spidermike007

As has been reported, the issue is a purely domestic politics problem. The PTP was worried that if a cabinet resolution was passed approving the mission, someone would file a lawsuit saying they had overstepped their bounds and they cannot make an agreement involving national security and sovereignty.

The Council of State had already ruled that it was within the constitutional rights of the cabinet to approve the mission, but they could debate in a parliament and have a non-binding vote on it.

The cabinet took the easy way out and voted to have a parliamentary debate (which cannot take place until August when it reconvenes)

TH

Essentially what you are saying is that Thailand has a nearly dysfunctional form of governance. That is the reality this nation is dealing with. That is part of what it taking the country in a slow, backwards direction. There is little in the way of true advancement here. Many of us love living here, but we see the nonsense quite clearly. Nepotism, cronyism, corruption on a massive scale, press censorship, false morality, and transparently false righteousness, from people as high up as the deputy PM.

Congratulations Yingluck and Abhisit, you have both done your best for helping your country moving forwards! Please continue this way and within 5 years Cambodia will overtake you with more than one length...

Meanwhile the students (the leaders of tomorrow) will continue to work hard on their tablet computers for reaching good results in international competitions, tourists continued being stabbed to death and yearly flooding despite a clear interdiction from the Minister of Science. And where is Chalerm?

But all this will soon be better once the constitution wil be amended and the amnesty granted for the convicted criminal Thaksin...

Amazing Thailand!

Thailand continues to move backwards, at an alarming pace. They were the 21st largest economy in the world in 2006, and are now the 25th. Give them 10 or 20 more years. Where do you think this nation of progressive genius will be? The political system is completely broken, and nearly completely dysfunctional. The ministries are run by cronies, and there is nothing even bordering on appointment by merit. There is an astonishing lack of talent at the national government level, and the same applies to the entire educational system from elementary school, through university. It is frankly astonishing, how little Thailand is accomplishing at this point in time. At the risk of sounding a little too harsh, when was the last time someone from Thailand won international recognition for a medical breakthrough, for a dance or theatre performance, for academic excellence, etc? When was the last time a Thai won a Nobel Peace Prize, or a Pulitzer, or a Peabody award?

It appears Thailand is no longer a peaceful land of smiles but knifes and tourists stubbings / deaths.

I was initially thinking about moving there for some time but the more such news come through the less I like the idea...

Thailand is still fairly peaceful. In comparison to the gangland killings in Los Angeles, or the murders in many capitals, it is peaceful. Unfortunately, some of the youth are being brought up with little regard for human life. And some of the southern men are animals. Less regard for life, and very short fuses. This guy was obviously a greedy coward. It is easy to sucker punch (stab someone) a guy who is not expecting it. It is the work of a tiny man, without a heart, a soul, or a conscience. What a two bit punk. Would love five minutes with this 13 year old girl of a "man". Hopefully, the toy police will be able to find him. Should be a walk in the park to find the bus operator, illegal or now. Whether or not there will be any will to prosecute this creep, will depend on how much publicity this gets.

Of course a banking executive will say there is no bubble. It's their bread and butter. Crooks

Exactly. A pronouncement by a non-visionary banker, who has zero ability to see the forest, beyond the trees. Classic myopia. Just wait. The local economy may take a bath. Too many elements are working against Thailand, and the local businesses, and government are doing very little to counteract the potential problems.

Be you that they will get a seat sentence without being represented by a lawyer because they can't afford one.

How little you know about the Thai judicial system. Everyone has a lawyer made available to them either a decent paid one or a free one regardless of nationality. By confessing they have basically accepted the guilty charge so that gets their sentence cut in half. They could get a sentence as low as 15 years which if they are clever and make their way up the prison grading system earn higher annual reduction in the Kings birthday. They could be out in less than 6 years.

That said IMO they should be given and serve a full 25 years.

I am very well versed with the way the courts work here.....

I was thinking a life sentence, without the possibility of pardon, and a 5 million baht fine for their parents, for bringing such rodents into the world. Little regard for a human life here. I hear that the stabbing took place before they took the purse, so there was not an option to not resist, and just give up the goods. What kind of regard for life is this? These insects deserve life in prison. They earned it. Lets give them what they earned.

12.2 million tourists who will spend 19.2 million dollars. That is an average of $1.50 each. What a deal! No wonder Thais are considered by many, to have some of the lowest math skills in the world. Even the major news outlets cannot do basic math. And believing the TAT is like believing Putin, the tooth fairy, Yingluck, or Obama.

