Myanmar not Burma

Myanmar not Burma

The fact is they changed the country name for some time now and they prefer to be called as Myanmar. Give them some respect and use the right name despite the situation right now. More on Myanmar soon...

Malaysia may be asked to arrest Surin of Kularb Kaew

Criminal Court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Surin Upatkoon who has been accused of acting as nominee for foreign companies through his stockholdings in Kularb Kaew Co, Ltd.

Police told the court that Surin failed three times to appear before police to hear the charges.

Kularb Kaew is one of the companies used by Temasek Holdings of Singapore to acquire Shin Corp from the Shinawatra family.

Surin's lawyer on Monday presented a medical report from a Malaysian hospital to the police, asking for delaying the hearing.

The report shows that Surin suffered from an irregular heartbeat, making it impossible for him to appear before the police to hear the criminal charges against him.

However police said the report is not credible because it is not accompanied by a notarisation from any Thai agency such as a Thai embassy or Thai Consul.

Police believed that Surin only wanted to buy time and escape from having to face the charges.

Chief Investigator Pol Maj Gen Wisut Wanitbutr, anti-economic crime department, said if Surin failed to surrender, he will ask Malaysia to arrest and extradite him.

"Thailand and Malaysia have signed extradition treaty, so we are eligible to ask Malaysia to arrest and extradite him.

The Nation

One reason Thailand is not and was not a democratic country

Wikipedia describes democracy as "a small number of related forms of government. The fundamental features of democracies include government based on majority rule and the consent of the governed, the existence of free and fair elections, the protection of political minorities, respect for basic human rights, equality before the law, due process, and political pluralism"

If I follow this description, Thailand might not even have a real "democracy" or have been a democratic country at all!! On a ground of free and fair election alone, could you consider votes come from voters that accept money from politician(s) to vote a free and fair election? For me, HELL NO!!

If you're still confused, let me tell you, Thai politicians buy vote. This has happened for so many elections in the past despite how good the constitution is. This has happened in EVERY part of Thailand but pin point to the rural area. So when politician claims "he protects democracy", it's never happened. Because how they've become senators, ministers or even prime minister was not democratic and there was no democracy for him to protect in the first place.

Buying vote will not disappear from Thailand any time soon as long as Thai people prioritized money before their rights. Accepting money to vote has become a custom to many Thais. There's a say "no money no vote" to describe this behavior of rural voters.

Elected government didn't come from true people. Therefore, they didn't do everything for the people. When the governments didn't do the good for the people but for their own sake, elected or dictated feel much the same.

So next time you hear we are democratic country, think hard and long.

By the way, many articles on the web don't recommend Wikipedia site as a good source for research.

NBIA Suvarnabhumi International Airport

Bloodless Coup: 1 Year ago

A year ago, a successful bloodless coup had been carrying out-- among the confusion whose side did they do it for. When the dust settled, people set out to celebrate the unusual event. Flowers for the soldiers could be seen where ever they were. Flowers were most from the people who couldn't bear over-the-limit corruption of Thaksin's government.

Most Thais get used to pay bribe for a little convenience, buy driver license, tip the cop when they get traffic ticket, pay school to get their children in, bribe authorities to get construction permit faster and pay a little more to have it build more then the laws allow, cop set up a system to get bribe money (under-table money - in Thai) from business to have their trucks carry over-the-limit weight of goods on the hi-way and so on with almost everything in their life that deal with authorities.

So when Thai people couldn't take full-of-corruption government any more, that really means something.

Until today, the junta and the government have fought tirelessly (I guess) with the old power that try everything they could to get back to power. To get back to power means they could erase everything the junta appointed government has been doing and has done, including all the investigations and probes and blame it on "undemocratic way".

Interestingly, the junta is also afraid of the old power will get back at them (check bill - in Thai) once they regain the power. What could tons of money and power will buy them unfortunated events when they make a revenge? One could imagine. It would be so bad not only to individual in junta team but also to generations in their family.

In one year, you can see how Thaksin were so good in using the media to his advantage telling his one-side story (always a good side). You can see how good is his staff in doing their jobs in any media available. You can go to wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) reading on Thaksin article and see how it's been done. Not only in Thaksin topic but also related topic such as "efficiency economy", all are so biased.