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F E A T U R E S
Thailand's army declares war on 'vice'
New Thai government seeks to root out gambling, mafias and the 'grey economy' in a move some
say is politically driven.
Last updated: 18 Jul 2014 08:55

Bangkok, Thailand - Paphatya Poonpratin - a 25-year-old office worker in Bangkok - felt pleased about the
evening news on television last week.
One report showed military officers raiding an illegal gambling den as the culprits frantically tried to escape.
In another segment, soldiers rounded up and handcuffed the organisers of a cock-fighting ring.
"I also hope the new military government will strictly crack down on other illegal activities," said Paphatya, a
supporter of Thailand's recent military coup.
Less than two months after seizing power, the military government has promised an unprecedented war
on vice, as supporters and an increasingly restricted media laud the return of law and order. Meanwhile,
critics complain of heavy-handed tactics targeting political opponents.
Last month, a crackdown on the country's estimated two to three million undocumented foreigners working
in Thailand led to the largest mass migration in Southeast Asia since the Indochina wars in the 1970s.
The Cambodian government said 250,000 people fled across the border in just 18 days, as rights groups
and senior officials in Phnom Penh complained of abuses by Thai soldiers.
'No illegal industry'
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The clampdown on motorbike taxis is 'highly political', said one researcher [Steve Finch/Al Jazeera]
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Listening Post - Thailand: the military and the media
This military
government thinks the
The military government has hauled in domestic fishing bosses for a stern warning: Their boats will be taken
away and nationalised unless they end their alleged slave-like treatment of illegally hired foreign workers.
Threats by the military have finally prompted the
fishing industry to take action, said Poj
Aramwattananont, co-owner of Sea Value Group,
one of Thailand's biggest fish producers. "We've
listened to the army's instructions, and we can solve
this problem quite soon," he said.
Government pressure has coincided with the US
decision to downgrade Thailand to its lowest
ranking on human trafficking in an annual
assessment last month, a decision that
"disappointed" the country, said Songsak Saicheua, the Thai foreign ministry's head of US and Pacific
affairs.
"There is no illegal industry in Thailand," he claimed in an email.
But according to Kan Yuenyong, director of Bangkok-based think-tank Siam Intelligence Unit, it is estimated
that industries operating on the fringes of the law represent as much as 50 percent of the country's overall
economy.
Public perception
General Prayuth Chan-ocha, the head of the military government, has repeatedly cited problems with
Thailand's overseas image as a key reason behind the military's recent campaign against vice. "We have to
change this perception," he said last month in one of his weekly televised speeches following the coup
against former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
In June, police arrested 50 "ladyboy" sex workers accused of stealing from clients and passers-by in
Pattaya, a seaside resort popular with foreigners, two hours by road from Bangkok.
Also last month, police arrested more than 100 members of an alleged taxi mafia gang, including one mayor
and four other politicians on the island of Phuket. The crackdown on unlicensed taxi rackets was later
extended to taxi cabs at the capital's main airport, Suvarnabhumi, and motorbikes that shuttle paying
passengers around Bangkok's back streets.
Although the clean-up looks like an attempt to regulate activity on the fringes of the law, the military
government's plans to contain Bangkok's motorbike taxis is also "highly political", said Claudio Sopranzetti,
an Oxford University research fellow who studies the industry in the Thai capital.
These taxis have a history of supporting the pro-Shinawatra "Red Shirts", dating back to the military
crackdown in April and May 2010, during the pitched street battles that left more than 90 people dead in
Bangkok . At the time, motorbike taxi drivers rallied in support of the Red Shirts, acted as lookouts reporting
soldier movements and helped Shinawatra supporters disappear down back alleys.
According to Sopranzetti, an estimated 80 percent of Bangkok's 200,000 motorbike taxi drivers support
deposed prime minister Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra. "They are
people that know the streets better than anyone. In situations of political unrest, they can be important," he
added.
'Cripple and de-Thaksinise'
Whereas the pro-Shinawatra police largely controlled and operated these taxi cartels before the coup, the
military, asserting its authority, has since driven them out. This campaign has been replicated across the
country, said Paul Chambers, a researcher on Thailand's military and police at the Institute of Southeast
Asian Affairs in Chiang Mai.
"One major objective of the 2014 coup is to cripple and de-Thaksinise Thailand's police," he said.
In a recent effort to round up illegal weapons, the military government
has also targeted people it sees as ringleaders of pro-Shinawatra
groups - populists whom the country's traditional elite, including the
army, view as a threat to Thailand's establishment.
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government thinks the
underground
economy is a source of
political problems.
Their goal is to wipe
out and control grey
industries.
- Kan Yuenyong, director of
Siam Intelligence Unit think-
tank
Source: Al Jazeera
Tweet Tweet 224
army, view as a threat to Thailand's establishment.
On June 29, the military-led government paraded before the media in
Bangkok, more than 2,800 guns, 50,000 rounds of ammunition, nine
rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 330 hand grenades, and 134
items of explosive material seized last month as part of a much-
publicised crackdown on "war weapons".
The military government also announced that witness testimony linked
illegal arms to Jakrapob Penkair, a self-exiled former aide of Thaksin
and co-founder of the main Red Shirt group formed in opposition to
the 2006 coup in Thailand.
Earlier the same week, Jakrapob co-founded a new anti-military
group, the first to actively oppose the current military takeover, the
Organisation of Free Thais for Human Rights and Democracy (FT-
HD). The weapons charge against him was "a fabrication", the FT-HD
said in a statement.
Charupong Ruangsuwan, former head of the ousted pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai party and leader of this new
organisation, told Al Jazeera that weapons allegations were an attempt by the military to tarnish the FT-HD
as an illegal armed group in the eyes of the rest of the world.
"They have accused Jakrapob without even trying to come up with any kind of credible evidence," he wrote
in an email from an unknown location overseas.
Controlling 'grey industries'
The military government's ongoing crackdown on illegal activity achieves a number of political goals, said
Kan from the Siam Intelligence Unit. The wide-reaching campaign offers the country's new rulers credibility
after the coup, and allows the army to go after long-standing enemies while bringing unruly sectors of
society under state control.
"This military government thinks the underground economy is a source of political problems. Their goal is to
wipe out and control grey industries," said Kan.
So far, the crackdown on vice appears to be popular among Thais, albeit in a media environment restricted
by new military controls and government threats against editors. A survey conducted earlier this month by
Suan Dusit Poll found 93.5 percent of respondents said they enjoyed a better home life since the military
takeover, because they no longer worry about the safety of their family.
But not everyone is convinced such strong support for the new government will last.
Chuwit Kamolvisit, a former massage parlour tycoon who ran an anti-corruption movement until the coup
effectively banned party politics, said people will soon lose faith in the military government when they see
the abuses that accompany its policies.
"This is the honeymoon period," he said. "Every government has one."

TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
People
Yingluck Shinawatra
Kan Yuenyong
Jakrapob Penkair
Prayuth Chan-ocha
Thaksin Shinawatra
Songsak Saicheua
Poj Aramwattananont
Claudio Sopranzetti
Paphatya Poonpratin
Paul Chambers
Charupong Ruangsuwan
Country
Thailand
United States
City
Bangkok
Phnom Penh
Organisation
Thailand's military
Cambodian government
Siam Intelligence Unit
army
New Thai government
Pheu Thai party
Thailand's police
Oxford University
Thailand's army
Institute of Southeast Asian
Affairs
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Juamtong 2 days ago
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Sadly its lies, the poll of 2091 people founds that 93.53% felt a safer after the coup, but that
works out as an impossible 0.71 fraction of a person who voted! There is no whole number of
people out of 2091 that results in 93.53%!
Suan Dusit and Nida have both been active throughout this coup putting out fake numbers like
this. It's just part of the propaganda for a coup.
Coups by their nature are built on lies. If our Dictator Prayuth was popular, he would be
electable, and Thailand wouldn't need censorship and oppression, and secret police everywhere
arresting anyone for tiny signs of dissent. He would not need soldiers to threaten the public,
because he would have the majority behind him.
He needs to suppress dissent, so that the lie becomes the truth. You sadly have fallen for one of
these lies. That people are happy with the coup, and unhappy with democracy!
Do you really think only 3% of Thai people want democracy? That all these people expressed
the opinion, that they didn't want to express an opinion in an election? It's nonsensical!
The other big post coup lie is the weapons finds. General Prayuth sent his brother out to find
weapons and justify their coup. So his brother finds weapons to justify the coup! Handily as