The plot thickens, as the BIB try to muddy the waters to ensure that there is no damage to Thai reputation.

Exactamundo. Farengs are known to be responsible for all evil in the world. The Thai people are known to be of such purity, that they could never cause physical, or financial harm to anyone.

Wow, that's fast, so I take the respective commission has already been set up by him?

One idea that may help:

in Myanmar, everyone who steals from foreigners / tourists is sentenced to 5 years of heavy labour.

How about introducing that in Thailand?

I am sure it would send a shock-wave through Thailand, even if only coming from the mouth of Chalerm.

Yes, a shock wave would be putting it mildly. It may have been 20 years since a tourism operator has been held responsible for a crime against a fareng. Sometimes, it almost feels like it is encouraged!

Just another pronouncement from the toothless tiger. This goombah continues to impress, with the number of promises that go unfulfilled. Where were the governors of surat thani, and pattaya? These are two of the most corrupt areas. I cannot think of one area that is untouched by corruption in samui. The mayor there is lining his pockets daily. There is zero intention to go after the taxis who charge 500 baht, for 3 km! This has been going on for years. Farengs are regularly assaulted on the beaches for refusing to pay 100,000 baht for causing no damage to a jet ski owned by a mafia punk who is immune to any action by a toothless police force who are simply revenue collectors. Farengs are regularly extorted by local police in koh phangan out of 100,000 baht for possession of one joint of ganga. Nothing will change, and the Lerm will continue to spout his nonsense.

The 21st largest economy in the world has dropped to 25th, in just 5 years. In another 10, to 20 years, who knows? Malaysia, Indonesia, China, India, Vietnam, and many more neighbors are making a very sincere effort at improving their educational systems. Thailand is doing very, very poorly in that regard. Shame on the people involved, and shame on the education ministry. They could do better. Suggestion #1. Hire only fareng English instructors throughout Thailand. Suggestion #2. Publish all test results in the local newspapers. Suggestion #3. Fire all teachers who cannot pass their own exams. In a recent study, math teachers in 10 provinces where given their own math tests. This is the test they give out regularly. There was an 83% failure rate! Shame on Thailand for this travesty of an educational system. They could do much better.

Three suggestions to improve the education system in Thailand and you say the first thing is to hire only farong English teachers.

Yes for sure make learning English the number one project for improving the education system in Thailand. Thailand will have some of the best English speaking rice field workers in the world. That is providing the German speaking teacher can speak good English.

How about putting more importance on learning the basic for use in Thailand and at a later date if students want make English available to them. When you say farong are you aware that there are farongs who can not speak English.

English is a necessary language for about 3% of the population yet people want to teach it to 100% of the population. There are many sellers in the tourist industry who do not speak English and make a living off of tourists who can not speak Thai. There products are produced by many Thais who can not speak English. On the other hand there are many bar girls who can speak English. But most of them did not learn it in elementary school. They would of but the school had no electricity so they couldn't read the lessons.

While there may be some truth to what you are saying, there is no doubt how much many Thai people in the tourism industry would benefit from some decent english. I was witnessing this recently, when some tourists were walking by a woman in a tourist area, who was trying to sell them on some silk scarves, and all she could say was "colors, colors, colors". This feeble an pathetic attempt at sales was met with howls of laughter, and tourists who walked to the next booth, got approached by someone who spoke rudimentary english, and got a sale out of it. I see this over, and over again. The really motivated ones teach themselves some english. The sluggards remain very poor, and wonder why the others are selling so much more.

I retired as a teacher in America. I moved to Thailand 4 years ago and have only found sporadic, part-time work. My experience has been that Thais value "saving face" and "nationalism" so much that any attempts at actual education is NOT tolerated.

One thing to keep in mind, whenever the feeble "saving face" comes up, is that it is simply an excuse for not doing any inner work, and not getting to know thyself. Think about it. What better excuse, for not doing the difficult work of introspection, than claiming you are embarrassing someone. How lame. How weak, how cowardly, and how pathetic an excuse is that? Do you really care what others think, if you are completely comfortable in your own skin?

oh man, this is not cool,with all the talk about saving face in this country, where's the face in a cowardly act like this? it may not have been Thais, but they were men in Thailand, what the hell is going on here? forget jetski's and scams,this is the stuff tourists are really scared of, being attacked and killed while taking a pleasant walk...dam_n it, after Phi Phi, this one could seal their fate...RIP and condolences to families.

