Yingluck to be Arrested

[Joachim]

I for one am glad to see that corruption on a massive scale is punished with equally massive jail sentences, although I'm certain these sentences will be significantly reduced on appeal. But hooking a few big fish will do absolutely nothing to reduce the overall amount of corruption that is endemic in Thai life, sadly. The efforts to tackle corruption at all levels of society are, frankly, pathetic.
but a large proportion of the buyers of the high-end condos now in evidence in Bangkok and Pattaya are foreigners. I have two friends - Hong Kong and Japanese - who bought at the Sukhothai Residence behind the hotel on Sathorn when they were first put on the market about 6 years ago. The price then was the highest in Bangkok. They tell me the 49% foreigner allocation was snapped up very quickly. Now apparently it is the rich from Singapore, Hong Kong and China who are snapping up expensive condos for vacations and eventual retirement. And these condos offer the sort of luxury you find in the best condos in Manhattan and London's West End. Hopefully the buyers will find time to enjoy their investments before Bangkok sinks much further!

You are missing the point. As was indicated in the article I cited 85 percent of the superluxury condo was sold to Thais not foreigners.Foreigners are definitely buying a lot in Thailand but as you (correctly) indicated 51 percent of units in each condo are allocated to Thai nationals. Not so in HK or Singapore. Besides, HK and Singapore cannot be compared with Thailand by living standards (precisely because they are not corrupted societies) and small entities with special status (Singapore is known as a city of millionaires). For me, these numerous new real estate developments with prices never seen before bought out by locals in such a poor country as Thailand clear indicate in what direction things are moving.

[fountainhall]

You are missing the point . . . For me, these numerous new real estate developments with prices never seen before bought out by locals in such a poor country as Thailand clear indicate in what direction things are moving.

No, I perfectly see your point. And as I pointed out, Thailand is a country with endemic corruption. But it has for many decades if not a great deal longer had a wealthy middle class - long before levels of corruption reached anything like their present peak. To suggest that all of these individuals made their money from corruption even in large part is incorrect in my view. I agree that Hong Kong and Singapore have particular space problems that helps push prices up. Then again, their populations have risen dramatically over the last 25 years and in both cities there is the constant and very real complaint that it is foreign money, much from China, snapping up many of the most expensive condo units. You could easily add Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and other Asian cities where property prices are much higher than Thailand.

As for Thailand being a poor country - in the sense that it is almost a third world country, though, you should forget that notion. According to the World Bank Report of April 2017 -

Thailand became an upper-middle income economy in 2011. Over the last four decades, Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development, moving from a low-income country to an upper-income country in less than a generation. As such, Thailand has been one of the widely cited development success stories, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction, particularly in the 1980s . .

The point here is that -

Poverty in Thailand is primarily a rural phenomenon

Whilst 80% of the country can therefore be classed as poor, there is a very large income disparity between those in the cities and those in the country. If 20% are not poor, that means something like 14 million Thais are in the lower middle class, middle class or upper class. Given the very small number of condominium complexes being built at the prices you mention (how many individual apartment units in those mega-expensive complexes do you estimate are completed per annum? 1,000? Perhaps 2,000 absolute maximum?), there is far more genuine - as opposed to corrupt - income around to ensure the 51% Thai allocation in those few condominiums is sold.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/thailand/overview

[Between Lives]

The problem with corruption and sentencing is that only one side is receiving the big sentences and asset seizures. The other 2 "sides" are banking more than ever without reproach.

[Gaybutton]

My guess is whoever helped Yingluck flee is not going to wait around to be caught and arrested. I have a feeling that somebody is also going to disappear - with a substantially heftier bank account.

I'm also wondering, assuming Yingluck would have been convicted, if she actually would have been jailed. I think she might have received a heavy fine, but suspended jail sentence or placed under house arrest, similar to what had been done to Suu Kyi.
___________________________

PAD: Who helped Yingluck flee?

26 Aug 2017

The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is demanding that the government investigate the escape of former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and severely punish any state officials who helped her flee the country.

Ms Yingluck is now reported to be in Dubai where her exiled brother Thaksin lives, having fled the country before she was due to appear at the Supreme Court in Bangkok on Friday for the ruling in her negligence case. She is believed to have travelled overland to Cambodia and then flown to the United Arab Emirates via Singapore.

High-level sources told the Bangkok Post on Friday that senior officials were complicit in the escape. They feared that a guilty ruling and jail term would lead to unrest among Ms Yingluck's many supporters, 3,000 of whom waited in vain to see her at the Supreme Court.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Prawit Wongsuwon conceded on Friday that it was likely Ms Yingluck had fled the country.

The PAD said Ms Yingluck’s escape reflected a failure on the part of security authorities, leading to speculation that the failure was allowed to happen.

They pointed out that Ms Yingluck for months had been closely shadowed by soldiers, to the point where she complained on social media about privacy violations. They noted that Gen Prawit on Feb 29 last year had said soldiers were needed to provide protection for Ms Yingluck and to help maintain peace and order in a politically tense time.

Full story and photo: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politic ... luck-flee-

[fountainhall]

Surely Yingluck doing a bunk was precisely what the government wanted. Although we will not now know the actual verdict until next month, had she been acquitted on Friday there would have been a storm of protest from the cities and the middle class. Had she been jailed, she would have become a martyr figure around which her base could mobilise and increase support within the county. With a suspended sentence, both sides become pissed off. Like her brother, she is now at least on paper a convicted exiled felon who has fled from justice. Unless pardoned, which in itself would be massively controversial (but not, I believe, totally out of the question), it is unlikely she will return to Thailand.

I sometimes wonder what her brother feels about his 10 years of exile and never being able to return to his homeland. Even with all his billions, his private jet, his travel, his luxury accommodations - does he ever feel regret that power got to his head to the point he believed he could justify everything he did however good or bad, one of the latter being the corrupt Shin Corp. deal, that had he fought the elite system less hard and only done things even a little more in the Thai way of compromise without angering quite so many people, he would not have had to flee and might even still be in power? Or is he merely a bitter man rapidly approaching old age, now no longer the last of a series of Thai Prime Ministers who have had to flee and spend the rest of their lives outside their country?

[Gaybutton]

she is now at least on paper a convicted exiled felon who has fled from justice.

Is that correct? As far as I know, so far she has not been convicted of anything.

[fountainhall]

I may be wrong but I assumed that fleeing the country from justice even prior to the verdict made her some kind of felon. Clearly, though, not convicted in court - yet!

[Gaybutton]

Clearly, though, not convicted in court - yet!

That is the point. As of today she has not been convicted in court of anything. Her escape from Thailand makes her a fugitive.

[Oliver]

"Fleeing from Justice"? The Junta and its tamed courts do not dispense justice but political judgements . Their deliberations would not withstand legal scrutiny anywhere but in Thailand. Whenever there has been an attempt to support the interests of working-class Thais, the conservative/royalist/ military hegemony has intervened to protect its own interests. Now, that is the real corruption that has disfigured the country for decades.

[Gaybutton]

The Junta and its tamed courts do not dispense justice but political judgements

I always enjoy it when someone posts opinion just as if it were fact.

Here is a fact: None of us know what the Yingluck verdict would have been or what the sentence would have been if she had been found guilty. You can guess, but you can't know just yet.

To quote Geezer, "The day I don't like it in Thailand, I know where the airport is."

Others who are apparently down on Thailand and the way things work here might want to carefully consider Geezer's words.

If you don't like it here or the way things work here, then why do you come? Of course, we can guess at the answer to that question too . . .