Moruya

There are some on here, of a distinctly red persuasion, that should be asking the question "Why is nobody from the PTP government disputing the ridiculous Cambodian claims in the GoT?"

Wikipedia reports Thai GDP as being $346B in 2011 - THB10.4T

In the Nation on August 24th 2011, Dr Virabongsa Ramangura reported the foreign reserves as eing $178B or THB5.3T which he wanted to be freed for infrastructure loans. Were these funds allocated and are now being counted twice?

Domestic and Foreign debt is reported as just over 50% of GDP - but that does not include the THB1.14T of debt (taking the real total to over 60%) shifted from the FIDC to the BoT - swept under the carpet.

The rice scheme is stated above to cost (lose) THB115B but that necessitates selling old rice and will add around another 10% of GDP

The first car scheme is also expected to cost somewhere in the region of THB100B - another 10% of GDP

True debt 80% of GDP and rising?

Whilst it's true that there may be more tax credits than the flat position I have used above, the reduction in corporation tax, rising unemployment, diesel subsidies, OTPC etc. etc. is not bringing in more bacon.

Although the govt believes country should get an 'A', agencies fear fiscal indiscipline

Therein th quote above lies the truth of the matter. The government and not only this one hvae over the years believed that Thailand is a lead player on the worlds stage.

Now sadly reality is biting, Thailand is nothing more than a bit player and always has been so on the worlds stage. The sooner that the government(s) now and future wake up to this fact and then start to put learn and then their script into order the better it will be for Thailand to take its place on the worlds stage.

A poorly educated mass of people, a corrupt governmental system coupled with a somewhat unusual and indeed a feudal system as a social hierarchy which is repressive on society and thus business and administration along with a poor financial and banking system has and indeed and still is deluding the population into a xenophobic mass of born again we are the best people on the planet.

This country has potential, however whether that potential can or ever will be recognized and as a result Thailand will be or can dragged screaming and protesting into the21st century remains a moot point.

The crunch time is coming with the advent of A.S.E.A.N. already we see and hear the nay sayers in Thai society proclaiming that the influx of alien neer do wells will harm Thailand. To those nay sayers I say 'look in the mirror''.

The Luddites blazed the same trail as these current nay sayers and it didn't work,

Thailand and the Thai people if your going to survive and you wish to take your rightful place as a nation on the worlds stage you've got to to have a proactive and clean governmental system.. .

That is a fairly harsh interpretation, when it comes down to the basic statistics of the facts relating to its fiscal rating. The agencies are right to be concerned about the future debt levels, but at 43%, with whopping Forex reserves, and a growing economy, it isn't an unfair interpretation that Thailand might be due an upgrade. If the taxman did his job properly, the government would be swimming in so much cash, they wouldn't know what to do with it. There is plenty of scope to increase tax revenues in the country.

I guess it seems quite appropriate for his family that a musket is indeed a gun and a musketeer us some who shoots it

What an ambassador for his government

What about cheap Chinese tablets in the classroom?

This is a job for the two nation's leaders, Hun Sen and Thaksin.

In fact I'd bet they've made a start already.

More than a start. The handshake's done

Underneath this thread at this moment in time is another thread about Klity Creek.

Coincidence?

Thailand should take their case to the ICJ

Please remind me what A.E.C. stands for

Assets Examination Committee. They had to deal with some diseases too.

I wonder if the "incidents" are published?

Xenophobia at work

No, it is a legitimate concern. The professor's comments are taken out of context. Please understand that an influx of people does indeed bring with it an increased likelihood of new disease carriers. The western EU nations saw it when the former east bloc countries gained access to the EU. North Americans saw it with the increased flow of visitors from Latin America. Aboriginal peoples experienced it when Europeans visited with their smallpox and strains of influenza. It is seen in North America when Chinese merchant vessels dump their bilge water introducing foreign species, and organisms. One of the large unspoken fears in public health is the increased danger of cross border traffic that will introduce new strains and variants from Vietnam and China.

23 million tourists.

Maybe 1 million workers.

There is already plenty of "worker" and tourist flow around Thailand's borders - 150,000 Cambodians at least.

You can't compare the historical events you listed as they bear no similarity.

I'm sure all the diseases are here given the extremes of transient intimacies

There is a massive queue of people around the world who have been waiting for eons for this area to be cleared. This is the final part in Yingluck's master plan to have trillions of tourists visiting miracle Thailand to eat all the rice.

Well done PTP - great job.

