UN Blames Thai Govt For Poor Flood Management

[koosdeboer]

so scotbeve stated at the start that this is the largest military budget in Thai history, and all of your slithering around has not managed to deny the truth of that (simple) statement.

Thanks for over-stating the military spending.

'Largest ever' may be true, but it would be nice if we could put the figure in relation to other expenditures in Thai National budgets of 2010, 2011 and 2012. Where is the RPPS 350 - 410 billion THB for instance?

(edit: add: maybe start from about 2000 for a better historical trend if there is)

(edit: add: sorry to be off topic, but no one here seems interested in what UN ESCAP thinks or says)

Okie, dokie (to coin an annoying colonialism for you) Uncl rubl,

Here we go... just a simple <<<<snip/copy/paste>>> from a very obvious wiki page concerning your esteemed Mark... excerpts of (and I really don't give a rats @rse whethter it is indexed or in proper order)

He administered two economic stimulus packages: a $40 billion, three-year infrastructure improvement plan, and a more than $3 billion program of cash subsidies and handouts.^[12] By 2010, the stock market and the value of the baht had rebounded to their highest levels since the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. Abhisit censored thousands of Web sites, shut down hundreds of radio stations, and arrested and silenced many media figures and opposition and labor leaders, claiming that they insulted King Bhumibol.^[13][14] Human Rights Watch called Abhisit "the most prolific censor in recent Thai history" and Freedom House downgraded Thailand's rating of media freedom to "not free."^{[15] [16]} Abhisit also advocated for stronger anti-corruption measures, although several members of his Cabinet resigned due to corruption scandals and parts of his economic stimulus packages were criticized for instances of alleged corruption.

Underlings misbehaving and already a high budget....

The Democrat Party remained in the opposition after the December 2007 parliamentary election. In a parliamentary vote to select a new prime minister on 28 January 2008, Samak Sundaravej of the People's Power Party defeated Abhisit by a vote of 310 to 163.^[47] On 9 September 2008, Mr. Samak was removed from the post by the Constitutional Court for receiving payment as the host of a TV cooking program.

In the crisis that followed, some Democrat Party members became leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy, which organized a six-month-long demonstration and seized Government House, Don Muang Airport, and Suvarnabhumi Airport. Abhisit voiced displeasure at the sieges, but did not stop his deputies from their leadership of the PAD.^[48] The sieges ended after the Constitutional Court banned the People's Power Party. Army commander and co-leader of the 2006 coup, General Anupong Paochinda, allegedly coerced several PPP MPs from the Friends of Newin Group to defect to the Democrat Party, allowing Abhisit to be elected Prime Minister.^[49][50]

Upon becoming Premiere, Abhisit promised to enforce the rule of law and prosecute the 21 Peoples Alliance for Democracy leaders who were responsible for seizing Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports. As of February 2010, arrest warrants still had not been issued for the airport seizures.^[51] On 24 February 2010, government prosecutors deferred a decision for the eighth time to decide whether to indict the nine leaders of the PAD over the 7-month long seizure of Government House. However, as the PAD leaders did not come testify voluntarily, the judge could not make the decision and the process was thereby delayed.

Above.... Please make sure if you're PM that you don't take one baht for cooking on TV (but you can splurge the masses tax money on 200,000 baht meals - verifiable folks!!!) BUT no problems whatsoever if you close down govt House and/ or 2 x airports indefinitely!

Abhisit raised more than Bt200 million at the Democrat Party's 60th Anniversary dinner. He outlined several energy policies, including increasing dividend payments from state-owned oil company PTT and using the funds to repay Oil Fund debts, and having state-owned electric utility EGAT absorb part of the rising fuel prices.^[55] Abhisit later outlined plans to reduce retail petrol prices by eliminating the 2.50 baht/litre tax used to maintain the government's Oil Fund.^[56]

^{Above.... anyone remember how many seconds it took to sell the IPO for the PTT stocks (200 or 300 mill shares) - I know very well 83 seconds!!! I wanted 20,000 shares... What did I get??? 1,000 shares. Why is this boys and girls????? I know why..... Petrol prices went sky-high and stayed there - not parallel with the world oil prices at ALL.}

