Bt80 bn munition budget ‘necessary’: Prayut

By THE NATION

 

 

Speaking before attending the House of Representatives’ budget debate for fiscal year 2020 today, Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha stressed that the Defence Ministry must reserve a budget of Bt70-80 billion for buying munitions and vehicles for defensive purposes.

 

“This money is part of the Ministry of Defense’s allotted budget and has nothing to do with the central expenditure budget,” he said.

 

 

“Our military personnel are patrolling 5,000 kilometers of border both by land and sea,” he said. “It’s a dangerous and important duty and they need modern ships for efficient operations.” The PM further explained that the Ministry’s existing fleet is more than 60 years old and most of the ships require urgent repair or replacement. “All our neighbouring countries have modern ships, and Thailand needs to keep up with the changing world to maintain our negotiating powers, as well as show our potential and capability to protect our resources, especially around naval borders.”

 

“The Ministry of Defence is trying its best to reduce costs, such as by using smaller ships or even trying to build the ships domestically,” said Prayut. “However, we cannot let up on naval patrol. As you can see from skirmishes with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) foreign fishing boats, we need to protect our people and resources as well as prevent matters that might escalate into bigger conflicts.”

 

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Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30377561

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-10-20

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Of course, it is a military government. Next............

Great to see him putting the welfare of the population ahead of the cost!

8 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

even trying to build the ships domestically,

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!"

Yes they definitely need a BIG budget for munitions, must have plenty of bullets in stock for when the peasants start to revolt.

20 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

“Our military personnel are patrolling 5,000 kilometers of border both by land and sea,”

Why?  There are no invading armies out there except his friends the Chinese. 

To keep out undesirables?  They just walk through Immigration posts for a small consideration. 

It is a stick with which to beat his own people.

Bangkok also needs urgent new buses, i still haven't seen the 100 new ones from china and the old ones fume/stink like crazy.

Could this be the answer for the motocy street racing problem!

 

29 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Defence Ministry must reserve a budget of Bt70-80 billion for buying munitions and vehicles for defensive purposes.

 

 

That figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other Asian countries.

Singapore tops the spending by a huge amount, Brunei & even Malaysia spends twice as much on defence hardware.

 

So Khun Prayut Chan O Cha is correct in that Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries on defence hardware.

 

The chart shown is in Per Capita US$ ….

 

Edited October 20, 20196 yr by steven100

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

As you can see from skirmishes with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) foreign fishing boats, we need to protect our people

Those foreign fisher men might just shake a harpoon at your hastily retreating destroyer.

46 minutes ago, steven100 said:

That figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other Asian countries.

Singapore tops the spending by a huge amount, Brunei & even Malaysia spends twice as much on defence hardware.

 

So Khun Prayut Chan O Cha is correct in that Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries on defence hardware.

 

The chart shown is in Per Capita US$ ….

 

"and Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries."

 

Why?  This is the same logic that keeps Thais in debt! The "Jones" have it; so we must have it. There's no logic there; just a green-eyed response to another's possessions. If they have not utilized properly what they already possess; then further possessions are just a waste.

57 minutes ago, steven100 said:

That figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other Asian countries.

Singapore tops the spending by a huge amount, Brunei & even Malaysia spends twice as much on defence hardware.

 

So Khun Prayut Chan O Cha is correct in that Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries on defence hardware.

 

The chart shown is in Per Capita US$ ….

 

What is the Graph for Amo only? where did you pull it from?

It's not only about that, the Defence Budget is about 230bn the Security Budget 200bn and the Central Budget 500bn.

Did you know recent military purchases were taken from the Central Budget?

How to keep army happy and on your side? give them all they want.

 

When was the last time Thailand needed to be defensive? besides attacking protesters

 

No one is threatening Thailand at sea or land or air.

 

For natural disasters he does not have or need a budget, just go on TV and ask for donations, but for military that does little to nothing, he needs 80 billion.

1 minute ago, BestB said:

How to keep army happy and on your side? give them all they want.

 

When was the last time Thailand needed to be defensive? besides attacking protesters

 

No one is threatening Thailand at sea or land or air.

 

For natural disasters he does not have or need a budget, just go on TV and ask for donations, but for military that does little to nothing, he needs 80 billion.

From memory I think the last time Thailand truly needed to be defensive was December 1941 when the Japanese invaded.

The Thai navy fought for over five hours before being told to surrender stop by the PM.

The Japanese still invaded though - hence the 'Bridge On The River Kwai' film, when the Japanese used foreign prisoners of war they incarcerated, as well as thousands of Thai forced labour - a lot higher numbers than the POWs, to build the bridge.

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

From memory I think the last time Thailand truly needed to be defensive was December 1941 when the Japanese invaded.

