ฟ้าผ่า!ตระกูลชินวัตร สั่งจำคุก ‘พจมาน’ 3 ปี [31 ก.ค. 51 - 10:59] in:
http://www.thairath.co.th/onlineheadnews.html?id=98932

I welcome your comments/analysis on the case (and the long line of cases pending).

It’s just too fishy not to be profitable for PMThaksin, the puppet master. It is likely that his prior meeting with PMHunsen was to discuss the deal – and the support of the Thai government (only cabinet in this case) for the listing was likely part of it. And most rumours concerning PMThaksin’s corruption and conflicts of interest through the years have proven to be true.

Frankly, I hope to be proven wrong rather than right – but PMThaksin is just… PMThaksin… and rather predictable (Maybe his soothsayer advised that Khao Phra Vihear must be listed for his ‘luck’ to improve? And this is complemented by countrywide merit making tours including to 1,000 monks at Dhammakaya on his birthday?)

Unless, ofcourse, you buy Khun Stima’s argument above that a billionaire like PMThaksin will not corrupt? One I haven’t heard since 2002…

It may be prove to be just another business transaction for PMThaksin, much like the one he pulled off with the Burmese Junta through EXIM bank (extended billions of Thai tax-payers money in loans for the Burmese to do business with ShinCorp – a case to be tried in the courts) – if we can find out who is the rumoured major investor in Cambodia’s Koh Kong island. It has all his “win-win” (for his businesses) trademark. PMHunsen gets Khao Phra Vihear listed and, in the ensuing event, turns a potential crisis into an election victory – and to add icing to the cake, according to Nicholas’ report, Cambodian unity. It is rumoured PMThaksin beat other potential investors to the Koh Kong contract…

If that is true, I think many Thais might prefer him in a Thai jail than pulling off deals along the Thai border while pulling the strings inside the Thai cabinet. At least, I hear that FMTej Bunnag is his own man (one actually prefered over PMThaksin’s proposal, a former ambassador to England) – so further business transactions through the foriegn ministry could be on hold…

Assuming this is the one that took all the famous head shots, that photographer is pretty well known. He was ten years old when he joined (for lack of a better term) the Khmer Rouge. They sent him to China to learn basic photography. He would still have been a young teenager when he did the photos, but I don’t think he was a soldier before that.

This was a rare article to note that Hun Sen defected from the Khmer Rouge. Typical, though peculiar, is that it doesn’t mention that Khmer Rouge troops, with Thai help, fought Hun Sen’s for more than ten years. Most of that time, he had the help of Vietnamese troops. (The NYT’s Seth Mydans seems to do a Khmer Rouge story about once a month–it’s his only Cambodia story–but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mention the civil war or Vietnamese occupation.) A lot of these people in Anlong Veng must have relatives that were killed or wounded during that war. Seems to me that it’s newsworthy that they now appear to support the CPP so strongly.