Of course they were young Thai punks. The toy police of media may fabricate a story otherwise, but we know. The police are ineffective here, to the extreme. Will the culprits be caught? If they are from wealthy families, Will they serve time. Just admit the system is completely broken.

Another pathetic statement from the culture ministry, how about they do something about her pirated albums or is that just part of the culture?

I give you the current Thai Minister of Culture... Sukumol Kunplome.

This not a joke. This is the official photo of her on the Thai website: http://thainews.prd....ewscabinet.html

This woman should not throw stones? I think she lives in a pretty big glass house!

And we all know who her father in law is.

Wow, the minister of culture looks incredibly hip. She is obviously up with the latest fashion trends, in addition to being fully aware of the world of music, dance, fine art, ballet, opera, live theatre, live comedy, live jazz, and all of the other areas in which the ministry of culture is very active, promoting a wide range of international culture, and educating the youth about the latest trends in the world of culture. Yudos, for this super hip your woman, for taking the bull by the horns, and making a huge effort to make her country a world leader in these areas.

Thailand should not worry about "normal relations" with a government that treats their workers from developing countries (TCN's is the term used there) like a spec of dirt. Though there is a serious unemployment problem in Saudi, the locals feel that they are "above" doing service jobs such as sweeping the streets, being an electrican, car mechanic, working in a store or restaurant, being a construction worker...the arrogant Saudis all want to have an office and be a boss. Workers from Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Phillipines and even Nepal are brought in to do these jobs under poor working conditions and sometimes not receiving their pay. Thailand can feel fortunate.

What is your problem? Does Thailand treat the Burmese workers with more respect? Does immigration treat the farengs attempting to live here with more respect? Which planet are you living on? You have to find a way to mix your naive brand of idealism, with the way life works on planet earth, then come back contribute to the discussion.

Yes, he mentioned only cosmetic, and not systemic problems. So very typical of the Thai mindset. Introspection, and self analysis is just not their strong suit. It leads to countless problems, and is the primary reason why I predict Thailand will fall much further that it has. Just in the past 5 years Thailand has dropped from #21 in the world, to #25, according to the CIA GDP list, which is quite accurate.I estimate they will fall to #45 or #50 in our lifetime, unless they "man up", and start looking at themselves with critical eyes. The whole concept of face means nothing but "I do not want to do any self improvement, and therefore do not want to examine myself or my country on any level". That is the way I see it. Why did this lunatic not mention the taxis, the tuk-tuks, or the jet ski operator insects? How many complaints do we hear about those insects disguised are men?

Well, this is what the Thai govt. does. They waste people's time, money, and welfare criticizing crap like this, instead of enacting corruption laws, reigning in the out of control military, or doing things that benefit the Thia people. Just another example of "monkey nationalism".

Nice to see someone tell it like it is. We simply want some justice. Well, that would mean putting one of the least competent police forces to work, and it resulting in an arrest, sending the perpetrator to one of the least competent judiciaries in the world, and if successful, sent to some of the nastiest prisons in the world. Some of my friends argue that Thailand is second world. I just do not see it. Maybe the upper end of the 3rd world, but that is as far as I would go.

I don't think this is much to be proud of when you consider the appalling wages and, in many cases, conditions the staff work for and under. Although I enjoy the prices part of me is appalled when I'm paying more for a night's accommodation than the staff serving me incredibly well will get for week's salary! And do they get all or even part of the 10% service charge automatically added to the bill?

Pay the staff at even half the salary level of the Western European/Australian hotels and see what the cost would be!

What exactly are you suggesting? Just because you are carrying around all of this unresolved guilt, does that mean the entire economic scale in Asia should change? Would that somehow make you feel better about yourself, and the world? Think about it. The wages in Thailand are higher than many of it's neighbors, and the hotels are already expensive enough, if you take all of this into account. Do you honestly think higher rates would translate into higher wages, and not just more mansions for the owners? If you answered yes to this question, I have an very well priced bridge I can sell you.

I reckon it may be too early to lift ALL the sanctions. Better ask Aung San Suu Kyi her opinion about the timing. It does seem unseemly for THAILAND to ask this.

