Where is our international community headed in Chiang Mai?

[seedy]

Not all the hardship directly caused by the Thai system. Now the British consulate is refusing or are unable to notarise documents, where does this leave us retirees who rely on this service?

Thai notary

[northernjohn]

You need to join the Thai patronage system. This is not the West. The fundamental structure of Asian societies is the patronage system. If you believe you can come here and set up non-registered businesses or non-profit organisations just because you want to, you can't. But your chance of doing it successfully increases exponentially, if you do it under the patronage of a senior figure such as a politician or senior police officer.

Seems to me that's how it works in the West also. it's just that in the West we have institutionalize the patronage. Do a survey for example of Toll Taker jobs in my home state of NJ. You need to have a relative in government to get considered (not technically but that's the way it works). Or all the firms doing business with the federal infrastructure in and around Washington DC...guess what ? Many of these contracts are awarded to companies owned by family members of Congressmen, yes there is a biddng process but when you know about the contract before it is published you get to favorably structure your bid. Just the way the world works. I hear loads of complaining here about how Thais hate westerners but seriously do you think it's any easier for SouthEast Asians to integrate into America for example ? We are all here because cost of living is less than in the West and other 'amenities' are plentiful and there is no snow. Bottom line, get used to it or go back to the same in the West with higher costs to boot.

You are dead on. Many come here because they are not in the patronage system and fail to do their due diligence as to what they can do here. It is a well known saying in the west "it is not what you know it is who you know" I would ask why if they can not do the due diligence needed for life here why should the government change their way of doing business to so obviously under qualified businessmen.

Being married is not a reason. The rules were in place when thy got married if they were so bad why even look for a wife here. There are many other countries as has been stated here that are lax on the rules and regulations. Why do they not go to them?

[cmsally]

Regarding the patronage system , I would say it is now far less prevalent than 20-30 yrs ago.

That would go for the west as well as Thailand.

[Thakkar]

It's sad that such rules as the OP mentions exist. I can imagine good reasons for all save one (the 90 day reportI just cannot fathom that unless it's a deliberate ploy to regularly remind foreigners in a humiliating fashion that they are merely visitors).

The reasons I imagine are that most of the freedoms the OP wishes for, if granted, are prone to abuse. In a corrupt country where laws are lackadaisically enforced and things like marriage licenses can be bought, the abusers would swamp the legitimate users of those freedoms. I guess the government figured it would be easier to impose a blanket ban rather than write logical, well-thought out laws which then would need to be fairly administered to be of any value.

T

[femi fan]

Wow! Sunday is clearly a better day to attract some real and meaningful debate and sharing of, but not necessarily agreeing to, ideas.

Thank you to everyone now contributing like this.

Thank you very much to all the many posters who have 'liked' my posts, it has given me encouragement after what was, to be frank, a rather negative experience yesterday when the first page of replies came into my OP.

I'd like to try and make a short reply that encompasses, first of all, the many points made today. Clearly i need to (as) briefly (as possible) say a bit about myself to clear up many assumptions.

• I love thailand.
• I've been here since 1991, Chiang Mai since 2002.
• On the whole i love thai people and really rate their character and natural nature.
• I am integrated and have a Thai family, and care a lot about them and the community i live in (CM).
• Chiang Mai is a top top place to be living.
• I don't want carte blanche westernisation of Thailand, or even Chiang Mai.
• My debate is specific to CM because not many other Thai towns are like CM in terms of its internationalisation. Bangkok is, but it's huge and spread out; here in CM it feels small enough to feel like a community.
• One of the outstanding features of CM is its range and diveristy of cafes, restaurants, pubs, arts places, music offerings, clubs, free time activities, and a favourite for me personally, the huge array of healthy-oriented options to indulge in. Clearly that includes being able to do yoga, tai chi, qi gong, retreats, eating great healthy food, and visiting food places where the owners have put in lots of creative thought to the design making them very satisfying places to spend time.
• And all of this is brought to us by a mix of local Thai people and farangs from all over the world. It's a top melting pot of humanity!
• Having said i don't want blanket westernisation of CM or Thailand, there are good things and good thinking and good people in western nations, and it's Thailand's and Thai people's challenge to try and pick the good bits to learn from and incorporate, and to avoid the bad bits.

