Lil' Donnie n' Kublah Kahn

Lil' Donnie n' Kublah Kahn
Originally uploaded by maujb.

Politics are heated in Thailand this week as 100,000+ protesters filled a park calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister Thaksin (pronounced toxin) and investigation into a series of major swindles over the last several years by this PM.

The latest of these swindles involves the selling off of a family telecom business three days after new Thai Telecommunication Act (2006) passed on Friday January 20th. Thaksin's family sold Shin Corporation to Temasek Holdings with tax liability exemption. The family netted about 73 billion baht (about $1.88 billion) tax-free from the buyout, exploiting a regulation that individuals (as opposed to corporations) who sell shares on the stock exchange pay no capital gains tax.

Another swindle involves conversion of the pegged-Baht to floating status and insider currency trading, as well as multiple government mega-project bid-rigging Halliburton-isms.

There is a hastily called election planned for April 2 but it is being boycotted by all opposition groups.
Should be an interesting month here in the capital.