But these washed up old crooked politicians are the very same ones who Prayuth's proxy parties are actively poaching (at great public expense no less).

How he can still beat the anto corruption drum while Prawit is DPM, Anupong interior minister, and his brother an NLA member. Also he himself never explained how his wealth (10's of millions of usd) was obtained yet.

Amazingly so many Thais still can't see what a shameless liar and hypocrite he is. That is a scary amount of stupid in itself

A truly dreadful, pitiful organization. I feel for the lecturer I really do, he knows full well what the score is, but he is in a VERY small minority whose apathy has been too profound for too long. And it's already looking like it's too late to claw anything resembling normalcy back.

Utteely ridiculous and immoral that bail was even an option considering the circumstances of the attack. I mean is there any doubt that this idiot did it? Certainly seems like there is none, so it begs the question of what the <deleted> this so called judge is thinking in releasing such a person again.

Cases like this deserve mob justice as the authorities show time and again they're not up to the job.

Wish the poor victim makes a full recovery

In some respects Thailand is pretty safe and certainly secure, but in many cases it is dangerous and lawless as some of the most notorious scams have been going on for decades and have been shown to have the authorities in cahoots in orchestrating them.

Example in point, the jet ski scams, where a nice cop will come along and negotiate a lower fine rather than bust the people who are threatening violence on others. The general safety seems ok, but on islands such as those in the Samui archilpelago the problems are not so much safety, more justice when people have been raped, robbed, killed or whatever.

Those in uniform are tainted because it seems that the bad apples outnumber the good considerably. This will dent confidence undoubtedly

Can't agree more with this. There is very limited (if any) financial discipline shown by a good % of the workforce at my school, and as a country the stats are shocking.

Image, and grandstanding through ownership of cars and expensive foreign holidays seem to be the main end points. Nobody appears to want to live within their means, and the real means aren't really understood as loans seem to be thought of as free money.

It will be interesting to see if those parties chasing repayment are forced to cave. I hope they start getting tougher soon

Absolutely insane. I just hope the cops do go hell for leather to drag this crazy nutter in.

Cases like this merit the death penalty imho. Not only are these people a complete liability, nothing is gained by having them take up prison space either.

Feel for the victim's family here. Very tragic

Why should they? The parties involved, and more importantly the public themselves should have a say in the policies that will shape Thailand's future. It is another show of unbelievable arrogance to expect people to just accept what a military junta has said they should.

Thailand isn't special, the people should have room to shape their own future. I hope they realize it sooner rather than later

Thai schooling is generally a numbers game. All about points on a test, all about how much money each student can make for the school, and how many can be crammed into a class (remember i said generally).

The UK system will create a more well rounded and resourceful individual in more cases than not.

These same judges that are dishing out 30 years for mushroom picking (reduced to 15 on confessions), those same judges sentencing scapegoats to death based on the shonkiest of evidence, those same judges sentencing illegal drivers who killed 9 people to do community service... Simply a farce and a shit show of the highest order. Those same judges who hide behind a law that criminalizes any scrutiny of their decisions.

These kinds of people should be IN JAIL THEMSELVES . Again am scratching my head at this, but some of the posts above have hit the nail on the head as to why the raise and why now.

Prayuth again showing his true colours here, actual people who were present during the operation said categorically that the kids were sedated, yet Prayuth who was NOT involved directly or indirectly in the operation has said they were conscious.

He might as well wear that Pinocchio mask all day every day. Pathetic.

That the professionals in charge chose to use sedatives is a moot point, they had a plan and executed it very well and none of the trapped persons died as a result, I would say kudos to them as their means were certainly justified by the ends.

The trapped lads all survived the ordeal, and the end certainly satisfied the means (sedated or not).

World class ingenuity at play, can only be applauded.

Just hoping that prevention rather than cure is the motto for future.

Absolute hogwash. 50 plus massacred by negligence vs 1 dead through unfortunate circumstances.

The Chiang Rai cave story has been blown completely out of proportion when one looks at the real tragedies that are happening the world over on a daily basis.

The coming together of people is heart warming to see.

