Author Archives: SaKdIpAt

I would like to start off by sorry for the information I gave in the blog regarding the party name and the parliament building. TK was right; the building is situated NEXT to Pra-tee-nung-anan-tadsamakom(picture below). And also the Democratic Party is the main opposition to the Thai-Rak-Thai party. I normally confuse myself with the political parties here.

Now, continuing with last weeks’ blog on the political system of Thailand. I would first like to talk about the election process concerning us (the people). Normally in an election, we will vote directly for the party which means the candidate within that area would represent us to vote for a PM (Normally, the leader of that party). However, there has been a recent change in the democratic voting structure. Thailand has adopted the “party list” voting system as in some countries, for example Spain, Israel, Austria, Finland and Poland in the EU has used. This method emphasizes the proportion of the representatives and the importance of respected Members of Parliament (MP) within the lower house of parliament. In Thailand, party list members are limited to 100 MPs. This number would include some members from the opposition and isolated parties as well as the leading party. In the last constitution, there are 70 MPs from Thai-Rak-Thai and the rest is made up of opposition candidates. How would you choose the MPs to be allocated in the part list? There is a priority order for every party. Let’s say, Thai-Rak-Thai nominate 100 names in orders waiting to be allocated in the party list system. The final result allows 70 MPs from Thai-Rak-Thai to be included. The rest 30 candidates will have to wait in priority orders. These members in the party list are normally the “elite” members of the political party who’s very experienced. The higher you are in the list, the chances of you becoming one of the influence members of that respected party i.e. More chance to be assigned to big jobs such as Governor, Leader of the parliament etc. So, the people, in every 4 years of a serving term will re-elect the lower house MP and PM. The party list system forces the people to vote in 2 papers, voting for the candidate and voting for the party in that area.

The Prime Minister has the ultimate power to run operation activities within the country. Like in most country, he/she has the power to appoint the cabinet. In Thailand, the Prime Minister serves a nominal term of 4 years before he/she is re-elected. Though, there is a “monarch” to monitor the party’s activity. I would not go into much detail about the Monarch but instead, focus on the Privy Councilors who act as “advisors” for the king and has the duty to speak for him. Though this credential is not easily gained, you have to be a “very important” person to be assigned to this job and I mean “very” important. In Thailand, the Privy Councilors are very much the “hero” of the people who has done an incredible amount for the country. Occupants like court judges, general in the army and doctors are very much favored. Though, you have to be highly achieved and recognized.

I guess this is it for the political systems of Thailand. You can post any queries or mistakes and I’ll be more than happy to answer it.

I’m back writing again. I’m sure Richard would be pleased to see me back. For those who do not know me. I’m a Thai student studying in England. I mainly live in London and I sometimes spend my free time writing blogs, comparing general topics concerning the life in Thailand and the UK.

On Sunday, I went to Wales. It was my first time visiting Swansea and Cardiff. I was pretty much amazed of the way people had to use 2 languages there. Normally, in the UK, everyone should speak the same language but I guess, the Welsh community is unique. However, I find them very friendly (friendlier than those who live in larger cities).

To the topic, I would like to first present some overview of some of the political statuses with are currently situated in Thailand which will be the main body I will be blogging about today. As you know, there was a coup in Thailand. Since my arrival in England last week, people have been asking me about the situation in Thailand. I can tell you that on that night that the military started to intrude into Bangkok, I was driving home. I got so many calls telling me to go home. I didn’t know why it was so tense because in my life time I’ve never seen a military invasion before. I’ve only read about it in the history books. So, I did not know how violent it would be. The last time I can recall a coup occurred in 1990 which was almost 15 years ago; hence I was 5 years old.

So, I went straight home to watch the news channels and see live pictures but there was nothing. Only music videos related to the king. I had obviously no idea what was going on. So, I turned to BBC and CNN which they were trying to get pictures but I guess they were quite shocked and unprepared to what was going on as well. I continued to watch the Thai public channels until 3am and found out that the following day was a public holiday.

Following the coup, there have been many changes to Thailand. A new era is about to be written in the history books. We’ve had a new PM and a new cabinet. Now let me tell you about the Thai political structure that has been used in the democratic governing structure of the country. The structure is very much a copycat of the British system. Thailand has 2 parliaments; the lower and upper council. The lower parliament consists of approx. 500 members or the so called Members of Parliament (MP) in Britain. These members are elected from different provinces of Thailand judging by the number of population living in that province.

