Zolt

This is doubly hilarious. You've gut Uber & GrabBike operating openly in breach of regulations with no problem, despite their drivers not being registered, and when the police announces a crackdown, it's on the registered drivers!

The current government has done more good for the people of Thailand, than any democratically elected government have done in the last 20 years. I certainly do not miss the corrupt democracy Thailand used to have!!

Yeah for sure, an even more corrupt autocracy is preferable!

One big thing here is the southern insurgency. I'm not sure how much it contributes to this but it skews the average a lot.

Would be interesting to know how many gun deaths are from the South, and how many from the rest of the country. In the rest of Thailand you sometimes hear of a hired gun paid to get rid of a business rival or a drunk off-duty officer pulling a gun, but these are fairly rare. Death count from the Southern insurgency averages around 5-600 per year. These statistics imply that there were close to 5000 deaths from guns in 2013 in Thailand, so at least 4000 of those were outside of the South. Surely we'd hear of some in the news even with the current level of censorship?

Strangely enough, the reported total homicide rate for Thailand is only 5 per 100 000 for 2012 (Or 3300 total) according to World Bank, so I'm not sure how reliable that gun homicide figure can be.

Saw that guy's picture on Monday - he posted on his Facebook 19 hours ago photos of his interrogation so I assume he has been either released or is no longer a suspect.

I think that's the Australian guy you're talking about.

Sorry got the dates mixed around. Definitely saw his pic tuesday morning.

Saw that guy's picture yesterday morning making the social media rounds - he posted on his Facebook 19 hours ago photos of his interrogation so I assume he has been either released or is no longer a suspect. He doesn't seem to look that much like the suspect. Light skin, blue eyes.

Image of the suspect released by police. Hard to tell ethnicity - could be anything from these, but that shirt is quite distinctive.

Funny how they claim to ban populist schemes and focus on the rice scheme on one side, but on the other they heavily subsidize southern rubber farmers.

I don't believe this. Government intervention in a free market? I don't blame travellers who want to travel by air as opposed to the dangerous accident prone busses on Thai roads.

Governments intervene in "free" markets all the time, even in the US. Get used to it, very often it's for a good reason too.

However the idea of rising the minimum fare price is of course stupid and misguided and only aims to prop up the national carrier that's losing customers to low costs.

The ban on all political activity is still in place. Pheu Thai and the Democrats cannot operate as political parties in the current situation, let alone contribute to the reform process.

He said there were others "with high profiles" behind the theft but police did not have evidence against them yet.

If they don't have any evidence, how can they say they are involved.

The thai police wouldn't know evidence if you hit them if the face with it. It just not something that ever comes up in police proceedings here.

Either the suspect is a nobody and they can intimidate or beat a confession out of them, or he's connected and he'll walk (unless somebody better connected wants him to go down). It is that simple.

I'm interested in DirectAsia but I would like to know if anyone has experience with their partner workshops: speed and quality of the repairs. I've had the most terrible experience with Honda dealership where it took them about 5 months to repair my car after getting hit by a taxi.

I'd say he owes his life to fine engineering more than anything else.

In my home country, admitting to driving 150kmh in rain on a country road would result in automatic voiding of his driving license, possibly impounding of his vehicle too. (duh).

As for the insurance, he's considered to be at fault by default, since the crash did not involve another vehicle. I guess he can afford the increased premiums.

Thailand is still waaay better in this regard than Japan, China or Korea. It's easy enough to get around in Bangkok and touristic areas speaking English. I'd say it's about on par with Vietnam, the comparison with Singapore and the Philippines is obviously a bit unfair.

The Thai justice system is an absurdity, all around. And it's only getting worse.

Surapong is probably overstating the EU's postion. It is simply not in the EU's nature to take a strong stance on anything.

It looks more and more likely that the "compromise" that will be reached will be overwhelmingly favorable to Suthep & co and will includ having an army general as PM.

The militarys declaration of martial law was for all localities of the country which is not allowed under the Constitution!

You are assuming that the one who has the authority has not been asked. Until you know that for certain your comment has no validation.

No royal decree has been issued so far, that is for certain.

Section 188 of the Constitution:

The King has the prerogative to declare and lift the martial law in accordance with the conditions and manner under the Martial Law.

In the case where it is necessary to declare the martial law in a certain locality as a matter of urgency, the military authority may do so under the Martial Law.

The militarys declaration of martial law was for all localities of the country which is not allowed under the Constitution!

That is the correct text of the constitution. Furthermore, the 1914 law detailing Martial Law states it may only be imposed in times of war or insurrection. While it is true that charges have been filed on protest leaders for insurrection, it's hard to argue that things are more chaotic in Bangkok now than they were in January or March. In fact things have been fairly quiet since PDRC stopped the "shutdown"

Kudos on the author for this title: That's probably the first time I've seen this spelled correctly in the last couple of years in the press.

Remember the last time arrests were made under martial law in the South anyone? I bet the locals remember.

"Within the constitution" that part of the statement is interesting, as Article 188 does not explicitly allow military chief to declare nationwide military law, only in a specific location. Not that anyone is likely to challenge him on that.