EnglishJohn

Sorry to see his free speech curtailed. His idea to fight fire with fire, speaking the same language as the Islamists, would have had a more positive effect on the peace process than appeasement. Bending over for these religious creeps does not work, it just emboldens them(if in doubt look to the N European models). No, they must be smacked, and smacked hard, every time they perpetrate violent acts in the name of their deity. Non violent solutions such as burning down mosques is a particularly savvy plan, in that when the mosques that bred and fomented the hate and rage no longer exist - the brainwashing will cease also. Win win.

Do you honestly believe that?

Do you really not see the appalling consequences of such insane actions?

Burning down a place of religious worship is a violent act and one that will only lead to bloody violence on a greater scale.

The conflict in the South is not a religious one, it's main focus is upon independence/autonomy based upon historical sense of injustice [rightly or wrongly].

Yes there is a religious element to it in that the opposing sides are of different faiths, but faith is not at the root of the violence.

I have nothing but contempt for those who resort to violence to achieve their aims, but the sheer stupidity of burning down Mosques will only fuel their cause and result in even worse atrocities.

And yes, that is possible..

Another liberal telling us it is not about religion.

You can look for all the excuses you like and keep telling yourself people should just be nice to each other. It won't make any difference.

They keep using small reasons as an excuse to murder people but it always has Islam at the root. And don't bring up the old 'but some victims are muslim' because they are invariably killed because they betrayed some principle of the murderers belief.

We now live in a world where they shout demands and murder people almost at will with little repercussion because everyone else is scared that any verbal retaliation will result in more murders. Even here, if anyone dare question it, liberals like you are quick to jump on them.

The recent fiasco when those young men got killed by the Army is another good example of what is wrong. What an uproar in the local councils and the media that brought about - but where is the similar uproar for the hundreds of innocent, decent ,schoolteachers and others when they get brutally murdered in cold blood ?.

Bottom line is that if these people were Buddhist, it would not have this terrorist problem. A muslim will never go against another muslim to help a Buddhist. They are conditioned from birth that everyone else is an infidel and Allah would not forgive them.

These kind things are ALWAYS about religion. I wonder how many thousands (or millions) in this world are yet to die before enough is enough and people dare to face up to it.

The traditions and culture of my home country are now ruined because of this stone age, brainwashing religion. I hope the same does not happen in Thailand.

Anyone know of any high profile convictions for yellow-shirts. How about the yellow-shirts who blockaded the airport and caused untold economic damages to many businesses and tourists. I remember they were supposed to pay a fine, but I haven't heard anything since.

Perhaps there aren't so many because they don't fire grenades into innocent crowds murdering women and children. THIRTY MURDERS in about 90 separate attacks during the last protests alone.

These people are terrorist scum and you should be condemning them to high heaven. Instead, you bring up the peaceful airport sit-in yet again as if it is any way comparable.

Shame on you and your total lack of ethics. Did you cheer when the little girl got murdered in Trang ?.

Well the PM doesnt want the poor peasents being too well. They may get the strengh to rise up against him. Better they stay sick, quiet and as poor as possible.

What an excellent comment. Well done.

I hope the PM wants the same peasants to be dumb as dishwater as well - but going by your post, there is no need for him to go cutting budgets there.

We're all waiting for the uprising .... set a date yet ? - or does it depend on funding coming through ?.

so this story makes it clear that the junta fingered these guys and then one of them allegedly kills himself while in the junta's custody and then, as reported elsewhere, the junta simply refuses to do an autopsy or an investigation into the death.

How bad can a fish smell before someone says something

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Suspect-in-lese-majeste-case-dead-30271531.html

You know you really should find yourself a different source of information than your other red-shirt forums. Simply saying 'reported elsewhere' is a very cheap trick. It doesn't work on educated people.

Did you know that in 2004, 1600 people died in police custody ?. 131 from direct police action.

You must have been typing frantically all day trying to tell us all about the bad fish smell then. Unless you didn't make any comment of course - in which case it makes you a huge hypo ... hypo .. no, it's gone. I wrote it down somewhere ... as yes, my signature.

On the plus side, I am happy to see this was the "Criminal Court", rather than a military court, that handed down this verdict and sentencing.

I would hope we can all agree that there is no place for this sort of violent action by any side.

While I don't believe the Junta had sufficient justification for their coup, It is also obvious the near daily violence in Bangkok was intolerable. The previous government failed to stop it, and that is a huge black mark for them.

On the other hand...life sentence, commuted to 43 years...that's pretty extreme. I would hope these guys serve 10 to 20 years.

Failed to stop it ?. Are you serious ?.

And you might have been taking a nap, but this sort of violence only comes from one side.

