Srikcir

Singapore has made up to 200,000 US dollars in donation via the ASEAN framework in support of refugees operations in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

What, no yuans?

To hold a meeting as a stage to hold a meeting....

Now that is real progress but the end result will be no better than having any meeting at all.

I hope they stay longer before the next "buy an election" comes

If you think military coups don't "buy" their way to power, you are historically shortsighted.

One case in point are the Southern rubber plantation owners who openly supported the Prayut coup because they hoped for higher rubber prices than what the Yingluck regime could deliver. And Prayut delivered.

Without active financial and political backing a military of 200,000 armed soldiers cannot subjugate 60 million Thais without a massive civil war. If the coup leaders lose, they die as traitors.

The General's government has just admitted that it will not be able to meet the generous 6 month deadline to stop the illegal Thai fishery activity. Nor has the government really done much on the human trafficking issue. What we have seen to date is the result of foreign country intervention. If the General thinks he should be rewarded for cleaning up some dead bodies and for acting on obvious evidence hand delivered by foreign countries, he needs a wake up call.

I don't think they can do the fishing thing in time, but I don't blame them the inactivity of previous governments has cost them dearly. You can't blame them for the stuff the previous governments (believe the PTP was in power most of the time) have done.

As for the human trafficking thing.. there you can blame them a bit more because army was involved (at least a general), but again what have previous governments done.

I bet you changed jobs in the past and got to live with the errors of the guy who did the work for you. I never got blamed for them by the people who knew, only the uninformed did.

I always thought you were a smart guy.. guess you dumb down when it is needed to suit your views.

But your right in one point.. far more has to be done.. but already far more has been done then by any of the previous (mostly PTP) governments.

In a way the previous government was busy with human trafficking.. trying to get Thaksin back int he country That is the reason we have a junta now.

All the previous governments ?

Would that included all the previous military coup-led governments as well whose rule in the aggregate was longer than any democratic elected regime? Those coup-led governments who gave themselves absolute powers to do whatever they wanted according to whatever priorities they decided. No legislative body, no courts, nor public opinion to deter their actions.

But somehow human trafficking wasn't enough serious priority for the military as it was not in the beginning for Prayut's reign. From their performance I'd say the military has had no better success as any elected government.

The most important thing IMHO is to reform the police before the next election so they are not under such tight political control and answer to some kind of ombudsman, not a politician. During the protests, they were like Pheu-Thai's private army.

If the Junta don't do it, the next government definitely will not. They are a very useful tool to have against opponents

Under Article 44 the police are now under Prayut's personal control. Indeed police have proven to be a very useful tool against Junta opponents.

So same-same.

"the department will collect revenue tax on the amount exceeding Bt80 per ticket."

Just as a small technical matter. Doesn't the NLA have the legislative power to impose taxes, not a government department, not even a ministry? So unless the NLA passes a bill to tax the excess price or the NCPO issues a directive, the Revenue Department would be initiating an illegal law. How is that consistent with reforming Thai laws?

Then there are other minor issues such as identifying excess ticket prices. I'm sure vendors will be willing to produce receipts that every ticket was sold for Bt80. And given the probable low income street vendors derive from all ticket sales, I doubt they would fall into a high enough tax bracket to pay any additional tax.

Revenue Department resources might be better prioritized against wealthy income tax cheats. But I suspect given Prayut's attention to sale of lottery tickets, various government officials want to prove their merit by taking actions, no matter how trivial, to gain Prayut's praise and maybe reward. Such is government leadership under a one-man constituency.

"This is a part of the measure to force retailers to do business as per the law". To me this means, selling lottery tickets for more than 80 Baht is against the law, right?

If I understand the director-general of Revenue Department correctly, his interpretation of the law means that breaking the law is ok as long as the illegally taken money is taxed - like the profit of a legal business.

Maybe this guy also thinks it's ok if somebody is robbed as long as he gets handed over his tax cut from the robber.

This revenue guy is really a pillar of "the society" he claims to work for.

Don't let him confuse you. With "the society" like in "pay back to the society" he means precisely and exclusively himself and the rest of his fellow tax eaters - Not you or me.

What an honorable man he is.

However, such duplicity is not unknown in other countries, including western democracies.

For example, use of marijuna might be lawful according to local law but against federal law. But the state will still tax the income derived from sales while reserving the right to bring charges for distriution.

