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  • Martial Law takes over Thailand

    I woke up to hear this on the news morning.. that the Prime Minister of Thailand had been ejected from the country and was told he would be arrested if he returned!! :0 :0 !??!..
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/5361512.stm
    Personally i had no idea things were like that politically over there.. according to the report i caught this morning, the reasons for the coup are that he robs ppl of too many personal freedoms and human rights and that he's been currupt!.. who'd of thought thAt from a politician??..
    Apparently they're saying that despite the tanks and so forth in the streets, abnd besides sending at least as fars I know, AustrAlians home..that it's still safe for travel??..

    Doc, What's your take on whats been going on there???.. ??

    BtL.

  • #2
    Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was not ejected from the country. He was not even in Thailand when the coup d'etat went down. He was in New York at the UN building about to make a speech. The King of Thailand and others in power were not too happy with all the friends and family that Thaksin gave high ranking jobs to. Most of them have now lost those good paying jobs. Thaksin used to own one of the biggest Telephone providers in Thailand, he just sold it to a company in Singapore for over 1.5 billion in US dollars, that's a lot of Baht. The king was not too happy with a non-Thai company having control of a major utility in his country. And the fact that Thaksin and partners did not pay any taxes to Thailand for that sale. So the General of the Army, with the blessing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, will run the country for two more weeks until they name a new Prime Minister. And Thailand survives another coup, like the dozen others in the last 30 years.
    Life goes on in paradise and the party in Patong never stops.
    As in this story from Phuket Post today:

    Phuket celebrates coup
    (2006-09-21 10:00:06)


    Phuket celebrated the peaceful coup in Bangkok yesterday by taking advantage of the military declared national holiday. While banks and government offices closed for the day shops and bars remained open and busy.

    Central Festival was reported to have had shortages in car park space, as did both Tesco Lotus and Big C, but there has been no reported stockpiling of necessities such as rice or water but many convenience stores claim to have seen a run on beer, whisky and cigarettes.

    Phuket has never been a Thaksin or Thai Rak Thai stronghold so it was of little surprise that a number of bars and restaurants celebrated the ousting of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra with free drinks and special discounts for customers.

    Such was the laid back reaction of local Thai citizens to the events in Bangkok that one tourist described the mood as "Between upbeat and downright happy" and also commented that "Phuket's tourist industry seems to be completely unchanged and unaffected by this, in fact the whole country seems to be relieved if anything!"
    Last edited by Steve; 09-21-2006, 10:10 AM.
    I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
    "Life can keep providing the rain and I'll keep providing the parade."
    "I would just like to say that after all these years of heavy drinking, bright lights and late nights, I still don't need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle."
    "Whatever guy said that money don't buy you pleasure didn't know where to go shopping"

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    • #3
      Pictures emailed to me by friend in Thailand. Taken yesterday in Bangkok.
      Attached Files
      I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
      "Life can keep providing the rain and I'll keep providing the parade."
      "I would just like to say that after all these years of heavy drinking, bright lights and late nights, I still don't need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle."
      "Whatever guy said that money don't buy you pleasure didn't know where to go shopping"

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      • #4
        more pictures of military in Bangkok
        Attached Files
        I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
        "Life can keep providing the rain and I'll keep providing the parade."
        "I would just like to say that after all these years of heavy drinking, bright lights and late nights, I still don't need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle."
        "Whatever guy said that money don't buy you pleasure didn't know where to go shopping"

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        • #5
          why cant some like that happen here in the US?
          "What is barely legal?" - Ali G

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          • #6
            Bargirls for Thaksin

            From my favorite Patongtimes.com - Phuket's 22nd finest news source

            BARGIRLS FOR THAKSIN

            A group of Isarn bargirls have pledged allegiance to deposed Prime Minister Thaksin and are vowing to support him no matter what. They claim they are willing to defend him using any means possible if he returns to Thailand. One bargirl has been named Defence leader for the group and given the task of fashioning guns out of ping pong balls and g-strings. The group has stated they will use the ping pong g-string guns only if attacked or if paid money by farangs.
            I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
            "Life can keep providing the rain and I'll keep providing the parade."
            "I would just like to say that after all these years of heavy drinking, bright lights and late nights, I still don't need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle."
            "Whatever guy said that money don't buy you pleasure didn't know where to go shopping"

            Comment


            • #7
              uhuh.. sounds effective. l-).

              .. cheers. thats an Interesting take on that.
              ..the moost intersting part being ( besides how easy farang are to enterantain while their real life goes on elsewhere) is maybe the exprime minister ( and family)'s personal belief system and how that effects how they've been handling affairs there.

