AP's slanted coverage of what's happening in Thailand:

[OregonBlue]

Thaksin bought up land south of Bangkok and transferred it into the names of family members and cronies. He then got the government to "select" that area for a new airport and sold it to the government at grossly inflated prices and pocketed the money.

Thaksin negotiated a huge(many billions baht) no-bid contract to provide communications to the Burmese Junta (not to benefit the Burmese people but the military dictatorship) through his own corporation. But because the Junta could not afford it, he then arranged to make a loan of Thai taxpayer money to pay himself.

He was caught and forced out of office but refused to leave. The police department was run by a crony and refused to oust him. The military finally stepped in and forced him from office. The AP continues to call it "alleged fraud" and insinuates that it's a "military backed" government.

Thaksin recently went to work for the Cambodian Finance Ministry. That's analogous to a former President of the United States going to work for the U.S.S.R. during the cold war. The AP has reported that he "sought refuge" in Cambodia.

While he was in office he funneled huge sums of money to projects for the rural poor. He bought votes so openly that his entire party was finally barred from competing in elections. The AP seems to insinuate that he is the "people's" champion. While it's true that he did a lot for the rural poor, I guarantee that it was done in his own best interests. He did it to gain votes and assure his voting base so that he could go on stealing the treasury dry.

In short, Thaksin is a Republican and the AP is his mouthpiece.

[grantcart]

1. It is impossible to list all of Taksin's crimes and you have done a good start

The factual basis of what you out line has been established in court and Taksin is now a fugitive of justice as the people want to get back Baht 76 billion that has been well documented gains from illegal means.

Massive protests occurred in 2006, and on 19 September 2006 a military junta which later called itself the Council for National Security overthrew Thaksin's government in a bloodless coup while he was abroad. A CNS-appointed constitutional tribunal dissolved the Thai Rak Thai party for electoral fraud, banning him and TRT's executives from politics for five years.<14> The CNS-appointed Assets Examination Committee froze Thaksin and his family's assets in Thailand, totaling 76 billion baht ($2.2 billion), claiming he had become unusually wealthy while in office.<15><16> Thaksin and his wife had declared assets totaling 15.1 billion baht when he took office in 2001, although he had transferred many of his assets to his children and associates before taking office.<17>

This does not include the US $ 2 billion that he 'legally' made when he got parliment to pass a law that would allow him to sell his communication company to a foreign (Singapore) buyer.

Even more aggregious was his human rights record that included thousands of 'extra judicial' killings.

For many though he is hated for bringing a Cheneyesque approach to the problem of Muslim seperatists.

Here is one example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Thailand_insurgency

In October 2004 the town of Tak Bai in Narathiwat province saw the most publicized incident of the insurgency. Six local men were arrested for having supplied weapons to insurgents. A demonstration was organized to demand their release and the police called in army reinforcements. The army used tear gas and water cannons on the crowd, and shooting started in which seven men were killed.

Hundreds of local people, mostly young men, were arrested. They were made to take off their shirts and lie on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs. Later that afternoon, they were thrown by soldiers into trucks to be taken to the Ingkayutthaboriharn army camp in the nearby province of Pattani. The prisoners were stacked five or six deep in the trucks, and by the time the trucks reached their destination five hours later, in the heat of the day, 78 men had suffocated to death.

This incident sparked widespread protests across the south, and indeed across Thailand, since many non-Muslim Thais were appalled at the army's behaviour. Thaksin, however, gave the army his full support. Those responsible for the ill-treatment and death of the detainees received the most minor of non-custodial punishments. Thaksin's initial response was to defend the army's actions, saying that the 78 men died "because they were already weak from fasting during the month of Ramadan."

Charges were filed against 58 suspects accused of participating in the demonstration. The trials went on at a slow place, and as of October 2006, the court had finished questioning of only two out of the 1,500 witnesses in the case. Police were also unable to find 32 Tak Bai protesters who were still at large after fleeing arrest.<39>

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont gave a formal apology for the incident on 2 November 2006.<40> The day afterwards, the number of violent acts increased fivefold, compared to the average in the preceding month.<41>

Since Taksin's removal attitudes in the South have changed completely and they went from being the most unhappy to the happiest regional group in Thailand

http://nationmultimedia.com/2006/11/06/national/national_30018161.php

"Southern people, who used to have the least happiness, emerged the happiest people in the latest survey," he said. "They were followed by people in the Central region, the Northeast, the North and Bangkok."

