plachon

What we have here is a simple tale of eight bent coppers.

Three senior officers, so far unnamed and transferred out of province.

Four "junior" officers,who have been identified in the article and one copper who implicated the named foursome.

I am curious as to why the senior officers have not been named.

Oh, of course, they will probably be better connected than the BIB below them.

Nasty business.

Probably because no one in the upper echelons wants to kick off the shame of the name-blame game that might ensure. Better to keep it all in-house and undercover, like good police work should be.......

A lost or stolen farang wallet is rather low in their list of priorities to investigate, I suspect. Unfortunate for you, but that's the way it usually is here. If it was your car that was stolen, they might put out a watch for it, but it would probably need a bung to get them to act. Then if they did find it, they would require another bung to return it to you.

Yeah... I'm from one of those ex-Yugo republics and I can vouch that Montenegro passport is completely useless.

Why doesn't he just buy an investor visa to Canada or something.

Oh, I suspect he still carries other passports of convenience, like his Panamanian one and presumably Dubai, but Montenegro has provided a useful nationality for money laundering for many a crook in the past, including no doubt Thakky.

There could be quite a few people innocently holding dodgy deeds that are going to be badly hurt over this. Not a reason to stop the reclamation, but hopefully some compassion in the form of compensation might be shown, up to a limited income level.

Why compensation for an illegal act? They would almost certainly have paid tea money to the land officials to get the deeds to land they knew full well were not kosher in the first place, so why on earth do they need to be compensated? Given a substantial fine and the land returned to public ownership is more appropriate, I would have thought. The officials deserve to be imprisoned for a suitably lengthy period of time, to ensure that others are deterred in the future.

Kanchanaburi police chief tells entertainment venues, guides to care drunk tourists

The Nation

Kanchanaburi Pol Maj Gen Kamolsanti Klubutr Sunday told entertainment venue operators and tourist guides to take special care of tourists who appeared drunk following a report that a 19-year-old Britist tourist was raped last week while she was drunk.

Kamolsanti said anyone, who spot a drunk female tourist, can call 191 and 1155 to alert police to take the tourist to her hotel.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Kanchanaburi-police-chief-tells-entertainment-venu-30261319.html

-- The Nation 2015-05-31

Quite a few years ago, I recall the case of a Hong Kong woman who was drunk, picked up by a tuk-tuk driver and then reportedly raped by him, watched by a cop on duty near government house. This caused quite a scandal, understandably, and before you knew it, the story changed and she changed from victim to criminal, reportedly making up the story which then besmirched the good name of Thailand and frightened away tourists. The fact that the woman was drunk, became the most important item to the story, and of course, drunk women are bad women, and ergo their stories cannot ever be believed and thus, she deserved any karmic punishment coming to her. I think she was jailed for several years for false rape accusations and eventually let out of prison under a royal amnesty and extradited back to HK.

Best to stay sober when in Thailand on holiday, unless with a group of trustworthy friends who will take care of you to hotel or home, and avoid police contact unless absolutely unavoidable, is probably reasonable advice for female tourists.

Given that he did not order any food or drink, there is always the possibility that he was "helped" over the balcony by the waiters. After all, like so many tourists and expats before him have discovered, balconies can be incredibly slippery in Thailand.

Did not take long. Idiotic post of the day, so far.

''of the day'' You're being generous Mike. It's the most idiotic post I've read on here in my 5 years reading TV posts...and I've read some stupid shirt

You both must lead very sheltered lives or just be incredibly selective in your reading of both TV postings and balcony tumble posts by foreigners in Thailand. I also stated it was a "possibility" and not fact, which having seen the reaction of managers/waiters to people who refuse to pay bills in some Bangkok establishments or just refuse to buy anything at all, it is still not an impossible scenario. But then we would need a first hand account to actually verify what happened at 2 am in that "lovely" joint.

