Transcript of the above video: 

The video today that I am making with regard to the topic and the headline is going to be kind of one of these videos that crosses over between issues associated with basically foreign expatriation and immigration issues here in Thailand, as well as some stuff that's akin to local Thai politics. Let me jump in here. The reason for the almost kind of curious from where my mind is at, nature of the headline is because a lot of stuff has been going on in Interior Ministry roughly the last 90 days. I've done other videos talking about the former acting Prime Minister who was also the Interior Minister for a couple of months here in Thailand, Mr. Phumtham Wechayachai and he was doing a few things with regard to reshuffles within Interior. Now that seems to be being corrected if you will or changed back to what it was. 

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Cabinet reshuffles 45 high level officials at Interior Ministry. Quoting directly: "The Cabinet on Tuesday reshuffled 45 high-level officials at the Interior Ministry. Chiefs of provincial and local administration and land departments, as well as provincial governors. Many of them were returned to positions they held before being moved out by the past Government." That's important and again the wording in this article, I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article by Bangkok Post, yet again tip of the hat to them. It is really good coverage but it's really good coverage in a way that provides a lot of nuance, if you understand the background of this whole issue. Again as I discussed in prior videos, I had real concerns about watching the extremely quick nature in which the prior Interior Minister, prior acting Prime Minister, tried to reshuffle all these Interior Ministry posts which to the best of my knowledge and as I discussed at the time, not only pertained to issues associated with domestic law enforcement, domestic administration, and Interior Ministry has basically a remit to deal with things associated with immigration in Thailand as well, so Interior Ministry in the form of the Immigration Office here in Thailand is something thar foreigners are going to interact with on a fairly regular basis, but also the administrative apparatus of Interior Ministry deals with the administration of elections here in Thailand. And I thought it was curious that the prior acting Prime Minister who the Council of State themselves said he didn't have the authority to dissolve the House and call a new election, attempted to do that after having reshuffled many within the Interior Ministry which that is now being put back. 

Quoting further: "Government spokesman Siripong Angkasakulkiat said the promotions and transfers filled positions left open by retirement, and corrected injustices to some officials who were unfairly treated in three previous shuffles in only one month." There's a lot going on in this article if you understand the background here. I think things are moving in a positive direction with regard to Thailand. I actually mentioned this article in a recent paid news service episode that we just made. For those who are interested, if you want to receive those, you can get on our email list, you can email [email protected], we will get back to you. I do admit, I administer that email myself for these purposes and I sometimes don't get to it as much as I would like. I do have a day job folks, but that said if you send an email to that you will get a message back. For those who are also unaware, and while I am talking my own book, my better half and I did set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It's called Pancake Palace, as the name implies, breakfast anytime, including in my opinion, the best pancakes in Bangkok, as well as in my opinion, the best buffalo wings in Bangkok as well as, we have got hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, glass bottled Cokes, all the stuff that you like from American Diner style food. Come check us out downtown, links are in the description below, you can come see us at Pancake Palace. 

That being said, reanalyzing, again, "previous reshuffles". In only one month this stuff was corrected, “previous reshuffles”. A lot going on here again and I think Thailand is moving in a good direction overall. There's been a lot of in my opinion some chicanery happening the past couple of months and a lot of this stuff has been rectified with an eye toward having an election come January. This current government has signed on under a kind of contract that you will. I kind of like it to, it's a little bit similar to Newt Gingrich's Contract with America in a sense. It's like there is a contract between, if you will a contract, between Bhumjaithai and the People's Party to, "hey, we just want to get a good election, be able to have a fair election, figure out what the consensus is on what Thais want. We're looking to have that in quarter 1 of next year", and it seems to be that is the way that they're moving. But they've had to correct some things if you will that have been in the works the last few months, things that even the Council of State sort of noted weren't exactly in line with the way that the legal checks and balances work here in Thailand. That stuff has been put - it looks like - largely on the right track, and I think we're moving in a positive direction. 

Now that being said, it remains to be seen how these things play out, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.