Let’s say Samutprakarn, my province, has 1.2 million people living there and the province is divided into 6 districts and each district has 200,000 people living. So, there will be 6 MPs representing my province (200,000 per 1 MP). Every district should have no less than 200,000 in population in order to have a separate MP. If not, the districts will be joined. In every election, there are competitions between parties. Within the past decades, there have been 2 parties in contention; Thai Rak Thai and the Conservative. Thailand has a long history in ex-militaries leading the country. Although, military personnel are not allowed in political structures but once they are retired, their ranks stay the same which sees a lot of Thai PMs(and the current one) become the leader of the country.

Although to achieve the leadership within a parliament, a party should have the majority of seats in parliament (approx. 250) to be able to elect a leader. Unlike the British house of parliament which uses a very small parliament chamber that symbolizes the roman parliament. The Thai house of parliament is very different, the chamber is huge. It is like one of the biggest parliament chamber you’ll ever see in this world. It is situated in a very attractive building called Pra-tee-nung-anan-tadsamakom(พระที่นั่งอนันตสมาคม ). Recently, the Thai system has developed a “Party list” system where in a parliament; there would be approximately 50 Party list members. These members are often the elite members of a party. They have a

The upper house consists of elected 200 members which are INDEPENDENT from any political parties. These are the people that form up the law as well as the constitution regulations. Again, for each province to have an upper house member, there needs to be enough population for that member to represent an area. I cannot remember an exact number of population per representative member but I can recall that Bangkok alone has 12. Every time there is a new election to the lower house that consist change in government power, the upper house automatically becomes void. But if there is no change of government, the house remains and serves the house for 4 years for each term.

Next time I’ll blog more on the political structure of Thailand concerning the PM, the cabinets and the privy councilor.

Related Link: WinThaiLottery.com
Related Link: ThaiLotteryResults.com

The idea of lottery goes back a very long way towards ancient times. People of Thailand are very fond of being a gambler themselves. Lottery is taken very seriously in Thailand as it is the only kind of gambling allowed here in Thailand. The system is very different compared to the western world. So, here is how it goes.

First, I would like to talk about the image of what a Thai lottery looks like.

As you can see, there is only one kind of lottery available, which is the top one. The other ones are recent, as I will talk about them a bit later on. This form of lottery has been used in Thailand for a long time. It is still paper-based material while many other countries have developed an electronic system to organise the lottery tickets. In Thailand, you’ll have to get lottery tickets from agents, which receive these tickets from retailers. Usually, lottery tickets are drawn twice a month, which are the first day of the month (the 1st) and the 16th. Every ticket costs 80 baht. This is the standard price. Each ticket has 2 parts, the top and the bottom part. It is not possible to buy just one part as they come in pairs. So, every ticket will still cost you 80 baht. However, if you win, your prize is doubled. Every ticket has 6 single digits, which you’re able to choose when you buy one. If for example, in England, the digits could be double digits up to 49 numbers which you would have to pick 6 numbers. However, the stake is so much more but it is much harder to win.

When the numbers are drawn live on national television, there are probably more than 20 drawn every time as they’ll have to draw all of the numbers according to the number of prize stated. Now, the prizes and amount of these lotteries are as follow

First Prize 1 number 2 million baht
Second prize 5 numbers 100000 baht
Third prize 10 numbers 40000 baht
Fourth prize 50 numbers 20000 baht
Fifth prize 100 numbers 10000 baht
Bonus prize* 2 numbers 50000 baht

* Bonus prize is for people whose first 5 numbers are correct but the last digit is incorrect by one number above or below. (For example, if your last number is “5” you can get the bonus prize if it is a “4” or “6”.

Next, I want to talk about how to watch out for a fake lottery, which could be sold to anyone. Here are the steps.

A fake lottery has characteristics as follow
– different color from the original
– different paper
– no watermark

If you win a prize, you’ll have to go to the GLO (Government Lottery Office) where you will receive a cheque. However, if the prize is less than 20,000 baht, you can go to a local agent and he/she will give the money to you in cash. There is tax, which you’ll have to pay in order to get the money. The nominal rate is 50 satang (0.5 baht) for every one hundred baht. If you cash your money at a local agent, they’ll normally charge you about 2 baht for every one hundred baht.

Now, I would like to talk about the cheaper kind of lottery ticket which plays like the Irish lotto. A prize is drawn the same day as the national lottery. Here is what it looks like;

There are 3 prices of these tickets, 20, 50 and 100 baht. The first row is for 3 single digits lottery. The prize is set to a standard at 500 baht per one baht. For example, if you win the correct amount in the same order and your ticket is the 100 baht ticket, you’ll get 50,0000 for the prize. However, there’s a second Tote row, which the numbers shouldn’t have to be in order and you can also win. The prize of this tote row is 10 baht for every one baht. For this kind, there will be 4 prizes drawn every time. For the third row, you can choose 2 single digits and if you win, you’ll get 65 baht for every one baht. However, you can also choose the last row as it would be a reverse row and if you win that, you have halved the prize money.