She was asked about this during a press conference on her recent trip to Thailand. She said in place of the irrational exuberance that she is seeing towards Burma, there should be a balanced caution. Things appear to have changed slightly. But, what about the Rohinga issues? What about the hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees currently in Thailand and Bangladesh? Let the government demonstrate to us that they have given up slave trafficking, drug dealing, and simply dealing in human misery, for the sake of the 10 top generals all amassing a fortune in the billions. Burma has a very, very, very long way to go to demonstrate anything. Thailand has been Burmas lapdog for a long time. They are sucking up to the generals out of desire for the natural gas, and have been doing so for a long time. Thailand is not a reliable broker for Burma.

The entire planet is laughing, as usual, at Thailand's lack of seriousness, in addressing it's problems. A fine of 20,000 baht per day, for a company this size, is like a gnat bite. Face, face, face. Nothing more. Let us say we did something. Silly, nonsensical, non-solutions to the problem. Around the world they discuss how not serious the Thai government is.

I'm with you, except, the problem is, those of us that must have 400,000 baht banked for two months to get the marriage extension, or 800,000 for retirement, are fuc_ked.

Fuc_ed how? This is merely a reporting requirement, not a tax form filing. Yeah, that you might have interest earnings on this 400/800k baht of bank account money might become obvious to the Feds. So just declare this interest on your 1040. Christ, what's so hard about being in accord with our tax laws?

You know what, Mr. Apologist for the US Government, it's just too much, that's what. Have you ever heard of the Fifth Amendment? Let's say you did NOT pay all your taxes. This form erquires you to be a witness against youself (rat yourself out). Where does it all end?

I file my 1040's, declare all my income and pay all my taxes. But now, that's not enough. Lucky for me, I read about the FBAR on here a few years ago and have been filing it. But I have a few friends here who knew nothing about it until last year. THEY are fuc_ked. There was an amnesty last year that included a penalty free window for "innocent" FBAR non-filers that had declared all their income and paid all their taxes. But the window closed. Now Treasury has extended the "amnesty" (no criminal prosecution for those who turn themselves in) but the window for innocent non-filers was not reopened. Apparently the penalty for the innocent non-filers is 25% of the highest balance over eight years. For somebody who keeps 400,000 baht in the bank, that comes to 100,000 baht or about $12,698 at current exchange rates. That means my friend who has declared every penny he has earned and paid every penny of tax, but did not know about the FBAR reporting requirment is now faced with the prospect of paying a $12,698 penalty! That's just plain fuc_king wrong.

If it were not for ThaiVisa, I would not know about the FBAR. My tax preparer sends me my tax return every year to review it for accuracy. If I looked closely I would see the box on Schedule B for reporting foreign bank accounts. Then I could download the Form 1040 instruction book and read about the FBAR requirement (I get a PDF vesion of the return from my preparer). But come on, who does all that in practice. When I get my 42 page tax return from my CPA to review for accuracy, I always send it back with a note that says, "Come on, Marge, I don't understand a bit of this; that's why I hire you." She is a very good CPA, but I am her only expat client, so she doesn't ordinarily deal with expat issues; I am usually the one to bring them up to her. For example, she would reasonably assume most of my assets were in the US becasue she knows nothing about the bank balance requirements to maintain certain visas here. It is easy for the FBAR to have innocently fallen through the cracks. I am a retired lawyer, and this stuff confuses me. It's just gotten out of hand. The average schmuck doesn't stand a chance.

It is a draconian measure, introduced by a liberal (actually more conservative, and further to the right than tiny george ever was) "leader". I believe that it is not about taxes, but something far more heinous, and potentially fascist, in it's nature. Read into this as you will. But, the intentions are far from noble.

The author of this article left out a lot of key details in his anti-American rant. For 1 NASA is a civilian agency and part of its task is to study world wide weather. Secondly the UAV's (drones) he was referring to are mostly controlled via satellite from an air force base in Nevada. There is no advantage to moving that capability here. Third, the US Department of Defense does tons of humanitarian work world wide especially disaster relief. If my memory serves, most of that disaster relief in the last 20 years or so has been in Southeast Asia so it would only make sense to ask Thailand (the US's oldest ally in the region) about setting up some space in a little used corner of the country.

Oh my God, a sensible reply, from a man of obvious intelligence, who has actually thought the matter out, and then replied with a calm and rational reply. How refreshing. I read so many emotional rants on this forum, it is refreshing to read one that is intelligent, articulate and factual. Yes, the US engages in a lot of charitable work, and it is sometimes lost of many of us. I am American, and it is sometimes hard for me to see when the US is doing good in the world, as many of us get caught up in the aspects of US foreign policy that create problems, instead of creating benefits. So, thanks for the reminder.