thailand is, again, in turmoil. bangkok streets is, again, witness to another conflict between police and activists protesting the election of their new PM somchai wongsawat. just last month, the country was in another political crisis when groups loyal and hostile to PM sundaravej's administration collided in the streets of bangkok. just two years ago, also, thailand was in the news when its military chief sonthi boonyaratgalin (yes, i googled this up) siezed power and ousted thaksin shinawatra through a coup.
thailand is known to have an unstable government. they undergo periods of change of governments rather frequently. its like they change administrations as much as they change their hairdo, and replace their heads of government as much as they replace their underwears.
but the remarkable thing is how they are able to keep their economy up better than some of their neighbors in ASEAN. despite the political state, they were able to attract tourists. tourism in thailand is an enormous industry. just think about the tsunami tragedy, a horde of those caught in the tragedy in the thai borders were foreigners vacationing in thai resorts.
the point of the protesters is that PM somchai has standing shares in a firm doing business with the government- that's seen as an opening for corruption to take place; and that he is very much connected with thaksin who is viewed as a corrupt leader by the thais. sundaravej, the PM/cooking show host, was also viewed as an associate of thaksin.
the philippines is not too different from thailand. we also had our own share of coup' de etats and uprisings; and for the same reasons i.e. corruption by our heads of government. marcos was, IMHO, corrupt; estrada was charged and convicted with plunder; and the one who replaced estrada is herself has tons of skeletons hidden inside her closet which are now stacked with tons of money stashed from the numerous government projects since the start of her rule e.g. the festilizer scam which until now hasn't been resolved. all this time, not one has been charged for that scam. the perpetrator, usec. bolante, is still in the US- and had the nerve to ask for asylum from the US government. the US should be wise not to grant that asylum as he is just making a big fool out of them with his bogus reasons.
one of those who are planning to succeed the present occupant in malacanang is also engaged in his own business of making the most money out of his position. think about this, he's selling his properties to the government around 200 times as much as he accquired it. how's that for a public official? what if he becomes the president? he will extract 200 percent from each project he delivers and every service he renders. now, how's that?
and his allies even had the audacity to defend him saying it was simply an error in the encoding of the bill. who are they fooling? of course it was just a mistake!
in a very important, key body like the senate, can you expect a simple encoding error that results to double insertion in a very important bill that concerns that whole nation? do they expect us to believe that? yeah, right!
why dont they just appropriate the senate's budget for the whole year to that project? let's see how'd they feel about that?
thailand is known to have an unstable government. they undergo periods of change of governments rather frequently. its like they change administrations as much as they change their hairdo, and replace their heads of government as much as they replace their underwears.
but the remarkable thing is how they are able to keep their economy up better than some of their neighbors in ASEAN. despite the political state, they were able to attract tourists. tourism in thailand is an enormous industry. just think about the tsunami tragedy, a horde of those caught in the tragedy in the thai borders were foreigners vacationing in thai resorts.
the point of the protesters is that PM somchai has standing shares in a firm doing business with the government- that's seen as an opening for corruption to take place; and that he is very much connected with thaksin who is viewed as a corrupt leader by the thais. sundaravej, the PM/cooking show host, was also viewed as an associate of thaksin.
the philippines is not too different from thailand. we also had our own share of coup' de etats and uprisings; and for the same reasons i.e. corruption by our heads of government. marcos was, IMHO, corrupt; estrada was charged and convicted with plunder; and the one who replaced estrada is herself has tons of skeletons hidden inside her closet which are now stacked with tons of money stashed from the numerous government projects since the start of her rule e.g. the festilizer scam which until now hasn't been resolved. all this time, not one has been charged for that scam. the perpetrator, usec. bolante, is still in the US- and had the nerve to ask for asylum from the US government. the US should be wise not to grant that asylum as he is just making a big fool out of them with his bogus reasons.
one of those who are planning to succeed the present occupant in malacanang is also engaged in his own business of making the most money out of his position. think about this, he's selling his properties to the government around 200 times as much as he accquired it. how's that for a public official? what if he becomes the president? he will extract 200 percent from each project he delivers and every service he renders. now, how's that?
and his allies even had the audacity to defend him saying it was simply an error in the encoding of the bill. who are they fooling? of course it was just a mistake!
in a very important, key body like the senate, can you expect a simple encoding error that results to double insertion in a very important bill that concerns that whole nation? do they expect us to believe that? yeah, right!
why dont they just appropriate the senate's budget for the whole year to that project? let's see how'd they feel about that?
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