Srikcir

Songkran or not, Thai new year or not, no respite from the senseless killings,

killers don't have holidays and assassins don't take brakes....

"sons worked as paramilitary ranger volunteers"

Sons were military paid assassins. This was a revenge killing.

"it appeared the incident was the work of extremists linked to the "old political powers" and southern insurgents."

More conflicting theories!

If by "old political powers" the inference is Thaksin, he sided with the Thai military in ruthless suppression of the southern insurgents to protect Thai sovereignty in the South. This theory is on par with the reason that Thaksin regime was overthrown by the military - the coup was done to keep Thaksin from overthrowing his own elected government.

The Junta is not your Daddy's Thailand anymore.

"the National Legislative Assembly and the NRC would be relieved of their duties on the first day the new Parliament is sworn in, and there will be no extension of their powers."

But not specified in the charter.

" the robot to climb to different heights in order to gather the data"

Why not just have SENSORS at different heights than relying on a climbing machine? All the data can be sent for analysis in a location that doesn't even have to be at the tower. You know, there is this thing called radio waves and microwave technologies. This project looks more like a school science project than the result of combined academic institutions.

Despite conflicting forms of governments and foreign policies, somehow superpowers like China and the US can maintain cooperation in areas of mutual benefit. They do not see black and white, with me-against me. They do not see threats to their culture nor sovereignty. Yet, they can disagree and criticize each other's bevahior without zenophobia. This is the pragmatic behavior of stable, modern nations.

Contrast that with the Junta's erratic, emotionally-driven foreign policy that sees only "friends" and "enemies." While the Junta relishes its absolute power to drive its political agendas, it shivers in its vulnerable nakedness from having no legitimacy from the Thai peoples. It leads its foreign policy the same way its leads the Thai people - with single-minded force. The Junta stands to make serious foreign policy mistakes for which the nation may suffer for its short-sightedness.

Typical Thai way. They have had 10 years to sort out the problem. No forward planning. Same as everything. Then they are forced to comply. And completly loose face!

Blame Yingluck and Adhisit before her........not this government......they are suddenly faced with the others wrongdoings and arrogance.

It might be more appropriate to blame all the foreign governments banning Thai flights. Don't you wonder that if these noncompliances existed for ten years or more through several military coups, that it is only now when the government is led by a military junta that the foreign countries, INCLUDING CHINA impose restrictions?

Maybe it's faith in the Junta that it will resolve the issues quickly? Or maybe a jab at the Junta that considers itself "Thailand?"

"detained at a classified place for investigation, which should take no longer than seven days."

It's a good thing martial law has been suspended or this person would be in a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile let's see how high the National Human Rights Commissioner can jump on this detention.

"the department had signed a contract to renovate the 17 piers"

It might be interesting to know who the contractor is and how selection was made. As I recall, the Junta reformed the procurement process that required competitive bidding over sole source contracting in order to reduce corruption and improve transparency. Also, since three pilot piers are being developed with 100% investment from the private sector instead of government funding, what is being to assure no current or future conflict of interest or collusion in the projects?

It would be interesting for America to have a woman President, especially at a time of the Islamic conflicts. America has been one of the few democracies not to ever have a Head of State.

In the long run I'd like see a minority woman as a front runner for POTUS. Minorities account now for about 30% of the US population and represent the largest population growth. Maybe if Hillary is elected, she will have an organization of senior officials that might include minority women who can have the experience and talent to one day run for POTUS.

Just for the record

At the time of his death Romklao Thuwatham was a Colonel. Typically, the Thai military will promote soldiers who died in the line of duty to provide for a higher death benefit.

As a Colonel, Romklao would be taking orders from the Center for the Resolution of Emergency Situation (CRES) which spearheaded the forced dispersal of the protesters. Former deputy PM Suthep was chief of CRES who directed the orders for then deputy army chief Gen. Prayut, former army chief Gen. Anupong, and then Defense Minister Gen. Prawit. According to former PM Abhisit, these generals "acted as middlemen between those in power, includiong him, and officials who were carrying out the operations."

