Food Prices Soar

Thailand’s rising prices of sugar and egg – a political issue? Simple inflation? Dark market mechanisms or even speculators at work? Food giant CP must love it.

You may not have noticed because for you the price increase is minimal or you don’t do your own shopping, but the issue has become so political that some of the good old socialist price controls are back.

Starting this September even the price of drinking water is controlled at retail shops and food courts that are considered necessary for low-income people.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

September 1, 2010 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Food & Drink, Politics | Leave a Comment 

Useful Idiots

Well that title is stolen. I’m too dull to come up with something as creative. Stolen from a recent BBC Documentaries … But this seemingly internally inconsistent, loaded term attributed to Lenin does ring a bell, doesn’t it.

We’re all some kind of useful idiots at some point in time. Well maybe not you. But the most useful idiots are those breeding like rabbits in times of crises when it’s hard to not have an opinion. Such as the Thai political crisis we’re still in – when opinions become facts.

What’s a useful idiot? Try this: “Intellectuals have a terrible tendency to adjust the evidence to fit their preconceptions. They decide they want to believe in something, they will believe it – and if the evidence is Oh-you’re-wrong they just hit the evidence over the head and do the chops on.”

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

August 24, 2010 | Filed Under Culture Shock, Politics, Society | 5 Comments 

The Vongthip Letter Aug ‘10

Looking more like 46 now?! With the extra heavy cares and woes that he has been experiencing in the last 20 months, PM Abhisit has certainly matured before our eyes. In 7/10 he was given hell by the yellow shirts for failing to take drastic actions to claim back the land surrounding the Preah Vihear temple. The private sector too was more than frustrated by the (30%) corruption prevailing among his cabinet members and their bureaucrat underlings. Notwithstanding the seemingly quieter political atmosphere, PM Abhisit simply could not go against the CRES’ advice to keep the emergency decree on.

There was constant threat of violence, lurking between isolated small bombing incidents in the city. On 9/7/10 the Election Committee and the Attorney General jointly asked the constitution court to dissolve the Democrat Party for accepting a THB 258 million unlawful donation and for misusing the THB 29 million election-campaign funds in 2006. A wave of panic swept through the Democrats and their voters at the prospect of PM Abhisit being banned from politics for five years. The private sector too was dismayed by the possibility of losing once again the country’s credibility, stability and continuity. Many believed a new PM at this point of time would do more harm than good to the fragile morale and confidence of the people at home and abroad.

Keeping his cool: Notwithstanding the continued threats to unseat him, PM Abhisit went about his business as usual. Healthcare subsidy was increased to THB 2,546 (from THB 2,401) per head. The 7% VAT was extended for another two years until 9/12. The amnesty legislation for illegal war weapon possessors was readied for parliament session in 8/10. The emergency decree was lifted in 28 provinces by end of 7/10. PM Abhisit called on the management of key newspapers to hear their views on media reform and to seek their active support for his reconciliation plan.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

August 6, 2010 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Politics, Property & Investment, The Vongthip Letters | 4 Comments 

The Vongthip Letter July ‘10

Mending the fences: Thanks to FIFA, Thai football fans put away their politically colored shirts to spend sleepless nights watching the World Cup matches in South Africa. News of favorite teams and players dominated most newspapers and TV screens. An avid football fan himself, PM Abhisit has, however, managed to accomplish most of what he had promised. On 7/6/10 he left for half a day trip to Vietnam, to attend the World Economic Forum and meet up with Asean leaders at the Greater Mekong Subregion summit meeting. He took the opportunity to brief world’s business leaders of the current political situation in Thailand and to assure them that his government was taking every possible step to restore law and order while moving the country forward toward national reconciliation.

