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[jeffcool]

@ Calgaryll...... You need to lay off that Moonshine, sunshine......

And Stop going to those "political free debate" in Red villages mate....

[jonclark]

geriatrickid, on 2012-02-07 08:29:25, said:

Rather than  discuss  Mr. Amsterdam, how  about some attention be given to his statement. Do people agree or disagree with this;
The Yingluck administration is not fully in charge of this country. We all know it. We all know the Army has a veto over what happens here. Let's not pretend. And therefore I understand that were this government to [sack General Prayuth], it would be removed militarily without hesitation," he said. Nevertheless he wished Prayuth could be removed

I agree with him. The military is still calling the  plays and that is why there cannot be any progress on key issues such as corruption.

Perhaps he just misunderstands. We often hear that Farlangs don't understand Thailand and Thai people, So perhaps...just perhaps this farland doesn't or mis understands????

[hellodolly]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 11:30:58, said:

Now after the floods all has changed and the Army was always there to help
Thaskin was no where to be seen

Nothing has changed

The army was there to help, and they had better have been.

To try and equate a salaried state entity, conducting state assigned duties, while accumulating pensionable service,.......... with volunteerism is incorrect.

The UDD/Red Shirts singlehandedly did more than any other organized force in the country, to provide flood assistance to BKK.

I was personally wittness to seven (7) trips to Bangkok, involving sixteen (16) truckloads of stuff. Not pick-ups, but dumptruck equivelants.

The operation at Don Muang was excellent, in spite of the Opposition trying to use it to denigrate the Govt, with their incessant FROC-flogging.

To say that a non-volunteer force did everything and volunteerism did nothing, is a gross indecency.

You claim
"I was personally wittness to seven (7) trips to Bangkok, involving sixteen (16) truckloads of stuff. Not pick-ups, but dumptruck equivelants."

And you knew they were red shirts no one else.
I know that to be false as I personally donated at Makro and there were many other business donating. Besides seven truckloads is a drop in the bucket compared to what was donated and you claim it came from the majority of the people.

[Moruya]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 11:51:45, said:

• Are you saying that the electorate voted for Thaksin or Yingluck?
  Both. And they did it knowingly.
  
• Do you think they voted for the person or the handouts?
  Well, they didn't vote for Abhi and friends, who desparately tried to emulate the PTP when they realized they were going down the electoral tubes.
  
• Cronies are friends and relatives appointed to senior positions based on who they are not on their capabilities. See the Marcos and Castro families for example.
  Political appointees after an electoral victory are not cronies. They are like-minded people. This goes as much for Abhi. with his Kasit (as an example) as for Ms. Y. and Red Shirts. The spoils of electoral victories if you will.
  
• Your knowledge of English precludes you from understanding the finer points of some of my comments I'm afraid.
  Hopefully my answers rectify that for you.
  
• If you think the handling of the floods was "exemplary" then that tells me something......

Good.

I have had two people provide examples of international locxations whose disaster relief efforts matched what Ms. Y and Thailand did. Thanks to those who came up with them.

Judging Ms. Y and Thailand's performance can only be measured against other national entities faced with similar disasters. Just to say it was bad, without applying a standard to measure it against, is just so much Opposition folderol.

You didn't answer any questions and therefore I understand all.

[ginjag]

myfriendu, on 2012-02-07 11:52:11, said:

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 11:30:58, said:

Now after the floods all has changed and the Army was always there to help Thaskin was no where to be seen Nothing has changed

The army was there to help, and they had better have been.

To try and equate a salaried state entity, conducting state assigned duties, while accumulating pensionable service,.......... with volunteerism is incorrect.

The UDD/Red Shirts singlehandedly did more than any other organized force in the country, to provide flood assistance to BKK.

I was personally wittness to seven (7) trips to Bangkok, involving sixteen (16) truckloads of stuff. Not pick-ups, but dumptruck equivelants.

The operation at Don Muang was excellent, in spite of the Opposition trying to use it to denigrate the Govt, with their incessant FROC-flogging.

