An island besieged by corruption and mafia: Army reclaims Koh Samet as true national park

[jesimps]

4 hours ago, gandalf12 said:

If the police did it probably yes, the army seems to have better control over the situations although I am sure someone is going to point out an incident that wasn't handled well.

Out of the mouths of babes and innocents.

 

[window]

It's a good thing. hopefully stays like it and moves on to other destinations.

 

[zaphod reborn]

The army is no match for the island mafia.

[bberrythailand]

3 hours ago, Deli said:

when reading the headline I though they were taking about Phuket...

 

 

Yes I am still waiting if someone in charge in this country has some big enough to clean Phuket ? Because it's really the most corrupted place in this country and deserves a deep Karcher cleaning !

 

Just wondering who will be in charge of the weed business on all these islands now ?

 

:-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[superdome]

Wanna sort out SAMUI nxt

[smedly]

6 hours ago, johng said:

My thoughts go towards the  many hundreds of Thais who have suddenly been deprived of their lively hoods and now wont be able to provide for their families.

there was no reason why they shouldn't have been legally employed but all the Mr Bigs were creaming of state land and all those involved were creaming huge amounts off of their illegal and corrupt businesses and backhanders.

 

What the government should now do is replace them with state run businesses so that the whole country can benefit and not just a few corrupt people mafia and local thieving authorities

 

I would no expect the same to happen in the surrounding Islands

[leggo]

I first went to Samet over 25 years ago and it was a peaceful little island paradise - there was nothing to do but laze around and swim in crystal clear waters. At the time there were only 3 or 4 places to stay and we just loved it. I went back for the first time a three years ago and I couldn't believe my eyes - it had turned into one big horrendously noisy rubbish dump ! if the Thai authorities are serious it will be excellent and the same sort of operation needs to be carried out on all of the islands. It will bring the state more money, improve the image of Thailand no end and in the long term it will be beneficial to the Thai tourist industry which up till now was turning a blind eye to the destruction both ecologically and aesthetically of so much of once a beautiful land. Let's hope this is the first of many operations.

[jlwilliamsjr18]

About <deleted> time.  Agree...now take down all the NP islands and set a trend. 

[laban]

Been regularly for 18 years and still go. Everyone knows the NP people were part of the problem. Let's hope they also clean up the rubbish. Progress can be positive but was always negative on Samet. I have been going to only one beach on Samet for the last 10 years which has been nearly untouched by the "progress" and that was fine. If there are less speedboats, jet skis and sarong peddlars, all the better for it.


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[petedk]

7 hours ago, johng said:

My thoughts go towards the  many hundreds of Thais who have suddenly been deprived of their lively hoods and now wont be able to provide for their families.

 

What are you talking about?

 

Didn't you know that Thailand has just been declared the world's least miserable place?

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-07/world-s-least-miserable-live-in-asia-thanks-to-disinflation

 

But I agree with you.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2016 by petedk
add text

[petedk]

54 minutes ago, leggo said:

I first went to Samet over 25 years ago and it was a peaceful little island paradise - there was nothing to do but laze around and swim in crystal clear waters. At the time there were only 3 or 4 places to stay and we just loved it. I went back for the first time a three years ago and I couldn't believe my eyes - it had turned into one big horrendously noisy rubbish dump ! if the Thai authorities are serious it will be excellent and the same sort of operation needs to be carried out on all of the islands. It will bring the state more money, improve the image of Thailand no end and in the long term it will be beneficial to the Thai tourist industry which up till now was turning a blind eye to the destruction both ecologically and aesthetically of so much of once a beautiful land. Let's hope this is the first of many operations.

 

Yes, last time I went (about a year ago) it was impossible to swim in the sea without getting rubber bands and plastic bags all over your body. It was really disgusting.

[sweatalot]

8 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

It's a sad commentary on Thailand and its police force that it takes the Army to step in and (hopefully) bring some law and order to one of many lawless places.

sad but true

[sweatalot]

6 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

So now the army is in town.......does the colour of the envelopes now change to camo?

