Transcript of the above video:

I did a video recently where I talked about how there is a major paradigm shift, well this is my opinion but I think the facts on the ground are bearing out my opinion, some week or so ago that I made a video where I talked about there is a major paradigm shift happening as it pertains to border barriers and just the overall subject of both Thai Immigration on one level as well as National Security on another. I thought of making this video initially after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai Army to erect temporary 5 km. Border Fence. Now first of all, the word 'temporary'. I always find that work fascinating when used in any kind of government context. Remember when Nixon closed the gold window, it was temporary. Theoretically it's still temporary; it could reopen tomorrow. It hasn't in 50 years, but it is temporary. A lot of measures that come in temporarily, remain. That is just a phenomenon that you can look back on history in any country, and you can see that that happens a fair bit. Now I am not bringing that up because I'm necessarily against it. Frankly I can see many scenarios playing out where frankly Thailand is much safer having barrier facilities along the border, so I understand it. That said, just kind of bear that in mind with regard to the word 'temporary'.

That said, quoting further from this article or quoting directly I should say: "The Royal Thai Armed Forces (RTAF) have begun preparing to build the country's first temporary border fence along the Thai-Cambodian border to curb illegal cross-border activities. This follows the National Security Council's" - so important to point that out. In the interim between me doing the video on the major paradigm shift happening here in Thailand, there was then National Security Council meeting during the meantime between that and this video where we have seen further action on this, and again this is heavily prioritized. Things often don't move this quickly in bureaucracy but they are moving fast, and by bureaucratic speed, we are in lightning speed right now. Quoting further: "This follows the National Security Council's approval on Thursday for the construction of the fence." Quoting further: "Maj. Gen. Vithai Laithomya, an Armed Forces spokesman, said on Friday that the Development Command, through its Mobile Development unit 12, is working with the 12th Ranger Regiment to erect the fence near Boundary Marker 50-51 at Ban Khok Sabang in Aranyaprathet District of Sa Kaeo." 

So okay, that's just sort of some general background on what we are talking about with regard to the fence. As I discussed in other videos, there has been a major paradigm shift within Immigration circles here in Thailand. As I talked about in the past, there was a paradigm shift somewhere around about 2016-17 where it was especially acute right there, and I use that as sort of a time marker if you will, because the big evidence for that was the activities of "Big Joke", Surachate "Big Joke' Hakparn who became the Immigration Head at that time and we started seeing things like crackdowns on documentation pertaining to funds used for Retirement Visas; there were crackdowns, and there were roundups of people and mass basically deportations of illegals, and people operating illegally here in Thailand during that time period. And as I discussed at the time, there was a paradigm shift within Immigration from being much more of an administrative apparatus to a law enforcement apparatus. As I have discussed in other videos, there is a component especially within the border security component of the Immigration apparatus that is very much National Security oriented.

For those who are interested in like deep dive analysis of this stuff, I get into it in our paid news service. If you are interested in getting on the email list to receive long form analysis on this stuff, please feel free to email us, [email protected]. While I'm also talking my book, it's worth pointing out - we'll throw some photos up - my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. We have American Diner style food and breakfast anytime; it's called Pancake Palace. You can look it up on the internet now and find it, but we also put links in the description below, Google maps as well as for Grab if you want to get to us. I have talked to some customers recently who have asked me to point out in little more detail how to get there. It is between Silom and Surawong; it's near the Mango Tree, if you know the Mango Tree, but it's between Silom and Surawong; it's about 3 - 5 minute walk from Patpong so it's actually quite close to the Patpong Night market, the Patpong entertainment zone. So if you are interested in coming to see us over at the Pancake Palace, we are near Patpong, you can get to us. Links are in the description below to find us vis location apps and via Grab. 

Now that said, going back to what we are talking about here. There has been this paradigm shift, and as I discussed in prior videos, it has moved over to a national security, very much a national security focus now in light of recent events this past summer along the border. Quoting further: "The fence, expected to be completed within 1 to 2 months, will be a reinforced structure of concrete poles strung with two layers of nine-strand barbed wire, standing over 2 m. tall, he said. The design of the fence is intended as a "see-through" barrier rather than a traditional territorial demarcation." That is important and I will get back to that here in a moment. Quoting further: "Closed-circuit cameras will also be installed along the Prom Hod canal, a known hotspot for cross-border gambling and scam syndicates." 

