March 31, 2024: Thais are anticipating digital wallet and the biggest section of the population is politically neutral, according to the latest Super Poll survey.
Almost 1,400 Thais were covered by the poll which was carried out last week. It showed as many as 46.2% saying they support neither side of the political divide. Nearly 31% back the “conservatives” (the government side) and 23% the “liberals” (the opposition).
This goes against the popular belief that the Move Forward Party in the opposition is enjoying massive support, so much so that it would win the next election easily.
Another potentially-controversial part of the survey is its finding that on top of Thai people’s wish list is digital money. More than 67% want the government to solve economic problems, deliver digital money, put food on the table and increase business fluidity. Nearly 64% demand an urgent action on the “call centre” frauds or online scams. Almost 62% say debt problems (both legal and illegal borrowings) are affecting families and must be solved.
March 30, 2024: Thaksin Shinawatra’s return from exile, Srettha Thavisin’s rise to the premiership, Jakrapob Penkair’s homecoming and resumption of Pheu Thai’s overall political control has given rise to one theory.
Has the party been intentionally rebuilding its clout using Move Forward’s naivete from the very beginning?
In other words, goes this theory, those developments were next to impossible but Pheu Thai “used” Move Forward to scare the conservatives witless, so much so that Thaksin, with a minimum fuss, managed to return home almost as a hero without having to spend a single day behind bars while Pheu Thai breezed into Government House, regained control of key ministries, is posed to execute its flagship policies and slowly but surely reinforces the dominance of the Shinawatras and Co.
When Thaksin returned home after the general election last May, many thought he picked the worst timing possible. Yet, it could be the other way around in fact. Under no other circumstances would it have been so easy. He came back through the best window of opportunities.
The other possibility is that it was unplanned but Pheu Thai was smart enough to capitalise on the situation.
Either way, whether Pheu Thai intended it or not, the catch is obvious. The party has to pay with its much of its popularity. If Pheu Thai had been using Move Forward, the table is being turned. If Pheu Thai wanted Move Forward to self-destruct being Move Forward, Move Forward may be doing intentionally the same with Pheu Thai.
As for the conservatives, they still mistrust Pheu Thai and the suspicion is growing. Actually, the theory that Pheu Thai has been using Move Forward to facilitate a return to power has come out of their camp. In a way, they have used Pheu Thai to halt Move Forward’s surge.
It’s a fascinating triangular no matter what. It was a Pheu Thai-Move Forward alliance fighting the isolated conservatives during the last years of the Prayut government but now it is a Pheu Thai-conservatives alliance leaving Move Forward isolated. The last-remaining possibility is a conservatives-Move Forward partnership while Pheu Thai is out in the cold. Yes, the scenario is highly unlikely, but whoever said two years ago that Pheu Thai would form a government with the conservatives would have been committed to a mental facility.
March 29, 2024: Once in a while, a country where much of the population bets profusely on underground lottery and is consumed by football gambling will debate the merits and perils of legalised casinos.
The divisive issue is rearing its head again, thanks to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin’s determination to make “grey businesses”, well, less grey.
“We have lost too much time and too many opportunities,” said Srettha while announcing through X (Twitter) that legalised casinos, if it happens, will be part of the “Entertainment Complex” that the government wants to launch.
According to him, the government wants to upgrade the tourism industry and compete with Singapore in areas Thailand has been unable to compete. Thailand should be a one-stop tourism destination, he insisted.
Such ambition would require legalisation of gambling. Or maybe “clarification of gambling” will sound more like it. As top police officials are clashing over alleged online gambling bribes reportedly as high as hundreds of millions of baht per year, rural police are raiding ramshackle houses where folks after a long day at the rice field are playing cards for about 20-100 baht in the pot per game.
March 28, 2024: More evidence of possibly high-level bribe taking has been submitted to investigators as the biggest crisis facing the Thai police threatens to erupt and destroy everyone in sight.
Well-known lawyer Sittra Biabungerd is adding to the pressure building in the police volcano by sending what he calls money trails that can expose a bribe-taking network at the highest level of the force. He is doing so against a backdrop of two top-most police officials having been transferred to inactive posts for two months at Government House due to their tumultuous conflict involving back-and-forth allegations made through colleagues.
The issue, already regarded as the most detrimental scandal of the scandal-plagued Thai police, is still snowballing. Sittra’s move is seen as putting temporarily-transferred national police chief, Pol Gen Torsak Sukvimol, in a hot seat in his showdown with one of his deputies, Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn, who has also been transferred.
Surachate is facing potential arrest for alleged online gambling links, but Sittra said money trails also pointed at a very senior police official who is not Surachate.