To say that a non-volunteer force did everything and volunteerism did nothing, is a gross indecency.

lol utter factless crap

This poster is entitled to his useless propaganda in favour of Mr. Amsterdam.  this man is a highly paid overweight, and will always be on the payroll until this rubbish he speaks is ended. Army is here to save the nation from dictatorship-pillage-plunder, and if these now in power carry on despite Khun Thaksin or Amsterdams money==it will sure step in again.
If they perform well (impossible with P.M. cabinet) there will be no problems.
If Abhisit and his reasonable cabinet was so bad-Why wasn't there a coup?????? to get him out. I am sure even the Dems being corrupt as this lot would have been out. All Thai governments have corruption, BUT non as much as this regime.

[CalgaryII]

You continue to post information that is not true and as usual you show your ignorance of Thailand.
What I post is true.

Not sure what else I can say to such a drve-by smear about opinions expressed.

The terrorists were against the Democrats not the army and the two Governments that followed them.
Anti-coup demonstrators and taxpayers are not terrorists. They are politically disenfranchised citizens who objected to their Govt. being stolen via a coup.

They were against Coup perps, and all their associates.
Get some one to read it to you it is well recorded.
I was there!
Explain how they gained any thing against the coup makers by invading a hospital?
There were many instances of opposition by the demonstrators.
This one in particular involved suspicions that anti-demonstration threats emenated from that location.
This particular hospital had a reputation, then and now, for being administered by anti-demonstrator activists.


O please enlighten us all. Yes they were martyrs they even used their children as shields. You are in good company with them.
Trying to demonize legitimate protesters rallying against a coup which stole their elected Governments, and were then assaulted by elements of the coup perps,  doesn't resonate with fair-minded people.

Answer me this why did they have to import the martyrs from area's with a very low education. There was millions in Bangkok. Yet they had caravans coming from Issan.
Thank you for that.

Yes, the protest against a Government these people elected had nation-wide participation.

Even the low-educated (I will ignore the arrogance of your comment) became thoroughly politicized. A much regretted side-effect of the coup by its' perpetrators.

Edited by CalgaryII, 2012-02-07 13:05:00.

[CalgaryII]

Sharp, on 2012-02-07 12:20:31, said:

Thank god the military are in charge ,better than theses clowns

So you prefer a military administration to elected officials?

Well OK, I guess we are not all in favor of Democracy.

The problem with that, is the military often cannot be 'unelected'.

If these 'clowns' as you characterize them are the screw-up you say, aren't you pleasde you can turf them in three years or so.

Good luck with that, as their current performance would certainly deserve re-election in even greater numbers.

If you want to prevent that, Abhi. and friends really need to do something different.

[CalgaryII]

Reasonableman, on 2012-02-07 12:30:06, said:

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 12:24:24, said:

Reasonableman, on 2012-02-07 11:41:39, said:

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 11:30:58, said:

Now after the floods all has changed and the Army was always there to help
Thaskin was no where to be seen

Nothing has changed

The army was there to help, and they had better have been.

To try and equate a salaried state entity, conducting state assigned duties, while accumulating pensionable service,.......... with volunteerism is incorrect.

The UDD/Red Shirts singlehandedly did more than any other organized force in the country, to provide flood assistance to BKK.

I was personally wittness to seven (7) trips to Bangkok, involving sixteen (16) truckloads of stuff. Not pick-ups, but dumptruck equivelants.

The operation at Don Muang was excellent, in spite of the Opposition trying to use it to denigrate the Govt, with their incessant FROC-flogging.

To say that a non-volunteer force did everything and volunteerism did nothing, is a gross indecency.

I'm afraid that all I saw of them was red-clad guys cruising ostentatiously around Ratchaprasong on their motorcycles trying to cadge "donations" from the same people they tried to incinerate. Good luck with that! Otherwise, they were notable by their absence.

WOW!

This opinion absolutely stuns me, having witnessed what I witnessed.

I cannot bring myself to respond to this one.

In fact the opinion is ..............

Enuf for this Post from CalgaryII

It is not opinion, it is what happened. Of course, you cannot rebut a fact.

See Post #95

[Moruya]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 13:03:11, said:

You continue to post information that is not true and as usual you show your ignorance of Thailand.
What I post is true.