However the tragedy in Phuket has been completely overshadowed, dozens of families are now bereaved all because of the greed and ignorance of even the most basic safety guidelines.

Those in power are gasbags. They say the right stuff sometimes, but it stops there as nothing really actually changes.. The carnage goes on unabated whether it be on the roads, at sea, basically anywhere in this cesspool of corruption and ineptitude. It never ends.. Simply rinse and repeat

What a gas bag. Actually start punishing both those who flout the laws and those who likely take money to look the other way when laws are blatantly broken.

A death toll of 50 plus in 1 completely avoidable incident is absolutely horrendous. Those responsible have been charged and released. Their culpability is beyond doubt, and this was a massacre in all but name only.

All involved should get the same sentence the captain of the sewol ferry in South Korea got

This is an absolutely dreadful tragedy. This is far more serious an incident than that in the Chiang Rai cave.

Yet the local and international news will barely cover it, and you can bet your bottom dollar the powers that be will do their utmost to bury the story and play down it's seriousness.

There are no heroes in this story, and if past tragedies are anything to go by there will be little in the way of punitive steps taken, and even less learned in terms of improving customer safety.

Stupid reasons basically, if you can even call them reasons ?

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

Me too.

 

Unless you count alcohol and tobacco.

 

Alcohol and tobacco are drugs, with alcohol certainly being in the top 3 most destructive (if misused).

The drug legality debate hasn't ever been held in any meaningful way since the early 1970's, and any politician (elected or otherwise) won't propose such a debate as the subject is toxic to the extent of it being political suicide.

Prohibition of any drug simply isn't a viable option. Close to 50 years of failure trying to enforce it proves exactly that.

I said in an earlier post that i am pro choice and non judgemental towards users and addicts, yet also believing that if you use and get busted you must accept the fall.

The guy is a fool for dealing in Thailand. Thais worship money above all else, and if you're taking their cut or are an easy paycheck for a paid informant to rat on (both probable) then you're toast, you'll get the full weight of the law (however absurdly harsh it is).

It's a dire situation, and the laws in their current state don't appear overly helpful to those on any side of the divide

What a fool. While i am a pro choice person when it comes to drugs, i am also of the opinion that when you do get busted you go quietly and take your punishment like a man.

I guess the only saving grace here is that nobody else got hurt in this incident. Awful spectacle all round

Prayuth, a true simpleton, political novice, qualified only as a career bootlicker in the Thai army chairing business meetings just sounds as ridiculous as it probably looked.

Who in attendance would have taken him seriously addressing the forum in Thai. What a pathetic spectacle it must have been

Nor should they be. In the years i've been here all I have seen from the men in green is graft, repression, and outright incompetence in everything they've been involved with.

Thailand will undoubtedly have some excellent soldiers, and some of the brass somewhere will embody decency. But at the top, especially the public faces linked to the army, it looks a truly ghastly outfit that is fit for disbandment only. Dreadful

You'd have thought enough people would have grown sick of all the BS already. 

Either this is just another helping of apathy on steroids or millions of Thais are just too stupid / bone idle to realize they actually have to do something to get rid of this shower.

You can't blame the junta really. They unmasked their intentions long ago and only a small core of activists actually have the onions to stand up to them. Simply beyond pathetic now

The death penalty simply doesn't deter criminality, however for certain types of criminals (the very worst, child rapists, serial killers etc) do deserve the ultimate punishment, and the population do deserve the ultimate protection from them.

But I dread to think how many innocent people are on death row here, or how many were convicted on the back of shonky evidence being used. The Thai legal system simply isn't robust enough in its current state to have the death penalty on its books because the sentencing given out in practice is at best inconsistent and at worst punishes offenders more harshly on their perceived social status.

The population at large can't think critically at the best of times, so I woud be very wary of what some quantitative statistics are purported to have shown.

These same scams have been run by these same types of idiots for years. As ever the Sun sensationalizes it and only looks at the surface.

Andrew Drummond has done some proper coverage on these rackets and the extent of their dodgy dealings and deeds.

It doesn't take a genius to figure what organisation ensures a smooth operation and that they remain in operation