According to Sittra, who has been involved in several high-profile cases, police bribery is deep-rooted, systematic, goes to the highest level, and involves a massive amount of money and some unexpected activities such as illegal Indian immigrants selling nuts.
March 27, 2024: To be on the safe side, anyone related with Pheu Thai and having a date with Thaksin Shinawatra must leave his or her smartphone before entering the room. Bad news is they won’t do it.
Worse news is the conversation will certainly veer away from “How’s your health now?” or “I take that medicine, too. It’s great” toward administrative or political affairs. “Digital wallet is getting difficult” or “I have no idea what to do to shut those police officials up” are some examples.
The worst possible scenario has Thaksin totally forget his status and likely consequences and give out answers, opinion or advice. A recording of such a dialogue could be done, the mobile phone could get lost, or the visitor could become a rebel later, and the rest would be history, constitutionally speaking.
Visits or meetings from top to bottom are taking place, either initiated by Thaksin or the other way around. Everyone seems too much comfortable for comfort.
March 26, 2024: Israel’s reaction must have made Washington wonder if the decision to abstain from a Gaza ceasefire voting at the United Nation Security Council, in effect allowing the resolution to pass, was worth it.
The other countries supported the resolution. The United States gritted its teeth and abstained. Without its veto, the resolution passed.
It’s better late than never. But while the abstention was crucial, it did little about the embarrassment that the White House has had to face for vetoing previous UNSC ceasefire calls and prompted many to ask: Why didn’t you just go ahead and vote “Yes” openly?
After all, being the only one who abstained is not something to be proud of on the global stage. If anything, it only highlighted the painful diplomatic fact that Washington cared too much about an ally accused by many of conducting a campaign of genocide. And if America did not want so to hurt Israel too much, the approach didn’t work.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly scrapped a planned delegation to Washington, a trip which US President Joe Biden so wanted. Other reactions coming out of Israeli claimed the United States now all but doomed the remaining hostages.
Simply put, Israel believes it’s “too much” while the rest of the world thinks it’s “too little”. But while Israel is sulking, ambiguity remains and the lack of absolute consensus cannot be all good for the Palestinians.
March 25, 2024: For what seems like an eternity, Thailand has been governed more by ideological politics than a government that serves real needs of the people.
A true leader has to change that, willing to be bombarded by both sides of the national divide, because it was ideological disagreement that has prevented governmental concentration on genuine problems like corruption and injustice suffered by man on the street, not political activists.
Even the on-going senatorial grilling of Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has ideological agendas written all over it. But make no mistake, the Senate’s attack dealt with certain “real” problems as well (although taunts about him acting like a salesman trying to “sell” Thailand while on overseas trips are ridiculous, because they would have criticised him all the same had he not taken the opportunities to promote the country).
Srettha’s charisma and clout are weak for obvious reasons. He is not in the biggest party and worse still the party he is in has Thaksin and Paetongtarn Shinawatra. He will always be considered a nominee of a party perceived by no small part of the country to be too focused on itself and interest.
It’s next to impossible for him to break through that. But he must, starting with trying to see what is politics and what Thailand really needs as a nation. It’s simply because the two things can be like oil and water.
March 24, 2024: The second biggest party might want to stick to its reluctant allies like glue after digesting the latest NIDA survey which showed its continued decline.
A firmer hug of its allies should be Pheu Thai’s first priority. The second has to be doing everything possible to ensure that a House dissolution will not come early.
The popularity poll has Pita Limjaroenrat as the most preferred prime minister (42.75 % against 17.75% for Srettha Thavisin and 6 % for Paetongtarn Shinawatra). Move Forward is the most popular party with 48.45% support, more than doubling that of Pheu Thai (22.10%).
The poll was conducted just before the middle of this month with some 2,000 Thais surveyed across the country.
Good news, perhaps, for Pheu Thai is the finding that its support plus those enjoyed by the conservatives and the percentage of “undecided” populace could still edge Move Forward if combined. But this is still early in the game.
March 23, 2024: Leicester City’s chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha has good reasons to be bitter. England’s football authorities dealing with financial fair play are zooming on his club at a time when they stand a very good chance of returning to the Premier League, but the governing people are showing no similar determination and urgency against Manchester City.
How the authorities have been handling numerous financial charges against Arab-owned Manchester City is under increasing scrutiny of the football world now, not least because poorer and less influential clubs with far fewer cases of financial irregularities like Leicester City and Everton (now in the Premier League) have either been penalised or told that punishment would come before the end of the season.