What courageous young people. These young democracy seeking students are prepared to stand up for the basic human right to freedom of speech! They are not terrorists and yet by peacefully demonstrating they are arrested for being a threat to National security because they have a different point of view to that of the military backed government. This has now become international news and certainly does not show Thailand's military rule in a good light. I wholeheartedly support them and their fight for freedom of speech throughout the world.

" basic human right to freedom of speech!" And who says this is a basic human right? In every country in the world you will be arrested if you say certain things in public, although what it is you say to get arrested may differ between countries. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, etc.etc. are stifled in every country based on what is seen as the greater good, or what the 'majority ' want (even if that majority is often well under 50% in many 'democratically ' elected countries. Other OP are calling Thais cowards for not expressing more opposition. But in fact it's because most are Happy (including Isaan populace) with the stability, relative peacefulness, progress in challenging corruption, etc.for a change.

Some OP talk like "democracy" was decreed from the start of mankind by some imaginary god. .

How do you know what the Isaan populace want or like in terms of democratic governance? And what is your source that "most are happy"? Have you talked with or surveyed most of them? Most of the Isaan people I know, who I do not claim represent most of the 19 million people from Isaan, are far from happy with the present situation and would prefer more freedom of speech, expression and "democracy" in Thailand, including the right to vote for their own leaders.

Given that he did not order any food or drink, there is always the possibility that he was "helped" over the balcony by the waiters. After all, like so many tourists and expats before him have discovered, balconies can be incredibly slippery in Thailand.

I wonder who in the faculty dare to cut LP Khun's body up even if he's donated to the university? He is so much well respected in Thailand.

I suspect he will be embalmed and will go on public display, attracting vast numbers of followers and curious tourists in due course. This is not unusual in Isaan, where you can see quite a few forest monks who have been preserved for posterity in various temples, in some cases appearing to not rot without any treatment. It is quite a coup for KKU.

Didn't he sell his MPs to Thaksin?

Not really. NAP moved to TRT and they got a couple of portfolios. When the army removed Chatchai the little boy Korbsak (Moved from CTP to Democrat Party) and he got a portfolio in the Chuan Lekpai government.

In 2008 Abhidit bring ob board BJT (Newin from Buriram) and they got portfolios in exchange for supporting the generals which cost them dearly as they lost most of the seats.

Now it is Chavalit. PTP is dead but new parties will be launched as soon the General allows Political gatherings.

The Generals also will be very careful to move against Chavalit. They try to pin him to the Samui bombing (still no findings by the way who is behind) but the North and Northeast vote for anyone as long they are not from the South or Bangkok so if Chavalit runs for the election and combines the red shirts and as well the Newin Group he will win and beat the democrats by 2 to 1.5 and he is right a coup will come up again in a few years time but he might change some laws that coup leaders will be send to the firing squad next time and executed on the spot.

So you think Chavalit is from NE do you? It may interest you to know that he is from Nonthaburi, which is a whole lot closer to Bangkok than it is to Isaan, according to my map. He may have stood as an MP in Nakhon Phanom and created an impression that he is a son of Isaan, with his Green Isaan Project disaster, but then that is what Thai politics is all about, eh? Myth over reality, form over substance.

Chuan from Trang, interestingly can speak the Isaan dialect a whole lot better than Big Jiew, and more importantly, tried to communicate with Northeasterners back in the days when the Democrats had a bit of a foothold in the region, before the Red Shirt thugs chased them out with threats (and occasionally, acts) of violence.

Chavalit is a corrupt political dinosaur of the worst variety, who inexplicably has somehow managed to avoid any legal proceedings over the years, despite some committing some acts and making open threats against the state that in any other country would have been classed as treason. I can only guess his immunity must be down to having some friends in very high places and also knowing where too many bodies are buried (both figuratively, and literally).

I wonder, indeed I hope, that some monitoring of this boat will take place - maybe from the air by the press.

My reason is that now it is gone and forgotten, none of us will know - certainly from the Thai press - whether or not it reaches Indonesia or just sinks.

Terrible situation.

They will be alright....when they get to wherever they going, they will instill their culture and barbarianism on the people that help them...Just like they did in Burma.