Not sure what else I can say to such a drve-by smear about opinions expressed.

The terrorists were against the Democrats not the army and the two Governments that followed them.
Anti-coup demonstrators and taxpayers are not terrorists. They are politically disenfranchised citizens who objected to their Govt. being stolen via a coup.

They were against Coup perps, and all their associates.
Get some one to read it to you it is well recorded.
I was there!
Explain how they gained any thing against the coup makers by invading a hospital?
There were many instances of opposition by the demonstrators.
This one in particular involved suspicions that anti-demonstration threats emenated from that location.
This particular hospital had a reputation, then and now, for being administered by anti-demonstrator activists.


O please enlighten us all. Yes they were martyrs they even used their children as shields. You are in good company with them.
Trying to demonize legitimate protesters rallying against a coup which stole their elected Governments, and were then assaulted by elements of the coup perps,  doesn't resonate with fair-minded people.

Answer me this why did they have to import the martyrs from area's with a very low education. There was millions in Bangkok. Yet they had caravans coming from Issan.
Thank you for that.

Yes, the protest against a Government these people elected had nation-wide participation.

Even the low-educated (I will ignore the arrogance of your comment) became thoroughly politicized. A much regretted side-effect of the coup by its' perpetrators.

It would provide some credibility if you could provide copies of your passport to prove that you were here at the times mentioned. But not that much!

Now answer truthfully - is your name Robert Amsterdam?

If not, are you in any way related to him?

If not, are you in his employ?

If not, are you in any other form of relationship with him?

[CalgaryII]

So you got 2 nations which did better than Ms. Y

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't

Just throwing out the name of a couple places where a disaster occurred, after 30-seconds of thought, does not mean they did better or worse.

Only a researchy, analytical comparative would show if they did better or worse.

The Opposition should heed this advice, if they expect any credibility to their bald accusations that the Govt. screwed up disaster management. To make such a statement credible, one needs 'standards of performance"

And that in a time frame of a couple of minutes

Yeah, it didn't take long.

Hence my comments above.
Leaves me the question, when did you always asked this question and to whom did you always asked this question that you never received an answer?
Just take my word for it.

I did!

[CalgaryII]

Were those voters educated in England or Issan where many of the schools don't even have electricity.
Where they are learn to add two plus two with a calculator.

You really are ignorant of Thailand re you not. A head full of ideas based on no knowledge.

The above opinion and comments reek of arrogance.

To malign an entire class of people as uneducated dolts, who dont know their ass from their political interests, is arrogance in the extreme

.
You kept asking what did R A say well what he said was that Thaksin's government was not really running it. Com0ing from a man with a record for spinning facts into imagination no one really takes him to seriously.

If you had enough money and wanted to change other facts he would drop Thaksin like a hot potato and be your life time buddy

A large sector of the Thai electorate disagrees with you, and agrees with RA.

[hellodolly]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 12:37:32, said:

folium, on 2012-02-07 12:07:15, said:

moe666, on 2012-02-07 11:25:17, said:

folium, on 2012-02-07 11:11:59, said:

Maybe I just don't get it.

3 pages and endless to and fro about Thaksin and barely a word about the original statement that implied that Thailand is in effect a military run country, thus little different politically to Myanmar.

Isn't that what should be discussed or is it all too tricky?

The OP was one of Big Ts proxies saying what he has been paid to regurgatate. Yes the army has a certain amout of influence but a good counter weight aganist a fully in charge PTP with Big T actually running the government thru his sister.Give them everything they want and we have Marcos 2.

So you are saying it's fine to have an unaccountable military, with the right to stage a coup whenever their economic/personal power is threatened. It's fine to have a military who appear to at least tolerate freelance drug trafficking and timber extraction by its personnel, who are implicated in the recent murder of Chinese sailors/drug traffickers, who have a brutal way of dealing with Burmese migrants, who have a "robust", bordering on extra-judicial, style of crowd control as seen in April 2010 and May 1992.

All this and more because the ruling political party chosen by the majority of voters (given the vote-rigging and general vote-buying of course) needs to be "kept in check".