Leicester City are in a comfortable position in the English Championship, almost poised to return to the Premier League. That will change if point-deduction penalty is delivered before their last game in May.
“I’m surprised the Premier League is taking our case very seriously despite the fact that we are not in the Premier League at the moment,” Aiyawatt told Thai reporters. “We have been cooperating with the authorities as best as we can but I doubt we are getting justice.”
Manchester City are placed third at the moment in the Premier League race but are trailing the leader by just one point. If point deduction comes before their last game, they will most likely lose out to either Liverpool or Arsenal.
Aiyawatt was talking to Thai reporters just as Leicester City launched legal proceedings against the Premier League and English Football League (EFL) after being charged with allegedly breaking spending rules. The Championship club said they were “compelled” to act immediately to protect their interest after bad news hit them just a few days ago.
Aiyawatt’s bitterness must be echoed by a growing number of doubters including those running Liverpool and Everton as well as other clubs which have to suffer from blatant refereeing unfairness so that Manchester City allegedly would benefit.
Critics say that apart from investigation into Manchester City being very slow, on-field refereeing decisions affecting the Premier League title race are suspicious as well.
March 22, 2024: Without “fair” competition, which the American government purportedly tries to protect, iPhone in your hands would have remained a 2010 version. But without copycats, those unable to afford even the 2010 version would have still queued up at public phone booths.
Who’s more important _ Apple’s competitors or Apple’s copiers? This is a world where cheap copycat football jerseys and “illegal” music or movie DVDs are regularly burned although they inspired kids in poor neighbourhoods to play sports and talented but otherwise-unknowledgeable people to start composing songs or writing film scripts.
One man’s trade fairness is another man’s lost opportunity. If you cry for business rivals of Apple, you may have to cry for those impoverished neighbourhoods relying on copycat products too.
And devaluing the fake products is tricky. If they are bad, consumers with enough money will strive to buy real, good ones anyway. If they are good, who’s ripping consumers off?
Amid the latest attempts to crack down on Apple’s “monopoly”, spare a thought for the much-maligned Robin Hood of the new era.
March 21, 2024: It will have to take a lot more than high-level “transfers to inactive duties”, the setting up of a fact-finding committee, and a gag order issued by the prime minister, for Thailand to get a proper police force its people deserve.
In fact, the washing of dirty linen in public should be allowed to continue, because while it looks like doing the right thing for the wrong reason, information that has come out of it can be useful nonetheless.
Major police transfers, permanent or temporary, have been done before. So have the formation of “fact-finding” panels. Nothing has actually happened. It has been months since a police official was gunned down at a dinner party in the presence of several top colleagues inside one of the best-known residences in Nakhon Pathom, but the Thai public are still in the dark as to the extent of probably the most scandalous issue of the Thai police in modern history.
What Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has done may be worse than shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. The “Shush!” order is perhaps the most ridiculous.
March 20, 2024: Democracy is an evolving ideal but its core belief is already omnipresent and universal, yet each place may have its own, suitable system, said Thailand’s prime minister whose rise to power, critics insist, is far from democratically perfect.
Srettha Thavisin said so at the 3rd Summit for Democracy in Seoul. In many ways, it defended his own administrative position which came at a great expense of the election-winner Move Forward Party. In some other ways, he must be telling the truth that if it has to be one definite, absolute form, it can’t be democracy.
According to him, the search for the perfect form is still continuing, as “democracy is an on-going process, not final destination.” He said that while “we” believe in universal values of democracy, each country or place has its own way of implementing a system that suits its people, and generational differences, geography or even climate present a key challenge to the idea.
This requires sincere global efforts to work together to make genuine democracy grow, he said.
It’s not a bad speech, although he or his speech writers could have added a few more things, like rhetorical dangers which can destroy democracy even where it is perceived to be indestructible.
March 19, 2024: Ideology is good, but too much of it can lead to extremism, then inflammable rhetoric, then anarchy, and finally people in the same country killing one another, said the maker of a new western film trying to answer some very tough questions.
Alex Garland, whose name is also associated with thought-provoking movies like Ex Machina and 28 Days Later, denied a political agenda since Civil War is coming out on America’s election year. He insisted that he just wanted to highlight the danger of people harbouring different ideologies only talking but never really listening.
America is chosen as the backdrop simply because of its importance to the whole world and the on-going divide which is getting worse, said the writer-director, quoted in an article by The Hollywood Reporter. In fact, he pointed out, a civil war doesn’t need sophisticated weaponry and multi-layered politics, because “some civil wars have been carried out with machetes and still managed to kill a million people.”
To avoid or reduce criticism regarding neutrality, California and Texas are allied in his movie, but American divisions are echoed and there are heart-wrenching scenes originating from the political divide.