And in doing that, it seems that constructive well-meaning foreigners can help them do this. And since they represent, and have helped make, the community that is CM, why not??? Debate and communication and sharing of ideas, experiences, and skills is a first-rate way of moving this process along. There are many international people living here in CM who have seen mistakes made in their home nations first hand, and would like to help stop the same errors being made here, but while allowing for the right of all human beings to make their own mistakes. After all, it's a fast way of learning in life!

A community of people is a collective of individuals all pointing in a similar direction. Change is constant as one poster said. Just because things are good today, does not mean they will remain good in the future. Citizens have to very watchful of their leaders. I see in the likes of the US and UK how, in just one or two generations, the people have unwittingly thrown away so many hard-fought freedoms which have been stolen by the corportate and political class.

I started this thread because of the certain recent happenings that have in effect attacked the artistic bent of, and the artists and cultural creatives of, CM is a negative situation in my reading of things. If the immigration department are stopping musicians, artists, and people in general who contribute to a community from expressing themselves and their positive energy, then i find it hard to sit on my hands and do nothing. But what voice can i have? Hence the thread.

I realise a nation has its laws, but one of my complaints in the OP, and which i wished to have debated, is that we operate under a set of laws that are literally archaic. They are very old and were made to satisfy a previous and no-longer-existent time. To reflect how CM has developed in the last decade or so, i believe these laws need updating. For example:

• making it very easy and quick to get permission to do volunteer work on a temporary basis
• making it very easy and quick to get permission to do workshops and short courses on a temporary basis that promote and further the positive development of locals and international citizens alike (tax can then be collected)
• allowing foreigners to get work permits that don't restict them to their workplace (easy if you are a business owner with a factory, not if you wish to do workshops, retreats in the bush, and the like)
• and allowing those who marry Thai citizens to find their work freely, just like Thai citizens

Lastly, for now, I personally come from a position where i am a member of the human race who happens to be living on the piece of rock they call Thailand. I come from the piece of rock they call England. This is our world, we are world people all members of the same species, and we should forge our world for ourselves. Stop limiting things like the old way. We are all human beings. We should all learn and live together. If i'm living on the Thailand rock and not on my home rock, why on earth should i no longer have a voice? If i'm a 'guest' of anywhere, then my host is Mother Earth. I will speak up as an Earth citizen. Thank you.

[Thailand]

I liked Chiang Mai as it was.

[femi fan]

This is a great post, and the very reason I am always saying that we are 'not guests in this country', as so many TV members keep pointing out. I would like to know if anyone reading this post, still thinks we are guests in this country. The OP correctly says we are treated as common criminals having to do 90 day reporting. Some guests would you not say?

Before the 'if you don't like it go home' brigade starts, I am still better off here than in the UK, so I'm staying.

People who say go home if you don't like it are short-sighted and clearly cannot see beyond their own context and situation. Thailand has become my home of over 20 years, and i'm married to a great person who does not want to live outside of her nation. So if i 'go home', i have to leave the partner i love. Great eh!!

It is an absurdity this 90 day reporting. I lived in Bkk for a decade without this law. Then Thaksin dusted it off the statute books and made it come back.

But i only added that as an example to show my point about many laws affecting us today that were written in ancient times for a bygone age.

[cmsally]

I liked Chiang Mai as it was.

I am with you on that one. Chiang Mai was a much smaller place when I arrived and literally everyone knew everyone , Thais as well as foreigners.

It is not exactly the foreigners per se that have led to the change of Chiang Mai but more copying of things foreign or the arrival of big business and franchises.

A lot of things have come about from Thais travelling and seeing a market for something at home.

I presume all the people who are against Westernisation only shop at their local market and stay away from all the Western style supermarkets and :chains".

[Moo2cm]

Think about your own country and does anyone really care about making things easier or better for non-immigrant guests. Are the Thai's more enlightened?

While I lived in Thailand for more than a decade it steadily got worse. Good luck hoping for improvement.

[femi fan]

I am at peace with the choice to adapt, and I find the cup-of-living-here much more half-full than half-empty.

By the way, good riddance to the so-called "spiritual" expat charlatans and hustlers who infest this country; Thailand has enough of their own home-grown similar ilk to go-round. And, the self-righteous expat do-gooders here crusading for whatever cause and bogusly claiming to represent whatever homeless creature, or disenfranchised group, or to have access to "higher powers" ... hope you get on the same out-going boat with the ersatz yogis, cult-of-Reikis, and cure-alls ... and that the boat sinks somewhere in a shark-infested part of the Gulf of Thailand from the sheer weight of your collective hubris.

