Thai protesters block roads in bid to shut capital title

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By THANYARAT DOKSONE and TODD PITMAN

BANGKOK (AP) - Anti-government protesters aiming to shut down central Bangkok took over key intersections Monday, halting much of the traffic into the Thai capital's main business district as part of a campaign to thwart elections and overthrow the democratically elected prime minister.

The intensified protests, which could last weeks or more, were peaceful and even festive, as people sporting "Shutdown Bangkok" T-shirts blew whistles, waved Thai flags of various sizes and spread out picnic mats to eat on the pavement. Otherwise, life continued normally in much of the capital, with most businesses and shops open.

Still, the protests raise the stakes in a long-running crisis that has killed at least eight people in the last two months and fueled fears of more bloodshed to come and a possible army coup. The army commander has said he doesn't want to be drawn into the conflict, which broadly pits the urban middle and upper class opponents of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra against her supporters in the poorer countryside.

The protesters are demanding that Yingluck's administration be replaced by a non-elected "people's council" which would implement reforms they say are needed to end corruption and money politics. The main opposition party has boycotted Feb. 2 elections that Yingluck has called in a bid to ease tension - and which she would almost certainly win.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140113/DAB9SAP01.html

[daybranch]

1. Not very clear

Did the Thaksin group buy the election with money or loans farmers cannot pay back? Did the current prime minister violate the law numerous times in regards to the constitution and the rice buying sheme? Will the farmers be paid as promised by the government fortheir rice at the rate promised? Is the democratic party just playing politics or are they really interested in reforms? Would a Feb. 2 election election be a sham and unable to elect sufficient numbers of electors to conduct a parliament ? Are the red shirts working for money from Thaksin? Do they really believe he should not get immunity? The list of questions to be discussed goes on and on. There seems to be plenty to blame on both sides and it certainly is not just a plot to throw out a democratically elected Government. You need to provide insight, not sound bites to this site.

[grantcart]

3. both

Vote buying has a long tradition in the Northeast and Northern part of Thailand.

The village leader picks up all of the ID cards and on election day there is a big dinner and everyone comes by and picks up their ID cards votes for the chosen party and gets 500 Baht.

Before Thaksin there were a number of parties that were based in the different rural areas and they would then compete and join with the parties from the central and southern regions where vote buying doesn't take place.

Thaksin took it to a whole different level and increased the amount - sometimes as much as B 1500 and then bought off all of the smaller parties, which included some of his relatives that opposed him.

Once in government he ran it like a little noodle shop that he owned including extra judicial killings, murder of teenage Muslim boys and changing the law on a Friday so that he could illegally sell his telecommunication company to Singapore on a Monday for US $ 2 billion.

Amazingly the courts stood firm (and didn't buckle to temptation) and found him guilty, repeatedly.

He flew the jurisdiction and the government impounded $ 2 billion.

Like most fascist or reactionary gangsters, in order to have cover for your deeds a few populist acts are sprinkled in. In doing so, however, the Yingluck (a certified idiot but a loyal younger sister) has brought the Thai government closer to bankruptcy (debt always has been very low for a third world country now approaching 85% of GNP).

For the last year however there has been no real pretense on what is going on as the Yingluck government has pursued a single course of action "amnesty". It is made to sound that it would be for all involved but everyone knows that it is in fact to allow Thaksin to get his $ 2 billion (and perhaps return to depose the ailing king and make the country into a republic with him as dictator).

The Phua Thai party has tried everything possible to get this passed (they bought an absolute majority in parliament) and would be successful but the courts have found their legislation unconstitutional.

The party then started to take actions to get rid of the Supreme Court.

And that's when this "occupy" movement exploded.

Everyone agrees on one point "no more Yingluck".

So peaceful demonstrations have been occurring that are well designed. They close down parts of the government, for example yesterday the Commerce ministry by simply jamming the entrance with ordinary people. It is not that hard because the people in the ministries all want a change in government.

The police and the army have taken no actions against any of the protesters, even when they peacefully occupied police headquarters.

The most likely outcome is that the Thaksin regime will use 'black shirt' hired guns, which they have done before, to start shooting into the protesters to create chaos.

The reason that this hasn't happened yet is because almost certainly if there was a general breakdown in order the Army would take over the government, throw the Phua Thai party out and reform would begin.