The new film has just come out, and caught massive interest thanks to the boiling political situation in the United States and the use of new-age weapons by soldiers in the same country. Initial online reactions include many people saying the movie sent chills down their spines.
“America’s divisions are echoed almost precisely in many countries around the world,” the British filmmaker was quoted by The Hollywood Reporter as saying. “In the case of America, there’s an extra danger given its power and importance in the world.
“America has an internal concept in its exceptionalism that means it feels it’s immune to some kinds of problems. One of the things history shows us is that nobody is immune. Nobody is exceptional. And if we don’t apply rationality and decency and thoughtfulness to these problems, in any place, it can get out of control … I’m not trying to locate [these problems] to America, that would be factually wrong. I can take you back home [to Britain] and can show you the same stuff happening in my country. But the implications (in the United States) are much greater.”
One thing he said is spot on. It’s along the lines of political rhetoric being allowed too much impact, superseding genuine human relationships.
“Why are we talking and not listening?” he asked. “We’ve lost trust in the media and politicians. And some in the media are wonderful and some politicians are wonderful—on both sides of the divide. I have a political position and I have good friends on the other side of that political divide.”
March 18, 2024: The close connections between the Shinawatras and Cambodia’s rulers will be perceived as coming in handy if maritime disputes between the two countries are resolved the way they should.
On the other hand, cutthroat politics will ensure that the slightest disadvantage Thailand gets in the future will amplify those connections at a massive expense of Pheu Thai. Whether enlarged photos of Hun Sen-Thaksin meetings _ both personal ones and family events _ and visit to Cambodia of Paetongtarn Shinawatra will be held high or burned on the streets by Thai protesters depends on how things go regarding the maritime issue.
Thai senators are zooming in on the bilateral case just as Paetongtarn, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, is shaking senior Cambodian hands during grand welcomes. According to outspoken Senator Kamnoon Sidhisamarn, there are things to be “extremely cautious” about and the best solutions have to come from thorough discussions among Thais who are in the know, not just politicians who can be government one day and opposition the next.
He stressed, however, that critics shall not overreact to Cambodia’s diplomatic moves at the moment because the bilateral issue would require a lot of studies and involvement and would take a long time.
Asked about Cambodia’s diplomatic strategy that seemed to focus on the Shinawatras, he said: “To be fair to everyone, official negotiations have not even begun and this is not something where secretive agendas can be easily executed. After all, the Thai Parliament will have a big say on the eventual outcome.”
However, whether Pheu Thai likes it or not, politics means that the party is making a massive gamble all the same.
March 17, 2024: While a picture can say a thousand words, some pictures can leave you speechless.
Thaksin Shinawatra flanked by Thailand’s current and former prime ministers is on many home pages today, and the photo has a weird quality. On the one hand, it hits right between the eyes immediately. On the other hand, it will need time to sink in.
March 16, 2024: Pita Limjaroenrat has insisted his visit to Chiang Mai is not aimed at testing the popularity waters, but others will need some more convincing.
“Chiang Mai’s problems are more important than who is more popular,” Pita said at the provincial airport. The visit had to do primarily with wildfire, he and his aides claimed.
Others, however, thought the timing was cheeky and suspicious. They believed the trip was political and must have something to do with Thaksin Shinawatra and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. After all, Move Forward upstaged Pheu Thai in the province in last year’s general election and certainly wanted to make sure that Thaksin’s visit to Chiang Mai did not change the new status quo.
Thaksin was on his way back to Bangkok, but media outlets certainly would report on who get better reception and drew bigger crowds.
While claiming that his arrival was not motivated by concern that Thaksin’s return would create political ripples affecting Move Forward, Pita did talk proudly about last year.
“It’s too soon to think about ratings and the next election,” he said. “What is unforgettable is the massive election turnout last year of Chiang Mai people. Some 81% (of Chiang Mai eligible voters) exercised their rights and Move Forward came out on top.”
March 15, 2024: The northern province of Chiang Mai is a key political barometer for the popularity of the main ruling party, which cannot be happy with the reception of Thaksin Shinawatra.
Pheu Thai had hoped to see a massive shrieking crowd of Chiang Mai residents wearing red shirts. The turnout was far too small for comfort, a subject for taunts by rivals of Thaksin and the party. Even Jatuporn Prompan, a former red shirt leader who has turned very critical of Thaksin and Pheu Thai, has admitted he was shocked.