I'm no Thaksin or any other politico's apologist but simply someone who sees no place for a military in running a country. It's bad for the country, its people and ironically even bad for the military as can be seen in their inept performance in the southern provinces, the spate of helicopter accidents and the farce of recent hardware shopping.

Bravo to that!

]
Care to show where there is a ruling party run by the majority of voters. Here in Thailand we have a ruling party run by a minority of voters. Who owe their allegiance to a proven criminal on the run from justice.

You may be right by the military having no place in running a country but here in Thailand it is a part of the way it is and a good thing it is. We all saw how the army got out and helped with the flood with out the Government telling them to do so. If it had not been for them we would be under a dictatorship now.
Until Thailand can step up to the plate and except democracy the military will be the only buffer between Democracy and dictatorship.

For those who don't know Democracy is the election by a majority of voters under no pressure t vote as they wish. Now if any one thinks that is what we have here I have a map to a sunken Spanish galleon loaded with doubloons I will let you have for 5% of the treasure with a up front payment of 1,000,000 Baht.

[jeffcool]

"Leaves me the question, when did you always asked this question and to whom did you always asked this question that you never received an answer?
Just take my word for it.

I did!"

The 7 years old kids that runs around your home in Ubon are not the most experts on the questions my friend......

[hellodolly]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 12:45:59, said:

hellodolly, on 2012-02-07 12:20:10, said:

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 10:12:00, said:

Moruya, on 2012-02-07 07:59:59, said:

The question here is why anyone should pay any attention to a man who is hired by the opposition to run noise for them.

Mister Amsterdam, when you have a government that is being run by the Shinawatra family, its extended family including the Damapongs, friends and other crony assiciates of your clients, you do not have democracy.

If this sorry collection of paid individuals performed well for the country in a matter, say, similar to Singapore then that could possibly be overlooked. But it doesn't.

If the cabinet had performed from the kick-off, we wouldn't have had all these changes (more cronies) but they screwed up whatever they touched. Flooding and post-flood are still disasters. The heros here were the army.

So in a world with minsiters every 5 minutes you want the defense of the country in the same basket? Another man with Shinawatra DNA? Maybe someone with Zimbabwean roots?

Methinks you and your employers are after the crown jewels Mister Amsterdam

• Like him or not, he represents the views of a huge electoral block in the country, those responsible for electing Ms. Y. and co. That is why one should pay attention.
  
• In spite of all the electoral faults of Thailand, this Govt. was elected, and is Democratic as a result. For Thailand, this is pretty good.
  
• This collection of individuals were elected in as fair an election as Thailand can muster.
  
• Political appointees after an election are not cronies, but appointees by those who were elected by the people. Next time Abhi. and Co. win an election, they will also appoint people of their own kind - not cronies.
  
• But those "crown jewels" won an election and were the choice to govern thailand by a majority of the governed.
  
• How the flood was handled was exemplary when compared to how other nations and leaders handled their disasters. Whenever one is inclined to criticise this Govts. handling of the flood disaster, I always ask the question, "which nation and leader did better?' I have never received an answer to that question.

JAPAN

Just saying Japan is not enough, as are the two other examples that were Posted (Nederland and an area of Australia).

A appreciate the response, but to be credible, one would need to analyze and research these comparators.

Not opinionating of the top-of-our head here after a 30-second thought delay before posting, but a thorough analysis.

The Opposition would make their charge of Govt. Flood mismanagement credible if they took the time to show how awfull Thailand did, compared to others of similar circumstances in a particular initiative. The notion of comparing oranges to oranges and not apples obviously applies.

I was particularly impressed with Ms. Y's hard work, engagement and empathy. Other than the oposition camp, she was widely admired.

They only comparative example I can think of that equalled Ms. Y's performance, was the Chile leader who really got involved in rescuing those miners.

Not according to the rules of negotiating you laid out earlier.
Just another red shirt who gets what he wants so he changes the rules.
You really are a sad individual.
I find it amusing that all the villagers in the countless villages you helped collect donations understood hat it was easier to pass it hand to hand than to lift up on to a truck.
Pretty well speaks to your knowledge of reality.