You should not see things negative like that

[sweatalot]

5 hours ago, Briggsy said:

Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao = Surat Dems

Surat Dems = allies of the current administration

Any changes far more likely to be by mutual consent not enforcement

hope you're wrong

[sweatalot]

5 hours ago, kiniyow said:

Koh Tao could surely use more Flushing !!!

Absolutely

[Redvic]

Yet murder island (koh tao) remains  untouched???? Many big brown envelopes being passed to the army probably. 

[bluebluewater]

Diogenes is on location at the island even as we speak - lantern in hand - and any of us who care at all about Thailand  have hope he will find what he is searching for.

 

Seems like a long shot though . . . . . 

[anon4637435435]

thinking too small. what about the entire country? Get rid of it all and have just the one family please. its simpler. oh, maybe thats the plan........

[Thechook]

14 hours ago, johng said:

My thoughts go towards the  many hundreds of Thais who have suddenly been deprived of their lively hoods and now wont be able to provide for their families.

Yes the poor scammers,  thugs, mafia and other assorted lowlifes my heart bleeds.  

[Ron19]

I spent most of a day there in 1991 and thoroughly enjoyed the idyllic setting. Haven't been back since but have read a number of articles about the changes that taken place since then. Wholeheartedly support the action taken.

[KittenKong]

20 hours ago, nikmar said:

happy to read this. I hope it extends to other islands as well.

 

Why only islands? There's all the mainland too.

 

Scams and mafia-type practices are endemic everywhere here.

[mcfish]

Absolutely brilliant! The army making sweeping reforms across Thailand

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[impulse]

42 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Why only islands? There's all the mainland too.

 

Scams and mafia-type practices are endemic everywhere here.

 

The beauty of a social experiment on an island is that you can isolate it from other inputs to see the effects of your efforts.  Try one thing on one island, try something else on each other island.  Then see which inputs produce the desired results and roll them out to the next island, and so on.

 

On the mainland, it's more like whack-a-mole.  Extremely difficult to isolate one input from all the external turmoil.  

 

So far, it's been too slow.  But I'm favorably impressed anyway.  Sadly, it takes dictatorial powers to overcome the decades of kleptocracy.

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by impulse

[mcfish]

Very good job, I hope the work continues and extends to other places. Somehow I doubt it, but I live in hope.
 

It has already, cleaned up the foot path mafia on sukhumvit Bangkok and the boat Mafia Bali hi pattaya

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[johng]

1 hour ago, mcfish said:

It has already, cleaned up the foot path mafia on sukhumvit Bangkok and the boat Mafia Bali hi pattaya

 

don't forget  the "civil war"  "it" prevented  ( the one in Bangkok  not the 3 southern provinces )

the lottery vendors,beach chair/umbrella vendors,beach massage operations,food sellers peddling their wares,motorbike rental businesses,speedboat,jetski,banana boat businesses and people posting a like on facebook  98.3% of them are very happy with "it"

[thaigecko]

Funny, I'm sitting here on Ao Cho reading this and 30 min ago a big group of soldiers and police came strolling on through talking to the resort staff.

[hotchilli]

23 hours ago, johng said:

My thoughts go towards the  many hundreds of Thais who have suddenly been deprived of their lively hoods and now wont be able to provide for their families.

Please don't you're gonna make me cry...

they'll do just fine, and set-up illegally somewhere else in a few days!!!

[Briggsy]

4 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

Why only islands? There's all the mainland too.

 

Scams and mafia-type practices are endemic everywhere here.

Similar military tactics seen in Pattaya, Phuket (pseudo-mainland) and Phetchaboon.

 

It is about valuable land (seafront land tends to be very valuable) and control of the huge tourist industry income stream.

[HerbalEd]

On 11/18/2016 at 11:47 AM, johng said:

My thoughts go towards the  many hundreds of Thais who have suddenly been deprived of their lively hoods and now wont be able to provide for their families.

Do your thoughts also go to thieves, robbers, pickpockets, corrupt officials, etc. who get arrested and convicted and are "deprived of their lively hoods (sic)?

 

They're all breaking the law.

Edited November 19, 2016 by HerbalEd

[fish monger]

Removing 'happiness' from all the right people...55555 Well done...!