“All we saw was an army of reporters,” said Jatuporn during a Facebook Live. “After 17 years, you wouldn’t expect anything less than a staggering emotional welcome from Chiang Mai people. That didn’t happen. Just a few supporters showed up to greet Khun Thaksin. This teaches you that nobody can command adoration forever, and a crisis of faith can easily occur.”
Jatuporn attributed the changing situation to Pheu Thai’s decision to join the government with the conservatives.
March 14, 2024: Makers of one of the world’s most popular apps and Thailand’s biggest political party can say they have the best of intentions, but their rivals or skeptics are armed with “potential” dangers.
US politicians have always suspected that TikTok would lead to something terrible, whether its creators intended it or not. This week, they have reaffirmed efforts to crack down on the application over national security concerns, not least because the Chinese fingerprints are in there. The politicians gave a huge momentum to a bill called “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act”, coincidentally around the same time as renewed national security allegations against Move Forward.
TikTok users or advocates, of course, are decrying infringement of freedom of expression and creativity or positives that come with it. In Thailand, meanwhile, Move Forward, has been complaining about being misunderstood and limited chances to explain itself to the Constitutional Court.
The alleged “unfair treatment” can be deplorable but also understandable. There is actually nothing new in the debate. In both cases, arguments would feature popularity (largely among the new generations) versus potential harm; well intentions versus the possibility of uncontrollable consequences; and nipping it in the bud versus overreacting. Neither side of the debate would back down.
March 13, 2024: According to Joe Biden, democracy is at stake. According to Donald Trump, country is at stake. The winner will be the one American voters believe the most, but it will be scary whoever it finally is.
There is no need to say much about the magnitude of the national divide, cemented hours ago by crucial primary results. It has reached a point of no return, where whoever wins, the other side will not accept it, where “conspiracy theorists” predict something very horrible that could upend normal politics, and where world anxiety is starkly real, not just for the sake of saying “worried”.
In a way, both men are right. Those two things really are at stake for America this year. Primaries have been practically over, leaving the rest of the year as the last 10 minutes of a thriller film.
March 12, 2024: “Anti-advertising” is nothing new. It’s a high-risk marketing strategy in which makers of products focus tantalisingly on negative points of their own creations in order to make them more memorable or teasing in a strange way.
Make no mistake, the Princess of Wales obviously did not use the strategy with the family photo that she had released. However, the pulling out of the Mother’s Day photo by certain agencies on grounds that it might have been photoshopped has made it one of the most watched photos today.
People, not just in England but also around the world, have watched it, enlarged it and scrutinised it. What was supposed to be a limited local audience has become a large global viewership. She has apologised for releasing a photo that is not 100 per cent genuine, but that only fuelled the interest in what she had originally sent out and the agencies had withdrawn.
In short, she must thank the agencies.
Anti-advertising is a marketing strategy in which a brand deliberately abandons basic advertising principles and adheres to self-bashing in order to promote awareness or debate and hence memorisation.
Have you ever heard someone say “This movie is so bad it’s good”? That’s the idea. For once in your life, you might want to watch the worst film of all time. It’s the same thing as wanting to find out what is wrong with the family photo.
March 11, 2024: Phuket’s planned crackdown on foreign businesses with irregular natures or origins was sparked by what was perceived as an extreme cultural insult. If the Swiss man who allegedly kicked a female Thai doctor while she was sitting on the stairway in front of his rented villa home had simply used his hands to push her away forcefully, it very likely would not have gone this far.
A foot was involved (whether it was “slipping” or intentional) and that was the end of the story. One thing has led to another. Charges have been filed. Protests have been organised. The social media have been furious. Old wounds were reopened. Past irregularities were dug up. And concerned authorities just could not bear the pressure, having to look at visas and documents issued in the old days.
Foot is a big deal in Buddhist societies. Having talked about it, on this very day in 1975, U Thein Maung, who fought tooth and nail under a colonial rule to successfully require Westerners to remove their shoes at Buddhist religious sites in Myanmar, died at the age of 85. Many might not be familiar with the name. It was not western values that he was fighting for.
Wearing shoes at religious Buddhist sites is largely prohibited and Myanmar had strict rules about it (back then and until today). Yet after the British annexation, colonial influences asserted themselves and in front of pagodas there were signs that read “No shoes except for Europeans and Americans.” Many locals were furious and they found a leader in U Thein Maung.
The rest is history. He went on to be known as “Shoe Thien Maung”.
March 10, 2024: If they are not lying, the latest development in America that buoyed the Democrats up should in fact enable the Republicans to realistically hope that their prospective presidential nominee, Donald Trump, will be handed the White House on a plate in November.
