Inaugral Blog

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,

Yes thats correct, I have finally decided to attempt to keep up with the fast moving world of the internet. Blogs, podcasts and anything with an .xml are keeping my mind active at the moment.

School has finished, well for teaching anyway. I am still contracted until the 31st of March, so I am required to come to school which currently resembles a ghost town.

The interesting political situation that has arisen in the Land of Smiles is something I have been following closely. Lets start from the beginning shall we.

Disclaimer: Although I have done my best to keep informed of the facts, the following is the situation as I understand it. The facts conveyed are not claimed to be exact. This is merely a guide for you, if you wish to know more follow the links.

The Man:

Thaksin Shinawatra, the second richest man in Thailand also happens to be the Prime Minister. He was the owner of Shincorp. This company was considered a national asset as it provides the majority of people with there telecommunications needs. During his reign as PM, he changed a whole lot of corporate laws to favour himself in business deals as well as friends and family. He is also implicated in numerous other scandals, such as missing bomb detectors at the new airport. (Just see the new US State Department Human Rights report)
The whole thing stinks of corruption.


What he did:

Last year Mr Thaksin decided to start an offshore investment company called AmpleRich Pty. Ltd. Apart from its rather suggestive name it didn't actually do anything in the way of investing or otherwise... Until recently that is. Mr Thaksin and the other share holders of Shincorp (his children) decided to sell Shincorp to AmpleRich, but luckily because they sold it at the low low price of 1 baht per share (about 65 baht below valued price) they managed not to pay any tax. AmpleRich then sold these shares at their agreed share price of around 70 baht each to a Singaporean company. Leaving Mr Thaksin 70 billion baht richer and avoiding any form of tax whatsoever as there is no captial gains tax on the sharemarket here. There is much more to it than this, but thats about as simply as I can put it for now.


The People:

At least twice a week there are protests around the country demanding the PM's resignation with crowds ranging from 10,000 people to 200,000 people. These rallies are met by a large police presence, usually having their power cut by order of the local Governor. The people of the South and Central Thailand being in a better financial position, and therefor more educated, are mad as hell and use every opportunity to complain about the gross misconduct of their PM. Unfortunately, in the North and North East of Thailand the poorer and lower educated are rallied to agree with the PM through bribes and propaganda, the media in these areas is restricted and lately some television channels (owned by anti-Thaksin lobbyists) have had there feeds cut altogether. A recent pro-Thaksin rally in Bangkok sported 200,000 people, some of whom admitted later to being paid 500 baht for their attendance.

The Election:

Because of all the trouble, the PM has dissolved parliament and become care-taker PM until the April 2 snap election, which he is expected to win again. The King is being lobbied to disallow Thaksin from rerunning as PM but to no avail. The angry portion of the public want Thaksin out, with good reason I think. There is much confusion now as there are calls to boycott the election. This is how it works, If Thai Rak Thai (Thaksin's party) are the only political party standing and less than 20 percent of the population votes, the election is void. In Trang there were 2 candidates until the opposing candidates admitted being bribed 30,000 baht to stand. Thaksin has agreed to stand down, if he does not receive at least 50 percent of the vote.

What will happen:

The boycott will not work. It is difficult for people to understand, as it is for me. Thaksin will be re-elected in a landslide just as he was last election. There is the possibility of violence after the elections, the Thai people are passionate about this issue. There has already been politically motivated murders, bombings etc.

Footnote:

On average 17 candidates are murdered during each election.


Hope you all feel a little more enlightened on Thai politics.

Oink

Steve