EnglishJohn

I now therefore presume it's OK to challenge those with superstitious beliefs in, to take only one of many examples, the fraudulent GT200 device.

That was more total scientific ignorance coupled with arrogance than superstition. It remains my biggest black mark against Prayuth, and even that 'Porntip' woman said they worked - and Thai's seem to hail her as some kind of super-sleuth.

Educated farang often forget just how backwards a lot of people are here regarding education and judge their ignorant comments quite harshly.

Can anyone name any attempt by Thailand to be the hub of anything ever succeed?

Several

1) Hub of Corruption

2) Hub of Nepotism

3) Hub of Government incompetence

4) Hub of Military incompetence

To name but 4

I agree with the first 3 - Pheu-Thai were the absolute worst for them all. The first two go without saying and Chalerm + Plodprasop (both deputy PM's) take the biscuit for the third.

But I would venture you have not a clue about military skill or incompetence. Therefore you are just an anti-Junta whiner and I have a feeling your hypocrisy means you didn't mean the dirty cronies with your first 3 points either.

Anyone with an opinion worth listening to would have put police incompetence as number 4. Again a product of red-shirt ethics.

Yes this is what you get if there's no police patrolling the highways/mainroads.

And i still haven't heard of a plan from the General to start with that. You can do anything you like on the roads in BKK but if you drive motorbike and don't keep totally left they'll get you.

Why would the General concern himself with that ?. It is a police/road traffic matter. You make it sound like you watch the news every night just waiting for his personal directive for this one point.

And how on Earth would some police patrols stop this guy getting a gun out and firing a single shot ?.

Or (like the other red-shirts here) you want to whine at him for something else about which the last bunch of dirty cronies were 100 times worse ? (but they didn't see fit to complain then).

Time to grow up.

Blatter and Platini probably wish they could re-locate FIFA HQ to Thailand.

Then all the massive corruption that riddles FIFA could've been smoothed over with little consequences for them and their trough sharing mates.

Pesky American and Swiss agencies spoiling the feeding.

Just think, if things had worked out differently in the UK. Thaksin could've still been Man City Chairman and maybe head of the FA by now. Quite a few British football clubs under Thai ownership or with big sponsorship deals now. Nice to see how easy it is for Thais to own businesses and property in the UK.

Congratulations on the best example for some time of a post dragging in a reference to Thaksin where it is entirely irrelevant.

'Endemic corruption at every level' - seems like a good match to me. And Thaksin was involved with football which is now exposed as hugely corrupt.

Seems his link makes more sense than your blind defense of the bogeyman.

But don't concern yourself with what goes on outside your little world. Fingers in ears, head in sand and keep hoping he comes back and makes you rich.

Will he be charged for lying under oath if they have such a thing here?

LOL - no, he gets his sentence cut in half for being helpful.

Rather than Nab him possibly better to treat him for his illness, how many staffed homes could they build in Thailand for these type of people with mental issues, for the cost of three submarines, but then again its just a bunch of soldier who run the country and the Mercedes E Class 212 delivery time is far more an important issue for the generals than the mental health issues of their citizens the people who actually pay their wages and pensions.

So what is it ?, submarines which will contribute to the armed forces and position of the country relative to it's neighbors, or the Mercs driven by the Generals ?.

And you think the whole underfunding for mental patients just started after the coup ?.

Or do you just want to whine at the Junta and only care about this issue now because it suits you ?.

How come you don't mention how many mental homes could have been built with the 500 billion stolen by Pheu-Thai in the rice scheme ?.

This is the problem in Thailand : very few objective opinions. That's why the country is such a mess and always will be.

Logic wins and the people were heard, maybe this new government ain't so bad as it's portrayed. Good on yer Junta, lets have faster internet and fibre optic speed. Happiness is now returning, time to play cookie run, hooray!!!

Um they were planning it in secret and were caught out causing the outcry. If they weren't caught out god knows what would of happened.

You sycophants are a laugh sometimes.

What would be funny if it wasn't so sad is how people like you shout 'dictator' on one breath then do a shameless 'about face' when they bow to public opinion. It makes any opinions you have worthless.

Thailand makes the word 'hypocrite' seem somehow insufficient to describe a large section of it's society.

