Thailand's Guns and Drugs Plagues...

[webfact]

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pays his respects outside the day care centre which was the scene of a mass shooting, in the town of Uthai Sawan, Nong Bua Lam Phu province, Thailand, October 7, 2022. Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

 

 

Thailand's recent mass shooting exposes the government's flawed gun policy and the drug crisis facing Thai society. The military-dominated ruling coalition seems unwilling to enact meaningful reform on both issues.
 

by Joshua Kurlantzick

 
A mass killing by a former police officer at a child-care center earlier this month has forced Thailand to confront two of its main scourges. First, former members of the police and military have ready access to guns, even when there are questions about their mental health.

 

They can buy guns through the government, essentially from government gun sellers, and amass large stocks. This is, of course, designed to keep weapons in the hands of the police and military in what has primarily been an authoritarian state for the past seven decades. Regular Thais, instead, face very tough gun laws, in part to prevent Thai protestors from using deadly force when they revolt against various authoritarian governments.

 

As a result, the country’s police and military are awash in guns, which do make it into the hands of disturbed or drugged individuals. In recent years, this has led not only to this tragedy but also to other killings in shopping malls, army bases, and other locations by soldiers and other authorities. As the New York Times reported, an army officer used a gun to murder two peers at the armed forces college in Bangkok last month.

 

Yet Thai politicians, at least from the current ruling military party-dominated alliance, are not going to do anything to curb the military and police’s control of guns, even while maintaining strict gun laws on the general population. Imposing even mild rules on military and police officers, despite the occasional massacres by disturbed, angry, mentally ill, or drugged authorities, would set Thailand down the path of possible broader gun control for the armed forces and the police.

 

This reform will never happen unless parliament is thoroughly controlled by a coalition of parties truly determined to enact military and police reform. The last few times such coalitions controlled parliament, in the early 2000s and the early 2010s, they were ousted in military coups. And although there will be an election next year in Thailand, and in a free and fair poll a pro-democracy, anti-military coalition would likely win, a genuinely free and fair election is improbable, as I recently wrote in World Politics Review.

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At the same time, Thailand has a serious problem with a massive influx of amphetamine/methamphetamine drugs coming over the border from Myanmar and Laos. A sizable percentage of the Thai population, many working low-paying jobs, has become addicted to these drugs. The killer at the daycare center had faced a drug charge, and Thailand certainly needs to address its severe amphetamines problem, partly due to the extreme inequality in Thai society.

 

Yet the response from many politicians in this campaign season is to reprise disastrous ideas of a brutal, bloody crackdown on drug users. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra tried this approach in the early 2000s, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people, many of them innocent. Thaksin’s party is pushing for a restoration of the brutal, useless drug war—even though former president Rodrigo Duterte tried a much larger version of this war in the Philippines, resulting in massive abuses and tens of thousands of deaths.

 

Creative Commons: Some rights reserved.

 

Source: https://www.cfr.org/blog/thailands-guns-and-drugs-plagues

 

-- © CFR 2022-10-26

[2baht]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The military-dominated ruling coalition seems unwilling to enact meaningful reform on both issues.

Why would they, life is grand, let the peasants eliminate each other with drugs and guns! We're alright Jack, #$(& you!

[TheFishman1]

Is the government main concern is the top officials receiving brown envelopes TIT

[ozz1]

How about getting the police to act quickly they took far too long to respond to this tragedy Too busy looking getting money out of people

[CygnusX1]

After skimming it quickly, I first thought the headline read “Thailand’s Guns and Dogs Plagues”, and for a couple of seconds thought that something was about to be done about the soi dogs…

[Nicholas Paul KNIGHT]

Good reading however the title is WRONG. sadly it should read One Main Scourge .

Itis the Corrupt inefficent and in some cases openly part of the problem. The Royal Thai Police whose recernt cases of corruption and use of weapons and drug handling has littered the press recently. 

 

According to the Prime Minister on taking office initially, I will rid the RTP of corruption  !!!.

 

WELL THAT HAS NOT HAPPENED and as surely as God made little Eggs, never will. 

[ChrisY1]

2 hours ago, 2baht said:

Why would they, life is grand, let the peasants eliminate each other with drugs and guns! We're alright Jack, #$(& you!

Dead right! They have never cared about the low life general public...money in guns and drugs is important!