Joe Biden’s “feisty and fiery” performance during the State of the Union address last week has all but ensured that he would be the Democratic nominee. Which means that if the Republicans are right in saying that his cognitive capacity is declining fast, making him bright and sharp one minute but terribly confused the next, all they have to do is let him “Joe Biden” himself in the next few months into a staggering electoral defeat.
Simply put, forget Russia and Capitol Riot. They can be less important electorally than how many more questionable gaffes Biden makes and how slow he walks.
Pro-Biden media outlets along with ordinary Democratic citizens were on their feet last week following the SOTU, a celebration described contemptuously by the Republicans as the sigh of relief when your old, unpredictable car starts in the morning. Whether they intend it or not, that shows the Democrats have been too concerned about the Republicans’ Biden age claims, making the man’s cognition the foremost election campaign issue.
CNN and Fox News must be watching different things last week. If one network was telling the truth about Biden’s SOTU, the other must be lying. There is no other way to see it.
If “independent” news media are an integral part of democracy, something is not right with this element in America. Skepticism about American media has been taken to new heights amid starkly-contrasting coverages and conclusions on how the president did on the SOTU.
According to comments featured by CNN, he has done a brilliant job, telling the truths about the economic improvements and progressing border policies while dispelling doubts about his age and stamina in the process. Those were in addition to making Americans proud of their country’s global leadership.
It was a powerful and presidential SOTU delivery in which Biden tore Trump to pieces, something done at the right place and at the right time, CNN’s audiences were told.
According to Fox News newscasters and those interviewed by the network, it was the “State of Ukraine”, not “State of the Union”, and he was too fixated on Trump who had little business featuring in Biden’s speech. “Disgrace” was in a headline on Fox’s website, which also highlighted the arrest of a man whose son died during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and whose “yelling” interrupted Biden during the SOTU event.
SOTU, a sacred presidential tradition, has been shamed by Biden, Fox News virtually told its viewers.
Who should Americans believe? The media’s biggest duty and unchangeable responsibility to tell the truth, no matter what their political or ideological allegiances are, are getting through the most acid test.
March 9, 2024: Thailand’s prime minister stopped short of saying whether he would have copied Singapore’s Taylor Swift model, but he suggested it was a smart move and insisted that the uproarious concert issue shall not become political at the regional level.
Singapore has triggered outcries among its Asean neighbours when it was alleged that the country’s deal with popular Taylor Swift included an assurance that Singapore would be her only stop in the region.
Angry reactions among Singapore’s neighbours ranged from men on the street who expressed their wrath through online platforms to senior politicians with some of them even mentioning the issue in Parliament. In Thailand, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was not throwing toys out of the pram but he did say something like Bangkok may need its own world superstar so there wouldn’t be a problem trying to organise a concert.
Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, defended the exclusive Taylor Swift concert deal at a press conference earlier this week, insisting that he didn’t see that “as being unfriendly”.
That has been endorsed by Srettha, who has been on overseas trips. “I met the Singaporean prime minister recently and there was nothing between us at all,” the Thai leader said. “The issue is exactly what he explained, and personally I thought it was a smart administrative move that Thais have to learn from and admire.
“I talked about it (before) in an admiring way and I’m not with anyone trying to politicise my words and pit me against him. We are good friends.”
March 8, 2024: To mark the International Women’s Day, here are a few facts about your baby girls, your girlfriends, your wives and your grandmothers that you might not know about:
1 The more educated women a country has, the bigger economic growth it enjoys. It’s in scientific economic data.
2 Heels belonged to men first and women originally embraced them to mock the enemy. This part of the shoes was introduced to women’s fashion about 600 years ago to mimic the men who wore heels to show off their masculinity. Soon, men more or less stopped wearing them, and you know what happened next.
3 This is well-known but bewildering all the same if you think about it. America never has a female president. They will keep talking about abortion or rights to vote and attend a soccer match and all, but even “less democratic” countries have elected female leaders.
4 Men should stop trying to dilute smells lingering on their clothes that they don’t want their women to detect. Their scientifically-proven great sniffing ability has been evolving for centuries. How? Cooking, washing, gathering herbs and so on have made them superior regarding scents and smells.
5 Childbirth complications kill a woman (mostly underage or under-educated) every 90 seconds, according to www.stylecraze.com.
6 Men often make fun of “It’s not what you said, but how you said it”, saying women are always over-sensitive. But it has been proven scientifically, again, that women are really better at reading gestures, voice tones and faces. When you are being dishonest, or evasive, or sarcastic, they can sense it immediately.
7 Their inventory skills have often been given less credit and they deserved. There are plenty of examples but textbooks often talk about men’s inventions. Women were also more involved in the evolution of computers than we think.
