im so sure it will be fairly distrbuted

hmm, seems familar, but most certainly cant be - never before has a thai govenment adopted a completely arbitrary populist policy to garner favour with the peasants.

I've just had a brilliant and original idea. They should give each village a Water Buffalo as well. In fact give each family one. Give away a million!

What's that? Done before? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

You still have to admit the timing is just a little more than a coincidence.

And they blamed Thaksin for doing the same...those guys are pathetic!

The previous elected government was also doing this in case it had been forgotten and it was more than 200,000.

Right; it was 1 million baht for each village;

If it comes to my village.. or the neighbouring ones.. the money is likely to go into the hands of a few select people... rather than actually help the village population.

Last month we got money to improve the water supply..... well, someone in charge skimped on the materials and the job was a disaster. When they found out they used all the wrong sizes and cheap stuff they wanted to know where the rest of the money was.... and we found out it has somehow just 'disappeared'. Now we are worse off as the water supply is breaking all the time and the water is dirty... the temple is giving away chemicals to add to our house water to make it safe to bath!!!!! And this is staying like this for the foreseeable future.

Reminds me on a Bruce Cockburn song:

Kill the best and buy the rest

and they call it democracy...

Where I used to live, about 10 years ago the villiagers voted to have a huge party with Govt funds.........

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

I agree with most of what you say but it is naive to think politics are not involved. Whatever people think of Mr T he put Isaan on the map and successive govs have to at least try to match him and for that he will never be forgotten. The villagers know it is an attempt to appease them and are of course happy to take the cash but they also know that T started the annual giveaways.

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

Have they been told it is actually a loan? to be paid back in 30 days

This 200,000 Baht isn't very much moeny. You are not going to pave a lot of roads with that. Might be okay as an emergency fund to replace some street lights or paint that rusty water tank, but that is about it.

Sounds like a populist policy to me. There was a time when populist policies caused meltdown on TV

Thaksin bought votes only reason he won.....

Vote buying I tell you!!

Do you hear me?

Arrrr ....what?

This is the elitist military puppet government doing it?

Oh really ?

Oh ok ....wait.....

Lovely caring chaps ....lets have more of it.

I feel much happier now knowing such compassionate people govern

Thaksin bought votes only reason he won.....

Vote buying I tell you!!

Do you hear me?

Arrrr ....what?

This is the elitist military puppet government doing it?

Oh really ?

Oh ok ....wait.....

Lovely caring chaps ....lets have more of it.

I feel much happier now knowing such compassionate people govern

Ah, summer bonus for the village headsmen !

... and his family.

When Mr T gave every village a million baht. I said to a friend that doing that would buy a lot of votes, he said yes, for a genetation. Those 10k sign your name cash giveaways were in the form of 'loans'.....people were scared not to vote for him as they never wanted to have to pay them back.......

Excellent news! That's 170,000 baht for each kamnan and 30,000 baht for a new road outside the Kamnans house

Go back and read the qualifying conditions. The govt are not just going to hand over the cash stupid !

If it comes to my village.. or the neighbouring ones.. the money is likely to go into the hands of a few select people... rather than actually help the village population.

Last month we got money to improve the water supply..... well, someone in charge skimped on the materials and the job was a disaster. When they found out they used all the wrong sizes and cheap stuff they wanted to know where the rest of the money was.... and we found out it has somehow just 'disappeared'. Now we are worse off as the water supply is breaking all the time and the water is dirty... the temple is giving away chemicals to add to our house water to make it safe to bath!!!!! And this is staying like this for the foreseeable future.

Has anyone been in contact with the government over this, or are you all 'grizzling' amongst yourselves.

What the hell ??? This amount is only 1/5 of the price

for a Toyota Fortuner for the village headman. How

is he supposed to buy the rest of it ??

Attitude readjustment for those not invited to attend the residential programs.

Excellent news! That's 170,000 baht for each kamnan and 30,000 baht for a new road outside the Kamnans house

Go back and read the qualifying conditions. The govt are not just going to hand over the cash stupid !