What crime did these students commit?

2014 NCPO Interim Charter :

Article 3 - "Sovereign power belongs to all Thais"

Article 4 - recognizes human dignity, rights, liberties and equality of the Thais.

Article 5 - "all matters failing to be mentioned in the constitution will be deal with pursuant to the customary practices of democratic government of monarchical Thailand, in so far as those practices are not contrary to the constitution."

It would seem a peaceful protest by these few students wouldn't be barred by the IC and most certainly would be supported by the 2007 Constitution.

But then there is the mercurial Article 44 that states "that if it is necessary to prevent, disrupt or suppress any act that undermines public peace and order or national security, the NCPO chief shall have the power to order any action regardless of the legislative, executive or judicial sectors.” The Nation 2014-11-06

The Rule of Law under the Junta regime violates Thai people's sovereignty granted in Article 3 and by Article 44 sole possession of sovereignty belongs to the military under the leadership of the NCPO. The better Thais understand the destruction of their infant democracy and doubtful recovery the better they will become democratic citizens.

These students are GUILTY of supporting democracy and are indeed the REAL democratic soldiers of Thailand.

These students have more rights to protest than the righteous Farangs with zero rights it's their country!!!

Actually more true than you may understand.

Not a single Thai constitution including the draft 2015 constitution and the Interim Charter grants rights and liberties to foreigners and "stateless" people - only to Thai people. They are the lucky ones to be called "citizens."

Maybe Gen. Prayut can invoke Article 44 to make everyone a college graduate.

Problem solved.

Why don't they just declare bankruptcy?

..then what?

A lot of undesirable things can follow:

1. Government pensions reduced or cease

2. Most government services except those vital to national security and safety cease that may be unpaid

3. All government funded programs and assistance cease

4. Most government employees furloughed or paycuts

5. All banking frozen except for minimal transactions

6. Transportation hubs close

7. All subsidies cease

8. All welfare cease

9. Sell or lease government facilities and properties

10. Increase in cost for government licenses and fees

11. Nationallize all viable businesses

12 Raise taxes

Argentina is a good example of a failed economy.

Why don't they just declare bankruptcy?

..then what?

Iceland did it after the first crash and they seem to have come out ok so why not?

Iceland didn't declare bankruptcy. Unlike the US that bailed out the banks responsible for the credit collapse, Iceland bailed out its citizens' mortgages, punished the banks, and raised taxes to cover the cost. It also worked on increasing tourism and improved energy efficiency. Many Icelanders now work 2-3 jobs to stay financially afloat.

"Devakula has claimed that the present administration had made the economy expand by 5%"

NO....he is projecting that despite a first quarter of 3%, the annual growth rate will still be 5%. This means the remaining quarterly growth rates must actually EXCEED 5% to make up the loss in the first quarter.

Devakula should be called the deputy PM for esoteric affairs.

"OIE Director Udom Wongviwatchai said the figure in the first quarter was at 2.3 percent, well within his agency’s forecast range"

Seeing as he announced his projection on 2015-04-24 , he should be within the range of his forecast as of today.

"Mr. Udom said the five best performing industries in Thailand at the moment are food & drink, auto & auto parts, machinery, electrical appliance & electronics and chemical & chemical products & petroleum."

Nalin Chutchotitham, HSBC Thailand economist, attributed Thailand's weak export performance to the product mix of electronics and electrical appliances; automobiles and parts; food; machinery and equipment; and agricultural products.

"As 17 per cent of the total are agricultural and agro-industrial products, a significant percentage of Thai exports are affected by low agricultural prices. Meanwhile, some of the key manufactured products such as electronics face strong competition, while others like electrical appliances are affected by weaker demand in Asia," The Nation 2015-04-28

The government remains always upbeat about the economy while the economy continues to get beaten down. Add the existing deterioration of the Thai economy to greater competition from the ASEAN nations after 2015 and Thailand's economic survival will be severly tested.

Kind of an odd inquiry: "He suggested that the ministry inform the public of the reasons for releasing prisoners each year."

Neither the minister nor the NLA have existed for more than a nine months. There is likely some other agenda being pursued with practices that may have been customary or practical under previous regimes, both elected and unappointed.

