mfd101

Such confidence as was shakeable has already been shaken, I think. Full pardon for T in, say, 3 or 4 months won't surprise any Thais and won't change attitudes towards the government one way or another. The pardon will come from on high in any case and people will be waiting for real-world performance from the government.

Seeing is believing. Trust depends on performance but too much cynicism leads to nothing other than corruption and passivity. Condemning them before they've even found where the loo is is a bit silly. Doesn't serve any useful purpose.

As in most Third World countries, the basic mission of the Thai military is (whether explicitly or not) something called 'nation building'. Which is not surprising given that it is often - at least in theory - the only national institution with the resources, capability & discipline to carry out 101 tasks that noone else can do. If you live near the border (as I do) just about every government employee - including school teachers - is a military officer wearing a uniform. Does this improve the lives of the natives? No but it certainly improves the lives of the government employees ... So it becomes integrated into daily life, both for the citizens and the government, and the inevitable slide in to politics & graft gets under way. Nothing will change in terms of overbearing military presence at all levels of national life until this is fixed. It will take decades.

Potentially the situation sets up an interesting power tussle down the track between S & T once T's on home leave ... At the moment though S is wearing the pants and making the most of it. If he's clever enough, he can take over the reins permanently by asserting his power as PM while privately keeping T happy by frequent private consultations with him (Student/Master relationship). T is never going to have an official role ever again.

From one extreme to the other! Political skill consists in (1) NOT promising what cannot be done for good reasons or bad (2) delivering what you reasonably can and making the most of it. Which means you have a pedagogical role, teaching The People what's doable and what isn't and why.

The new government could do with all of this, and including the bureaucrats (at every level).

Clearly my daily reading of FAZ is getting out of hand.

Mask cheap or free. Helmut expensive.

PM's bags under the eyes getting bigger'n bigger.

It's called: Spreading the risk. ????

We shall see.

Only in Thailand. It's part of what makes living here worthwhile. No end of entertainment.

There is a reasonable argument in favour of conscription, namely that it offers to poor & uneducated peasant boys (my b/f was one) a window on a new bigger world of which they have no prior knowledge or experience. Whether that counts as a counterargument to those who see conscription - not unreasonably - as supporting military authoritarianism and threats to democracy depends on the circumstances at any particular time. The point is that, like most important issues in government & life, it's not black'n white.

Just calming the boys as PM & new Minister ease themselves in to their new chairs. Perfectly sensible. It's what they will do that counts, not what soothing words they offer in the meantime.

So what did he say in the Thai original?

I've got an 8-year-old Canon Pixma (with cartridges) connected (by wire) to my brand-new 24" iMac. Works fine. [The wifi hasn't worked for some years (to connect to my old MacBk Air) - not sure whether that's the machine's fault or my technical incompetence.]

Yes, my b/f spends all my money. But I have a large library and a well-furnished mind. They should last me till death do us part.

I think this and other views here are too black'n white. Yes, not ideal. Yes, MFP should be running the shop but instead they're in the retraining program, absorbing lessons for next time. They'll do much better next time. As to the new government, Yes there are some old personnel, the most egregious being Anutin. But the Two Uncles are out of the picture (in Prawit's case still with a symbolic-only role as the now-temporary head of his party but not in the government). There are many new faces, not least the entirely new PM (new to the parliament as well), and the whole system has been given a shock & a shakeup it wasn't expecting. To conclude from all of that that 'nothing has changed' is fainthearted at least and generally blind to what is now a more complex reality than before, with plenty of room for change and reform. But still some blind areas relating to the Constitution. To be handled with some delicacy over time ... However the speed with which the PM & Ministers were blessed by the Palace might suggest some high-level impatience for the government to get on with the job.

Oh rilly? Just a large part of China's, Japan's, Sth Korea's & Taiwan's trade passes thru the Straits of Malacca ...

Wissanu? Who was he exactly? Poor thing, moving next week to utter irrelevance. And not one ounce of power left even now. Or ever before, as far as I can tell.

First Night rights. ie In the European Middle Ages there was a tradition that the local lord of the manor got to deflower the virgin maiden on the first night after she married a local yokel.

China under extreme pressure (declining economy, high youth unemployment, high internal debts, external world getting tougher as The West closes down the options ... ). So it's Pull finger for the local neighbours.

GDP increase? So it'll be invested on productive activities and increased outputs? Nonsense. 90% of it will go on consumption - food, booze, a new pair pf shoes ... After that, pay off a debt if anything's left over.

This is only Stage One of the process ...

That's what VAT/GST is for: Noone can escape it because everyone is a consumer.