They scrapped the idea just like I said they would right from the start. What a shame the dirty cronies did not do the same with the amnesty bill instead of ramming it through in that disgraceful manner. I bet you didn't say a dicky bird about that.

... And where is the disgraceful 'Human Rights Watch' of Thailand ?.

They should have been chasing causes like this instead of only ever playing their red-shirt political games while stealing the banner 'human rights' from someone who might actually do something to help people.

I hope all concerned feel embarrassed that it's taken Amnesty International to try and do something about it.

Altogether 4.66 million tonnes of rice were sold for 50.6 billion baht at a combined loss of 65.2 billion baht.

They had 18mn tonnes in the warehouse..........So where is this 500bn loss?

The 500 billion never even made it to the farmers to pay for it.

100 billion did. The 500 billion is the amount 'lost' in the various 'costs' which made so many of the rich & influential people in the rural North even richer and successfully maintained their loyal support.

For all those of you criticizing people for not getting involved must be brand spanking new to Thailand.

Why new? Maybe some guys are just not as scared as some others. Some people would jump into a blazing fire to save someone else and someone might not even lend a hand to someone drowning right beside them. It all comes down to love in the end. How much do you really care and love others, even complete strangers? If you do then you will always jump in, no matter what the outcome

So you pull the guy off the top of the other. While he is trying to tell you the other guy raped his daughter, the other guy gets a gun out and shoots you both.

Extreme example I know - but absolutely possible in Thailand. Completely different to rescuing someone from a building.

Or the guy you pulled off is local and throws a firebomb at your house during the night. As one of the few farang in my area, everybody knows who I am and where I live. I have never come across spite like I see in Thai men who feel they lost face.

I reckon holding your phone like you are videoing everything and saying you are going to call the cops will stop a murder, but I've heard plenty of stories where nearby cops don't even get involved.

Remember the old bold pilots. There are none.

This brings up the old question of what do you do if you see something like this ?.

Thailand has more than it's fair share of nutters and you have no clue who you are getting involved with. I would say more often than not it is related to some other event you have no idea about. Plus there will be a good chance one or the other has a knife or a gun. Drugs or alcohol may well be involved.

I can really understand people not intervening in a land where a lot of people are crazy and life is cheap - where someone might murder someone else just for causing loss of face. Plus you may end up in the slammer yourself on false charges if one is involved with some dirty cops. What is the general opinion of people about this ?. Would you join in ?.

So what has changed , the Junta is still in control, even though they are not any where near as rough as their pre 73 models , but still in control, you are still harassing the students because you are so scared with a cocktail mix, students , social media and organization skills they may return to 73 , if they do , you have your self to blame, perhaps this time they wont be so generous in allowing Generals to be heads of Departments as a trade off and to save face , next time they may settle for properly qualified career Administrators.

An intelligent red-shirt would wonder why so many farang who grew up in real democracies and got good educations think that Thailand is much better off under the Junta than it was Pheu-Thai. And they are hopeful that the most free and fair elections ever held in Thailand will put something better in power than a bunch of dirty cronies taking the country to bankruptcy with corruption and unsustainable populist policies.

You obviously didn't - and by the level of nonsense your post I'm not surprised.

You do know it was over 40 years ago right ?. It's clear you must be a slow learner, but things are very different now.

tthis is good news, otherwise all these cases would be forgotten about or slowly allowed to expire due to the statue of limitations.. The previous government did not do anything about them because many of their members were involved. It really takes the army to get things done now in Thailand.

it saddens me to see TV members making childish and snide remarks every time the government does something constructive. but I guess the best thing to do is to ignore them even though one sees the same small group regularly sniping against the government. Perhaps theyI got nothing better to do

Something constructive? Hmmm let me think about that one and get back to you. Coup, Beach cleanup, Lottery ticket cleanup, Park land encroachment, Bombing in BKK yes and all were generously financially rewarded TWICE still no trial reward money gone (police 2 tipsters 0), Rioting in Phuket moving full speed ahead only a 100,000 baht reward to police. Beach murder of 2 Britishers proceeding nicely again cash rewards for police all around. Sorry getting tired and still thinking. Maybe speed is picking up on cases as you say because members of the other side were involved to your thinking anyway. You get to pick off the opposition and pick up some Brownie points in the process a double header (To be continued)

Why are you mixing the actions of the police with those of government prosecutors ?. You do know the police don't actually handle the prosecutions right ?????. They just arrest the scumbags.