The one thing that has happened is that all sectors, including the rich and the business community and the middle class have come to an agreement that there have to be reforms so that elections cannot be bought in the future.

Even Yingluck has agreed to the reforms, but she wants them after they have bought this election and are returned to power.

What the protestors are asking for, a neutral caretaker for the government until the reforms are completed, has been done twice before with Mr. Anand and Prem taking over and restoring democratic rule.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Thailand crisis: Polls to proceed despite protests

Thailand's election is set to go ahead as planned on 2 February, the government says, amid protesters' "shutdown" of the capital, Bangkok.

The news came after a meeting that was boycotted by the protesters.
...
The election commission has recommended delaying the polls until May.

Ms Yingluck offered to hold talks with opponents on Wednesday morning to discuss postponing the polls, but protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has rejected any compromise and did not attend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25723902

[grantcart]

4. You are quoting a press release from the government.

They won't have final say as the election commission will make a recommendation and it will be decided by the Constitutional Court, where the Thanksin/Yingluk cabal have yet to win a single case, from todays Bangkok Post

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday said the caretaker government had yet to respond to its invitation to a meeting tomorrow to discuss the proposed deferment of the Feb 2 general election.

At a press conference attended by all five election commissioners, Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, who supervises the administration of the poll, made a phone call to Suranand Vejjajiva, the caretaker prime minister's secretary-general, and caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Pongthep Thepkanchana in front of the press. But neither of them answered his call.

“If they don’t answer today, we will invite them again on Friday. If no answer again we invite them on Saturday.” Mr Somchai said.

“If we talk and can agree on legal aspects, the problem will be resolved. If not, [we will] forward the differences to the Constitution Court to interpret.”

Participants at a government-sponsored meeting on Wednesday generally agreed the Feb 2 general election should not be postponed and that the government had no authority to change it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. 36 hurt by bomb attack at Thai protest march

BANGKOK: A bomb attack wounded dozens of people at an opposition protest march in Thailand's capital on Friday, sending tensions soaring following weeks of mass rallies aimed at overthrowing the government.
...
The authorities and demonstrators both blamed each other for the blast, which was apparently caused by a grenade-type device thrown from a nearby building.

The anti-government movement said the explosion happened shortly before rally leader Suthep Thaugsuban was due to pass by.

"The bomb went off about 30 metres (100 feet) from Suthep," protest spokesman Akanat Promphan told AFP. "Then his bodyguards escorted him back to a rally stage."

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/36-hurt-by-bomb-attack-at/957734.html

[warrant46]

6. Its the Rich vs the Poor

The poor are in Power with Yingluck's administration.

The Rich are attempting to get the military to do the time honored solution in Thailand which is accomplish a Military Coup.

Then a military appointed ruling group of rich people will run the country.

Then put their jack boots on the necks of the poor.

Its been this way now for 50 years.

The problem for the rich is that they are outnumbered by the voting poor.

[grantcart]

7. Malicious and laughable propoganda for the Shinawatra Cabal

The government represents not only the richest ruling class in Thai history but anywhere in the world.

For the last two years the idiot Yingluck has pursued a single policy objective: get back the $ 2 billion that the Courts impounded from her brother's illegal use of parliament to advance his personal business interests.

To regain power they spent tens of millions in direct vote buying schemes in the North and Northeast and pretended to support the poor with schemes that were known to add debt, create inflation and fail (including the spectacularly idiotic scheme to help poor people buy cars that they could not afford and attempting to artificially control the world market on rice)

The result?

Higher Debt Despite Thai public debt traditionally being lowest in the region, it is now highest. And surprise when the monthly loan bills became due all of the poor who had gotten cars without down payment have had the cars repossessed. Only the manufacturers and the dealers made money, but that was what was predicted.

Household debt rose to 80.1% of the country's GDP in the third quarter of 2013, boosted mainly by the government's tax refund scheme for first-time car buyers. "This is not worrisome, as people may...

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/387690/debt-now-80-of-gdp. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Now the Thai rice subsidy has collapsed farmers are starting to march on the government too.

So Yingluck/Thaksin got their money, the manufacturers got their money, the car dealers got their money and the people who repossessed the cars got their money.