On 7/6/10 he announced another cabinet reshuffle (5th), with eight new ministers mostly from the Democrat Party. Throughout the month, the Abhisit government continued to address the country’s most urgent economic issues i.e. severe El Nino drought (worst in 18 years) that had delayed rice planting by at least six weeks. The Map Ta Phut environmental problems were finally sorted out, with 18 activities to be banned and clearer rules and regulations to become effective by year-end. After years of frozen salaries, civil servants were granted a special bonus to be paid out in 10/10 and a 5% salary increase to be effective in 4/11.

Farmers’ problem loans too were being refinanced or restructured with hefty haircuts. The first lot of community title deeds was given out. Shooting prices of sugar and eggs were promptly addressed and lowered. Rescue package for those affected by the Ratchaprasong shutdown and arson was fine-tuned and extended to include foreign businesses in the area. To ease the burden of the urban poor, free electricity (max. 90 kw), free (hot) bus, free (third class) train and subsidized LPG, were extended till year end, when PM Abhisit hope to make some of them permanent.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

July 8, 2010 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Politics, Property & Investment, The Vongthip Letters | 12 Comments 

Al Jazeera: Slingshots & Firecrackers, That’s All They Had

Relive Black May with Al Jazeera’s “The Rageh Omaar Report: The Year of Living Dangerously.” As if the Thai government’s PR campaign fell on deaf ears you’re left wondering if the red shirts are no front. The last words belong to the opposition, it’s the government that’s in need of explanations. Add some somber music and there you have a classic drama.

There is always the danger of superficiality and clichés when outsiders try insider reports. It’s suggested the poor and innocent were only armed with slingshots and firecrackers. Still, we learn that the reds try to turn the pro-Thaksin movement into something very different, into a class war – and why is it that fewer people visit Siriraj Hospital these days?

Think what you want of our governor, but Sukhumbhand’s assessment of implicitly calling the red protest self-defeating gets lost amidst much “there’s no way out.” Sukhumbhand warns the rural people who were on the streets they’re the first to feel the effects of the protest. They’ll suffer. We hear Jatuporn, but no word about the cash war, war weapons, lies and deception.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

June 21, 2010 | Filed Under Books & Movies, News & Media, Politics | 4 Comments 

From Million Man To Billion Baht March

Do the math, and it doesn’t look good for either the government and the opposition with the red “class war” exposed as a “cash war.” Authorities claim Thaksin kin transferred the astronomical amount of some 15 billion baht to the red movement within a few days after April 28th, along with the real escalation of the alleged Gandhi-style peace march. What others romanticized as the poor making their voice heard turns out to be – what a bummer for those deceived – Thailand’s most expensive political campaign ever. And let’s set the record straight: Thailand is not one of the most unequal societies; income inequalities are lower than in the most developed nations of the region.

But the red protest was more about hatred than inequalities, wasn’t it. Altogether authorities list transactions amounting to some staggering 122 billion baht gone into red coffers as per the graph further below. Too much, not possibly possible. That would build five airports à la Suvarnabhumi. Shaky figures, maybe money that circulated? The Thaksins still can freely move billions? The amount’s so big Thais don’t even have a word for that number. Calculating in thousands of millions of baht they’re not the only ones left scratching their heads. Thaksin’s son, elder daughter, brother-in-law and youngest sister alone coughed up the equivalent of some 490 million U.S. dollars within a few days.

Innocent unless proven otherwise. Fact is, we all know a lot of money changed hands. The million man march was never to be, but there’s a high probability a multi-billion baht protest was. Still, the Thaksin kin’s 15 billion baht is also the amount expected to be circulated during this World Cup. So nothing out of the ordinary really, aren’t we used to gambling in society also on the political level. You don’t gamble though for the common good. You gamble for money. The billion baht brotest must have made some bros filthy rich. Who would have imagined illicit labor can be that lucrative. And there you have your core followers, leaving the true peaceful democratic reds out in the rain.

Read more

Sphere: Related Content

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under Business & Economics, Politics, Property & Investment, The Thai Mind | 15 Comments 

Next Page →