If you were a little more astute, you would realise that where the Army go in, things get sorted out. When it is left to the police, everything turns back to sh*t. The problem is that the police are fundamentally rotten from top to bottom. Every senior figure at every level is dirty to some degree and Prayuth would have to fight every one of them to change anything. And you do know what kind of person your average policeman is right ? (a clue to help you a bit : they are nicknamed 'tomatoes').

But don't feel bad : you are not the most ignorant poster on here by a long shot.

I would imagine that some in the army are still leaning towards the Reds as they have in the past. Only a fool would think otherwise.

The audio tape showed us that Thaksin has bought plenty of people in the Army. He was trying to buy Prayuth and the 'supreme commander' with lucrative post-retirement 'positions'.

Thai society is riddled with corruption in every service of the government. But these kind of people are greedy for position and power as well as money : they will only take any action if they are pretty sure they will succeed.

None of them will risk sacrificing any of the perks they have now for something like ethics and morals or belief in a cause. Those concepts are alien to them.

They need to see an opening before the next elections because then their chance is gone. Prayuth will be taking special care to see they don't get one.

Every single case seems be be 'Not guilty through lack of evidence". They are never 'proven innocent'.

And luckily for many of them it is things like CCTV tapes going missing. And both gunmen dying in prison ?. Come on. Why are these things just accepted by the Thai media who seem to know when to keep quiet ?.

I have no faith in the Thai police, justice system and ethics of the media whatsoever.

The junta must have thought they might as well make some political capital out of this by sowing seeds in people's minds. If they equate "bombs" with "red shirts" often enough, people will believe it, despite the lack of any empirical evidence. It's like training Pavlov's dog.

If someone slapped you in the face 10 times then you closed your eyes and got slapped again, would you open them and wonder who did it ?.

Virtually all violence involving 'war-weapons' I have seen in 10 years (outside the South) has been by red-shirts. Did you miss the THIRTY protesters murdered in cold blood ?. Would you class a grenade as a bomb ?.

I even visited an apartment in Bangkok which had blown out when a red-shirt was trying to make a bomb inside.

Pavlov's dog was trained to have a programmed response when a specific situation arose without intelligent input. It seems it works on humans as well : when under any threat, deny and accuse others. I bet you were one of those who claimed the protesters were throwing grenades at themselves. Right up until the red-shirts got caught.

So how many arrest warrants are now in force?

Any country, other than Thailand would be investigating ways / methods of extraditing a criminal - especially when you know where the bolthole is and said criminal is flitting around the world more than likely into countries that have extradition agreements with Thailand.

Another slow news day.

Maybe because these countries just don't give a rats arse about what Thailand wants under its current guise?

If the truth be known, it's more than likely Thailand doesn't really give a rats arse what Thaksin is doing, and the further away he is the better.

As for his name popping up all the time - not entirely a function of the junta -- the news media thinks it sell papers and will take every opportunity to run headline.

"If the truth be known, it's more than likely Thailand doesn't really give a rats arse what Thaksin is doing, "

It probably depends on where in the country you ask the population. I'm fairly certain they care quite a lot in some parts of the country. But I can tell you this much; the junta and their pals care a great deal about what he's doing, and they have every reason to be worried....very worried.

Ha - the veiled threat of imminent communist uprising again. It reminds me a lot of the North Koreans in 1950 who had a similar mentality - and you should take a lesson from history about where that will get you (before China stepped in).

We all saw the last red-shirt protests which promised tens of thousands and got a few women who had nothing better to do than have a free day out. The only chance for numbers is when buses are all laid on and a party is waiting. This kind of pimping is not the stuff revolutions are made of. Your entire plan depends on money from one man who has proven he doesn't give a damn about you (the amnesty bill should have showed you that).

The best you will manage is to be an underground terrorist group like the Muslims in the South - which you are only a small step from already. Most are not that stupid : things are not really worse for them now than they were under Pheu-Thai. It's only those who want the power and the access to public money who are in a rage. They think something has been stolen from them.

It's hard to understand why he couldn't be simply arrested in any of the countries where he regularly visits....

charge him with the 3000 odd extra judicial murders and maybe some country might agree to send him back..

