TimCM

How can there be no mention of the word 'hub' on this page?

So the 1 tablet per child is now going to be 1 tablet per hooker

Walking in to a few hundred Thai public company board rooms and seeing the photos of countless generals on the wall of the board rooms was always puzzling. Until it became clear. They are all patronage appointed positions. The Thai army is nothing more than a security force for the Thai business class elite establishment. That's what this is all about. When things reach the "disturbance" level and fear of rioting and most of all, looting kicks in, they call their old friend whose picture is on the board room wall and inform him it is time. That's what's been going on for decades in Thailand.

The Thai army is not a fighting force as we know fighting forces, it couldn't prevent closure of the international airport or chose not to and sat by watching the mayhem and chaos internationally and economically. The Thais rarely if ever send forces to troubled spots, they can't seem to come up with a way to stop revolutionary guerilla killing and bombing in the south of their own land for over ten years, there is no real security provided by the Thai army. They can't even spot a commercial 777 jetliner flying off course over their southern land and seashore or scramble a jet to check it out. Human trafficking goes on every day all over Thailand and its sea provinces and the Thai army seems powerless to stop it or unwilling. So it's clear to see that it's really just a protection or security force for the Thai establishment who live behind those gated walls and in those staff driven MBs and exclusive clubs and golf courses.

Their doing all this purging and so called reform, and some it is well intentioned and a good idea. The questions are who is ultimately accountable for all these decisions? Where will the buck stop when some of these decisions go stale or become ineffective or wrong? What about transparency? While they are purging state board members in THAI and elsewhere, are they also looking to remove some of the army generals who have absolutely no expertise or value add to the businesses on which they sit as paid board members? What about publishing the salaries, perqs, benefits and retirement plans for the military? Do they plan to be really transparent and prove it?

Any response from TV's self-styled Prayuth 'happy clappers' Glee Club? No?

I thought not.

Whatever your comments on the Army that is your personal gripe.

Most of this mess created by the PTP could have been checked and controlled by your Thaksin police force. but the same as the last coup had no idea how to take care of Thailand people. They WERE a franchise or money collectors --hopefully that's changed now.

The long time ago airport seizure should have been the polices job.

All your rant has been about poss lack of transparency within the army ??? no mention of the Shins/PTP ---reality who were responsible for accounts during the last 3 years (or lack of). it's all well and good slagging of the cleaners when the slagging off of the dirty regime would be more in order.

But noitom never mentioned PTP, Thaksin or the Shins/PTP. Neither did I.

But you managed all three and still didn't manage to qualify this fawning adulation for Prayuth.

Just more of the same, "But they did this and they were doing did that!" Hardly an endorsement for a dictatorship, benevolent or otherwise.

I would not bother, no matter the topic, his/her posts are the same. Follow dear leader or you are a red apologist.

For corruption to be eliminated, it must come from the top down. In this case the military as pointed out by noitom. As there has been no suggestion of this being part of the reforms, it would be hard for a reasonable person to think that it was more than a clearing out of the wrong people. I doubt any democratic country would have so many generals in so many external positions. Don't they have a job to do

I am sure I read somewhere that The Chinese are the largest group of tourists in Thailand. Surely a better way would be to look at customizing tourism for them while protecting their other segments.

It would be a big potential market to ignore or destroy

When the Junta has finished its role here , please do the same with the Australian politicians,

This is just another announcement too, just like education, taxi's etc. While they all sound good, I doubt they have any real interest or ability to do the hard work to implement these changes.

As crap as our politicians are at the moment, I would still prefer them to a dictatorship. At least we get to feel good when we kick them out.

Besides, how many hours do you think it would take for the Australian population to destroy the Thai military and have the survivors running home crying to their mums. Might even break their record for surrender to the Japanese.

As much as I wish this to be true, this dictatorship seems to announce a new major policy or cleanup at the rate of 2 or 3 a day. After the announcement and the photo session, how much will really be done?

I know the military has neither the resources or expertise to fix these issues at the rate being announced or some of these issues would have been resolved the other 19 times they tried.

Fool me once, shame on you,fool me 19 times and show you are a blind supporter of dictatorships

I take it you don't support the Thaksin Shinawatra dictatorship. In fact I suspect you enjoyed it.

" you don't support it" then "you enjoyed it"------------ Got me beat

I assumed that was a typo so let it go

As much as I wish this to be true, this dictatorship seems to announce a new major policy or cleanup at the rate of 2 or 3 a day. After the announcement and the photo session, how much will really be done?

I know the military has neither the resources or expertise to fix these issues at the rate being announced or some of these issues would have been resolved the other 19 times they tried.

Fool me once, shame on you,fool me 19 times and show you are a blind supporter of dictatorships

I take it you don't support the Thaksin Shinawatra dictatorship. In fact I suspect you enjoyed it.

Not at all. They were a horrible govt.