“Everything needs time for adjustments to the changes,”

It begs the question why in this case restraint of law enforcement must be exercised while it was not in the case of national forest, beach, and public thoroughfare encroachments. In all those cases the military just simply cleared people out regardless of their dependence on rather low income from those encroachments.

Under Prayut's regime equality under the law seems elusive and ill-defined. And yet he purports himself to be the champion of equality.

When you can get more information from an article written by a pro-coup reporter for The Nation, you can see how useless the Al Jazeera "visit" was. It was not an interview but rather a two-minute infomercial.

His English is much better than Yingluck's.

You mean his interpreter's english as Prayut spoke only Thai?

"The first criteria details seven serious offences and the second explains whether such offence or misbehaviour will damage the reputation of the organisation, or is considered a dishonour to remain in the police rank, he said."

So doesn't being a convicted fugitive on the run fall into any of these categories ie. dishonoring the police force??? Or do they consider a fugitive on the run as standard operating procedure for a person to hold police ranking?

A glaring example of Thainess. No one, not even very senior people, want to make a decision or be held accountable for anything.

Is the most senior policeman scared to make a decision that is so glaringly obvious?

Crook on the run, can still be a Lt.Col. of police - why not TiT, not the real world.

On the surface he is saying the request was inadequate.

That is to say, the committee's request essentially lacks foundation and authorization. This seems to be unique in Thai bureacracy, never order someone and take accountability but imply or pressure someone to action that can be denied. Maybe he's still a Lt.Col. for good reason and not assigned to some inactive post.

Still, this slick excuse doesn't top Suthep's excuse for not appearing before the court on charges of murder in the 2010 anti-government protests gainst the Abhisit-Suthep regime.

He said he was too busy leading anti-government protests against the Yingluck regime and didn't have the time to appear in court.

Thailand is the land of silliness excuses - LOSE

"Government troops are combing the areas this morning to hunt down the militants who are believed to mingle with local people."

Not much different military strategy than the USA used trying to intercept Viet Cong in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war and with equal failure.

BS General/PM Prat Prayut. Maybe you should have driven your air con limo around the rural sectors advertising your number plate so the locals could win a bit. Instead what do you do, hide the car for the day and only let the secret out amongst a select group.

Perhaps you should do a little research and you may find out that the air con limo does NOT belong to the general but is actually a government vehicle and probably the same one that Yingluck used.

If you went out into rural Thailand among the farmers instead of being a keyboard warrior you may learna few things for yourself too.

The limo is probably owned by the military, paid with government funds that were collected from the Thai taxpayers that would include the rice farmers. The military does not share its property with the government as it views itself as having separate sovereignty from the people's government.

It was a good thing for the Junta that the Yingluck regime built large US dollar cash reserves. These reserves resulted in part as a result of increased GDP growth. Prayut had been using it to artificially prop-up the baht last year (much as did Putin) in the face of declining GDP growth but the economic floodgates couldn't hold back Thailand's collapsing economy.

I expect the baht to continue to slump another 5% going into Winter 2015 at which time Prayut has promised financial benefits from massive government investment stimulus to take effect. If his prediction proves incorrect, we might see another Winter of Discontent.

"the Ministry of Commerce have stock holdings in the 2 concession entities of the PTT Exploration and Production Plc and Chevron within this year, to raise investors' confidence in the private sector"

The Ministry of Commerce will use taxpayer funds to purchase stock and, thus, put those taxpayer's funds at risk. And it would appear that use of such action is currently ILLEGAL.

I recall that current law only provides for a concession system and the NLA is still examining the possibility of allowing additional systems as an amendment to the Petroleum Income Tax Act of 1971. One of the proposed systems is the "joint investment by the public and private sectors." This system involves a stock ownership approach.

Although General Sakol Sajjanit, chairman of the NLA committee to review the law, felt that this is the most favourable alternative, the government would "benefit the most" under another system called the production order system wherein the government would merely hire a company to produce petroleum. The Nation 2015-05-06

Obviously without State control of the companies, the Thai treasury faces large to unlimited risks. In view of the statement that "Thailand currently does not have the expertise in petroleum exploration," either the concession or production order systems would be best suited for Thailand's purposes.

Junta-appointed Wissanu will present to the Junta-appointed Cabinet and the NCPO Junta four options to pick from if the charter draft does not pass a referendum.

The only option not to be presented is to ALLOW the Thai people to decide their options.