The UDD are very tightly coupled with Pheu-Thai. They would never do this without orders from the top.

It was state sanctioned terrorism. Nothing less.

Who gives a crap about the previous government that you toppled in a coup. Why are you always comparing things done by the previous government in order to try to justify yours and their incompetence.

Hypothesis:

Well the previous government lost 600 billion baht in the rice scheme and we have only lost 599 billion baht so we saved 1 billion baht which makes us a better government.

They didn't lose 600 billion. 100 billion went where it was supposed to and they stole the other 500 billion.

And that is as near is your argument got to reality.

How do you figure buying armoured cars to transport politicians around is incompetence ?. What a ridiculous thing to write. Thailand needs them more than most countries with the M79 wielding terrorist problem it has.

And did you see the time Abhisit dared to go up North ?. Those medieval throwbacks would have killed him if they could have got to him.

Oh - you are just ranting with any old nonsense which comes into your head whilst speckling the keyboard with flem !!!. Dang, you got me that time.

A small witch hunt here over a cottage......meanwhile, there are/have been leaders that deal in hundreds of millions in single transactions............

Unusual wealth investigations should be the normal course of action for all leaders, ministers, police, military etc!

There is no question where the money you are alluding to came from. He sold land handed down to him by his father and he has been complete open about that. Which bit is difficult to understand ? - or don't your 'usual sources' go into that much detail ?.

So what you are demanding is that Prayuths father is investigated because he owned some land right ?. But why didn't you say that ?. And should EVERYBODY who owns land over a certain amount be investigated ?.

I have no idea how he owned that land. Neither do you. You just don't like it.

The Thai military already has FIM-92A Stingers - strange that they should also elect to buy the STARStreak MANPADS as well. There would seam to be little practical advantage of the STARStreak system for potential threats in this theatre that would justify an additional system. One can only guess that somewhere, a General's 'Mia Noi' funds need replenishing

I expect these new missiles are intended to shoot down Chinese UAV's from Thaksin's good friend Hun Sen in Cambodia the next time things kick off.

I trust Cambodia about the same as I trust a Pheu-Thai politician.

ie not at all.

Another quality tourist. I see lots of them on the plane ride here.

Usually hammered and getting offensive at the stewardess for not giving him more alcohol after 3 hours.

This is very easy.....just set a reward for turning in plain and clear video evidence of mafia activities. Videos should be released to the government and Youtube the same day so the video can't disappear or some sort of "misunderstanding".

Do you trust Thai law and order as far as that ?.

Don't forget the Army are only here for a while. After that it will be business as usual.

My advice is keep out of everything here. Bring in just the money you need, spend it wisely and try to ignore the crooks all around. I would say you cannot trust anybody in the police and just a few in the courts.

And if they got to you, it would simply be brushed under the carpet like we have seen so many times.

Always to "improve the image" and never because it's the right thing to do. Have these people no morals?

You are basing your comment as if the newspapers negative slanted interpretation is in fact true ?. Jeez - new in Thailand ?.

I remember the last protests where things which happened get put all over social media in real time - including pictures to show it. When I read some news articles I could not believe the things they hid. They are bought just like everyone else in this country.

Just be glad they are doing anything. It would NEVER have happened under the last lot.

Yet another interesting event is:

Thailand is aiming to design and build military equipment and weapons systems on its own, according to Thai officials. Prawit Wongsuwan, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Thailand shared the news at an exhibition on Monday, November 02, 2015. The Thai junta leader has conveyed that the government is bringing in the private sector to help Thailand meet its needs for defence systems and military technology independently.

Thailand Reveals Native Military Equipment

By Brinda Banerjee

You mean like this one : http://www.kasama.com/index.php?option=contentpage⊂=27. And now in this article http://www.janes.com/article/54517/thai-firm-kasama-and-lockheed-martin-sign-uav-technology-accord , Kasama say "we currently don't have technologies related to flight control and ground control systems,"

Where did all that money go then ?.

At least if Thailand buys from abroad, it might actually work (unless utterly incompetent officials chance across a conman as in the GT200 bomb detectors).

It works like this : a project gets funding. The main activity of the company is to get as many family members on the payroll in some hired office to syphon off the budget. They never turn up except for visits by government officials.

Meanwhile the cheapest thing possible is built using low grade hobby parts and used as 'demonstrations' of progress to get more funding. This continues until someone finally pulls the plug.

Thailand should forget trying to make high-quality, high-tech things like this themselves until they can sort out their corruption problems. Which of course means never.

"...rather than misleading the public to create chaos..."

I wonder who the real person is who is misleading the public and creating chaos?

Do you ?.