[CalgaryII]

It would provide some credibility if you could provide copies of your passport to prove that you were here at the times mentioned. But not that much!

I trust my points-of-view give some clue to having been in the environs

Now answer truthfully - is your name Robert Amsterdam?

LOL

Never met the man, although I believe he is a fellow Canadian, in spite of his Dutch name.

If not, are you in any way related to him?

Only being a fellow Canuck

If not, are you in his employ?

No.

Not smart enough

retired, fat 'n happy in Thailand with a professional, well educated, lovely Thai lady

.
If not, are you in any other form of relationship with him?

LOL

[hellodolly]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 13:11:36, said:

Sharp, on 2012-02-07 12:20:31, said:

Thank god the military are in charge ,better than theses clowns

So you prefer a military administration to elected officials?

Well OK, I guess we are not all in favor of Democracy.

The problem with that, is the military often cannot be 'unelected'.

If these 'clowns' as you characterize them are the screw-up you say, aren't you pleasde you can turf them in three years or so.

Good luck with that, as their current performance would certainly deserve re-election in even greater numbers.

If you want to prevent that, Abhi. and friends really need to do something different.

Explain O mighty sage how a government with only 46% of the vote is a democratic one.

[takatukaland]

moe666, on 2012-02-07 11:11:35, said:

What about what he said, he said exactly what he was told to say by Big T. If anyone thinks these were Amsterdams
opinions then I have some swamp land in Issaan I will sale with full canote

but still true what he said since 1932 15 coups or attempts,i think this says all

[folium]

whybother, on 2012-02-07 12:38:39, said:

folium, on 2012-02-07 12:07:15, said:

So you are saying it's fine to have an unaccountable military, with the right to stage a coup whenever their economic/personal power is threatened. It's fine to have a military who appear to at least tolerate freelance drug trafficking and timber extraction by its personnel, who are implicated in the recent murder of Chinese sailors/drug traffickers, who have a brutal way of dealing with Burmese migrants, who have a "robust", bordering on extra-judicial, style of crowd control as seen in April 2010 and May 1992.

All this and more because the ruling political party chosen by the majority of voters (given the vote-rigging and general vote-buying of course) needs to be "kept in check".

I'm no Thaksin or any other politico's apologist but simply someone who sees no place for a military in running a country. It's bad for the country, its people and ironically even bad for the military as can be seen in their inept performance in the southern provinces, the spate of helicopter accidents and the farce of recent hardware shopping.

It's not fine to have an unaccountable military, but if you think that would change under Thaksin (or the current government), I think you would be sorely mistaken.

The government doesn't need to have control over military appointments to stop coups, drug trafficking, etc.  They need to enact laws and make sure they are enforced.

And until the majority of people also agree that it is utterly wrong for the military to have run the country for the last 80 years it will not change. I do fully understand that current politicians lack the means or the desire to change the status quo, but as events in Egypt and elsewhere have shown in the last 12 months once yo p**s off enough people change will come. Sadly if you get on the wrong side of history it can be unpleasant, and the longer an unaccountable power base is allowed to remain the messier its removal becomes for all parties involved.

[Reasonableman]

This is from Wikipedia, so is not necessarily authoritative or objective. Please use your own best judgment:

RA Blogging activity

Amsterdam has two official blogs listed on Amsterdam & Peroff’s website:^[20] and.^[21] Amsterdam has published more than 5,000 original articles on his main blog and many legal blogs have cited his ^[22]" The prestigious blog "Siberian Light has ranked ^[23]" as one of the "Top 5 Russia blogs."^[24] Amsterdam's blog was also a finalist in the 2007 Weblog Awards.^[25] Among the various publications mentioning Mr. Amsterdam's achievements, a recent article published on the legal circuit quoted colleague lawyers stating that Amsterdam's blogging and lobbying activities are an example demonstrating legal and ethical obligations to clients.^[26] Amsterdam is known to use Blogs as a platform for sharing his cause with internet readers. He is well verse with gorilla [guerrilla, sic] marketing and getting his clients point across the web in a short amount of time. K Social Media Consulting LLC ^[27] is a company that runs full scale media campaigns for clients. Amsterdam employs this company to establish a strong presence in the online community to support his clients cause. Although Robert Amsterdam champions free speech, many people have raised concerns when they try to post comments on his Blog that does not support Mr. Amsterdam's view. Internet readers have repetitively said that their comments were never posted or simply deleted on Amsterdam's blogs.