Soi dogs next? There's a great market for the scabby mutts in Vietnam. (Muttley - keep your head down mate).

Hypocritic oath.

The government is there to server the people

Xenophobia at work

And, is it my imagination, or is it only seeming to be getting worse? The big wide world is dawning on Thailand with Asean or the ICJ, and some really don't appear to know how to react, other than to make veiled xenophobic statements. Who was that idiot senator who said that the Thai's should check the makeup of the judges at the ICJ to see if they had any "connection" to Cambodia.

I see Yingluck has had a little word with her good friend Hun Sen and the 2 PAD guests are now to be pardonned.

"A judiciary committee will hold a meeting to look into the petition and see if those who question the ruling truly do not understand or pretend not to understand or are just pretending to be dumb,'' he said."

Ha ha ha!

"When asked if the red shirts just wanted an assurance from the court so that they could move forward with the amendment, Wasan said he did not know if it was a move forward or backward."

Ha ha ha!

"Asked if the court feared the amendment would result in the Constitution Court being dissolved and merely becoming a division under the Supreme Court, Wasan said it depends on whether the Supreme Court would accept it. "It is good if we are merged into the Supreme Court, because then anybody who insults the court will go to jail," he said."

Ha ha ha!

Some nice comments there!

I must admit that I managed to keep a straight face as far as "Coconuts, Bangkok" when the snort became no longer containable and my wife looked at me strangely.

Why is the Finance Ministry unable to send the Bank the rest of the money it owes ?

Too many populist schemes paying-out, not enough tax coming-in, or what ?

It always intrigues me when quite sensible people sound off about populist measures as though they were by definition a bad thing..By this I don't mean that corruption shouldn't be rooted out or half thought schemes shouldn't be abandoned.I certainly have reservations about the rice price support policy but it seems to me that the key objective of such schemes is often overlooked, namely to improve the lot of the rice farmers and reduce inequality.Thai Visa being what it is, there will be those that say it's more about politicians courting the uneducated majority - though frankly that's what politicians do everywhere.I don't buy the fatuous argument that democracy only works when there is a large middle class.The position of Thailand using the standard Gini coefficient comparison is quite appalling as the following schedule makes clerar:

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2172rank.html

It's completely received wisdom among my Bangkok (mainly) Sino Thai friends and colleagues that even though the Democrats also pursued populist measures, the greatest sin of the current government was its courting of rural voters with a something for nothing approach.I actually had a discussion recently on the subject - cue for many pointless analogies of teaching someone to fish rather than providing them with a fish supper.I pointed out that in reality they were the ones that had been courted with populist measures for decades with the extraordinary skewed development expenditure on urban schools, hospitals and infrastructure at the expense of the rural majority.The respons? A long bewildered silence and then someone piped up. "Thai politics are very complicated Khun Jayboy.We do appreciate that they are sometimes hard to understand"

I hate to follow a lengthy, concise and well considered post with such a short reply but I'm using my phone and the car is bumpy.

I am sure almost all in the country would have preferred the massive funds to have been spent on agricultural colleges and machinery to improve efficiency rather than throwing it largely to the middle and upper classes and partly to the farmer to do the same thing he has for centuries

Ah well... you know what? The Dems deserve it. They are as corrupt as the Reds. If there wasn't any corruption involved, there would be no case.

Do you have any examples to back up your spleen venting?

Popularity has nothing to do with being fit enough to run a country. It's not difficult in a developing country with a small middle class to propose populist policies such as the debt laden rice mortgage scheme and 100,00 baht tax rebate scheme for first time cars, currently clogging up the roads.

It's about being held accountable under laws, something Thaksin has always shown contempt for.

He's a despot,masquerading as a democrat, 'democracy is not my goal'.

Actually the full quote is

Democracy is not the goal, the nation’s development is more important. Development could happen with any form of government, democracy is not the only form through which progress occurs. The goal here is sufficient economics and the ability to take care of each other instead of widening degrees of income.”

which doesn't quite fit in with the way you would like to use it.

The above sounds pretty democratic to me . How many despots do you know were pushing for "sufficient economics and the ability to take care of each other instead of widening degrees of income” ?

I think you know far more despots than I

"Pheu Thai MP Weng Tojirakarn said Parliament would host a seminar to explore the Kingdom's options in handling the dispute."

Will this involve asking the universities to provide ideas again?

If Weng starts to talk the AEC will be implemented before he closes his mandibles.

All in the name of reconcilliation

Must have checked the bank book and seen nothing but debt

Sell that rice quick!