheu Thai's attempt to raise the profile of Yingluck Shinawatra, the party's choice for prime minister.

The party is telling Buri Ram residents that Mr Chai has been working for them for a long time.

Mr Sanong admitted the Pheu Thai candidate in Constituency 6 had strong voter support and that Mr Rungroj's voter base is Prakhon Chai which is not part of Constituency 8.

Other Bangkok Post updates....

Do not lose your voice
22/06/2011 : For the first time in Thailand's 79-year old democratic system, there is a strong campaign encouraging a "Vote No" in the national election on July 3.

Yet another party floats amnesty idea
22/06/2011 : A national reconciliation committee should be set up to consider the possibility of a political amnesty within six months of the election, the Chartthaipattana Party says in its proposed reconciliation scheme.

Elderly 'tidal wave' forecast
22/06/2011 : Academics have warned that none of the political parties contesting the election have viable policies to cater to the nation's growing elderly population.

Democrat plans 'more feasible'
22/06/2011 : Most leading economists surveyed in a poll say the Democrat Party's economic policies were generally more feasible than the Pheu Thai Party's.