And yet inspite of all of these crimes, because he manipulated the rural poor with token programs he has many fans at DU.

[OregonBlue]

2. I agree with everything you said. I was only commenting on AP's take on Thaksin.

I spend a lot of time there and know that Thaksin is the worst kind of corporatist crook. He did just what the GOP has done here by fooling the poor and uneducated into believing that he had their best interests at heart. His human right records, especially as it pertains to the Muslim south and the murder of those his party claimed were drug dealers (with no proof whatsoever) actually turned a lot of his supporters off.

I do wish for the country's sake, these Red Shirts and Yellow Shirts would just all go home and let Ahbisit get on with the business of running the country. Very sad really.

[upi402]

3. That's NOTHING! you should see Reuters propganda;

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thousands of anti-government protesters in Bangkok plan to march to a military base on Monday to step up pressure on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to dissolve parliament and call fresh elections.

The red-shirted supporters of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra have given the government an ultimatum: call elections by midday on Monday or face crippling mass demonstrations.

The protests which began on Friday and involved more than 150,000 people by Sunday have been peaceful, and the "red shirts" say they will remain that way. But Monday's march could stoke anger by paralyzing already-congested streets in Bangkok.

"We will march over there, brothers and sisters. We will go to the infantry to get an answer from Abhisit himself," said Nattawut Saikua, a leader of the protest group, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).

"With this many people on the streets, I don't see how he still thinks he has any legitimacy," he added.

Foreign investors worry any violence will derail a nascent recovery in Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy but they have expressed confidence in Thailand's financial markets by snapping up local stocks in recent weeks.

That view is based on three factors: Thai assets are already trading at a substantial risk discount, the economy has rebounded well from the global downturn despite bouts of unrest, and Abhisit is widely expected to survive the showdown.

Protest leaders hope a powerful display of popular support will force Abhisit to dissolve parliament and call an election that Thaksin allies would be well-placed to win. They also want to convince wavering partners in his coalition to break away.

Abhisit and his coalition are unlikely to bow to the pressure, the latest in a seemingly intractable political crisis pitting the military, urban elite and royalists -- who wear yellow shirts at protests and back Abhisit -- against mainly rural Thaksin supporters who wear red and say they are disenfranchised.

Most of the protesters traveled from Thailand's poor, rural provinces, piling into pick-up trucks, cars and even river boats, and illustrating Thaksin's influence even after his ouster in a 2006 coup, graft conviction and self-imposed exile. Take a Look on the political crisis in Thailand.

RISKS TO COME

Abhisit must go to the polls by the end of next year.

Thaksin's allies are likely to win those elections just as they have won every poll held since 2001. The military and urban elite are likely to seek to overturn that result, possibly with a coup, as in 2006, or a judicial intervention, as in 2008.

In his weekly television address on Sunday, Abhisit indicated immediate elections were unlikely, citing the tense political climate and his government's parliamentary majority.

Several main roads near government offices were blocked off either by protesters' pick-up trucks and motorcycles or cordoned off by police and soldiers. Authorities deployed 50,000 police, soldiers and other security personnel across the city.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban said protesters risk arrest if they disrupt life for Bangkok residents.

Last April, protests by Thaksin supporters triggered Thailand's worst street violence in 17 years. In recent months, they have emphasized non-violence -- and Thaksin's rhetoric has softened since last year when he spoke of a "revolution."

But without causing a big disruption, they may have trouble forcing elections, said Charnvit Kasetsiri, a political historian at Thammasart University. "It's hard to pressure the government if the crowd is under control," he said.

The protesters say the British-born, Oxford-educated Abhisit came to power illegitimately, heading a coalition the military cobbled together after courts dissolved a pro-Thaksin party that led the previous coalition government.

Adding to their anger, Thailand's top court seized $1.4 billion of Thaksin's assets last month, saying it was accrued through abuse of power.

Thailand was plagued by political upheaval in 2008 when yellow-shirted protesters who opposed Thaksin's allies in the previous government occupied the prime minister's office for three months and then blockaded Bangkok's international airport until a court ousted the government.

(Writing by Jason Szep; Additional reporting by Ambika Ahuja; Editing by Louise Ireland)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100314/ts_nm/us_thailand_politics