              I heard that the Thai ppl were compaining tat alot of their personal freedoms had been oppressed ( as with alot of asian countries and ppl ), but Thailand with it's rep for a massive predominantly theravadan buddhist operandi is kind of intriguing..
              that 'smaller vehicle ' seems to reeeally resemble co-dependancy and exactly the same subordinancy bs that I've been talking about that you see in christianity and so forh.

              aand quietly in the movie 'bring it on' that my kid made me watch with her where the tradtional varisty full of mens entertainment purposes and reeeally little else cheersquad plays off againast the rebels who are dirt, freaky, loud proud, sinceere and so forth ( as oppsed to look at me ..i'm a barbie doll .. wanna feed me forever " and stiiill wont kiss your ass or sell it to ya.. and end up winning the right to be considered the best representation of what the school wants to present.

              ...
              As far I'm concerned, it all still comes down to the fact ppl juast don't feel loved ..and maybe that that doesn't exist at all.. that' s also what i believe Scn are saying at their crux.. and why I just can't disagree..

              thanks for the background on it.

              Bl.

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              • #8
                Well, I'll give my two cents, as to what I think really happened in Thailand. And you wont' see this on the news.

                I think it has to do with the Muslims. The insurgents in the three southern provinces, below Hat Yai, next to Malaysia, have been fighting with the Thai for hundreds of years. They, kind of like the Palestinians, want their own homeland. Problem is, the land that they have been on, belongs to Thailand. And, for some reason, the Malay's don't want these people. So, continual conflict occurs regularly to some degree.

                More and more bombings have been occuring. These are not Al Queda types, though, recently, and this has not been publicized in the world news much, imans down south have been threatening to associate with Al Queda operatives. Initially, it was thought to be just an idle threat. However, the week previous to the coup, five bombs went of almost simultaneously in Hat Yai, which is directly north of the three muslim provinces. A few foreigners were killed. It was not widely publicized in the world press.

                The problem with Thaksin, other than the fact that he had been doing some "legal" things tax wise with company sales (most people didn't appreciate the fact that he was using certain loopholes), was that he treated the southern muslims with an iron glove. He was coming down hard on these insurgents, and, probably, rightly so. No doubt he was controlling their activities to some degree. But, one of the more popular imans down there had threatened to start bringing the terror campaign to Bangkok and Phuket.

                Needless to say, a bomb in Phuket would wipe out tourism for a year or more. What happened to Bali was disastrous. The country won't recover for another five years, if that.

                It's my opinion, that this recent bombing in Hat Yai, which, also had the hallmarks of an Al Queda bombing, kind of pushed the military and the king into action. By getting rid of Thaksin, they were sending a message to the muslims that there was some sort of hope with respect to taking care of them. Which, hopefully, will prevent some sort of stupid terrorist attack in Phuket, and which, would keep the booming tourist economy moving.

                I'm returning in a few days. For some reason, whether it's SARS, Bird Flu, tsunami, bombings, and now, military coup, I seem to be there during all sorts of shit. I expect nothing to have changed.

                Ironically, if you look in the Shaolin Satire section, for the April Fools joke where I was "in jail", the newspaper clipping that I photoshopped myself into, was actually a headline talking about "putting the prime minister Thaksin in jail". I knew few would be able to read it, and I thought it would be funny to use that headline for my own "incarceration". You can find that here: http://www.russbo.org/vb/showthread.php?t=2706

                People still believe I was in jail. Gonna have to write about that one day.
                Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                (more comments in my User Profile)
                russbo.com


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                • #9
                  Apparently the army chief/coup leader is also a muslim.. which raises some interesting possibilities..

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                  • #10
                    Yes, it does. But, the muslims in Thailand are kind of different than the muslims elsewhere. They're brought up in Thai culture, which imparts in them this concept of "loving the king above all" kind of thing. So, there is sort of a conflict going on, between allegiance to Islam, and allegiance to the royal family. Some of my best friends in Thailand are muslim, and they really don't understand why there is all of this radical unrest in the rest of the world. Then again, there are some areas with muslim, that kind of lean towards irrational god fearing behavior from time to time. But, other than the three southern provinces, that's kind of rare.

                    I'll have to write about the "white paper" concept one of these days. It was very obvious a month ago when I was on that medical mission to a poor area of the Philippines.
                    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                    (more comments in my User Profile)
                    russbo.com


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                    • #11
                      The most common question that I've been barraged with these past two days:
                      The military overthrew the government, aren't you worried about going back?
                      Well, no. Military coups I can deal with.

                      Returning to the incipient wrath of three very jealous Thai girlfriends is going to be a problem.
                      Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

                      "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

                      (more comments in my User Profile)
                      russbo.com


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                      • #12
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