The Thai navy fought for over five hours before being told to surrender stop by the PM.

The Japanese still invaded though - hence the 'Bridge On The River Kwai' film, when the Japanese used foreign prisoners of war they incarcerated, as well as thousands of Thai forced labour - a lot higher numbers than the POWs, to build the bridge.

Its a good thing Japanese are not planning to invade any time soon again,though i have a feeling girls would be lining up to get picked ???? 

With the likelihood of Thailand actually being invaded by a hostile country - i think these would be just as useful and actually help the farmer too  !

1 hour ago, steven100 said:

That figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other Asian countries.

Singapore tops the spending by a huge amount, Brunei & even Malaysia spends twice as much on defence hardware.

 

So Khun Prayut Chan O Cha is correct in that Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries on defence hardware.

 

The chart shown is in Per Capita US$ ….

 

What a gross misrepresentation and fallacious load of <deleted>  . Did you make that on excel this morning?

 

Why don't you show total expenditure and as a percentage of GDP? I know why not because it won't match with your sycophantic narrative 

Edited October 20, 20196 yr by Sticky Wicket

Isn't buying new trains that circulate all over Thailand to replace those of two centuries ago?

No hope best future this country.

The Los Angeles Times described much of Asian defence spending as "keeping up with the Joneses". 

 

Bernard Loo <deleted> Weng, a military expert at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies described such was the competition for big ticket military items of dubious necessity. He went on to say:

 

"Southeast Asia is littered with examples of such purchases. Thailand owns an aircraft carrier without any aircraft. Indonesia dedicated about a sixth of its military budget to the purchase of 11 Russian Su-35 fighter jets. And Malaysia splurged on two French submarines it couldn’t figure out how to submerge."

 

Thailand's quasi democratic junta would be making their expenditure based on the recommendation (orders) of the military, General Apirat no doubt.

It seems image and ego (submarines) play a big part in the weapons purchase policy.

 

https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-asia-defense-industry-20190607-story.html

The bang bangs are needed because those pesky Laotians have started drumming again

Yea, just keep raping the country and get the plebs to spend spend spend to stimulate the economy.

 

What could possibly go wrong.

While I will always disagree with the excessive military spending by all countries a weak defence force could be all some power hungry neighbour needs to gain some terrain. Not suggesting Thailand is threatened by any other countries but you never know. 

Of course there are other reasons for splashing the cash around and we all know what that is. 

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

the Ministry’s existing fleet is more than 60 years old and most of the ships require urgent repair or replacement.

A lot of the parliament, and the senate, are probably more than 60 years old, and are in greater need of repair or replacement ! 

2 hours ago, steven100 said:

That figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other Asian countries.

Singapore tops the spending by a huge amount, Brunei & even Malaysia spends twice as much on defence hardware.

 

So Khun Prayut Chan O Cha is correct in that Thailand needs to keep up with other Asian countries on defence hardware.

 

The chart shown is in Per Capita US$ ….

 

That chart shows spending per capita, not many people in Singapore,

Brunei, compared to Thailand,Vietnam,Malaysia and especially Indonesia.

regards Worgeordie

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

Yes they definitely need a BIG budget for munitions, must have plenty of bullets in stock for when the peasants start to revolt.

 

Except that the next revolt will certainly not be peasant but bourgeois;
the peasants know how to live in self-sufficiency,  and the last revolt left indelible traces;
they will stay calmly at home and wait until the "rats" of the cities begin to starve.
It will happen very quickly, in a few days, considering how much they are indebted and for some over-debts.
And, Prayuth, what will he do?
still order the army to shoot horizontally this time the Yellows that led to his coming to power?
It's likely to end badly;
we have every chance of seeing the heads of Prayuth and his illegitimate government at the end of long and beautiful poles.

1 hour ago, klauskunkel said:

Those foreign fisher men might just shake a harpoon at your hastily retreating destroyer.

More like take the last few fish

There is no doubt about this, that’s why he is in charge as a pm.

Off topic posts and the replies have been removed. 

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

“The Ministry of Defence is trying its best to reduce costs, such as by using smaller ships or even trying to build the ships domestically,” said Prayut. “However, we cannot let up on naval patrol. As you can see from skirmishes with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) foreign fishing boats, we need to protect our people and resources as well as prevent matters that might escalate into bigger conflicts.”

I hope he didn't post this on Facebook.

No spendings = No kick backs.

Okay, Mr.PM, as the spokesperson for the elites of Bangkok, forget to say...

"We must invest heavily in Defence, to buy modern weapons and vehicles that will help us (1% population) to protect ourselves from the anger of the people."

Are Thai people happy to be the main target of these weapons, while the elité sees ghosts everywhere?