Tune in, turn on 'The Voice', drop the coups

COMMENTARY

Tune in, turn on 'The Voice', drop the coups

Published: 30 Oct 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

If there were a time when Thais should say no to the expediency of resorting to the same old pastime of street protests and demand a more constructive country development agenda, it should be now.

Turn off partisan, propagandist, colour-coded TV channels. Watch The Voice if you can't find anything more cerebral. I'm serious. I don't mean all political-minded citizens out there should abandon their pent-up energy and burning wish to see the country move beyond the quagmire of corruption, yawning rich-poor gap, structural inequalities, plus injustice and start competing in singing and dancing. What I mean is, stripped of its commercial or entertainment business value and looked at from a pure content and concept angle, something like The Voice is in a microscopic way an agenda for Thailand. Find what you are good at. Find ways to develop the talent. Compete if you must and stand and be judged on your own merit, not your connections, popularity or power.

Judging from the number of times I saw large Thai flags billowing in the wind as part of red-shirt caravans on Saturday and at the anti-government rally at the Royal Turf Club on Sunday _ a sight that should have conjured up a feeling of pride in the country but instead provoked a sense of boredom in me _ my wish is likely to be unfulfilled.

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ggh
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Discussion 10 : 30 Oct 2012 at 11.0110
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I’m not aware of the poor being paid directly by the tax payer. If referring to the rice pledging scheme, the farmers are being paid for their rice at a subsidized price. This may in turn need to partially be paid for by the wealthy tax payer. But who are we to speculate the price of rice will not on average be higher for the farmers after the completion of the pledging scheme. The farmers are aware this subsidy will not last forever.
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Eric
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Discussion 9 : 30 Oct 2012 at 09.299
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Thais like Khun Atiya know what's best for Thailand.
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felixqui
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Discussion 8 : 30 Oct 2012 at 09.108
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A bit of partisan debate is a good thing. Argument is a very good thing. Discussion, even heated, is essential not only for democracy but for knowledge about anything.

The problem in the past is that traditional Thai political culture did not allow the free speech necessary for knowledge, so that an ignorant populace could be easily led to mindlessly support their despotic, self-appointed "superiors". THis began changing and over the past 10 - 15 years, a healthy climate of questioning authority has arisen. There is still a way to go, but the odd protest and a lot of argument are good things and should be seen as such. To help it along, a
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dao
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Discussion 7 : 30 Oct 2012 at 09.027
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The poor being paid by the taxpayers isnt a model they should get use to becasue it isnt going to last long .
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ggh
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Discussion 6 : 30 Oct 2012 at 08.006
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Dis 7 - It would be interesting to see what percentage of wealth the upper 10% of the wealthy would need to pay to support populist policies that were not fully able to be funded by the state? I venture to say, it would not affect their living standards one bit! Who knows, we may be able to start noticing a middle class in places other than BKK.
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brilliant
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Discussion 5 : 30 Oct 2012 at 07.145
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ggh - "They couldn’t care less about the future of Thailand or Thai people!"

Yes, I think you're talking about PTP with the massive graft and corruption, the use of taxpayer's money to fund their get rich quick rice "scheme" that lost the country 100 billion baht to date, most of the flood mitigation money that went missing and so on.
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retiredsam
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Discussion 4 : 30 Oct 2012 at 06.374
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The government is "legit". I find this very amusing.This government bought their votes .My wife had 2 bags of fertiliser dropped at her door to vote red,I'm sure that the majority received some kind of renumeration to vote this way also.Democracy, NOT.
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ggh
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Discussion 3 : 30 Oct 2012 at 06.133
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It is not in their interest to allow this government to move Thailand forward. Of course this would be another win for the much more capable Thaksin Shinawatra, to see his sister’s government move Thailand forward. It is a shame, the opposition has only their interest at heart. They couldn’t care less about the future of Thailand or Thai people!
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brilliant
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Discussion 2 : 30 Oct 2012 at 05.252
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"...signs are emerging that Thai politics may be heading back to the bipolar, turbulent times.."

Let's correct the time frame to "from the moment Thaksin was illegally allowed to be PM in his joke of an asset case until he either goes to jail, stays out of Thai politics or dies"

Amazing how a country allows one person to ruin the country.
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bangmodken
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Discussion 1 : 30 Oct 2012 at 03.521
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Atiya Achakulwisut asks ; "What good will a return to heavily partisan street politics do?"
The red shirts has rallied on a regular basis. They never stopped even though their masters won the election. So were not talking about "a return".
I don't believe in monopolies so groups like Pitak Siam should of course be allowed to rally,just like the red shirts. No double standards,please.
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Tune in, turn on 'The Voice', drop the coups | Bangkok Post: opinion