Random Thoughts: Is the military making people happy?
Seeing the military create songs, dances, pretty girls, give out free movies to the masses, free world cup football, it all starts to feel a bit Orwellian
“…football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult.” – George Orwell, 1984
Thus far they have done the following to make people happy:
1. Kicked out the “taxi mafia” at the airport
2. Removed shuttle vans @ Victory Monument
3. Dramatically decreased our internet speeds and block websites so that we can spend more time with our friends and families versus being online
4. Attempted to stop a mass exodus of migrant workers (and reduced the official fee for a visa to thailand)
5. Made the directors of PTT, AOT, THAI, KTB step down for inexplicable stupid deals.
6. Told DTAC to bugger off while they postpone the auction of telecom and digital TV’s subsidies (ouch to several listed co’s)
7. Removed curfews throughout Thailand so we could all watch the World Cup matches with our friends
8. Took the head position of nearly every government agency
9. Took the infrastructure bill, adjusted it slightly (i.e. remove the bullet train) and put forward a new one for the boss to approve (yay for several listed co’s)
10. There are no red shirts, yellow shirts, pink shirts, blue shirts, purple, black, white, orange etc etc shirts left on the streets, only sandwich eaters.
11. Installed TV’s @ the airport so we can watch the football while waiting for friends and family.
Despite my slightly sarcastic tone (how else do I really write?) and other than the obvious “human rights” abuses they’ve done a pretty decent job thus far. So naturally one thinks, well what can go wrong?
- If they slip up, will some people come out of hiding and publicly point it out?
- Once the euphoria of this calm wears off, and reality kicks in, will the crowd stay quiet?
- Doesn’t General Prayuth step down in a few months, what’s next?
- Or perhaps, nothing major goes wrong, this is Thailand after all, having the military in charge is a normal thing, so we should all just be happy.