They might indeed, but the trouble with that plan is that he could likely bring down an awful lot of important people with him - it wasn't him that pulled the trigger, nor do I imagine he personally authorised each and every death. That means people in the dock with him.

No, I imagine he has far too much dirt on far too many for him to ever be allowed to stand trial on any charges other countries would actually send him back to face, hence no requests for his arrest.

Wow, you wrote something I agree with.

Whatever next.

Just another charge to eventually expire under the 'statute of limitations' - a last resort, get-out clause written by dirty politicians.

In his defense he should site the case of the Thai police general who got caught smuggling

a gun and ammo on board a commercial flight, and what happened to him? nothing, because

he's a police general as to this chap only a mere lowly human being, the law is equal to all,

however, not unless you're well connected....

I agree : it's a complete disgrace and every event like this makes the country a laughing stock.

The police guy was not charged because they couldn't find any evidence that he did it on purpose. Short of writing it in his diary, I'm not sure what that evidence would be.

I think Prayuth has realised that he has no chance to reform the police. The rot is too deep. It would be obstructed by every means possible at every level.

since when are PM's financially liable for failed policy

let alone collective responsibility

When the PM probably knew the scheme was Corrupt, so now it's time to share in the losses! Fair is Fair! Her Brother should help her pay back allot of the losses since it was probably his "scheme"!

Yes - I remember the election campaign slogan : "Thaksin thinks, Yingluck doesn't" or something like that. That was the meaning anyway.

since when are PM's financially liable for failed policy

let alone collective responsibility

You think 500 billion being 'lost' when only 100 billion made it to the farmers is just a 'failed policy' ????.

I take you are saying that instead, she should be prosecuted for being party to (and responsible for) defrauding the taxpayer of 500 billion baht ?. I expect that would be a very stiff sentence.

Because there's no way someone should be suggesting they be allowed to get away with it.

This is why ordinary British folks can't afford to buy any properties in and around London?

Uk the country with no regulations, hence why a lot of property in and around London is bought by foreigners laundering money got through I'll gains. My personal view is that you should be a uk resident to buy property in the uk. That would stop places like London becoming the playground for the international rich.

And it is the most ill informed opinion. Where is your data to show that dodgy foreigners laundering money is the reason why London prices are so high? Please provide me with this information because it is a first for me.

When you buy a house or property in the UK and you pay a large sum of money up front, or even pay for it outright the purchase has to pass money laundering regulations.

It is a good thing that foreign companies invest in the UK, it brings additional revenue in and by and large creates extra jobs, that means extra wealth, extra tax etc, etc.

London property prices are so high for hundreds of reasons that I will not elaborate here, I will say however in what major capital city in the World is property now cheap?

Of course foreign investment is a big part of London real estate now as it is in every single major city in the World.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/25/london-housing-market-launder-offshore-tax-havens

Seems he is not the one ill-informed.

The UK government make millions from it which is why it goes on. The UK got sold down the river long ago. The country is pretty much foreign-owned now. We are even paying the French government to hire the Chinese to build nuclear reactors which we will then pay through the nose for the power. Selling your assets to foreigners is easy money, but then you lose your in-country capability for the future.

Thailand remains the only country with a relatively free press that seeks to control the Internet.

I stopped taking the article seriously at this point.

The only reason the journalist said Thailand's press is relatively free is because he was too afraid or too naïve to say it isn't.

Yes, I agree completely.

The Junta have backtracked on the gateway and it is not going to happen - but some of the press seem to have latched on to the original idea and are intent on hammering the same point again and again.

It's clear they are well and truly bought in Thailand. What makes it abundantly clear to me is the fact we keep getting big stories about things where the dirty cronies were much worse, but no reporter said a dicky bird at the time.

At this point, I only take any criticism of the Junta seriously if the person making it was also critical of Pheu-Thai. The only person I can think of who did that is Veera of Bangkok post.

The rest are hypocrites who should shut up until their dirty ways are reformed. While they are waiting, they should read their 'code of ethics' again and wonder where along the way they lost sight of right and wrong.

I thought Aod was supposed to be the key to this whole travesty of an investigation.

Not Aod.

Who he works for

So they still know nothing and are telling us they know almost nothing.

lol, the only thing we know for sure is they paid themselves the reward money.

Twice.

You would not believe what goes on here without seeing it happen yourself.