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The House of Representatives on Thursday endorsed two financial executive decrees by a vote of 262-0 with 14 abstentions and 5 no-votes after MPs of the opposition Democrat Party staged a walk out.
They are the executive decree to set up a 50 billion baht fund to offer flood insurance for domestic investors and the decree to amend Bank of Thailand regulations to extend 300 billion baht in soft loans to financial institutions. The Democrat MPs did not take part in the...
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Red-shirt supporters have expressed dismay over ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's call for them to set aside their anger and frustration over social and legal injustices for the sake of national reconciliation.
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Discussion 19 : 04/02/2012 at 09:48 PM19
Post this to my Facebook
Look at the vote numbers, then look at the asinine comments....not even a majority of Democrats support their own party, but somehow this is for some posters, a UDD travesty. I don't think so
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Discussion 18 : 04/02/2012 at 12:20 AM18
This is how Democracy works. If you want to be in charge you have to win. To win you have to be respected. Just because you think you are respectful or right about something dosn't mean it is so. In a Democracy the party with the most votes win. If you want to obtain power you MUST WIN an election. If you win by just a few votes it is very hard to pass a bill. If you win by a large majority or have the cooperation of other parties you get to make the rules. Only Communist governments do what they want without a mandate from the people. The PT government has that mandate. If you want to change things you have to win an election. It's as simple as that. This is NOT a dictatorship. The last government was. The opposition was not allowed to participate in the elections due to the coup makers. That makes the previous Dem government dictators, when you make the other party illegal.
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Discussion 17 : 03/02/2012 at 07:41 AM17
Yes, the numbers are indeed puzzling. 365 voting to end the debate suggests that many who are not part of the governing coalition supported an abrupt end, they might have done this because of the futility of arguing something that wasn't even put to Parliamentary debate in the first place. And that brings me to the next point; the Democrats staged a walk out to symbolically show that there's no point voting or participating in parliamentary procedure if the govt is going to misuse an emergency decree privilege to by-pass debate. They don't walk out very often, and they're not the only opposition in the world doing so. Telling them to go off and win an election, is totally irrelevant to this. Interestingly in the end the endorsement passed by just 12 votes, suggesting 38 or more of the govt MPs didn't support it or were absent.
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Discussion 16 : 03/02/2012 at 04:35 AM16
MP DP might feel difficulty understanding what is the subject of this decree, so they walked out just to make story for media. That's it.
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Discussion 15 : 03/02/2012 at 01:23 AM15
I am not sure I really understand why they walked out? Is it a case of the Dems want to be financially responsible while PT don't give a hoot and just want to spend, spend, spend, without any concern for the consequences? I can't imagine PT are interested in fiscal discipline at all. I think the story should have explained the situation better rather than we having to read between the lines?
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Discussion 14 : 03/02/2012 at 12:36 AM14
There is no Democracy in Thailand. It is controlled by rich families. Tell the uneducated whatever, & let them follow like sheep. Also keep them from education, so it does not change. Make it so only Degree holders can be an MP. Mr Nattawut probably can't speak English. Where did he get his Degree?
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Discussion 13 : 02/02/2012 at 10:56 PM13
What many here fail to realize is that 365 voted for an early end to the debate. 365 is more than the number of seats for the government which meant that some opposition voted with the government for an early end. Also if 94 walked out on such an important vote, and they were all Democrats, then 40% of the Democrats weren't even in attendance.
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Discussion 12 : 02/02/2012 at 08:38 PM12
Unfortunately Thailand's "democracy" is really a Parliamentary dictatorship, with the majority party able to vote anything in. There is no system of checks of balances. The Republican system like the USA has, forces both branches of Congress to agree on new laws and requires the president to sign off. It is also not perfect, but at least opens the door to discussion and input from all sides. Since the all the PTP MPs vote as their master dictates, the opposition has no chance to influence or veto anything the PTP dream up. So voting against it or walking out in protest have little effect. At least walking out generates a bit of press in the international media regarding Thailand's issues and poor governance at home.
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Discussion 11 : 02/02/2012 at 08:23 PM11
DEM party needs to white wash their negative image and come back again in the next general election three and a half years later. If they win the election, they would not need to walk out of the chamber to boycott the voting.
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Discussion 10 : 02/02/2012 at 07:56 PM10
What can one say except that Thaksin is back, and that the Thais voted for this. There will surely be worse in store before the street demonstrations in opposition start.
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