Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing this so-called "Phuket Model" which apparently is being discussed by the Thai Prime Minister. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from Khao Sod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, the article is titled: PM Discusses "Phuket Model" with 12 Consuls to prevent foreigners' law violations. Quoting directly: "Srettha Thavisin, Prime Minister and Finance Minister emphasized the plan to establish the "Phuket Model" to manage tourism and social security." - and in that term I think they meant the security of society not like social security benefits. Quoting further: "He had spoken with 12 Consular Mission Heads focused on preventing and addressing law violations." 

Yeah we discussed this a while back that there's more discussion on a Consular level regarding certain administrative matters and matters pertaining to foreign nationals in different jurisdictions. One thing I do have to say for the Prime Minister and this new Government is I think that is a good idea. Getting proactive about having those discussions I think is actually a very good idea. Quoting further: "He also emphasized that the Government's top priority is to protect the lives and property of all people on Phuket including locals and tourists. Violations by foreign nationals are an obvious problem. He said the Government will be fair and try to solve this problem." So yeah, overall this sounds kind of innocuous. 

One thing that made the hairs on the back of my head go up a little bit was when I heard this "Phuket Model" and I started thinking back to the so-called "Sandbox" days and everything we went through with COVID. We kind of jokingly here in the office called Phuket, "Devil's Island" sort of in reference - jokingly of course, good natured joking - referencing the island that the French used to use to put some of their prisoners on; we called it that because people got stuck on that island. When you went in for the “sandbox”, you had to stay there for a prolonged of time before you would be allowed to leave. Now whether that was warranted or not, my opinion it was not; whether that was correct or not especially from a legal context, I argue it was not and I also argue it is a massive violation of people's human rights, just basic rights to travel and be unencumbered in where they go. People shouldn't have to be placed in a sort of prison just because there is some disease out there. Let's set that aside. We discussed that in many videos at the time; you can go back and check the record on that. Do I think that there is something nefarious scheme under cloak that they are going to try to bring on board, some sort of technocratic city-state in Phuket that's going to ensnare people? No not exactly, but again it made them hairs in the back of my neck go up talking about this "Phuket Model" because there's just a lot of this technocratic, it's really kind of a technocratic sort of totalitarianism or authoritarianism streak that seems to be going through a lot of folks especially in Government circles and especially post-COVID and all the things we went through during that which again you have heard my opinions there.

So again, do I think it's a bad idea per se to maybe look at reorganizing Phuket? We did another video contemporaneously with this one where there is talk about making it a city structured similarly to Pattaya or Bangkok. Yeah that's probably not a terrible idea from an administrative standpoint but what worries me and what we ought to guard against is the possibility that we see this creeping technocratic authoritarianism sort of creep in underneath what are ostensibly good ideas in order to down the road place further restrictions on us that are in my opinion completely unnecessary.