Back to the issue though of the "see-through barrier", I think this is a really good idea because what's happening here is and what you have got to understand, there is some nebulousness when it comes to the issue of "some", I stress "some" of these border areas, and the Thais are in my mind circumspect. People have asked me, “what is the Thai attitude?” And we'll go ahead and use the thumbnail from the movie Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood where he is, "get off my lawn", and I'll use two thumbnails because he says it twice. The main thumbnail I am going to use for the video itself that you'll see on YouTube, is the kind of more hesitant part. I am going to put a clip to that scene below because I think it does a good job in many ways of distilling into sort of a Pop Cultural English language nutshell if you will, the Thai attitude on all of this. Or maybe I should just say my attitude; I am a convert to Thainess and I have the fervour of the converted, this is how I sort of feel.  But just talking to regular Thais and friends of mine and things, it's kind of how they feel. In the thumbnail we will put up here in the video, that's from the first part of the scene where Clint Eastwood comes running out with his firearm to defend his lawn basically, ”get off my lawn”; it's his property, and he is coming out, and he is very aggressive. That said, there is a part of the end where some people are like, hey thanks for stepping up or whatever and he's just like, "get off my lawn". It's kind of an almost, I don't want to call it reticent or resigned even but it's kind of just, it's like a sigh, it's like just get off my lawn, that that's how we all feel here in Thailand. Thailand doesn't want anything from anybody. That it's one of the reasons I like living here. The Thais just want to be Thai in Thailand and that's that. Don't come in here trying to change it, don't come in here trying to do anything to them, or us or whatever you want to look at it as, we just want to be Thai and be left alone; get off my lawn. That it, that's really it. And I just think that that scene in certain ways kind of sums up the overall thinking process. And look, there is a lot of built up shall we say ill feeling at the moment in the aftermath of this past summer, because people passed away. There has been loss of life, there has been casualties both in uniform and out of uniform. I find it deeply troubling myself. That said, I don't think the attitude overall has changed. Thailand doesn't want to start any trouble or escalate any further. That's why I like, again I'm quoting again: “The design of the fence is intended as a “see-through” barrier rather than a traditional territorial demarcation.” Well that's important because it's probably, it's going to be set back a little bit from the area that is the demarcation line, that is the claimed demarcation line. And I am really tired of hearing from all these, frankly idiot foreigners talking about "oh there was an international Court of Justice ruling in 1962." Yeah, over a Treaty that was imposed by Imperial France on this area by Fiat". Stop giving me that, that that is some kind of massively legitimate interpretation that we all have to venerate; it's nonsense, okay.

The Thais and the Khmers are going to work this out; they are going to work it out their own way, in the way that they have always worked things out along that border. I'm very confident the Thais and the Khmers can work it out, okay. But all this outside nonsense about the history of it and everything, yeah, whose history? That was the thing that hacked me off most when Paetongtarn, under her term of office was talking to Macron about the whole thing. Frankly what does France have to do with anything out here? Cambodia and Thailand are independent Sovereign Nations that border one another. They can work it out. Frankly, if anything the French you could argue caused a bunch of this mess or at least what they left behind has been something that the Khmer and the Thais have had to deal with since then.

So I'm actually, I really very much like this method where it's like look we are going to step back a couple of feet or whatever from the actual demarcation line and then put up this see-through fence so we can see what's going on up to our demarcation line. I think that is a very reasonable way of handling this, while at the same time making it abundantly clear, "get off my lawn." I like it. I think it's a good strategy; I think it's a good way to handle this. I think it's very reasonable and I think frankly it is both affirmatively defensive while at the same time non-escalatory; it's not escalating anything because they're stepped back from the actual line of demarcation which is the point at which possible, call it possible conflicts of opinion, could arise as to where certain things are. I think it's a very good idea; I think it's a good use of resources; I think it has judiciously applied and executed. I think overall this is something that will benefit Thailand in the long and short-term I expect, and hopefully we will see a situation where these problems along the border will deescalate and we can get back to the traditional peace and harmony that we have known here in Southeast Asia, that tends to prevail by the way when we don't have outsiders of any strife chiming in with their thoughts on how things need to be operating down here. Frankly, my kudos to the Thais, my kudos to the folks in the apparatus if you will that is in charge of implementing this. I think that this is a good idea; I think it is thought out with reason, and I think it's being well executed, and I will certainly be keeping people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.