Edited by Reasonableman, 2012-02-07 14:00:53.

[longway]

folium, on 2012-02-07 11:11:59, said:

Maybe I just don't get it.

3 pages and endless to and fro about Thaksin and barely a word about the original statement that implied that Thailand is in effect a military run country, thus little different politically to Myanmar.

Isn't that what should be discussed or is it all too tricky?

If the military etc were to vanish from thailand today, thailand would become even less democratic than it is now tomorrow. thats the tricky bit that the red shirt faux democracy activists never address.

Whats happening now is a transfer of power from bangkok to isaan, the culture of cronyism, nepotism, violence and corruption remains untouched as ever, mob rule with a different geographic centre.

Edited by longway, 2012-02-07 14:27:51.

[hellodolly]

Reasonableman, on 2012-02-07 13:50:23, said:

This is from Wikipedia, so is not necessarily authoritative or objective. Please use your own best judgment:

RA Blogging activity

Amsterdam has two official blogs listed on Amsterdam & Peroff’s website:^[20] and.^[21] Amsterdam has published more than 5,000 original articles on his main blog and many legal blogs have cited his ^[22]" The prestigious blog "Siberian Light has ranked ^[23]" as one of the "Top 5 Russia blogs."^[24] Amsterdam's blog was also a finalist in the 2007 Weblog Awards.^[25] Among the various publications mentioning Mr. Amsterdam's achievements, a recent article published on the legal circuit quoted colleague lawyers stating that Amsterdam's blogging and lobbying activities are an example demonstrating legal and ethical obligations to clients.^[26] Amsterdam is known to use Blogs as a platform for sharing his cause with internet readers. He is well verse with gorilla [guerrilla, sic] marketing and getting his clients point across the web in a short amount of time. K Social Media Consulting LLC ^[27] is a company that runs full scale media campaigns for clients. Amsterdam employs this company to establish a strong presence in the online community to support his clients cause. Although Robert Amsterdam champions free speech, many people have raised concerns when they try to post comments on his Blog that does not support Mr. Amsterdam's view. Internet readers have repetitively said that their comments were never posted or simply deleted on Amsterdam's blogs.

I notice it says nothing about his honesty just that he can promote and t doesn't have to be a honest point of view for him to promote.

[Roadman]

folium, on 2012-02-07 13:50:11, said:

whybother, on 2012-02-07 12:38:39, said:

folium, on 2012-02-07 12:07:15, said:

So you are saying it's fine to have an unaccountable military, with the right to stage a coup whenever their economic/personal power is threatened. It's fine to have a military who appear to at least tolerate freelance drug trafficking and timber extraction by its personnel, who are implicated in the recent murder of Chinese sailors/drug traffickers, who have a brutal way of dealing with Burmese migrants, who have a "robust", bordering on extra-judicial, style of crowd control as seen in April 2010 and May 1992.

All this and more because the ruling political party chosen by the majority of voters (given the vote-rigging and general vote-buying of course) needs to be "kept in check".

I'm no Thaksin or any other politico's apologist but simply someone who sees no place for a military in running a country. It's bad for the country, its people and ironically even bad for the military as can be seen in their inept performance in the southern provinces, the spate of helicopter accidents and the farce of recent hardware shopping.

It's not fine to have an unaccountable military, but if you think that would change under Thaksin (or the current government), I think you would be sorely mistaken.

The government doesn't need to have control over military appointments to stop coups, drug trafficking, etc.  They need to enact laws and make sure they are enforced.

And until the majority of people also agree that it is utterly wrong for the military to have run the country for the last 80 years it will not change. I do fully understand that current politicians lack the means or the desire to change the status quo, but as events in Egypt and elsewhere have shown in the last 12 months once yo p**s off enough people change will come. Sadly if you get on the wrong side of history it can be unpleasant, and the longer an unaccountable power base is allowed to remain the messier its removal becomes for all parties involved.

