Good afternoon,

The Deputy Head of the Bank of Thailand has been explaining the continued apparently irrational rise of the Stock Exchange – the economy under the junta has been a disaster after all (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=30319). Khun Atchana Waiquamdee explains it as a means of inserting currency into the country while avoiding the capital controls brought in by the unelected and unaccountable military government.

The army meanwhile has awarded itself another enormous rise in budget, imperilling the entire economy in the process (http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119909). The army budget has risen by 24%, on top of all the other perks the junta has awarded itself and its cronies. Even NLA members, who have benefited enormously in financial terms from the coup and the salary they have been wrongly awarded subsequently, have been moved to complain (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/05Jul2007_news01.php). Some army henchmen have vaguely talked about ‘high-tech’ equipment for the army and ‘tackling the problems in the south’ but it is widely suspected that the money is destined elsewhere. Meanwhile, army personnel morale is apparently at rock-bottom, at least according to always honesty chief henchman Sonthi Booyaratkalin. Yesterday, three more soldiers were wounded in a bombing in Pattani (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=30324), while a shopkeeper was murdered and two others shot (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=30330) and the railway repaired in Yala after sabotage led to a derailing (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=30329).

General Sonthi gave an interview last week to Bloomberg (I didn’t see it at the time as I was in Singapore) in which he admitted the charges against Thai Rak Thai were part of a long-term campaign to destroy the party and his defamatory remarks about Singapore and the Singaporean people were deliberately made without any justification: “Sondhi also backed away from claims made earlier this year that Singapore could use the assets to spy on the military, saying the accusation was part of "a strategy speech to make Thai people feel more protective about the country's assets."

"I don't think they did anything wrong," Sondhi said in a recent interview. "We don't have any bad feelings on that. We still have a good relationship with Singapore." (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/business/temasek.php). Heavens, I wonder if the obviously trumped-up charges brought against democratically-elected prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his family are part of the same ‘strategy?” Surely not.

My thoughts such as they are on ASEAN football have been put up at ASEAN Affairs (http://www.aseanaffairs.com/store/1772737/page/1185509). This morning I was at the Indonesian Embassy to interview the Ambassador and Commercial Attaché for a future national day special as well as for the ASEAN futures paper. Tuesday was head of Novatech, Khun Nithi, who is also head of the Swiss-Thai Chamber of Commerce here.

Back tomorrow.

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