PM Prayut opens Rattanakosin Island bike route as 'New Year's gift'

[plachon]

The only thing this bloke should be allowed to open is a can of coke.

Bike lanes for the south nothing but rhetoric and martial law for the north.

Nice one general the poor are surely to be thankful for such a genourus gift from you.

Guess unimportant stuff like health education welfare etc can take a backseat while the elite can play with their new toy.

Priorities right up there with Indian wedding planning!

"Bike lanes for the south"

Actually, as the OP makes clear ("around Rattanakosin Island in the capital"), this island is in Bangkok.

"martial law for the north"

Actually it was, and remains, for the whole country, not just the north as you suggest.

I'd also say, it's nice to see a PM who wears a helmet, when out on his two-wheeled transport, unlike a previous bad-example !

So wearing a helmet is some sort of morality statement to you. I can just see tarzan wearing his helmet while swinging through the trees. Get real!

Not at all, you totally missed that reference, although many longer-serving members will recall, what you clearly don't ...

Once upon a time, a decade or so ago, there was a Prime Minister & Cabinet of Thailand, who showed their one-ness with the ordinary people by touring Isaan on their flash motorbikes, Harleys and the like.

But although the law said, even back then, that helmets should be worn, and photos of the Great-Biker & his gang showed, they felt they were all above-the-law, or that the helmets might destroy the value of the photo-opp, as they wore none.

This was the subject of a certain amount of gentle hilarity, amongst farangs & TV-posters, at the time. All the Bibs saluting a group of people who were clearly breaking the law as they rode past.

Which also therefore explains the smilie, after the last line of my post.

No "some sort of morality statement" after all, but humour, of a sort.

Ah yes, remember it well, the Atsamat Model of reality TV.......when Our Dear Leader handed out 500 B notes to poor old ladies as his gift to them, to show what a benevolent and caring PM he was. Such an altruistic man, so no helmet was necessary as surely no harm could ever come to a veritable saint of the people and laws are just for the proles, right?

[pantareiyingluck]

Could someone living in that area please post a picture of the beacons, clearly seen in the OP picture, in about 1 month from now?

For those who have no camera, just notifying how many beacons are actually left will suffice as well.

They probably wont last, run over and eventually broken off. They should look at a design more like this from South Melbourne Aust. Raise bicycle lanes for bikes only, no pedestrians and you still have your footpaths and sidewalk cafe's blended.

MELBOURNE 002.jpgMELBOURNE 003.jpgMELBOURNE 004.jpgMELBOURNE 005.jpgMELBOURNE 006.jpg

Counter coup. Tanks.

[rudolfvaselino]

Everything he does is deemed a a"gift"/ Filled with ego and a legend in his own mind.

But it IS true. Everything Prayut does, in his capacity as PM, is a gift to the people of Thailand. He could have stayed in his barracks and retired as an honorable general. He is quite wealthy, even by Western standards. He didn't need all the hassle that comes with planning and executing a coup de etat and appointing himself PM. It's a lot of extra work and responsibility and a lot more people are watching him than when he was just a general. Since he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, if really hurts his feelings when newspapers (and you, noitom) criticize him. Unless or until he enriches himself, as Dr. Thaksin did while in office, I will believe that what Prayut has done, and is doing, is motivated by altruism. Only time will tell if he will be, or is, corrupt. Right now, you've got nothing on him but suspicion and innuendo. BTW, politicians have been taking credit for public works for thousands of years.

But you have to agree, he looks more a social worker than a serious PM. Today I thought about some strong world leaders (and Thailand needs a strong one...). Would Putin ever spoil time on making a song, saying attractive ladies shouldn't wear bikini's, cycle through a twisted city telling the population just got a gift? I all sounds very surrealistic the past months.

[rametindallas]

Everything he does is deemed a a"gift"/ Filled with ego and a legend in his own mind.

But it IS true. Everything Prayut does, in his capacity as PM, is a gift to the people of Thailand. He could have stayed in his barracks and retired as an honorable general. He is quite wealthy, even by Western standards. He didn't need all the hassle that comes with planning and executing a coup de etat and appointing himself PM. It's a lot of extra work and responsibility and a lot more people are watching him than when he was just a general. Since he is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, if really hurts his feelings when newspapers (and you, noitom) criticize him. Unless or until he enriches himself, as Dr. Thaksin did while in office, I will believe that what Prayut has done, and is doing, is motivated by altruism. Only time will tell if he will be, or is, corrupt. Right now, you've got nothing on him but suspicion and innuendo. BTW, politicians have been taking credit for public works for thousands of years.

But you have to agree, he looks more a social worker than a serious PM. Today I thought about some strong world leaders (and Thailand needs a strong one...). Would Putin ever spoil time on making a song, saying attractive ladies shouldn't wear bikini's, cycle through a twisted city telling the population just got a gift? I all sounds very surrealistic the past months.

Putin has become a politician. I'm not sure that Thailand needs a Putin right not but it could use a social worker. The Thai people are suffering from PTSD from all the trauma politicians, in their quest for money and power, have subjected them to. I think a break from exploitation is just what Thailand needs.