I just don't believe the current dictatorship has the interest of the majority of Thai's in mind. Where has been the action against corruption in the military or against any of their supporters. Lets face it same s#$t, different colour.

Call me strange but I do believe every country's people have the right to make their own mistakes via democracy. In Australia we have made a few

I am confused. Another topic says Thai's are 95% Buddhist, yet Buddhists done drink alcohol.

The remaining 5% must be insane alcoholics or are the figures distorted by us expats

The Labour Ministry has said it would launch a project to systematically move documented workers to the areas abandoned by the departed Cambodians.

This sounds like they are the property of the Junta and they will just be moved from one paddock to another. Where is their freedom to work for an employer of their choice? You can own a buffalo but you can't own a human and do with them as you please.

Sounds a lot like slavery doesn't it.

But they just finished explaining to the US that they are no longer doing this

I still havent learned anything as that was my starting point too.

So : 14bn/2 million =7000. 7000/365 days =19.2

so 19 new properties a day 'hit the deck' last year to use your expression, or less if the average price was more than the 2 million I used as an example.

I still dont think that is disproportionately high in an expanding city the size of Chiang mai. Others may.

That would be a lot

Melbourne averages around 600 sales per week with a city of 5m. Chiang mai has a population of around 150k.

Another way to look at it would be 140 properties a week for 150k people is 1 property for every 1071 people, every week. Or 1 in 20 per year buying a property

Also, i dont think a true average for the whole city would be B2m

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The situation is, Thailand supports trafficking as long as certain people can make money out of it.

The certain people are being weeded out. Give it time.

Really. There is no evidence of this claim anywhere. Besides, the people you claim are weeding are the same ones accused of being involved

Come on Thailand you can be NUMBER 1 at this.

They will need to start eating much more to catch up with the Malays. Maybe an international eating comp between the nations

My solution, the military should freeze all the Shin,s assets worldwide and take the cash they need out of this

As if any country would even respond to the Junta's request. I can see Australia, UK and USA shaking at the thought

Good news, the junta tell us that 100% will be happy next poll as the 7% will be reeducated or eradicated.

Glad to see the scams and the murder rate have all been fixed

Can't wait to get back now there are no more serious crimes in the country

If they were concerned about hospitality, then why no action on jet ski scammers, gemstone scammers and taxi scams at airports. This is what tourists tell others about when they get home. I would never advise people to holiday here due to the constant lies and scams which government agencies do nothing about.

There are better options in surrounding countries unless your only interest is hookers.

Seems like just another announcement with no real action. Thailand, the hub of nothing press conferences

Endorsement from China, Indonesia and Vietnam is hardly the dream ticket.

Not a bad start though. hell of a lot of clout there though.

Well it would be if there were such a thing. Let's kill this nonsense right here and now.

Indonesia spoke very strongly against the coup - very strongly. China and Vietnam made it clear they did NOT endorse the coup. In very similar language, both said they hoped Thailand would "very quickly" return to non-military rule.

These are interesting countries, now that you bring them up. Indonesia, like Thailand, is a former military dictatorship. But the communist regimes in China and Vietnam have always - always - maintained total civilian control over the military and there never has been even a slight whiff of a military coup in either of these countries. They may be dreadful regimes, but on this single issue, they are as far from a military coup as the US or Australia.

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Yes let us get rid of this nonsense right here and now.

At the start they were against the coup. But after watching them they realized it was a good thing for Thailand and reversed their opinion.

Cambodia has not endorsed them but they have refused to let fugitives set up a shadow government in their country. Almost as good as an endorsement when you realize the close links Thaksin has with them.

turning out that many of the countries issuing travel warnings have insurance companies who pay more attention to the dangers and costs still selling travel and health insurance to Thailand.

I find it hard to believe that they can tell these bone head ambassadors and others any thing. They knew what Thailand was like before the coup and even a blind man can see the improvement since the coup. But then again they are politicians of the same caliber that got Thailand in to such a mess so not to expect them to understand.

This statement is blatantly wrong. The reason that Cambodia would not even consider this is that it would be against the charter of ASEAN and as such would be a huge diplomatic risk to the whole region.

Not everything revolves around Thaksin, except in the yellow world some live in here. Must be a golden shower thing

I'm sure that all the ambassadors will attend this meeting, smile, pose for photos, and agree with the dictator --- if they are forced to at gunpoint.

The generals just don't get it. The whole world despises them.

The ambassadors didn't come the last time the army rulers had a meet and greet - they sent their subordinates, basically a diplomatic two finger salute.

So long as it's not a three fingered salute - they'd get locked up for that

LIE complete lie, the general stated the fact on TV, his words were about the 3 fingered salute "no problem with that -we the army have no fight with you"

Thanet-your on the wrong Planet.

Yet you can be dragged away in a van by said people for putting a flower in front of the Australian embassy. Great democracy you have there