If I wanted all the rights of a Thai Citizen, well, then: I would assume I should become a Thai citizen.

You, like many others, express a purely selfish point of view. I'm alright jack, so don't change anything.

Furthermore, it's always strange to me how such a positive place like CM can house people with such negative energy in them when it comes to living with people who they see as being different to them. You're like beetlejuice and his 'dross' and 'trailer trash', except your beef is with 'spiritual charlatans' who in fact are seeking to add to the community with their positive actions, rather than sit on the sidelines sniping at others who don't fit their own narrow view of how a human being should be and how a human being should behave.

And wishing people you don't like to sink and die is a really nice thing to say. I hope you feel happy with your contribution. Tolerance and acceptance clearly never found a home in your personal part of the world. Pity for you mate.

[seedy]

Just read post 99 - then read it again.

Re-read the OP

Many comments made re: the OP would have either not been made or would have been different if post 99 was written first.

I have known orang37 for quite a while - you are wrong about him. His person and his ideas / ideals.

[femi fan]

OP, here is an example of why I thought english was not your first language. You wrote (and this is only one example of many:)

"In recent times weve heard about non-Thais playing live music being ousted from doing so. Promoting the arts and giving entertainment not possible without a work permit. Work permit not possible. Play the music and keep people happy in their free time illegally, or dont do it."

Sounds like "google translate".

Yes, it does sound like "google translate", but femi fan is usually an intelligent, literate poster.

We all have have our off-moments.

Thank you JingerBen. However this JulieM person is disingenious as well as facetious. If you go back to my OP you will see from the very first paragraph after my title question that she has removed the inverted comma that indicates a short form, and she has done it twice… in we've and in don't. I don't think i've ever come across somebody like that before!! I write one thing, she changes it and then says my English is wrong!! Wow!

Furthermore, i stand by my choice of language there. But it's not worth explaining really. However i wanted to acknowledge your support, but also point out that this woman changed my original posting.

Edited January 25, 2015 by femi fan

[JulieM]

OP, can you re-state your question? I've re-read the OP and it meanders to the point of being unintelligible. I think you mean to say this, but correct me if I am wrong:

"I have friends who need to support themselves and, in some cases, their Thai spouses/children. Unfortunately, it is very hard to do here since work permits are not that easy to obtain. We love Chiang Mai and want to stay here and support the community with the skills we have to offer. What can we do?"

I've read the OP twice and it seems to be a perfectly lucid, well-thought out opinion. Imho.

Then why did you have to read it twice?

[JulieM]

All I did was copy/paste. It's still in my PCs memory so here it is again:

In recent times weve heard about non-Thais playing live music being ousted from doing so. Promoting the arts and giving entertainment not possible without a work permit. Work permit not possible. Play the music and keep people happy in their free time illegally, or dont do it.

[JulieM]

Try it yourself. I did not remove anything. My MacBook Pro did it!

[northernjohn]

Wow! Sunday is clearly a better day to attract some real and meaningful debate and sharing of, but not necessarily agreeing to, ideas.

Thank you to everyone now contributing like this.

Thank you very much to all the many posters who have 'liked' my posts, it has given me encouragement after what was, to be frank, a rather negative experience yesterday when the first page of replies came into my OP.

I'd like to try and make a short reply that encompasses, first of all, the many points made today. Clearly i need to (as) briefly (as possible) say a bit about myself to clear up many assumptions.

• I love thailand.
• I've been here since 1991, Chiang Mai since 2002.
• On the whole i love thai people and really rate their character and natural nature.
• I am integrated and have a Thai family, and care a lot about them and the community i live in (CM).
• Chiang Mai is a top top place to be living.
• I don't want carte blanche westernisation of Thailand, or even Chiang Mai.
• My debate is specific to CM because not many other Thai towns are like CM in terms of its internationalisation. Bangkok is, but it's huge and spread out; here in CM it feels small enough to feel like a community.
• One of the outstanding features of CM is its range and diveristy of cafes, restaurants, pubs, arts places, music offerings, clubs, free time activities, and a favourite for me personally, the huge array of healthy-oriented options to indulge in. Clearly that includes being able to do yoga, tai chi, qi gong, retreats, eating great healthy food, and visiting food places where the owners have put in lots of creative thought to the design making them very satisfying places to spend time.
• And all of this is brought to us by a mix of local Thai people and farangs from all over the world. It's a top melting pot of humanity!
• Having said i don't want blanket westernisation of CM or Thailand, there are good things and good thinking and good people in western nations, and it's Thailand's and Thai people's challenge to try and pick the good bits to learn from and incorporate, and to avoid the bad bits.

