Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing “the way things are done” here in Thailand. I made a video about a week ago where I asked our audience for what they wanted me to talk about. And as I said at the time, not sound like a broken record, but basically we have come out of Thailand being locked down and all the travel restrictions, I had a lot to talk about when that was going on, on a specific issue and it was kind of urgent. Well that has come and gone. We have put that in our rearview mirror and frankly I am kind of tired of talking about it too so basically I put it out there to the viewers of this channel, "what would you like me to talk about?" I have gotten a lot of good feedback and this comment was one of them. Quoting directly: "I would be interested in learning more about the way things are done. I don't have a good understanding of the process here specifically how announcements on new laws or policy changes are frequently made to the media and to the public, only to be changed or reversed a few days or weeks later. Apparently they still don't all sit down together to vote and finalize things before announcing decisions? This strikes me as strange considering the culture of "face" that is prevalent." 

Well, the problem you got is an issue that I have brought up a lot which is the media reports things in such a way that in my opinion, I am not going to go out on a limb and say they are intentionally misleading, they are not, but click bait is a real thing. Then on top of that I often think the journalists or whatever that are in the media don't even really understand what they are talking about. A perfect example of this and maybe this is what this person is talking about is the notion of foreign land ownership. Going back about 6 weeks ago this was all over the news - "oh foreigners are going to be allowed to land in Thailand; it's a done deal." There were articles out there in the Press, I'm not going to point anybody out but there were multiple ones on major platforms that said "yes, foreigners will be able to do this." No, that was never the case. The fact was, it was still being debated; it was a Bill that was preceding through the law making channels through Parliament, the Cabinet etc., where they were discussing it and yes the Cabinet at one point sort of agreed in principle it was something they wanted to discuss further and it might be a good idea, but they never said it was the Law and they never made it the Law. I mean if you want sort of basic what exactly is a Law in Thailand? Well if it's been published in the Royal Gazette, I look at that as being sort of the equivalent to what we call the Federal Register in the United States which that is sort of the publication of record with regard to things like announcements from the Government and Laws. So that is really sort of your touchstone for what is actually on the books. Meanwhile even that, it might not necessarily be a Law. It might be an announcement regarding policy; it might be an announcement regarding guidelines; it might be an announcement regarding regulations. So in point of fact depending on circumstances, it might have the force and effect of law but it might not be a Law per se, or it might not have the force effect of law, it just something that sort of out there is a guideline. Again this is going to vary depending on the subject matter at hand. 

But long story short, one of the reasons I think you see this kind of 'push and pull' or this pullback if you will it is because the media oftentimes jumps the gun with respect to what has actually happened and they'll have headlines that say: "foreigners can own land in Thailand". Well no, that's not actually what happened in that particular case. It was a proposal, it was still being discussed and it was ultimately decided that that was not going to be promulgated. So again where exactly to go to for where the confusion is, I think a big place where a lot of the confusion emanates, it starts with the media. Now meanwhile you are going to have to bear in mind the process of making laws is often times opaque. A perfect example is the United States where it's not like the cartoons where ‘I am a Bill on Capitol Hill and I go through the Lower House and the Upper House and the President signs me and I become a law’. Well no not necessarily. The House will pass, they'll pass a Bill, the Senate will pass a Bill, then they will have to reconcile the two Bills and then it will go into a Conference Committee. What comes out of the Conference Committee could be wildly different than what went into the Conference Committee. I mean a perfect example of that I believe is called the Safe Port Act which had to do with porting and then it got into the Conference Committee and it ended up being a bunch of laws about, they ended up tacking on a bunch of laws about online poker. A perfect example of: 'it went in as one thing and it came out of Conference Committee as totally different thing. So again the American system for example can be very opaque and very confusing if you don't know what you are dealing with. 

Long story short, a big touchstone is always going to be the Royal Gazette and the other thing to bear in mind is yeah the process can be a little bit confusing if you are not intimately aware and I am not claiming I am intimately aware of how due process works with respect to proposals becoming promulgated into Law here in Thailand because from time to time I'll notice that there will be kind of proposals on something and then the next thing you know, a full on Law has been published and exactly what happened between point A and C is sometimes hard to decipher until you look in retrospect and say okay this chamber dealt with this and they discussed this in the Cabinet and the next thing you know it became a Law. Sometimes the media for example just isn't covering it and then it just kind of pops up out of nowhere. 

So again, one big place when it comes to sort of the perpetuation of some of the fog on this or some of the confusion if you will, I think you can lay that to rest in certain aspects of the media here. The other thing is again, there is always going to be a language barrier between Thai for example and English; that is there, that's a real thing and it's always going to be present I think especially for folks who are new to Thailand, don't speak a lot of Thai, don't understand what is going on, on that side of the curtain if you will. Then again another thing to bear in mind is, yeah the system is not always the most transparent and that is not to say there is anything necessarily wrong with that. As I said in the lawmaking that goes on in the United States, I remember when the Trump Tax Bill became Law, going through the raw law was just insane, well not insane but it was very difficult because it was so disjointed because of the way the lawmaking process works. Sometimes it's just like making sausage, you just kind of cram it in there, what ever comes out on the other side just is what it is. 

So yeah I totally understand the confusion. I'm not sure that maybe this video has been the most helpful to dispel all of it but maybe it kind of provides a little more clarity with respect to known unknowns and unknown unknowns with respect to how Law making and policy becomes Law here in the Kingdom of Thailand.