[2baht]

52 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

for a couple of seconds thought that something was about to be done about the soi dogs…

Yes, there will be.......................someone will feed them and they will keep breeding!

[BritManToo]

Drugs and guns problems in Thailand, trivial IMHO compared to some western countries.

I don't worry about either.

[RichardColeman]

Thailand's Guns and Drugs and Junta Plagues...

 

There, corrected

[mrfill]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Regular Thais, instead, face very tough gun laws, in part to prevent Thai protestors from using deadly force when they revolt against various authoritarian governments.

These authoritarian governments have failed over the decades and created the very problem they complain about so how about turn down the authoritarianism so the chances of protests reduce and the need for weapons reduce. Being more authoritarian just won't work and make the problem even worse.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies reported and removed.  The topic isn't about the US.  

[mikebell]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

This reform will never happen unless parliament is thoroughly controlled by a coalition of parties truly determined to enact military and police reform.

Translated - this means never.  At the 1st hint of reform the Army will stage another coup; no more party coalitions as the generals have all the guns.

[huangnon]

2 hours ago, ozz1 said:

How about getting the police to act quickly they took far too long to respond to this tragedy Too busy looking getting money out of people

I think the fact that there is massive gun ownership among the local populace, at least keeps the cops from extorting you on your doorstep.

[Kalasin Jo]

Add illegal " casinos" as my wife calls these gambling dens. Many Thais like the Chinese are inveterate gamblers. Look at the seriousness they give lottery numbers and seeking infallible ( until it isn't) guidance in and from the strangest things. Gambling is prolific round these parts not just in a darkened shack on the floor but in smart homes and very, very, often out in the open at parties and funerals with excited drunk, and worse, Thais deeply involved in the Hi-Low mat and dice game. Of course brown envelopes mostly keep the police away although I've seen mad break and runs on word of an immunent plod swoop.

Only a few 100 baht, it's low-key and the villagers need some excitement from their dreary lives?  The money goes around and comes around in these poor villages? Not so. Some are relatively high rollers with fat wads. Money lenders too at a rate of 100 baht per 1,000 which may be per day, per week and something such as a motorbike often taken as security. That's a real mug's game. 

 

But nobody gets hurt? Wrong again it can lead to disputes with violence or the threat of it at the time or later when the debts are not repaid.

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand's recent mass shooting exposes the government's flawed gun policy and the drug crisis facing Thai society. The military-dominated ruling coalition seems unwilling to enact meaningful reform on both issues.

Kick-em out at the next election.

[metisdead]

An inflammatory troll post has been removed.

[FarAway]

While I agree with the fact that many problematic characters in Thailand got guns, it is worth looking deeper into WHO are these problematic characters.

And if you look deep enough you realize: Most of them are some kind of government-figures. Soldiers, police, whatsoever.
Literally almost every time I read about a mass shooting, a deadly bar brawl shooting or whatever in Thailand one of these government-related-guys is the culprit.

 

Normal law-abiding citizens almost never use their guns within deadly force. At most in relationship issues, but even that is rare and would not be stopped with a ban on guns, as you can use knives or whatever to stab your cheating wife/husband/gf as well.

 

But the general situation with government-figures being the culprits of serious gun crime in Thailand even further supports my general point of view that good citizens need the right to own guns to protect themselves from an encroaching government.

If any government and the people in power know that citizens own guns and are ready to use them if they feel threatened or their rights stripped, the government will be more careful in stealing the freedom of the people.

 

Just look at China and what they are doing to their citizens since almost 3 years now. This would have never happened if the gun control in China wouldn't be so tight and citizens wouldn't be standing with empty hands against their inhumane government.

 

 

I am totally in favor of stripping problematic characters, especially in the police and army, of their guns.

But I am totally against of stripping casual people of their right to gun ownership.

 

 

[If I should die]

The issue is not guns and drugs per se but the lack of will at the top or among the field level officers to change the flow of money.  As long as police buy promotion, all the brothels, drug dens and gambling hells are owned or even run by the police, as long as high officials and rich businessmen can commit murder with impunity and enslave whom they like how can it change.  The rest is all greenwashing (dollar green or envy green, not plantdeology green).

[sammieuk1]

The plague of unelected badge laden Generals and a bong headed health minister could be the route cause ????