And in doing that, it seems that constructive well-meaning foreigners can help them do this. And since they represent, and have helped make, the community that is CM, why not??? Debate and communication and sharing of ideas, experiences, and skills is a first-rate way of moving this process along. There are many international people living here in CM who have seen mistakes made in their home nations first hand, and would like to help stop the same errors being made here, but while allowing for the right of all human beings to make their own mistakes. After all, it's a fast way of learning in life!

A community of people is a collective of individuals all pointing in a similar direction. Change is constant as one poster said. Just because things are good today, does not mean they will remain good in the future. Citizens have to very watchful of their leaders. I see in the likes of the US and UK how, in just one or two generations, the people have unwittingly thrown away so many hard-fought freedoms which have been stolen by the corportate and political class.

I started this thread because of the certain recent happenings that have in effect attacked the artistic bent of, and the artists and cultural creatives of, CM is a negative situation in my reading of things. If the immigration department are stopping musicians, artists, and people in general who contribute to a community from expressing themselves and their positive energy, then i find it hard to sit on my hands and do nothing. But what voice can i have? Hence the thread.

I realise a nation has its laws, but one of my complaints in the OP, and which i wished to have debated, is that we operate under a set of laws that are literally archaic. They are very old and were made to satisfy a previous and no-longer-existent time. To reflect how CM has developed in the last decade or so, i believe these laws need updating. For example:

• making it very easy and quick to get permission to do volunteer work on a temporary basis
• making it very easy and quick to get permission to do workshops and short courses on a temporary basis that promote and further the positive development of locals and international citizens alike (tax can then be collected)
• allowing foreigners to get work permits that don't restict them to their workplace (easy if you are a business owner with a factory, not if you wish to do workshops, retreats in the bush, and the like)
• and allowing those who marry Thai citizens to find their work freely, just like Thai citizens

Lastly, for now, I personally come from a position where i am a member of the human race who happens to be living on the piece of rock they call Thailand. I come from the piece of rock they call England. This is our world, we are world people all members of the same species, and we should forge our world for ourselves. Stop limiting things like the old way. We are all human beings. We should all learn and live together. If i'm living on the Thailand rock and not on my home rock, why on earth should i no longer have a voice? If i'm a 'guest' of anywhere, then my host is Mother Earth. I will speak up as an Earth citizen. Thank you.

You have brought up some valid points. Most of them I notice you admit Chiang Mai already has. How ever you did say

I started this thread because of the certain recent happenings that have in effect attacked the artistic bent of, and the artists and cultural creatives of, CM is a negative situation in my reading of things. If the immigration department are stopping musicians, artists, and people in general who contribute to a community from expressing themselves and their positive energy, then i find it hard to sit on my hands and do nothing. But what voice can i have? Hence the thread.

To the best of my knowledge that has not been a problem for several years. Even then it was not the Immigration police looking for them it was a Farong publically on Facebook rubbing their face in his ignoring the laws. There was one other group at the time where I believe one of them was wanted by the law for some thing else. Also is there not already classes in these other martial arts type things you mention + Yoga? If you were in the UK what Thai style changes would you be trying to bring in and what would you be trying to get rid of? Or are you talking about the recent arrests of English teachers with out a work permit. Don't know much about that were they qualified in the first place. There is far more to teaching English than just knowing how to speak it. I friend of mine has a major in English and took the O believe it was Teafl course and told me it was the hardest course they had ever taken. Big difference between knowing and teaching.

I know first hand as I am tech challenged and had several people try to teach me. They were on the third move and I was still trying to figure the first one out. They thought because they moved the browser around a lot and clicked it they were teaching me. I finally found a fellow who was really a good teacher. The browser never moved until I understood what I had just done. He even made me learn the differences between the tool bar and the menu bar before we even started.