Guess who didn't get any money

Thailand's flagship rice subsidy is running out of cash and backfiring at a critical time for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose political future hinges on support from farmers and other rural voters as her rivals intensify their campaign to remove her from office.

The government has been buying up rice from farmers at about 50% above market prices to boost rural incomes since Ms. Yingluck's Pheu Thai Party took office in 2011. Now, it can't sell the rice fast enough to fund the subsidy. Rival exporters such as India and Vietnam have ramped up production, selling rice cheaper and knocking Thailand off its perch as the No. 1 exporter.

"Farmers are very angry," said Nipon Poapongsakorn, a rural development specialist at Thailand Development Research Institute, a think tank. "It is the first time in our history that farmers didn't get money for the rice that they already sold to the government,''

The state-owned bank tasked with funding the policy, the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, is seeking to raise 20 billion baht ($610 million) in a bond auction Thursday it hopes will make up the shortfall from a 75 billion baht auction in November, when only half of the issue was purchased.

The funds will go toward paying rice farmers, some of whom haven't been paid in months. The government on Wednesday extend a deadline for the payment of October's harvest, while local media said that in one northern province, only a small fraction of its nearly 50,000 rice farmers received money from the government.

Thailand's rural population comprises the political base for Ms. Yingluck and her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a polarizing former premier who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. The subsidy is one of a raft of policies aimed at benefiting rural voters that has annoyed the mostly middle-class protesters in Bangkok whose taxes pay for it.

Opponents of the Shinawatra political empire have turned out by the tens of thousands this week to demand Ms. Yingluck's resignation. The protesters say Ms. Yingluck and her brother's populist policies amount to vote-buying, while the government maintains its policy benefits farmers, who are among Thai society's poorest citizens.

The delay in payments highlights how the subsidy program has left the agriculture bank—and the government—in a financially precarious situation. Analysts at CIMB Securities said the Thai state incurs costs of about 300 billion baht ($9.2 billion) a year to support rice prices, amounting to about 2.5% of GDP.

Just like the Bush administration and other rightist governments, the best way to undermine government and make it weak is to bankrupt it. In this case they have not only bankrupted the government but the farmers as well.

Oh and where did all of that money went?

Well its a secret, payments of the fund are being kept a secret by the idiot Yingluck and crook Thaksin

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/390431/going-against-the-grain

The public knows only that the rice pledging scheme has cost the country more than 700 billion baht in budgets so far, with losses projected to exceed 200 billion baht, according to economists. Plagued by rampant corruption, the pledging scheme is the most controversial policy of the Pheu Thai Party. Yet the party vowed to carry on with the programme if re-elected despite heavy criticism and a lack of to pay farmers at this time.

Oh and what about other farmers, they still love the government right?

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/se-asia/story/thai-rubber-farmers-block-road-again-price-protest-20131028

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Rubber farmers in Thailand took to the streets again on Monday to demand that the government buy their produce at prices higher than the market, rejecting a subsidy offered last month and threatening violence if their demands are not met.

Around 300 rubber farmers gathered in Bang-saphan district, around 300km south of Bangkok, blocking a main road with trees and trucks, the police said.

They want the government to buy rubber sheet from them at 100 baht (S$4) per kg, more than a third higher than the market price on Monday of 73 baht.

"If the government doesn't agree to our proposal, we will escalate the protest and it will be violent," Mr Tossapol Kwanraud, one of the protest's leaders, told Reuters

Well what about those that have committed their lives to reforming the system for the poor. They still support the Yingluck/Thaksin Cabal right.

The smart ones never did. But some did and now support the street protests, including former Thai Communist leader Thirayuth Boonmee

Prominent academic Thirayuth Boonmee has thrown his support behind the "whistle revolution" but says protesters need key institutional powers behind them to bring about real change.

. . .

Mr Thirayuth said the acts of civil disobedience carried out by the anti-government protesters were neither an act of disrespect towards the majority of voters nor treason. The protesters, he said, exercised their rights and duty, which they deemed necessary, to topple tyranny

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/384172/thirayuth-gets-behind-whistle-blowers-hopes-for-democracy.

So while my friends/relatives are dodging grenades thrown by thugs part of the Thaksin/Yingluck cabal you could do your part by not spreading the malicious and laughable propaganda that the Shinawatra Family (one of the richest families in the world, and the richest head of government in the world) is promoting the interests of the poor.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017170707