Perhaps these generals and Abhisit can explain the truth behind Romklao's death.

During Russia's 120 years relationship with Thailand, let's not forget the respectful communist insurgency in Thailand lasting from 1965 to 1983. While superficially Russia is now more of an oilgarchy led by billionaires like Putin than a communist nation, Putin's revival of the soviet imperialism is no less threatening to the world democracies. Of course the government of Thailand now being an oligarchy instead of a democracy makes a partnership between the Junta-led government and Russia more politically palatable.

Unfortunately, the People of Thailand who have lost their sovereignty to the Junta have no say in any of the Junta's foreign partnerships. But no doubt we will begin to see "surveys" showing a super majority of those polled favor Russian and Chinese security and economic partnerships. Be Happy Everyone.

"there should be a new independent agency to replace police in carrying out crime investigations"

Citing Article 44 the police have just been placed under the military. What more should be done?

Abhisit and Suthep’s fate will be determined by the junta-appointed interim parliament.

Where is there justice in that?

If found guilty of murder by abuse of power, they will receive a 5-year ban from politics.

Where is there justice in that?

Especially if the ban is made retroactively to 2010!

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I seem to recall a certain previous government putting a similar scheme in place with respect to rice? Can anyone recall how that worked out?

Not even close to being the same thing.

They have in reality given no price guarantees or even made any solid commitments.

They certainly haven't said they will buy goods at twice the market rate and proposed some BS scheme that will try to control the world price of the commodity in question.

Or did I miss that part of the story?

No, this is not like the Yingluck's rice pledge or Prayut's rubber pledge programs.

The overall idea seems to be that, in order to provide the palm oil farmers with a higher profit margin within the bounds of the highest world market price, the private sector and traders will have to lower their profit margins. If the private sector and/or traders refuse, Thailand already has price control laws to force reduced profit margins; so Article 44 needn't apply.

But if the world market price drops further, private sector and trader profits might disappear. Then the private sector and traders will have no incentive for further purchases, surpluses will build, and the price will drop further. With no income the palm oil farmers will be driven from agriculture.

This palm oil strategy is essentially Russian roulette.

Thailand has agreed to enhance its strategic partnership in terms of economic and defense cooperation with both Russia and China.

What's next - a strategic partnership with North Korea?

This Junta needs to be stroked. It seems all a foreign country's leadership has to say is that they ADMIRE General Prayut's leadership and - bham - he makes a stategic partnership with them. The man seems to have a very manipulative pride. And as he holds absolute power over 60 million Thais, that pride may become the barbed wire to hold Thais' sovereignty hostage to other nation's foreign policies.

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'In production sharing agreements the country's government awards the execution of exploration and production activities to an oil company. The oil company bears the mineral and financial risk of the initiative and explores, develops and ultimately produces the field as required. When successful, the company is permitted to use the money from produced oil to recover capital and operational expenditures, known as "cost oil". The remaining money is known as "profit oil", and is split between the government and the company, typically at a rate of about 80% for the government, 20% for the company. In some production sharing agreements, changes in international oil prices or production rate can affect the company's share of production.

Production sharing agreements can be beneficial to governments of countries that lack the expertise and/or capital to develop their resources and wish to attract foreign companies to do so. They can be very profitable agreements for the oil companies involved, but often involve considerable risk.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_sharing_agreement

Instead of dealing with a lot they want to limit the contracts to a few? That is what it sounds like.

'In 2013 Thailand’s gas output was 4 billion cubic feet, while petroleum production was 459 000 barrels per day. Most of the country’s output is in gas due to the large, proven reserves relative to other energy sources available in the country. However, the country still needs to import 30 per cent of its gas from Myanmar through pipelines and LNG purchase with 85% of crude oil from overseas.' http://www.austrade.gov.au/Export/Export-Markets/Countries/Thailand/Industries/Oil-and-gas#.VSeAdZPc6HQ

PTT appears to be a winner for this type of arrangement; February 2015, PTT Exploration and Production reported its first quarterly net loss in 16 years, with a reported net loss of US$739 million for the October-December 2014 quarter.