There's ignorant and then there's downright pig ignorant. You, sir, fit in the latter category.

So what should they do? Whats the plan?Let them land. Send word that Thailand is the new meal ticket destination......They need to work on not letting any of those boats leave Bangladesh or Burma in the first place......

How about showing some starving, dehydrated, abandoned, trafficked, tricked, cheated and now dying people some compassion. Is that too much to ask a relatively wealthy nation with plenty of resources to help these people, never mind its international humanitarian commitments according to various treaties it has signed, even before considering the ethical and moral argument to help them?

And I think you'd find that Thailand's governement has been pretty remiss on not working hard enough on stopping those people and boats leaving their homelands in the first place, by joining a wider coalition of countries in concentrating massive amounts of resources on fighting a mythological "war on terror", designed to keep people in the West in fear, which has also stoked a ridicuous level of Islamophobia in transitioning countries like Burma (as well as the US), that has all been a factor in why these poor people have been forced on to those boats to be abandoned at sea. It is a form of genocide that many governments are complicit in, but Thailand is quite patently up to its neck in. I am quite appalled at the cruel fate of the Rohingya, abandoned by even the UN it seems. Quite sickening and avoidable.

Boy, prices have gone up in Sarakham. I used to pay 3,500 B/month for a lovely, wooden Thai-style house with large garden back in 2007. I am quite surprised that prices are now so high there, but guess it reflects the general rapid inflation and hike in rental prices felt all over Thailand in last 8 years.

Apart from the methods you've already suggested for finding a new house to rent, I always found riding a bike down likely looking sois i nice neighbourhoods and asking local people was a good way to find places that might be for rent, but have no sign up. Or just look out for empty houses. It used to be the case that people moved away, but didn't put up their house for rent formally, but if contacted informally, could often be persuaded to rent at the right price. A day spent hunting around like this always worked for me in the past and was a good way of getting to know the neighbours before one decided.

It would be interesting to know if the RTA learned about the Israeli demonstration at the SBB, via wiretapping, or more conventional forms of sleuthing on their secret squirrel factional competitors? If it was phone tapping, whose country's technology are the RTA using.....Israeli, US, European?......or rather more likely, given recent events, Russian or Chinese? It seems new levels of mistrust and paranoia are rising amongst the rival elites.....all explained away to the public as a simple "misunderstanding".

What or who do you want to stuff?

I suspect that the problem here is that the village head is not corrupt enough for the local govt and TAO to build the village a road, so they have passed it by all these years. But he is perhaps too honest and it is not worth the local elites while building the road. The fact that he can call upon the villagers to donate money for what is normally considered a state task, also points to his diligence and honesty as their representative. Most villagers have become too reliant on a system of patronage through the local politicians and bureaucrats to be able to organise or build things for themselves, beyond the temple. But this creates a healthy new precedent and if people gave the amount of money they normally donate to the temple to building local public infrastructure like this, perhaps they could break free from the entrenched political patronage system that enslaves them. Thaksin's TRT and Pheua Thai parties managed to perfect this system to maximum advantage, where the majority of villages were dependent on his patronage network, but maybe now a few are starting to become a little wiser, not that the present junta is offering a better alternative. It is just cutting out some of the middlemen.

Anyway, good luck to the village in getting enough money to complete their own road......and that they will maintain it once built. If it's come out of your own pocket, you should be a little bit more concerned about quality and lifespan than the existing sorry excuses for roads that crumble away within months of completion.

So what are the "fake disasters" referred to? A bit hard to fake an earthquake or a volcano in Isaan, or a plane crash for that matter, but there is one "disaster" that never fails to ensure a shower of baht from Bangkok to the bank accounts of dodgy officials and their politician chums, and that is a drought. It's a dead cert way of opening the floodgates of central funds, as everyone knows how arid and drought-prone Isaan is, right? Now, there doesn't actually have to be a drought by any standard definition of the term, but all one needs is a normal dry season spell of 2 or 3 months of no or little rain, rally up enough headmen and Or-Bor-Tor officials to send in a form saying "drought" at the top and a few photos of withered rice plants and cracked soil to accompany it, and before you know it......it's declared a "disaster" and BINGO!

