The Nation
supalak@nationgroup.com
As far as the media were concerned, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej and Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama were "defeated" in first day of the censure debate in the House of Representatives.
Headlines in almost all local newspapers backed the opposition Democrat Party saying Samak and Noppadon had lost the battle. The Democrat Party, like butchers, had chopped up the nominee government in Parliament, they said.
Evidence showed the government had lost national sovereignty to Cambodia in favour of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's business interests. Many columnists pointed out the controversial issue of the Preah Vihear temple was the killer point.
Many newspapers devoted the majority of their space in yesterday's editions to the speeches and information provided by the speakers from the opposition.
It is widely know that Samak's government has no ability to communicate with the public, nor any ability to shape public opinion. Both Samak and his foreign minister Noppadon were seen in a negative light because of their connection to former Prime Minister Thaksin.
The public realised long ago they were doing everything to favour Thaksin. Foreign Minister Noppadon, who handled the Preah Vihear case, is a former legal advisor to Thaksin. His reputation as Thaksin's defender was locked into by the media.
Prime Minister Samak himself is a media unfriendly figure. He never offers sweet words. He was painted as a big-mouth politician. As usual, his behaviour in Parliament during the debate was aggressive and he never answered any questions.
He simply said: "I'm old, I know everything and nothing is wrong under my command."
Unlike Samak, Noppadon is media friendly and has made several attempts to get more coverage, but the media is unfriendly to him since he is too close to Thaksin.
The foreign minister set up a war room at the ministry to help assemble data and information for his debate. Intellectually, the Oxford graduate has the background to cover the Preah Vihear issue in legal and diplomatic terms. Unfortunately, the minister failed to capture the headlines.
Tactically, the war room at the ministry is not aware of time management. Noppadon got a time slot for his clarification in Parliament that was too late to make the papers. He began his session at about 11pm on Tuesday.
Very few newspapers were able to wait for his side of the story.
Of course, television viewers who saw the live show heard every word. But in this country, newspapers remain the opinion leaders. Television anchors pick up the headlines for their show every morning and lead public opinion along the lines of the newspapers.
Headlines in almost all local newspapers backed the opposition Democrat Party saying Samak and Noppadon had lost the battle. The Democrat Party, like butchers, had chopped up the nominee government in Parliament, they said.
Evidence showed the government had lost national sovereignty to Cambodia in favour of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's business interests. Many columnists pointed out the controversial issue of the Preah Vihear temple was the killer point.
Many newspapers devoted the majority of their space in yesterday's editions to the speeches and information provided by the speakers from the opposition.
It is widely know that Samak's government has no ability to communicate with the public, nor any ability to shape public opinion. Both Samak and his foreign minister Noppadon were seen in a negative light because of their connection to former Prime Minister Thaksin.
The public realised long ago they were doing everything to favour Thaksin. Foreign Minister Noppadon, who handled the Preah Vihear case, is a former legal advisor to Thaksin. His reputation as Thaksin's defender was locked into by the media.
Prime Minister Samak himself is a media unfriendly figure. He never offers sweet words. He was painted as a big-mouth politician. As usual, his behaviour in Parliament during the debate was aggressive and he never answered any questions.
He simply said: "I'm old, I know everything and nothing is wrong under my command."
Unlike Samak, Noppadon is media friendly and has made several attempts to get more coverage, but the media is unfriendly to him since he is too close to Thaksin.
The foreign minister set up a war room at the ministry to help assemble data and information for his debate. Intellectually, the Oxford graduate has the background to cover the Preah Vihear issue in legal and diplomatic terms. Unfortunately, the minister failed to capture the headlines.
Tactically, the war room at the ministry is not aware of time management. Noppadon got a time slot for his clarification in Parliament that was too late to make the papers. He began his session at about 11pm on Tuesday.
Very few newspapers were able to wait for his side of the story.
Of course, television viewers who saw the live show heard every word. But in this country, newspapers remain the opinion leaders. Television anchors pick up the headlines for their show every morning and lead public opinion along the lines of the newspapers.