Your opening statement is incorrect. The Thai Army under the command of this and the previous General does not take action when "their economic/personal power is threatened". Those days are gone.They only two times they have taken action this millineum is when the convicted criminal scum Thaksin was about to step beyond the democratic process to one of populist control in 2006 and when the same piece of scum attacked Thailand and the Thai Army in an act of war in the streets of Bangkok in 2010. In both cases in any western democracy force would have been used to the same extent the difference being in the first instance it would be the police as the law force on behalf of the public. Given that the police in Thailand are crooked and even more bent than the Army and are in the pocket of the convicted criminal scum Thaksin then the Army is the upholder of the law in Thailand. Is it ideal? Of course it bloody is not. Do the Army have faults? Of course they do. So do the pack of thievies, convicted criminals, murderers, and general scum that are currently running this country.
Nowhere do I see the current Thai Army running the country along the lines of the examples that you and other posters have put up (Burma). The only time they had power in 2006 after moving the governance back to a democratic process they were quick to happily give it back and even then to more of the convicted criminal Thaksins cronies. If you bothered to read the statements given by the current and previous Army Generals it is very clear to see that their bottom line intent is to provide a platform in Thailand for the democratic process to take hold. All their actions over the last 6 years or so have backed that up. Even look now at this bunch of scum that are leading the country and the Army is staying out of governance and allowing them to make their mess.
The message from the Army is clear to Pheu Thai. Destroy the country economically if you are that incredibily incompentent but do it within democratic process and they will stay on the side line. Cross the line and the Army will step back in to recorrect back to the democratic process. Given the corruption within Thailand, the police force incompentence and the convicted criminal Thaksins complete disregard for the law then the best thing about Thailand right now is the Army on the sideline as the law. A democratic process would be great but that sits hand in hand with another process that Thaksin and the rest of his thievies have no regard for - the law.
Long may the Thai Army be there to uphold that law until such time (if ever) that Thailand's political parties can learn what responsible democratic governance is. This lot in there now sure as hell don't.

Edited by Roadman, 2012-02-07 14:36:18.

[rubl]

A Robert A. opinion piece and no-one yet to complain about the drivel theNation tends to publish? Well phrased drivel, I must admit, Robert A. has a way with word.

[longway]

CalgaryII, on 2012-02-07 11:16:58, said:

"..........asserting that the numbers voting for them (PTP) would increase if an election was called tomorrow or that the voters are even more solidly behind the governement is just speculation on your part.


But I stand firmly behind this speculation.

Let's save this message and talk again after the next election.

I ask you again:

Was the country more democratic in 2001 or in 2005? If the military and especially 'etc' were so anti democratic as claimed, can you name another country in SE asia that had a more free press or was more democratic in 2001? Why were there no coups between 1992 and 2006?

[bigbamboo]

Soupdragon, on 2012-02-07 10:36:29, said:

geriatrickid, on 2012-02-07 08:29:25, said:

Rather than  discuss  Mr. Amsterdam, how  about some attention be given to his statement. Do people agree or disagree with this;
The Yingluck administration is not fully in charge of this country. We all know it. We all know the Army has a veto over what happens here. Let's not pretend. And therefore I understand that were this government to [sack General Prayuth], it would be removed militarily without hesitation," he said. Nevertheless he wished Prayuth could be removed

I agree with him. The military is still calling the  plays and that is why there cannot be any progress on key issues such as corruption.

Do you really believe that if you removed the army from the equation that the current administration would become less corrupt ?

I beg to differ sir, I think it would be open season on the nations assets.

If we accept the general view in Thailand that Thaksin is running the country and already having relatives running the government and the police then putting another in charge of the military would enable him to control everything to such an extent he could eradicate corruption in the kingdom in no time, along with drugs, flooding, traffic jams, gambling, the mafia, soi dogs, rubbish burning, illegal logging, prostitution, even jet ski scams and Thailand would be a land of never ending smiles again.

Edited by bigbamboo, 2012-02-07 14:56:03.