Abhisit's first act as Prime Minister was to send SMS texts to tens of millions of Thai mobile phone users. The message, signed "Your PM," asked people to help him solve the country's crisis. Interested phone users were asked to send back their postal codes, at a cost of three baht. Abhisit was criticized for violating privacy regulations in the mass SMS. The National Telecommunication Commission says that mobile phone service providers may not exploit client information, including phone numbers, without their consent. However, it did not seek actions against Abhisit.^[66][67]

^{Above.... cooking the phones??? Privacy??? Massive effin' censors on the web???? &lt;deleted&gt;}

^{Below is the coup de gras!!!! Can any of you em effers whom so love this smooth-talkin' snake refute this (well documented) FACT!!!!!!!!!??????? Without the slip-slidin' greasy footwork you all usually do!!!???}

Government debt

Abhisit borrowed heavily to finance his various populist policies and stimulus packages. The government borrowed a record-breaking 1.49 trillion baht from 2009 to early 2011, compared to the previous 26 Prime Ministers who had combined borrowings of only 870 billion baht. Thailand's national debt at the end of February 2011 was 3.59 trillion baht, or 40% of GDP.^[70] By April 2011, the Governor of the Bank of Thailand, Thailand's central bank, warned that implementing Abhisit's populist policies might cause public debt to surge past the legal debt ceiling of no more than 50% of GDP. The government countered the BoT's warning by claiming it was just expression of opinion in a technical manner.^[71] Abhisit noted that several countries had experienced debt crises – but not Thailand.^[72]

A TECHNICAL MANNER???? Can someone translate snake PULEEZE!!! So can someone explain WHERE THE EFF IS >>>

The government borrowed a record-breaking 1.49 trillion baht<<<<<<<<<<<< HUH??? Where did this go!!!???

But I have an idea where the order came from / money has gone!

And here is a picture which shows one of the trucks with goods donated by citizens departing from froc with a banner of one of the PUA Thai MP's of this great government.

Stop defending them please

[rubl]

Okie, dokie (to coin an annoying colonialism for you) Uncl rubl,

Here we go... just a simple <<<<snip/copy/paste>>> from a very obvious wiki page concerning your esteemed Mark... excerpts of (and I really don't give a rats @rse whethter it is indexed or in proper order)

sorry, rest removed

I asked for Thai National budget allocations in order to be able to see the relation / level between the various departments. With 2010 - 2012 interesting, but data since 2000 being more useful to try to detect (historical) trends.

A post with bits and pieces and complaints about fund raising diners doesn't help much.

Maybe best to get back to the OP instead

Edited October 24, 2011 by rubl

[animatic]

An extremely long winded, and clearly half sided, display of cut and paste. Nothing pertaining to context is on display.

It is easy to make a government look bad using data.

As easy as it is to make it look good.

The trick most here haven't mastered or care not to, is giving fair and balanced representations of governments in comparison, WITH context in the world situations, not just raw figures from one side, and nothing explaining relative weights of importance at the times and the conditions they existed in.

If you want me, or any other thinking person, to believe that TRT, PPP, PTP governments are any better at financial management than Chuan or Abhisit's governments, based on such numbers out of any relative context, then you are way out of your depth so far.

And to be fair we need to add in the Banharn and Chavalit governments just prior to the '97 crash.

Edited October 24, 2011 by animatic

[tlansford]

constant dollar figures.

yes, the military budget would be around 170 billion baht.

ok, but at even if constant dollars $3.6 billion to $5.1 billion is a 41.6% increase over 5 years of increasing total budgets, not a 70% increase

absolutely right, calculator error and no reasonableness check. I stand corrected.

[scotbeve]

So does anyone have a full spreadsheet of where the &lt;deleted&gt;' 1.47 trillion baht was allocated to???? Are we not supposed to talk about this??? DUH!!!! Oh yeah.... I forgot, not s'posed to talk about this. Secret Squirrel S _ hyte!