The Royal Thai Air Force is eyeing the procurement of eight US-made F-35 stealth jets, reported a local Thai media. The F-35 jets, manufactured by Lockheed Martin and cost about US$82 million (2.7 billion baht) each. The budget planning for an F-35 acquisition project will be initiated in the 2023 fiscal year, which started in…
The global arms sales industry is gigantic. Those countries, who are heavily involved in buying arms, are usually governed by some form of authoritarian, where the rule of law is weak, and little transparency to anything. And, often, when governments, changes from democratic, to authoritarian, usually, the spending on the military, sky-rocket, such as the…
Most globally, recognizes Thailand as a very Orwell 1984 society, with many units set up, with a mission statement to do this and that, but in fact, is mostly just a political tool of the traditional ruling elite, to project a “Face” across society. This is part of the so called “Thai Way” of doing…
Last check, from available news reports, there are about 20 to 30 Thais, that have exiled themselves out of Thailand, to escape Thailand’s Dictator prosecution, for various activity, such as lese majeste. Under the Yingluck government, while the government continued to crack-down on lese majeste, the space for discussion was much more open than under…
Prachatai reports Thai Lawyers for Human Rights centre wins award from French embassy (Source). The Nation : The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights Centre, which offers assistance to people prosecuted by the military junta, thanked the French Embassy yesterday for a human rights prize to be awarded to them next week. Yaowalak Anuphan, chief of…
Thailand’s Hunger Game protesters of the “Dao Din” group, went to meet the UN’s human rights arm and the European Union political affairs department Bangkok office yesterday, reports several Thai press. According to several Thai press, the Dao Din Thais was assured by the UN that the UN was following closely, the human rights situation…
Thailand has emerged as a key point in the exodus of the Uighurs people from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Reuters via Voice of America reports about 200 Uighurs were rescued from a human-smuggling camp in Thailand, and went to Turkey. Of note, is that Thailand was slapped with a human slavery notice from…
Thailand and China, strong strategic ally on national security and politics, is trying to use public relations to cover-up, deteriorating economic linkage, as other ASEAN countries, gain more importance and competitive edge over Thailand. Thailand will lose an estimated US$3.62 billion worth of trade in the Chinese market to Cambodia, Laos, Burma [Myanmar] and Vietnam…
In Japan, journalist are considered a “Highly Honorable” profession, and when a Japanese journalist, working for Reuters, was killed by Thailand’s traditional elite military, in 2010, along with about 100 Red Shirts protesters, the even shook Japan. Subsequently, when a Japanese Foreien Minister, visited Thailand, he went to the spot where the Japanese reporter was…
Is it “Thai Style Democracy?” or Thai Style Dictatorship?” What ever it is, Thailand’s leader, Prayuth, holds “Absolute Power.” The following is from Prachathai (Source) Submitted by taweporn on Sat, 22/11/2014 – 10:05 British Ambassador Mark Kent on Thursday met with junta leader and Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and urged the general to return…
Thai press, the Nation, reports that there are about 4,000 cases filed with the Thai police, by ordinarty Thais, under Thailand’s lese majeste law. Things have gotten so ridiculous, an academic/writer was charged with lese majeste, for questioning, the historical acuracy, of an ancient, Thai King, elephant back battle. Local EU Statement on the increasing misuse of…
Yesterday, Thailand’s ruling military junta forced a human rights group to cancel a presentation on the situation in the country. Local press reports, the military told Bangkok-based Thai Lawyers for Human Rights that if it had concerns about lack of freedom of expression or access to the justice system it should report them to the…
The Harvard Crimson, the USA’s oldest continuously published daily college newspaper, founded in 1873 and incorporated in 1967, had pulled a report critical of the Thai junta. The report is about the Thai junta raising funds for a Thai Study Center at Harvard University, called by the junta, a beach-head. (Up-Dated) Harvard Crimson re-posted the report after…
According to Naval Technology (NT), Thailand was “De-Invited” to the globe’s largest naval exercise, RIMPAC. The world’s largest naval exercise is the Pacific. Rim of the Pacific – or RIMPAC – will see ships, submarines and aircraft from 22 nations train together for an intensive four week period, says NT. For the first time in RIMPAC’s…
The attached ADB paper says: “The idea of the Asian bond market emerged first from Thailand in the summer of 2002. The creation of a bond market requires both issuers of bonds and investors in those bonds. The Thai initiative focused mainly on the investor side as then-Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, proposed that the members…
Thai Intel Diplomacy News 