I understand your on the rock theory I feel like I am a citizen of the world. But that does not give me the right to try and change the laws and customs of the community I choose to move into. If I decided to move to Mississippi from British Columbia would you suggest I complain about their laws and customs or would you suggest I move on to some place else where they all ready have what I want. Defiantly not Mississippi.

They would like Thailand be in the process a slow one but never the less a changing one. Would you sugest that a group from out side that community get together and try to tell them what they were doing wrong and how out of date what they are doing is. Of course we would only have the knowledge we learned in the community we left to go on.

[bitcoinbob]

i agreed with you, my opionion is their is not much of a futures for us here as long as the military is in charge two big test will be ASEAN will Thailand go along with the rest of ASEAN and stick to its commitment to ASEAN or back pedal with the military in control they can back pedal very easily , we are under martial law and once that is resolved we will be happy to join ASEAN or the other excuse will be the ASEAN was signed by another governemt we will have to look it over get back to us in 5 years. The other test that they already failed is when will they allow free elections, not looking good for us have a plan B.

[DaamNaam]

OP, here is an example of why I thought english was not your first language. You wrote (and this is only one example of many:)

"In recent times weve heard about non-Thais playing live music being ousted from doing so. Promoting the arts and giving entertainment not possible without a work permit. Work permit not possible. Play the music and keep people happy in their free time illegally, or dont do it."

Sounds like "google translate".

Yes, it does sound like "google translate", but femi fan is usually an intelligent, literate poster.

We all have have our off-moments.

I don't, lol

[LivinLOS]

OP, OK, you are referring to "working" here, not staying here. Many people are working here as volunteers, and although that may violate the letter of the law, I don't know of one case where they have been in trouble with the law.

Margret of the Soi Dog foundation..

[scooterandjobe]

Post removed after realising I was about to engage in some pointless slanging match about a subject that I'm not really that interested in, with people I don't know, nor understand...

AN AVERAGE DAY

Yet again, a routine dampens
And dries out a fertile imagination
A colourless, cultureless, artless surround.
Disposable shoes, new but lifeless clothes:
Designed for a plastic coat hanger
Worn by a bargain hunter

At the incidence of another frustration
I collect a thousand unsolved problems
Into an unordered pile
I realise my fragility, compounded
By a tired and drink sodden mind - and write about it on TV

Now with my arrogant idleness,
Or is it lazy arrogance?
I contemplate ten-thousand solutions,
Planned not prepared
Then forgotten
I leave the evening and enter a curtained-night
Looking through the minds window
I dispose of, but do not erase
A million sublime images - I write about them on TV

Edited January 25, 2015 by scooterandjobe

[JulieM]

The issue is that the OP used about five times as many words as necessary, and still he/she didn't clear get the point across. I'm not the only one that has said so.

Edit: this was in response to a post that was removed.

Edited January 25, 2015 by JulieM

[JulieM]

OP, OK, you are referring to "working" here, not staying here. Many people are working here as volunteers, and although that may violate the letter of the law, I don't know of one case where they have been in trouble with the law.

Margret of the Soi Dog foundation..

I don't know of this case but a google query says that a Margot was one of the founders. Isn't Soi Dog Foundation a huge money machine? Someone recently posted the amount of money raised by this foundation and it was in the millions of dollars, if I recall. Raising that kind of money without a valid work permit is going to cause some headaches.

[dru2]

There is no "International Community" in Chiang Mai. Just disparate foreigners living here for different reasons using different means to get by.

What's wrong with that? Am I exhibiting "negative energy"?

I have been here 26 years and I like it, shortcomings not withstanding.

I'm not going anywhere.

Edited January 25, 2015 by dru2

[femi fan]

Northernjohn

When something happens once, okay. When twice, hmmm, coincidence? When several times it looks to me like a process or a new direction or a considered action. The groups who gave courses in yoga and other similar kinds of practices were not ‘facebook rubbing’ at all. They were offering classes/workshops/gatherings for people to pursue their own self-development in life, and at a fraction of the cost one would pay in europe or US. They were adding to the overall bank of positive energy our world needs to counter all the negative stuff out there.

Even unqualified English teachers are adding to the community if people have chosen to pay them to learn. Even a poor teacher can impart something, and market forces usuall prevail! I doubt very much the riverside condo teachers were ‘facebook rubbing’ either.

