Past – Present

From Thairath, October 21, 2012
Cartoon title: Past – Present
Top left: Past – destroy the dikes, Present – take away the sandbags [Reference is to the big flood last year when people destroyed dikes to release flood water away from their areas. This year, the BMA put sandbags into some drainage pipes to contain flood water within some controlled areas so that they can drain it out faster without flowing to the surrounding areas. But the Phua Thai government didn't agree with the theory and finally ordered to remove all of the sandbags.]
Top middle: Past – looking for an area to keep flood water, Present – Looking for area to store rice [Reference is to the current situation of the government's rice mortgage policy which has created massive stockpiles of unsellable rice.]
Top right: Past – Run ‘Thoog Jai’ marts, Present: Run ‘Thoog Jai’ marts until they’re out of business. [The 'Thoog Jai' marts are grocery stores, another populist project from the government. These stores sell cheaper-than-the-market-price groceries resulting in empty shelves.]
Bottom left: Past – Wood logs in sarong, Present – Rice in sarong
Bottom middle: Past – They’re called ‘men in black., Present – They’re called ‘men jai di’ [jai di means kind]. [Reference is to the argument about the 'men in black' among the Red Shirt protesters during April-May 2010. Recently, the Red Shirt supporters argued that there are not 'men in black.' There are only 'men jai di.' This is a kind of punny way to try to sweep aside the reality of a militant force acting for the Red Shirts.]
Bottom right: Past – It’s called ‘auction’, Present – It’s called ‘offer’.
[Reference is to the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission's 3G e-auction which is criticized for being simple collusion.]