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2006-09-25 Southeast Asia

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Posted by Fred 2006-09-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I never had 58 suitcases of anything. What does this guy have? hmmmmm?

Posted by newc">newc 2006-09-25 00:46|| 2006-09-25 00:46|| Front Page Top

#2 He was a billionaire before he became Prime Minister. The notion he would need to smuggle assets out in suitcases is ridiculous. I don't doubt he has already has many millions in offshore banking centres.

Posted by phil_b 2006-09-25 02:18|| 2006-09-25 02:18|| Front Page Top

#3 The notion he would need to smuggle assets out in suitcases is ridiculous.

Gold? Gems? Drugs?

Lots of small, portable forms of wealth. Yeah, most would have gotten out through bank deposits, but even Imelda had her shoes.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2006-09-25 05:28|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-09-25 05:28|| Front Page Top

#4 Toxin 'may have sneaked out assets'

And now his assets somewhere else.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2006-09-25 05:43|| 2006-09-25 05:43|| Front Page Top

#5 Thaksin came by his billion plus legally. There is no reason to launder or smuggle legally obtained wealth. As I said, it's ridiculous smear to suggest he would.

And as for the amount of luggage, I'm sure President Bush keeps to a 20 kilo luggage allowance and his bags are loaded by the regular baggage handlers at JFK or LAX (/not).

Thaksin wanted to modernize Thailand while taking care of the rural masses. He made a lot of enemies, especially among the urban elites.

A glaring ommision in all the coverage is that Thaksin won huge majorities in both 2005 and 2006 elections, in both cases with over 60% of the vote.

The urban elites hate him most all because they think they should be running the country. Thaksin mobilized the numerically superior rural vote and swamped them at the ballot box.
This is their revenge.

Posted by phil_b 2006-09-25 07:58|| 2006-09-25 07:58|| Front Page Top

#6 Thaksin won huge majorities in both 2005 and 2006 elections, in both cases with over 60% of the vote.

phil_b, I read elsewhere that this was the result of vote suppression protests as in Venezuela. Do the election results really reflect his popularity or are they a result of a rigged election?

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-09-25 08:40|| 2006-09-25 08:40|| Front Page Top

#7 NS, it's generally accepted that rigged votes ended in Thailand in 1992. The number of votes for Thaksin's party were almost identical in 2005 and 2006. In both cases he won in all regions with a large majority, except Bangkok and the South.

The boycott in 2006 merely translated votes for other parties into spoiled ballots. It was clearly a disengenous attempt to obscure the fact the opposition parties would lose the election (by a large margin).

Wikipedia has the numbers.

Posted by phil_b 2006-09-25 09:41|| 2006-09-25 09:41|| Front Page Top

#8 Thanks.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-09-25 09:50|| 2006-09-25 09:50|| Front Page Top

#9 Must have been some extra pairs of socks and underwear. Looks more like a long stay in London.

Posted by danking_70 2006-09-25 11:49|| 2006-09-25 11:49|| Front Page Top

#10 NS, it's generally accepted that rigged votes ended in Thailand in 1992.

Can we bring in some of their people to run the elections in our cities?

Posted by Rob Crawford">Rob Crawford 2006-09-25 11:55|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-09-25 11:55|| Front Page Top

23:59 Zenster
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