7
Reply
auntyedna 2 days ago Juamtong
Three things, dear Juamtong: 1) You have completely missed the point of what Prayuth
is trying to do; 2) The majority of Thai people in all walks of life seem to hold an opposite
view to you, and so; 3) You need to get out more.

5
Reply
Juan Juan 2 days ago auntyedna
"...seem to hold an opposite view" According to the Dusit and Nida polls!?
Of course you can't express an opposite view to the junta, you will be arrested,
tried in a military court and have an "attitude readjustment" just for making a three
finger salute, reading 1984 or eating a sandwich in a public space. What is
Prayuth trying to do? Disenfranchise the Isaan people, the royalists are appalled
that the plebs are asserting their right as (Gulp!) equals!

8
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marcus Tenti a day ago Juan Juan
Correct Juan Juan

1
Reply
David Tanstaafl a day ago auntyedna
auntyedna, I think I'll listen to the person in Thailand rather than someone who
reads articles about it.

1
Reply
Padova44 20 hours ago Juamtong
Yes, the weapons finds are a hoot. What century is this dictator living in?

1
Reply
Frank_Maunder a day ago Juamtong
I think this is probably more a result of the innumeracy of the Thai press. I remember
when they reported the sinking of a 500,000,000 tonne sugar tanker in the Chao Phraya
river! Being off by a few orders of magnitude is quite common in Thailand.
Hint: Count Your Change.

1
Reply
auntyedna 2 days ago
"Politically driven" clampdown on gambling, mafias and the grey economy? But of course! The
gambling, mafias and grey economy are run by the politicians.

4
Reply
Burnie Rubble 2 days ago
I HOPE I CAN STILL FIND ME A
LOVE ME LONG TIME BEAUTY
ON MY TRIP IN AUGUST!!!

4
Reply
Burnie Rubble 2 days ago ShielaBDahlstrom
ShielaBDahlstrom U LOVE ME LONG TIME???

1
Reply
V Cypress a day ago
Thai Junta is just like a joker "I offer you to flee out of the country' - -
Yingluck Shinawatra: 'I stay for Thai's people regardless jail or no jail, let's talk straight. - - Thai
Junta: No talk

2
Reply
Padova44 20 hours ago
Generalissimo Cretino and his junta are trying to crush those who kept winning elections in all
their manifestations. Cretino must know that "Cleaning up vice" has been folly for millenia, but
it's not Cretino's real motive, it's just a cover to crush opposition. Most radio stations remain
closed, all I get in the countryside in the mornings is the same government propagandist, no
music allowed at dawn except 'putschmusik'. Cretino is an anosognoisiac buffoon who is having
his day -- but his days are numbered by his over-reach. The polls say otherwise but polls under
a dictatorship are, of course, a farce.

1
Reply
Frank_Maunder a day ago
Mussolini got big props for making the trains run on time!

1
Reply
marcus Tenti a day ago
The only thing that is happening is that the one in power takes out the competitors.
It is a non-stop circle.

1
Padova44 15 hours ago marcus Tenti
It seems that way but I think this time it is different, the last useless effort by the courtiers
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Reply
It seems that way but I think this time it is different, the last useless effort by the courtiers
in BKK with the army to prevent the future -- which has a habit of arriving.

1
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Twotow Jumplin 12 hours ago
I know one place they won't touch is the girl bars. That is the main tourist attraction.

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