Welcome to Thailand?

[Norseman]

Cut and paste from the Bangkok Post today.
This is the answer Mr. Dave from Australia received when he asked a simple question: How to buy a property in Thailand.
Racism? In Thailand?


Date : Feb 23, 2006 03:10 AM
Author : Rooster (siamking_taksin@yahoo.com)
Subject : RE: Buying property in Thailandnew

Aussie Dave. How could he be right? It is a one sided view. Land has always been a sensitive issue in both Siam and modern Thailand. It is a one sided debate. Throughout our history, foreigners came and take what they wanted by forces. What they could not take, they would try to use their own legal means to force us to follow their wishes. I have suggested in this forum many times before about "the all or none policy." If you wish to own land in Thailand, then you should become Thai citizen. Being a Thai citizen is only shown legal process, but it does not show that you will become a loyal citizen. Disloyalty came in different forms and different subversive process. Annexation of Siam by Islamist, Cochin, and Western colonialists are still fresh in the mind of ethnic Tais. It had divided our people and changed our relationship into foreign relationships. Now, brothers and sisters will destroy each others for foreign ideals and beliefs. It is deeper than foreigners could ever fathom since they are reckless, dishonored, bad dharma, thieves and parasites. They caused indigenous people to become less than second class citizens on their own motherland, our women to be no more than internation whores, our people to live in poverty, our leaders to be corrupted and drunken with power scraps, and much more. If Siam and Siameses were unit and as a whole, we would be energy and economically sufficient people and nation since the Old Siam had all of natural and people resources to a great and free nation.

[tuktukmike]

Not really sure how to give an answer on this but here goes.

Maybe there are some good points in this.

I do wonder how long before the Thais start to feel Disenfranchised in their own country.

Mike.

[Jaime]

Maybe there are some good points in this.

Yes - at least the contributor was actually able to articulate an opinion that showed he was thinking, however distorted.

Thais who actually think about it have felt disenfranchised for many years - ever heard 'Made in Thailand' by Carabou?

[Guess]

Maybe there are some good points in this.

Yes - at least the contributor was actually able to articulate an opinion that showed he was thinking, however distorted.

Thais who actually think about it have felt disenfranchised for many years - ever heard 'Made in Thailand' by Carabou?

Hear Hear,

Mike (I am am not having yet another pop) but maybe should should try and expiain your opinions in a language that others can understand.

It is very difficult for me to understand what you are trying to say.

[tuktukmike]

Guess,

I thought it was quite clear and in the Queens English.

Have another look when you wake up this afternoon.

Mike.

[Wanderlust]

Not really sure how to give an answer on this but here goes.

Maybe there are some good points in this.

I do wonder how long before the Thais start to feel Disenfranchised in their own country.

disenfranchised (adj.) - deprived of power, marginalised

I hardly think that foreigners or foreign governments are the ones who are causing this feeling, unless you want to take it back to the Chinese; but then again are they really regarded by Thais as foreigners anyway? Any disenfrachisement of the Thais is being done by those in power, by perpetuating the wealth and education divide, as well as by media manipulation.
To try and back up an argument against foreigners owning land/ property here by saying that it will make Thais feel disenfranchised is disingenuous at best, considering the existing laws that prevent it anyway and the actual numbers of foreigners who currently possess property through the company or leasehold loopholes. I am sure the view of expats living in areas such as Hua Hin and Pattaya is hugely distorted in many cases, thinking that there is a huge influx of foreigners living here whereas we still make up a very small percentage of the populations of these places as a whole. I can't get hold of any recent statistics but Hua Hin has a total population listed as about 60,000, and based on my own knowledge of the area I would guess the farang population actually living here is no more than 1,000, a little higher if you include those who come for long stays once or twice a year. A large number of this farang population do not own property though as many people rent, so the whole concept of disenfranchisement, even in a booming tourist town like Hua Hin, is way off the mark, even if you double or triple the estimates I have made.
The only thing I would concur with is that the influx of foreigners has caused land and house prices to rise higher and quicker than they may have done otherwise, thus pricing some Thais out of the market which could possibly cause bad feeling; however I think a lot more of this inflation is driven by the rich Thais buying property here, which Khun Taksin himself is a part of.
I would imagine that your average Thai person living and working in tourist areas is glad of the extra business and money that foreigners bring in, as the Thais are, in general, pragmatic.

[Guess]

Very accurate comment from Wanderlust that ties up with my understanding. The original writer has obviously been severley brainwashed.

As for disenfranchisement is concerned, is that not the way of most countries. How many of you really believe that you have any control over decisions made by your governments. That is assuming that most readers of this site acually have the right to vote in their own countries.

It would be useful to see the orginal question about the purchasing of land. I have read in a Thai publication that the laws about foreign ownership of land were relatively new and were made to protect Thai women who got involved with farang men who then buggered off for a later model and left the woman with nothing. I do not know when this was but could feasibly only have been post first world war of post Indo-Chinese anti-Imperialist wars. (Vietnam War).

[PeteC]

I have read in a Thai publication that the laws about foreign ownership of land were relatively new and were made to protect Thai women who got involved with farang men who then buggered off for a later model and left the woman with nothing.

What!?....that is sure the pot calling the kettle black. They should look at what their own Thai men do to their own Thai women for god's sake! But of course mon ami...if you're Thai, you're exempt from such laws and criticism. Pete

PS: I think Guess that the law was made well past the VN era. I would think early 90's as the farang presence started to explode.

[Jaime]

I have read in a Thai publication that the laws about foreign ownership of land were relatively new and were made to protect Thai women who got involved with farang men who then buggered off for a later model and left the woman with nothing.

What!?....that is sure the pot calling the kettle black. They should look at what their own Thai men do to their own Thai women for god's sake! But of course mon ami...if you're Thai, you're exempt from such laws and criticism. Pete

PS: I think Guess that the law was made well past the VN era. I would think early 90's as the farang presence started to explode.

I think both of you are at least partially right. There is something about this law that is intended to protect Thai women because I remember signing something at the land office to that effect when we bought our house. The law allowing Thai women married to foreigners to own land was definitely brought in during the 90's.

Amazing as this might seem there are also plenty of good Thai men out there - my wife's family seems to be full of them - honest and hard working!

[lomuamart]

On that note, I remember researching the internet in 1997 - I'm about right there, I think - and the sites were saying that as soon as a Thai woman married a farang, she could no longer own more property. What she had before was OK.
There were also draconian laws regarding children - ie Thai man has kid with farang woman, no problem for the kid to get Thai nationality. Thai woman has kid with farang man - forget it.
Obviously the situation has moved on, but the sites I was looking at were pretty much up-to-date at the time, give a year or so, I suppose.

[PeteC]

Amazing as this might seem there are also plenty of good Thai men out there - my wife's family seems to be full of them - honest and hard working!

I agree loy %. Laws should be equal and balanced though, just as they are (or seem to be) in the USA/UK/Germany/Scandanavia etc., concerning the rights of legal resident aliens vs citizens.

The post that started this out seems to me to be from a very young and uneducated Thai boy/girl who has no clue concerning actual Thai history, and a huge grudge against something or everything. If I'm legal here and he is legal in the USA...he can buy the country if he has enough cash. I can't buy squat unless it may be my divit (sp) from a bad golf swing. I can then take some Thai "land" home with me. I'll go to my grave fighting the xenophobia and predjudice in this Land of Smiles. Pete