10 comments:
People must stop twisting things upside-down here. Thailand did not lost anything to Cambodia. All we are trying to do is to develop the area so that both sides may prospered from it. We are not settling on any border dispute. If the opposition is concerned with legal implications, I am sure, Cambodia cans provided some clauses in the registration to prevent any future implication from the registration. It is important that we both seek the interest for the wellbeing of the local people in the area.
Hello Heng Soy,
Please not count on the news from The Nation Group. This is a fucking biased newspaper. Most Thai people always support the prime minister and the government. If you follow the news from this newspaper for two or three years ago, you will see that it always portrayed Thaksin as an unpopular prime minister. But when the re-election was held, Thaksin was re-elected again with a landslide. And although the newspaper continued to say like Thaksin was a shit, PM Samak who said that he is the nominee of Thaksin still won the latest election. So, please not count on the Thai media at all. It is owned by the elites and aristocrats of Thailand and it is full of shits. If you want to know the truth, please read news from Western media, Arabian media, or any outsider media that is not owned or reported by Thais.
"As usual, his behaviour in Parliament during the debate was aggressive and he never answered any questions. He simply said: 'I'm old, I know everything and nothing is wrong under my command.'"
This is a piece of shit. I watched the debate and he didn't reply such a short sentence like that. He answered every questions in favor of a good relation between Thailand and Cambodia, which Abhisit tried to fuck up. Thai media is now fucking biased. Please not count on it.
1:43
Thank you for clearing things up. Thai media is very bias as you just mention. But we must be very careful because media plays a big role in public opinion. Look at the US led war in Iraq. The media was able to get the country to support the war.
1:43am, thanks for this report. anyway, yes, the thai newspapers or media always bias with cambodia on their reports, all the time. you know, it is when the newspaper there is biased in their reports, that is a major problem in thailand because they are not reporting or saying the truth. they tend to be one-sided view only and they do not help with any problem but make it worse, actually. talk about lop-sidedness in the media which is the eyes and hears to the world. so, it is smart not to rush to judgment anything comes out of thailand about cambodia. if anything, it is the other way around. like for instance, they always say that cambodia violated their sovereignty, when the fact is thailand is the one to always violated cambodia's sovereignty. we know and can see their true color already, needless to say. god bless cambodia.
They are all seved Ah Siamese interest, The media, The coups are seving the King for Siamese interest, (this is a WWF scenary after all their walets full of money). Just ignored them, these THIEVES know well how to play in politic.
May god Bless Khmer all!
WTF? Ah Khmer-Yuon's KI Media is 10 times worse than the worst Thai's media when it come to bias.
It sounds like Siem serve its Interests before anything else,but
Khmer-Hun Sen serve Hanoi-Interests.We all known that they(Youn) control Cambodia & its people under cover up of fake Monarchy & Xmer Government.
What's the signficance of Khmer Sovereignty ?
Eric Campbell of ABC TV quoted :
" Sok KOng is the King of Cambodia "
Preah Vihear will be the next explotation of Sok Kong,Hanoi ?
Well, it so happen that Hanoi interest is also Cambodia interest.
I agree with 1:43AM.
Cambodians and poor Thais don't know that every thing in Thailand owned by the Royal family and the most richest powerul people only.
Thaksin and Hun Sen already friends and made a deal to do the business. Thailand wants some of Preah Vihear and oil from Cambodia is just for business (tourists).
Million Thais who are Khmers still live poor, and don't think those shit will want to help.
Dear Khmer folks
You feel like ThaksinM Feeling like he's savior of dirt poor Cambodian people? More than half of the Thai population hate him. DO not count on cheated election which brought his supporters back to power. The scooge buys everything. He is going to "buy" Koh Kong form Hun Sen. Heard that? The whole family talks with money. Unfortunately, Thai supreme court judges cannot be bought. It was yesterday when the SUpreme court sentenced three of Thajsin's lawyers a 6-month immediate jail term. PLS wait to read about it here. The nation reported it too. Is that to blame?
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