I’m not trying to change laws and customs, nor am I claiming the right to do so. I think I’ve made clear that I’m questioning certain (archaic) laws and whether they are of any proper use in today’s age, and furthermore I was really wanting to find out how, and if, foreigners can make their voice heard in a collective manner in terms of requesting the Thai people/powers-that-be to take a look at those laws and say yes, perhaps they can be updated to the modern era. If they look at them, and say ‘no’, then that’s fine, my job has been done.

If I moved back to the UK, I would be as active a citizen as I can be, and that would be a lot more active than here simply because I have rights conferred to me by dint of birth. But I’m not there, and I’m not debating their laws, and I don’t think anything is to be gained by comparing situations here with over there. I’m looking here at the context here.

[Dante99]

Femi wrote "I was really wanting to find out how, and if, foreigners can make their voice heard in a collective manner in terms of requesting the Thai people/powers-that-be to take a look at those laws and say yes, perhaps they can be updated to the modern era." (copy and paste)

Can you give us some examples where this kind of thing has been done in other Asian countries by non-citizens/foreigners, in the past 20 or so years? In any countries by non-citizens?

You could set up a club to pursue it, why don't you do that? Your wife would undoubtedly give you full support and liason with the Thai community, wouldn't she?

[femi fan]

Femi wrote "I was really wanting to find out how, and if, foreigners can make their voice heard in a collective manner in terms of requesting the Thai people/powers-that-be to take a look at those laws and say yes, perhaps they can be updated to the modern era." (copy and paste)

Can you give us some examples where this kind of thing has been done in other Asian countries by non-citizens/foreigners, in the past 20 or so years? In any countries by non-citizens?

You could set up a club to pursue it, why don't you do that? Your wife would undoubtedly give you full support and liason with the Thai community, wouldn't she?

What or who is a 'non-citizen'?

Why do you want these examples? Are you saying that if something has never been done before it can't be done now or in the future? No room for new ideas and ways in the human evolution? Is human evolution dead in Asia?? Did the global and technology and communications revolution bypass Asia? Why are you limiting things to Asia?

Of course i can't give you examples, at least not without a huge research operation. So what is it you are driving at in your post?

Please clarify, so i can reverse my suspicion you are closing down debate rather than supporting, while being somewhat aggressive and condescending towards me.

[onthedarkside]

Nasty reply removed. Continue like that and get suspended.

[bangmai]

Femi wrote "I was really wanting to find out how, and if, foreigners can make their voice heard in a collective manner in terms of requesting the Thai people/powers-that-be to take a look at those laws and say yes, perhaps they can be updated to the modern era." (copy and paste)

Can you give us some examples where this kind of thing has been done in other Asian countries by non-citizens/foreigners, in the past 20 or so years? In any countries by non-citizens?

You could set up a club to pursue it, why don't you do that? Your wife would undoubtedly give you full support and liason with the Thai community, wouldn't she?

and I'm sure as long as everyone's voice agrees with hers; it would be fine. Not all foreigners feel the need to break immigration law, work illegally, or speak loudly about GWB, while drinking Beer Lao at the Kam-Rai.

[connda]

Quote the OP -People been living in Thailand for years, reporting in every three months like a common criminal let out of prison and placed under limited freedom of movement. Unquote

Costs 47 baht to 90 day report by mail - some hardship

Multiple entry stamp - come and go as I please. No hardship.

Whatever are you talking about ?

Not all the hardship directly caused by the Thai system. Now the British consulate is refusing or are unable to notarise documents, where does this leave us retirees who rely on this service?

Just thinking out loud, but if it's just a notary, I wonder if the US embassy would do it? You might send them an email. The worst they can say is, "No."

[Briggsy]

5 pages that can be summarised as follows.

OP want restrictive laws on foreigners changed, particularly laws relating to work permits.

Thai authorities tend to listen to 3 foreign entities.

1. Governments or their embassies, ambassadors and delegations. (power)

2. Foreign Chambers of Commerce and large, multi-million dollar investing companies (money)

3. Social media (damage to reputation)

These are the levers Thais and Thai authorities respond to. Whether they actually do anything is a far bigger question. Changing the laws with respect to work permits is a massive ask, in fact an impossible dream of the OP.

However I refer back to my earlier post which advised to make connections with Thais with power who can assist you in dealing with regulatory authorities here. Much better to work within the system that exists that try to change a system from a powerless position outside it. OP is tilting at windmills.