Keep watching the news : he makes an appearance every week or two to rile up his supporters a bit so they don't forget him.

Pheu-Thai do what they are told like pet dogs who get spanked if they disobey. Never forget the 310:0 amnesty disgrace.

Once God takes that man away from this planet, Thailand has a chance for reconciliation. Not before.

I can only imagine the fevered rants on this thread if it wasn't initiated by Pheu-Thai.

The silence compared to other threads like this is deafening. LMAO.

Must be that Thainess so often invoked when the 'Good People with Guns' (with self-granted imunity), do the things they prosecute and pillage others for, yet assert they have higher moral ground. Falang just can't bend their brains to get the twisted logic. TIT

Which part of '500 billion lost from a 600 billion budget' do you having trouble understanding ?.

Maybe someone who has a small child here can get them to draw a picture for you if it helps.

the junta has been plagarizing the PTP policies since May 22nd. This is not new, it's just a new version of their attempt to keep enough people happy that a real resistance cannot spread.

The junta has maintained a stranglehold on the country and if there is any kind of opposition to their rule, they will need to crack down on it ... up to now, the opposition has been tamed through Art 44, LM, AA mini-vacations, and heavy censorship. I would imagine that these dinosaurs are not soooo dense as to ignore their own history and the impact of street-protests followed by a crackdown and killings. Think 1973 and 1976...

Wow, you live in the past. Is that because those people in 73 and 76 had a real reason to be on street and you are hoping a little of their credit rubs off on you ?.

Why not move to more modern times : 2010 for example. That one was entirely different and no wonder you avoided it. Paid thugs and mercenaries mingling with genuine protesters with the aim of making a bloodbath, a civil uprising and a certain megalomaniac coming home to save the country.

I'm not surprised you avoided that one. It's a bit embarrassing when you know the truth and not a shred of 'nobility' to be found.

You are still perfectly free to sit writing your red-shirt, anti-junta hypocrisy despite all the crackdowns you claim. How does that work ?.

PT just lie down and take it, just like you expected Thailand to do when you were riding roughshod through the country.

You mean like when people had voting rights, were allowed to protest, say and think what they liked, the press wasn't gagged etc, that sort of riding roughshod? Sorry, it doesn't compute.

Jeez. Blinkers on full captain.

You mean when non-red shirt MP's dare not campaign up-country for fear of violence ?.

You mean when 30 (THIRTY) protesters after an utterly disgraceful amnesty bill were murdered by government UDD terrorists in 90-odd separate grenade attacks to try and scare them home ?.

You mean when the press regularly got grenades left on their gateposts or firebombs in their back yard if they wrote something the reds didn't like ?.

To compute, you need a computer and you sound like you are running on a ZX80. With no upgrade path. And a bad case of chip-rot.

Good point. I really enjoyed my time in Kuwait (where all booze is banned), as me & every one of my buddies had a bar at our own houses.

We'd do the round robin, with one of the 8-12 of us hosting a party at least once a week.

Side Note...we all had either a Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean or Filipina wife as well, so the eye candy was always nice too!

But it is not exactly fun to have to limit one's drinking to houses. I don't know about you, but I usually give importance to the atmosphere (and the variety of it) that I drink at. For example, beer gardens in Thailand (especially the one in front of Central World in Bangkok) have been my favorite places to drink at. I really really really hope that they won't be banned.

Trust me, I most assuredly do agree with you that it is a matter of freedom vs DAMNED STUPID, but nonetheless, in Kuwait, EVERY bar I entered was full of my best friends only. On rare occasion I'd meet some new guy (and his ultra hot Indonesian wife which was nice...guys enjoyed meeting my rather attractive Thai wife as well and I enjoyed showing her off), and invariably, he'd be a super nice guy.

It was quite unique, in that nobody was ever a stranger for very long, and had all been vetted by a member of our "Club". We were all farangs, black Americans were welcome (I'm a white Floridian but who cares), Beligians, Swedes, French, Canucks, Germans, Brits, Irish, Aussie's.

One guy's wife was Colombian......WOW! She was hot.

We all enjoyed the eye candy, but never touched.

I bet you vote for Jeb.Coveting another men's wives and even letting "black americans"into your club,wow,what a liberal thinker.

He enjoys looking at beautiful women and dared to write the word 'black' to describe someone. Immediately you brand him an adulterer and racist.

If a black guy used the phrase "White American", would you call him a racist ?.

Armchair liberal's like you have made the world what it is today. And that is the biggest insult I can think of.

Close them all down, the law is the law.

Yeah, you should not even be allowed to say the word beer because somebody might actually hear you say it. Yesterday it was bike lanes and beach chairs. Today it is beer gardens. Moving at a rapid pace. This all could have never happened under an elected government.