8 Highest IQs on the records belong to women.
9 Girls’ brains grow faster than boys’, women see more colours (this is why shades are big cosmetic deals), and men on average live shorter lives (2-5 years).
10 This one is in a lot of comedies but theories are changing due to another key scientific discovery. Women endure pain better, but, contrary to popular beliefs, it’s not because of menstruation or childbirth. Women’s brains do not process pain like men’s. In other words, men and women in many cases “consider” what is hurting or painful a bit differently.
March 7, 2024: Visa revocation is Phuket saying enough is enough with clenched jaws, as the province knows what it means to make a foreign businessman feel unwelcome.
Immigration authorities have revoked the visa of the Swiss national who allegedly kicked a female Thai doctor for simply sitting on the stairway in front of his rented villa on Yamu Beach in Chalong district of Phuket late last month. The incident, which sparked a major uproar among local residents, Thai social media users elsewhere as well as mainstream newscasters, caught the attention of top provincial officials who played a big role in revoking Urs Beat Fehr’s visa.
The alleged kicking aside, the stairway leading to the beach is said to encroach on a public area, meaning she was not even trespassing on any private property.
His elephant show business utilised characteristic Thai animals and attracted other foreigners. But if that was the man’s positive side, it was measured against alleged negatives accompanying his behaviours, claimed to be rude and cocky.
If he behaved as he was accused of, which reportedly made the doctor incident the last straw, he certainly was not the only expats to be perceived in that light. Many foreigners in major tourist areas like Pattaya have become influential and not in a good way.
Will Phuket set an example? Nobody knows. Tourism money is important, but so is local dignity.
March 6, 2024: “Us or no country” is up against “Us or backwards into chaos and division” as America’s Republicans and Democrats gear up for the most fateful presidential election in history after Super Tuesday.
Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are wrong. The former’s prediction that America will cease being a country if it gives the latter the second consecutive term is a stretch. The latter’s warning that America will descend into chaos and dangerous polarity is saying about something that is already happening and probably unstoppable.
More importantly, both are wrong because they devalue the very foundation of their own country. They are practically saying that voters can’t have a wrong choice because that could destroy America. What good is democracy for then, if the key players participating in it think they are “the only” choice and the alternative is a way to calamity?
The worst part is that in November, Americans will most likely have to choose between the two men who happen to share the same thinking that democracy is all about themselves, and that anyone who beg to differ will bring the country down.
Primary results of Super Tuesday are unsurprising, but they are eerie all the same. “We’re going to win this election because we have no choice,” Trump said while marking sweeping state victories that look certain to make him the Republican nominee. He added: “If we lose this election, we’re not going to have a country.”
Biden will become the Democratic nominee hands down as well. Like Trump, he is telling voters what to do in November. “Tonight’s results leave the American people with a clear choice: Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?” he said in a statement.
March 5, 2024: If today was April 1st, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai must have been joking.
And if he had said what he said today in the middle of last month, people must have thought he was marking the Valentine’s Day.
Anyway, here we are, a senior government member is publicly expressing his love for a runaway convict and urging her to come back.
“It will be good if she can come back,” Phumtham, who is also commerce minister, said when asked about the prospects of Yingluck Shinawatra’s return following Monday’s Supreme Court decision acquitting her of charges related to a past government roadshow project. “All her fans who have seen her achievements must want to see her as soon as possible, including me.
As a former prime minister, she is loved by everyone. She is my darling, too.”
As a Pheu Thai man, it’s not wrong to feel that way. But talking about it out loud when you are a deputy prime minister?
There’s more. “Several of her cases have been over, and so have civil matters,” he said. “Her home has been impounded, so what do we do? It’s important that we understand the situation and give her justice.”
When asked what kind of government explanation had to be made as many would not understand, he replied: “Nobody knows how she will come back, and her case is different from Khun Thaksin’s, so we shall not compare the two. I can’t say on her behalf when she would like to return to Thailand, because her young son is still studying in England.”
One man, though, insists that he can speak on Yingluck’s behalf. She is waiting for the right signal, according to Jatuporn Prompan, who, however, pointed out that her legal troubles still remain.
Former red shirt leader Jatuporn, during his Facebook live, also said people will definitely look at Thaksin’s and Yingluck’s cases in the same context.
March 4, 2024: Yingluck Shinawatra is now further in her brother’s footsteps regarding a return to Thailand with a Supreme Court decision, and one high-profile rice pledging convict must be monitoring the political progress with great interest.
Former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom worked for the Yingluck government and, like her, has been found guilty of massive corruption in the controversial rice scheme that purportedly had been intended to help Thai farmers but ended up causing a lot of financial damage and spawning serious graft charges.
