Majority supports Prayut's "close country" remark: Poll

[digibum]

Cool! Close it down! No more imports. No more exports. No more tourism. No more foreign investments. All the wonderful foreign technology will be dead within a month and this country will be back in the stone age. More power to them!

You assume that may not be a desirable outcome for the government. His management style is very military to begin with (not surprising) so having full and absolute control over every aspect of Thailand would be very appealing for a military person.

I've been saying for many years now (long before the coup) that the downfall of the current Thai society will be the internet. It was way too easy to feed people propaganda, nationalism, Thainess, etc when you could control the narrative. Now that people can access points of view outside of Thailand and can be exposed to ideas like real democracy, a lot of the walls come crumbling down.

[GeckosDiving]

The old camel humper knows he'll never come back home ( not amongst the living anyways )so he's going to do everything he can to destroy it. The day he ran away with his tail tucked between his cheeks, he know then and there he was going to do everything he could to burn his home down. Which he already tried in 2010 and he's going to keep on trying til there's nothing left for anyone. Hopefully the blind that follow him will wake up and smell his camel dung for what it is. The day that happens the joy will return to this great country ànd everyone will live happily ever after. The End

Now words from our but but butts. .......

[digibum]

Lol! This made my Sunday morning. Really funny. Most of the respondents to the poll must be BUFFOONS! Why wait...close the country now....all imports, exports, tourism, close media, close internet, chase out all the expats....will be really SANOOK! Can wait till they close the country. I am already on my way out.

I don't think it's a matter of being a buffoon. Every country has a culturally conservative political party who wants to dial back the clock 50 or so years to when everything - from their perspective - was rainbows and unicorns. They say stuff like, "Remember when you could leave your doors unlocked at night?" And it's no coincidence that their solution is to force morality on people so everything will go back to that imaginary time (it was never like that, their memories often cloud out all of the bad stuff).

[digibum]

The irony of all of this, which seems lost on the majority of Thai's and TVF prognosticators is; the outside world has little to no impact on the divisions within Thailand.

Close the country, cut the internet off from the outside and the divisions remain.

The desire to find foreign or external bogeymen to explain all of Thailand's divisions, is simplistic at best down right disingenuous and untruthful at worst. The painful truth is that Thailand fractured society is all home grown

I think what you may be missing is that the thing preventing mass re-education camps is the backlash that would occur from the outside world. Any government that doesn't even recognize (or care about) the implications of "attitude readjustment" sessions isn't too far off from implementing those kinds of policies on a wider scale if they don't get their way.

[digibum]

Close the country like how?

Shut down all the airports and borders??

Switch off the Internet or mobile phone towers?

I think the power has finally got him so drunk he thinks he can get away with all this...

Wonder how the European union and USA will react if he even tries it...

Since Thailand derives about 75% of it's GDP from exports, it would basically send the country back to the stone age as the US, Europe, and most other countries would blacklist Thailand and quit buying goods from them. China and some other countries might continue to do business with Thailand but China is in no position currently to pick up the slack from the US and Europe in terms of purchasing Thailand's output.

[digibum]

I believe they are loathe to study history, or anything else for that matter, but might take a look at how well closing the country worked for Khmer Rouge back in the 70's. I wonder how many expats living there in pre KR days thought "closing the country could never happen"?

It's funny because my wife and I live in the US at the moment but plan on returning to Thailand in about 10 years to retire. Before the coup my wife used to bug me that she wanted to buy a plot of land somewhere like Hua Hin so we could build a house when we went back.

I held that off by telling her, "You don't know what Thailand will be like then."

Now, she understands exactly what I'm concerned about.

[diehard60]

It is rather worrying if this 'poll' is a harbinger of the junta's intentions. Let us hope not.

If you look at past polls relating to the junta or gov pretty much all of them have supported what the gov wants and many of them have been used to give support to the gov ideas. Kind of like testing the water before you jump in. It would not surprise me if P deciced for national security that he needed to close thailand the same way N. Korea did. The same way he is tryin to get a single gateway to control what thais see and say online. Only time will tell thougg what is really on the gov agenda. Lets hope that whatever happens it doesnt turn into a miny china or N. Korea

I don't think it will happen as the people will not allow it to. Thai people have had a taste of freedom and they do not want to lose it.

[car720]

And what exactly does he mean by "close the country " ?

The word.......Burma............comes to mind.

[Time Traveller]

Not likely, but if they are talking about it, then they are thinking about it.

[NongKhaiKid]

it's a few days now and no ' only jo

[Laughing Gravy]

As soon as I read a Dusit poll I switched off and the article has lost all credibility instantly. Enough said.

[aussieinthailand]

The Khmer Rouge had similar ideas.

The Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot's guidance wanted to eradicate the elite and the educated.

The Thai government under Prayut C-O can say they want to eradicate poverty. but they can't & won't say they want to eradicate the poor.

Now if only it was just poverty that they wanted to eradicate, sadly that's just not true.

A little test on achievement's on government policy.

first Thaksin,

1. National health for all so now the poor can see a doctor without selling the family farm first.

2. Micro loans to villager so the poor can start their own small business and not have to go too the mafia.

3. Paying down the national debt while increasing the GDP and improving employment.

Now uncle Too.

1. fix the lotto, ehh umm not really cause people are still over charging.

2. fix the fishing industry, no'p sorry not fixed.

3. the economy, no'p that's getting worse and not helpful with comments like "we will close the country" the education, no'p, public health no'p, corruption, no'p very one sided going too gaol, human trafficking, no'p

Now put a poll out on that and we'll see those fantastic number of 93% approval

[NCC1701A]

Yeah, I will be buying a condo now.

[Thian]

Yeah, I will be buying a condo now.

Yes and also invest the 2 million baht to get yourself a legal workpermit here and start a company. You sure will make profit !

[Just1Voice]

Me, my Thai wife, and my adopted Thai son have talked about this. My wife, who is 56, really isn't all that involved, or even actually interested, in politics, and pretty much doesn't care who is running the country, as long as they don't interfere in her daily life. My son, who is 32 and working on his Master's in Education is. He, along with 6 of his teaching friends, all attend the same university for their masters, and have informally taken a vow to make a difference in the Thai education system. Yet he, along with his friends, view the current political state with serious suspicions. He told me the other day: "Me and my friends want to change it for the better, but this ignorant government is doing all they can to implement even more restrictive brain washing into the educational system." I told him to adopt the Marine Corps motto: "Adapt, Adjust, Overcome". He's not so sure that can be accomplished without violent opposition. He hopes it won't come to that, but feels it might. I feel that the only advice I can give him is to stay true to his cause. It might not be easy at times, but that he, and his friends, have to hold on and hope for the best.

[Denim]

No 'shutdown' planned: PM

WASAMON AUDJARINT

THE NATION November 3, 2015 6:47 pm

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha clarified Tuesday that he did not really plan to "shut down" the country, saying that Thailand prior to the coup last year was on the verge of disaster - prompting him to draw a comparison to the "Shutdown" rallies prior to the takeover - in remarks to the "five rivers" last week.

The "five rivers" are the Cabinet, the National Council for Peace and Order, the National Reform Steering Assembly, the National Legislative Assembly, and the Constitutional Drafting Commission.

"What I really meant is that if conflicts are still not resolved, our country will head towards a situation just like before May 22 [when the military staged the coup]," he said. Thus, he drew a comparison - as a failed state would be like the country was shut down.

"Will there be any difference?" he quipped, adding that he did not mean the country would be shut down.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/No-shutdown-planned-PM-30272212.html