Actually, all this nonsense started under an elected government. Do a google search on Purachai, who was Thaksin's Interior Minister and who at one time said he wanted all bars to close at 10:30PM. At least some of the laws being used by the current crop were introduced by that elected government - not put to a vote mind you, simply "approved by cabinet". It really was not much different from the way they run things now.

Please don't try to confuse this guy with anything approaching the truth. His only purpose is to criticise the Junta with any nonsense he can make up on the spur of the moment.

He was probably at day-care all the times Pheu-Thai forced something through Parliament in an entirely undemocratic manner - like closing the session before people opposing the bill could speak. I won't even mention the amnesty disgrace.

Yellowboat : THE LAW IS ABOUT STOPPING ADVERTISING TO ENTICE GULLIBLE IDIOTS TO DRINK A SPECIFIC BRAND OF BEER BECAUSE THEY THINK IT IS COOL. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WORD BEER ITSELF.

I hope that got through.

This is just another case of incompetent Thai politicians making a law for a specific reason, but doing it so badly it also covers many areas where it shouldn't really apply. Hence it gets selectively enforced which leads to all the problems we see around us.

As part of the Christian majority in the UK, I am now the racially discriminated against by my own society. If I say anything whatsoever negative about a Muslim, I am a racist. However I have never heard anyone dare to accuse as Muslim of being a racist - yet during the time I worked in an office with roughly 50/50 split, they were the most racist set of people I have ever encountered.

They consider all people of other religions to be inferior. Even in Thailand, if I go to a Muslim restaurant I see people looking at me like I am a piece of dirt.

Go for it Thailand while you can. Once they are around in numbers big enough to sway who wins the election, you are finished. They have destroyed the culture and traditions of the UK. Our government tries to claim how wonderful our 'multicultural society is'. None of the people I know agree.

Sounds like he is up to his neck in something and if the other reports I have seen are true, it's the crime there is no buying your way out of.

Even if he is a good man underneath, it must be very difficult to refuse the temptation of corruption when it is so easily available - and under Pheu-Thai, there was precisely zero chance any senior policeman would ever be prosecuted no matter what.

Fair play to him in that he has resigned before he is disgraced. Not many do that here.

Another small step in the right direction for Thailand though.

In other news, the UK embassy announces all visits must be by pre-booked appointments between 8am and 8:10am and documents can be picked up between 4pm and 4:10pm.

A minimum charge of £100 will be applied just for us getting out of bed to let you in and we will make sure their is only one Thai staff (with good, but not perfect, English) to take care of all people at any time - including the guy who takes hours because the poor soul is being bounced backwards and forwards around Bangkok trying to sort out paperwork for his son to go to the UK.

And still no easy-to-do one day GPS survey to put to rest all allegations that Suthep's son and Koh Samui love encroachment.

Interesting.

What's interesting is how everyone else is just glad that someone is doing something against these dirty crooks, but the only thing you care about is someone going after your political enemy.

Old style Pheu-Thai/Red-Shirt right to the core. Reconciliation is impossible because you are full of spite. Did you take your liter of petrol to Bangkok as instructed ready to burn it down ?.

You should have realised by now that none of the top figures on either side are going to get what they deserve.

Some posters need to read the full link, including the stewardess's report of what happened.

I just did, and you're right if that account is true, he appears to deserve much less sympathy. I guess he deserves a trial to determine what really happened.

I think he was referring to me and if true, it was way beyond a joke. He deserves to go to court.

It's a bit different to a another report I read.

So many posters here seem to delight in bashing the man in charge here, but he DID save the country from imminent civil wa!

No.. The actions of the military, in supporting Suthep, stopping the police from ensuring crowd control, and constantly reminding the elected government that any attempt at controlling the minority protesters who illegally blockaded the capital (who had dwindled to a few 100 happy clapping grannys by the time of the coup) was the exact source of the risks of conflict.

The yellows lose elections.. The yellows had run out of steam at protesting their losses anyway.. The losers need to understand how elections work, you campaign on a platform, you win or lose, then the winners get to enable that platform, if it fails (as per the rice system) you then use their failures to show you would do a better job.

What a magnificent post. Thank you for showing us all exactly what grip the average Pheu-Thai supporter has on reality.

Just a couple of questions:

Why did you omit any reference to the murder of 30 protesters by government backed terrorists which is what led to the coup ?.

Why did you omit any reference to the police failing to stop or catch any of these terrorists ?. Was that Sutheps fault as well ?.

Please give us your opinion of the situation in 2010 when red-shirts built their camps in Bangkok and ?.

On second thoughts don't bother. I nearly forgot my own signature message.