No need for city poll

Postbag

Published: 11 Jan 2013 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

It appears that to hold any position of prominence in Thailand you must have friends currently in high office or friends who have held previous positions of power. Deputy national police chief Pongsapat Pongcharoen had his bid of becoming governor of Bangkok thoroughly endorsed by Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan, ex-core leader of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, and that man in Dubai who, on Tuesday, told party members via Skype: ''He feels Pol Gen Pongsapat has what it takes to be governor''.

Squadron leader Sita Divari is virtually assured of the position of chairman of the Airports of Thailand simply because that man from Dubai has agreed to the nomination and he is a close aide of Khunying Sudarat. With the Bangkok governorship virtually settled, is there any need to impose restrictions on thousands of foreign holiday makers by holding meaningless elections?

BRIAN FORLONGE

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egon
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Discussion 8 : 12 Jan 2013 at 11.188
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Renaissance{I wish this to Thailand too}:Come and have a look in the Isahn.N,importe what this government is doing the people love the PM!The power of the reds should not be underestimated.A very close friend is mayor and has regularly "business" with important reds.Their organisation{think too the red villages},availability of money and influence is without peer.Before the people get "wiser" a paradigma shift is necessary and with no foreseeable change in the education system we will have to wait a long time.
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Renaissance
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Discussion 7 : 11 Jan 2013 at 19.007
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Egon: I don't know for sure how long it will take for Thais to wake up. I think that it will be sooner rather than later because I think that there will be so much damage done by this government to the social fabric, environment, agriculture, economy, and justice system of the country that people will feel the effects and they will complain. Demonstrations against Thaksin's return will be the least of his worries. The civil protests about the effects of his government's corruption and policies will supersede this matter by far. The rainbow will come after this storm! Thais have a learning curve to go through first.
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jck
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Discussion 6 : 11 Jan 2013 at 10.366
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The Minister of wrong dates would likely have received some praise if he had treated the matter as an error and just announced a very big “Whoops... we better fix this!”
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egon
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Discussion 5 : 11 Jan 2013 at 10.085
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Disc3:How long are you prepared to wait?The situation is worse than ever.With 40% of budgets vanishing under the table there will be no improvement in the next decades.Thais will not learn and reject corruption till the education will improve which will not happen in your life.
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kena
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Discussion 4 : 11 Jan 2013 at 07.424
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Speaking of birthdates. Few know that many hill tribers, possibly near 20%, share the birthdate of January 1. That's because Thai bureaucracy makes it difficult for hill tribers to register births, so the clerics just take the uncreative way out, and assign Jan.1
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Renaissance
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Discussion 3 : 11 Jan 2013 at 07.063
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Spongebob: Don't give up on living in Thailand. In spite of the politicians and the corruption, it's still a wonderful country to live in. I learned to laugh at the politicians decades ago, and I look forward every day to see what their latest lakorn-like behaviour is and to watch them scrambling over each other to grab the keys to the coffers. That they take themselves seriously makes me laugh all the more. You are watching a learning process for the Thais. Yes, things may become very bad before they improve, but Thais will learn and reject the corruption. Just be patient. It's coming. Meanwhile, try to enjoy the daily lakorn episodes.
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Victor
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Discussion 2 : 11 Jan 2013 at 07.052
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Instead of trying to make a mountain out of an ant hill it would be wise for the minister to educate his people to be more careful when filing any official document. And most likely the real birthday was March 1, not April 1 as given to him by the authorities.
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thaigenius
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Discussion 1 : 11 Jan 2013 at 07.041
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spongebob, i too resided there for too many years and went through that young and impressionable stage, and left many years ago moving to the country below thailand that begins with an M and it is night and day by comparison - much more civil down here btw. once one sees the true nature of thailand and starts to see the mentality of the place for what it really is, yeah the place is off and will always be so. it's kind of like beating yourself up just to stay there and build a life - not worth it.
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No need for city poll | Bangkok Post: opinion