In recent years, the usual suspects in the Ministry of Agriculture have been joined by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (formed Boxing Day post-tsunami) in the Min of Interior, to form a formidable cabal of officials and politicians who can cash in big time, when they declare a "drought" disaster. And they have learned to also shout "disaster" every time it rains heavily and a river overtops its banks, like it would normally and naturally in the rainy season or the wind blows hard and a few trees topple and the odd roof is blown off. You can always exagerrate by a factor of 10 or 100 the damage done, and nobody in Bangkok is going to know......perhaps until now, when there are a few old political scores to settle and the scale of the fund skimming has become ridiculous.

The "best" or worst climate-related "disaster" I came across, however, was one cool season a few years ago and the temperature got down to 19 C minimum at night in the hills of Phu Phan. That is the coolest area of Sakhon Nakhon province and I was there to witness it, yet a day or two later, I read in the B Post that a "cold disaster" had been declared in upper Isaan, including Sakhon Nakhon. This was code to request millions of baht from Bangkok to be spent on a few blankets and coats to distribute to villagers (who incidentally, get given the same stuff year in year out) as an act of caring by the government. But who checks how the money is spent, who it is give to and whether it represents good value for the taxpayer? And since when is 19 C a "cold disaster" in any country of the world, anyway? Only in Thailand I suspect.......

Anyway, this is only speculation as maybe there were some other fake "disasters" I hadn't considered. Suggestions?

This is basically good news and not altogether surprising, given the policy corruption and ridiculous incentives/subsidies in the past to get villagers to grow dry season rice. This has led to a self-fulfilling vicious cycle of water shortages and conflict between farmers themselves and government agencies in trying to supply all the areas that were previously earmarked for dry season rice, even when it was patently clear that there was not enough water for their needs and that of all the other uses downstream, including supplying Bangkok with water and excluding the dry season saline wedge up the Chao Phraya which has been creeping further and further up the river for years. And the farmers that have tried to grow rice themselves have been trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and debt, leaving many in a worse state of poverty than if they'd just cut their losses and moved to the city to find work or found day labouring work nearby.

Maybe now a more rational use of the limited water supply in the Chao Phraya can be worked out and the obsession with growing vast areas of dry season rice to feed another national obsession of trying to be No. 1 rice exporting country can gradually be reduced, helping the villagers into new work and wider society (who were expected to foot the bill for the crazy subsidies) in the process.

"...Sansern said security officials suspected old political powers masterminded the attack. This is thought to refer to the political clique ousted by the coup..."

Talk about slinging mud. There is nothing about this statement that makes sense.

If the bombers are trying to make a statement then why try to point the finger elsewhere. Bombers will usually set the bomb off then make their statement, unless the location (like in the south) says it all. What was the point of the bombing? What were they trying to accomplish? Why set off a bomb if no one is going to make a statement as to WHY they are doing it. In this light the whole bombing here and in BKK makes no sense at all, but it's a great opportunity for the current government to point fingers.

I wasn't aware that the red-shirts have ever taken credit for one of their bombings, grenade attacks, arson or other acts of mayhem. So, according to your logic, it doesn't make sense at all that they routinely employ violence for political purpose. Sounds perfectly logical to me.

So what's the point of bombing someplace if no one knows who or why? The plain fact is there is NO evidence this is because of some grand "Red Shirt" conspiracy, but the government would love for you and everyone else to believe so before the next elections and every chance they get they will point the finger at them.

Please enlighten me as to what the "Red Shirts" would hope to gain by senseless, random bombings where innocent people, including children, can be harmed. Targeted bombings at government offices, police stations, etc. I might consider as politically motivated, but malls where innocent people congregate, that's just pure lunacy to think the "Red Shirts" have anything at all to gain from these kinds of bombings.