No point beating your head against the wall! There is no way of communicating or educating these naive keyboard warriors. Besides, they are only getting a laugh from their kin with the same IQ.

Why stop at Bt200,000 for each of the 74,900 villages .... why not Bt1,000,000 for each?

Surely the economic welfare of the villages is as important as the billions of baht being spent on military weapons and Bangkok's transportation infrastructure, if not more so.

What these Prayut handouts come down to are "gifts" to the majority non-elite population from the minority elite with the simple intention of distorting the junta's value as the nation's rulers. Even the government refers to these unbudgeted distributions as "Returning Happiness to the Thai People."

But it is the minority elite who is deciding when, whom and how much receives distribution of the nation's wealth (and sometimes debt) - not the majority non-elite population. This latest gift not only coincides with worsening economic news for the nation but also with the vote on the referendum. So it would seem superficially that it's just another form of vote buying.

when they DON'T give anything to the rural working classes you criticise. When they do give something you criticise. Worsening economic news is WHEN you provide incentives.

Giving money to poor villagers !! Bulls..t !!

Trying to buy villagers support.

They are trying to do the same as mr T did in the early 2000s

You, and others, obviously have no idea what goes on in rural Thailand. We have 17 Villages in our Tambon and only 2 do not use these grants appropriately hence their infrastructure is crap, dusty roads, poor drainage, no town water etc.

Under the 'SML' system (the bi annual village grant) strict audits take place and the value of subsequent grants are assessed on these audits. HOW do I know? TW has the ATM card and heads up the local works committee, the Puyia Baan has a say BUT does not have direct access to these funds!

The extra 200K WILL be put to good use in most Villages AND it has NOTHING to do with buying votes!

EDIT: If you don't know what SML is the acronym for I'll rest my case!

;;;;;SML;;;;; Screw My Life;;;;; ??

Sorry, no Money Left

Given that each village is probably losing 10 times that amount because of geoengineered drought, it's a joke.

Given that each village is probably losing 10 times that amount because of geoengineered drought, it's a joke.

What's geoengineered mean?

Why stop at Bt200,000 for each of the 74,900 villages .... why not Bt1,000,000 for each?

Surely the economic welfare of the villages is as important as the billions of baht being spent on military weapons and Bangkok's transportation infrastructure, if not more so.

What these Prayut handouts come down to are "gifts" to the majority non-elite population from the minority elite with the simple intention of distorting the junta's value as the nation's rulers. Even the government refers to these unbudgeted distributions as "Returning Happiness to the Thai People."

But it is the minority elite who is deciding when, whom and how much receives distribution of the nation's wealth (and sometimes debt) - not the majority non-elite population. This latest gift not only coincides with worsening economic news for the nation but also with the vote on the referendum. So it would seem superficially that it's just another form of vote buying.

when they DON'T give anything to the rural working classes you criticise. When they do give something you criticise. Worsening economic news is WHEN you provide incentives.

naive nonsense as usual

What is really sad they just keep building everything to the same poor standard. So nothing changes.

Why stop at Bt200,000 for each of the 74,900 villages .... why not Bt1,000,000 for each?

Surely the economic welfare of the villages is as important as the billions of baht being spent on military weapons and Bangkok's transportation infrastructure, if not more so.

What these Prayut handouts come down to are "gifts" to the majority non-elite population from the minority elite with the simple intention of distorting the junta's value as the nation's rulers. Even the government refers to these unbudgeted distributions as "Returning Happiness to the Thai People."

But it is the minority elite who is deciding when, whom and how much receives distribution of the nation's wealth (and sometimes debt) - not the majority non-elite population. This latest gift not only coincides with worsening economic news for the nation but also with the vote on the referendum. So it would seem superficially that it's just another form of vote buying.

when they DON'T give anything to the rural working classes you criticise. When they do give something you criticise. Worsening economic news is WHEN you provide incentives.

naive nonsense as usual

your response was yes!