Quote:
Originally Posted by Davey612
And for those who were anti-PAD here, do remember that the current system of cheap "entertainment" comes from this mass of Northeasterners. Do you think they are really smiling?
I do wish you would explain the rest of your comments as, frankly, I'm a bit thick-headed tonight. Are you suggesting that the rural poor would be more morally correct and/or happier if (1) PAD was in charge and/or (2) the rural poor were disenfranchised? If so, I don't agree at all....but some of that disagreement is based on my attitude toward democracy. The rural poor aren't so dumb in my eyes, they having chosen to vote for those who benefit them (agricultural loans, the health care system, etc.) the most. What's so dumb about that? Most people in most countries do just that (if they are given the chance to vote). Or should the rural poor be smart (read this last "smart" as "dumb") enough to support the polticians and elite who have never done a damn thing for them and treat them as ignorant nobodies that are entitled to nothing?
Democracy, of course, works best with an educated public. If the Thai elite want that to occur, the remedy it seems is to provide the free education through the high school level that the various Thai constitutions have "guaranteed" but not provided for years. Advocating that 70% of the legislature be appointed by the elite is just another way of keeping the rural poor powerless and, of course, poor. The elite for years also have voted their pocketbook - supporting whoever will continue the long-established custom that they always get the largest slice of the pie.