I hope that every person who comes to Thailand they try out the Thai lottery. The chances are much better than the European and American lotteries even though the prize is much less. However, always be aware of agents who try to trick you and be aware of all kinds of theft.

Related Link: How to Win Thai Lottery
Related Link: Thai Lottery Results

Thailand has been overcome by the influence of Japanese culture since the end of last decade. The debate I want to discuss today is about the growth of Japanese food in Thailand. Clearly, Japanese food has overtaken all other oversea foods available here. In nearly everywhere you go there are Japanese restaurants. Some of the foods which are available and Thai are interested in are German, Chinese, Laos etc.

These days, most department store restaurants are not Thai restaurants. Thai restaurants are not very popular because most of the Thai food is available in local markets. Today, I went to Zen Japanese restaurant in Siam Center. I’ve been there a couple of times already. However, my last time was last year when I was back here in Bangkok. The amount of customers hasn’t changed much. These days, the majority of customers are University and High School students. Zen is an expensive Japanese restaurant compare to other Japanese restaurants available. Fuji, however, is a cheaper Japanese restaurant and the number of these restaurants have increased dramatically. Fuji is the largest Japanese restaurant you can find in Thailand. Also, there are other kinds of Japanese restaurants available in forms of Ramen (noodles), Sushi, Shabu Shabu etc. The restaurants which serve these foods are the likes of Oishi Ramen and Shabushi.

German food has become increasingly grown over the past few years. This is because the birth of a famous beer brewery restaurant on Rama 3 road. There has been a huge demand of German sausages and beer since then. However, German food is not as popular as Japanese food. Thai people prefer to eat Japanese food more because it has the Asian taste and it is not served in a huge proportion like German food.

Gambling is one of the most popular things Thai people like to do. One of gambling’s kind is to bet. Though, it is still illegal to bet in Thailand. It is one of the things I have a great interest on. As sport crazy myself, I love to learn how the betting system work. Not because I would use for my own benefit but I believe it is one thing that a society should have but not to be encouraged. In Thailand, I see most of my friends lose a huge amount of money because they did not know their limit.

In England, when you want to bet on whatever it is you want to bet. You would just walk into a betting shop. Pay the amount you want to bet and receive a betting slip. There are many betting shops in England. The famous ones would be Ladbrokes, William Hills, Coral etc. You would choose the one that you think, has the best odds. As one of my friends works at Ladbrokes, he always told me about how the English betting system work. It is very simple. An odd is created by the fluctuation of bet like the fluctuations of stocks. The more money put into to the expected winning side, the lower the win back price would be. This system is called “Tote”. Nowadays, many betting agents have more than just football betting. Betting these days has various kinds of sports to choose from.

Most people in Thailand envy that fact that other neighboring countries have legal rights to bet. So, every year, Thai citizen spends a huge sum of money abroad in places like Macau in HK, Malaysia or even Cambodia. Some Thai people are so desperate in wanting to play casino, they drive out to the Cambodian boarder and played casino there. I was surprised myself in the fact that Ladbrokes has a Thai language version for their web site when most people in Thailand cannot bet.

The Thai government tried encouraged Thai people not to bet by abandoning and arresting those who perform illegal bettings. Also on the internet, I tried to enter William Hills and Bet365 websites but it ended up not allowing me to enter it. I wasn’t entering it because I wanted to bet but wanted to use the website to view odds and sport events. However, most people here cannot bet anyway. So, what’s the point of having these sites blocked?

I happen to know how the “underground” betting system in Thailand works. They use the “book keeping” system where there are many little betting tables. For example, a table might have 100 clients. The flaw which is hidden is when you actually bet. If you call the table up and bet before a football game. Your bet gets recorded into a book. The odds are chosen by the table. Usually, they follow the English betting agents. You do not have to pay your bet up front. So, if you win something, you’ll receive the difference between the invested money and the amount of money you win. If you win nothing you’ll have to pay it afterwards. This creates debts for the betters. Thai people usually do not think about how much money they have and usually spend over their limit. They think when they’re in debt; they’ll have to play even more to win it all back. Usually, this does not work because they keep losing and losing money.

When a client does not pay their debt, they’ll have to be responsible for paying it. So, a clearing squad is created to enter these clients’ houses and threading them to seize their belongings. Some cases are severe when clients are in a huge debt and he/she has to be shot dead or beaten to death by the betting table. I see no reason why this should continue when the demand is high. Why not make betting legal and end the money spent abroad? Why not secure these betters’ lives by regulating the rules? In England, anyone who bets has to be at least 18 years old. I believe that gambling is something a society should have but should not be encouraged like I said before.