His life in prison and a court order for him to pay heavy damages will come into play when the prospect of a Yingluck return to Thailand gets brighter, already helped by today’s Supreme Court’s decision to acquit her from charges related to a government roadshow project while she served as prime minister.
Boonsong, now 62, will remain in jail for a few more years, having had his term reduced largely, thanks mainly to the fact that he is in the “excellent convict” category. Financial damages he was ordered to pay, something befalling Yingluck as well, will become a hot political topic with the former prime minister in the equation.
March 3, 2024: If you have to name the last place in Thailand where an uprising against a foreigner can occur, Phuket will come to mind.
The province depends on the US dollar. It is proud of its lucrative and widespread tourism. It cannot live without its beautiful beaches and foreign visitors who admire them.
But, sorry, “Get Out David!!!”
It took one foot to the back of a female Thai doctor, who alleged she had been assaulted by a Swiss while resting her legs on a beach and absorbing the glamour of the sea and the moon in the process. He claimed he only slipped and didn’t kick, but a viral clip seemed to suggest otherwise. It showed he approached her and a companion while uttering something quite rude while telling her to get out of the front of his villa home.
It turned out she was sitting at a public zone, not a private property. The cement stair leading to the seafront encroaches on public beach, and she was clearly at the last few steps (lowest steps), meaning it was never an act of trespass.
Apologies have been made, but they backfired badly and added to local anger. He reportedly said he would not have shooed her away if he had known she was a doctor. This was regarded as devaluing other careers. He said Chinese visitors intruded upon the beach area of his rented villa home a lot, and this prompted a question: Is it ok to kick a Chinese?
Protests with a “Get Out David” and “Let’s reclaim Yamu beach” tag lines were organised in addition to an online uproar supported vehemently by several newscasters. The doctor incident in Thalang district was said to be the last straw, because the Swiss apparently did not have a lot of fans due to his behaviours. Locals feel he was too rude and cocky, despite his business of elephant shows attracting other foreigners in Thailand. His Thai companion is not popular, either.
The incident is having a snowballing effect and can have ramifications on private constructions, taxation of foreign business operators, other unpopular foreign expats especially those with suspicious documents.
March 2, 2024: Slow but sure is better than quick but lame, according to Pita Limjaroenrat regarding when his Move Forward Party should launch a no-confidence offensive.
After Chaithawat Tulathon, it’s now Pita’s turn, and although the former is the party’s leader, the latter’s opinion on when censure should begin might carry a little more weight.
Here’s what Pita commented on the issue, which is affecting the party’s image as a hard-hitting boxer who is expected to rush out of his corner this parliamentary term:
“We are not slowing down or going easy on anyone. We consider censure to be strategic. It’s not always good to be speedy because we can overlook certain things in the process. Let us concentrate more on quality than speed. That senators have done something does not mean we have to do the same. It’s our job to explain to the public that censure is a weapon that, when unleashed, must bring about the biggest (impact).
“It’s not something that has to be done whenever the audience wants you to. (Moreover,) what if something important takes place after you have used the (censure) weapon?
March 1, 2024: By implying that Thaksin Shinawatra has received “elitist treatment”, Thailand’s biggest party, which has been presenting itself as a movement opposed to political persecution and victimisation, is courting controversy.
Move Forward leader Chaithawat Tulathon was apparently right in saying today that the country’s justice system is weak, but his statement about how the Thaksin affair has been handled smacks of an elitist approach in effecting justice raised questions about claims that the latter had been politically persecuted.
What sounds like Chaithawat’s ideological ambivalence was uttered as he defended Move Forward’shesitancy over whether a censure motion should be submitted against the Pheu Thai-led Srettha government. Chaithawat said that although a final decision is yet to be made on how early the no-confidence debate should be, his party viewed the Thaksin issue as an example of wrong justice.
“This is not about discrediting any group or anyone,” he said when asked about Thaksin. “This is about our very duty to make sure the government follows its policy of solidifying state law and order. We don’t want to see elitist law and order.”
Some questions here for Chaithawat: Is Thaksin a political victim who deserves to be freed? If yes, is it wrong to allow him to return home? Should everyone respect law and order? Was Thaksin involved in corruption, hence the crackdown on him was fair and allowing him to stay at the Police Hospital was nasty? What is your definition of “elites”?
Thailand’s political divide has been revolving around these questions and more, which could be asked in Parliament if Chaithawat and Co decide to talk about elitist law and order at a censure debate.
Daily update of local and global events by Tulsathit Taptim