I disagree with PSA's for Thailand. Concession Sales Agreement are least prone to corruption because of their greater transparency versus PSA's and are better suited for a net energy importer like Thailand - a lesson Indoneasia learned the hard way. There are also far less economic risks with Concession Sales Agreements, especially if there is a high incidence of dry holes as experienced historically in Thailand offshores.

But regardless of the agreement used, the bidding should be delayed until oil has reached $70 per barrel. Otherwise, Thailand is just wasting an unrenewable resource for a limited return.

I want water to flow upstream to all the drought areas. Please invoke Article 44 NOW.

if the conditions are violated they can always put them back.

No, it would be very difficult to put them back - maybe impossible. Iran are the ones acting illegally. It is their responsibility to prove they are not violating yet another treaty.

The sanctions imposed by the UN will not be reinstated once lifted. These UN sanctions required the unanimous consent of the Permanent Security Council that includes Russia and China. I do not see either agreeing once again to impose the sanctions but rather pursuing their own separate agreements with Iran. The P-5 each have also imposed sanctions against Iran to add to the UN sanctions and can AT ANY TIME lift those sanctions. The UN sanctions have always been unbreachable in negotiations but Iran hopes the West wants a deal at any risk. Unlikely to happen.

"prevent 'one-man rule' in the country and ensure no 'winner takes all'

HIPOCRISY!

The "No winner takes all" only applies to an elected government. The charter will allow an unelected PM by unelected officials and have nothing that can prevent a military coup to install a one-man rule and granting itself prosecurial immunity.

Euthanizing a whole bunch of Tigers would help cut down on the feed and vet bills. Good idea or what! alt=whistling.gif>

Maybe feed them Monk -ey meat?

"The fall in the price of palm-oil nuts resulted from the huge increase in production area and oversupply in the market.”

This was no surprise!

2015-01-16

“The Ministry of Commerce will propose a plan to import palm oil to prevent a possible shortage at the cabinet meeting next week.”

“According to Commerce Minister Gen. Chatchai Sareekalaya, the existing 110,000-ton palm oil supply is still far below the standard reserve of 300,000 tons and the actual demand of 135,000 tons. The inadequate stockpile may lead to a possible shortage of palm oil.”

2015-01-20

The committee [The National Oil Palm Policy Committee], which is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, has agreed on the imports of raw palm oil and has consented to the Public Warehouse Organization (PWO) to import 50,000 tons by mid February, under a budget of 1.5 billion baht.

OOPS!

2015-03-03

The Ministry of Commerce's subcommittee on the management of oil palm and palm oil has asserted that no further importation of palm oil is needed to feed domestic demand.

Prayut really needs to review the effectiveness of his cabinet ministers. But perhaps being his personal appointees, their dismissal would damage his image.

“Since then, the ratio rose at a declining rate to 85.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.”

So the Junta has begun to control the household debt problem by doing something different than the previous government's populist policies that Sommai blames for rising household debt, right?

WRONG.

“household debt reached 85 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from 84 percent the quarter before.” National Economic and Social Development Board deputy secretary-general Chutinart Wongsuban, 2015-02-24.

“The country’s household debt soars to 80 per cent in seven years, a highest increase in the world, Finance Minister Sommai Phasee said.” 2015-04-01

Household debt has risen under the Junta. Ironically the cause has been the numerous populist policies pursued by the Junta!

After another quarter of more household debt, I expect Sommai’s next spin (assuming he's still Minister) will be that high household debt is actually a good thing. It will show consumer confidence in the economy or there will be a survey showing that people aren’t concerned about high debt because the Junta has made them happy.

"The military officials are empowered as police"

And thus, Thailand becomes a POLICE STATE.