You mean malls like Central World (firebombed in May 2015) and many other public buildings burned, bombed and attacked by the Redshirts in 2009, 2010 and on several other occasions since, weren't places where innocent people congregated and were rational, sane reactions? At the height of the Redshirt bombing campaign in 2009-2010, they were lobbing bombs on places where innocent men, women and children were sleeping on an almost nightly basis, and if wasn't for the loose talk of Seh Daeng and his "grenade dances", the pro-Thaksin camp would never have admitted liability for their violent actions. I think you many want to revise your modern history studies of political violence tactics in Thailand of the last decade.

As public officials, they are duty bound as part of their job not to cheat or defraud the state or the people they are supposed to be working for. This should be well understood already, and no fancy ceremony in front of a statue or monument is going to change that. Is not changing the law to ensure that officials suspected of cheating are prosecuted without exception and if found guilty are subject to far more severe punishments than at present, likely to be rather more effective? Sending a policeman or senior public official to another province, office or awarding them with the famous "inactive post" punishment is clearly little deterrent to embezzlement and corruption, or the problem would have been reduced (never mind solved) many years ago. Instead of moving towards a law-based society, the mob in control at the moment want to maintain a superstition-based society, which is closely related to one of the reasons why corruption and fraud in public office is so rampant in Thai society.

The "mob in control" as you call it has the support of most Thais and your description of the Government is a childish insult.

How do you know that the present military junta has "the support of most Thais"? Because of a handful of polls commissioned by said junta, an election result perhaps, some other objective measure or because you just want to believe it is the case? My description was purposefully, however, suggestive of the fact that the present "mob in control" are not that much different from their predecessors, when it comes to being serious about reducing "cheating", malfeasance or corruption in public office, but rather the problem/benefits of public office just switches from one set of hands to another. If you think my reasoning is "childish", you are welcome to your opinion, but I would also like to hear your opinion on how effective a deterrent and "adult-like" the suggestion to make public officials swear an oath in front of the Emerald Buddha or City Pillar (what significance would this monument have to an official from the South or Isaan, pray tell?) would be in addressing this specific problem?

Don't forget, these officials are termed "kha-racha-gan", which means first and foremost they are servants of the king, and so should already be aware that they are cheating the monarch, as well as the state and people, when they commit these offences.

What's this with the tea towel over the hands. I guess it's to hide the handcuffs because if these people are seen wearing handcuffs, they would lose face.

Thailand makes me

Or alternatively, it is to make the public think that he is handcuffed under the tea towel, when in fact his hands are just clasped together and like many other cops who have committed heinous crimes, are still free to go about their business (e.g. intimidate witnesses, arrange their affairs, meet their gig, etc.), until such time as they decide to either take the "moved to inactive post rap" or flee the country until the heat dies down. Judging by that smirk on his face, he still feels the sense of entitlement that goes with the territory of being a Thai cop, rather than someone on a monk murder charge.

These statistics are not unusual in an uneducated society.

On that basis, the UK must be the least educated society in Europe, as teen pregnancy rates are highest.

Comparing this with the wealth the Vatican and other churches possess in Europe and America, it's not such a big deal.

Also comparing the life style and habits of the clergy in other religions again there is no much difference here.

All wrong.....here and there, but nobody had the guts up to now, to put an end to this.

Ever heard of Henry VIII? Or Martin Luther? Or thousands of others I could mention who have challenged the power and wealth of the Vatican over the years in Europe? Do they not teach history in Greece?

NGO bigshots are some of the worst scum in SE Asia.

The World Health Organisation is not an NGO fyi, but a part of the United Nations stable, which is inter-governmental. Therefore, this guy works for a GO, albeit working under a distinct set of rules that leaves ample opportunity for some to flout them, as in this case.

What is your problem with NGOs? who incidentally have been there when this maid needs help and are often the ones who blow the whistle on government abuses of power and authority, at least in the semi-democratic SE Asian countries that permit them.