Thailand's hungry military
September 3rd, 2010 by Andrew Walker · 2 Comments
It's been a while since I posted a graph on New Mandala. Here's a simple one that is very revealing about the state of politics in Thailand. It shows military spending as a percentage of GDP (from the World Bank – just Google military GDP Thailand and you will get the data). The post-1992 decline is striking, as is the post-2006 rise. The World Bank figures only go up to 2008. I have provided an estimate of the current figure (darker blue line) based on published information about the 2010 budget. (Click on the graph for a larger image.)
Here's another graph that puts Thailand in some regional perspective. Recent increases have put Thailand well ahead of Indonesia and the Philippines. With the 2011 budget, it is closing fast on Vietnam.
Tags: Thailand
2 RESPONSES SO FAR ↓
1John Dove // Sep 3, 2010 at 5:12 pm
The military spending is no doubt on an incline under the Apisit government, as we all know very well that this government was formed by the order of a few generals. But don't be surprised to learn that Apisit is giving back what the military gave him, they are in fact joining hands to absorb everything they can from the tax payers. Look at the jets and tanks they bought, one's can learn easily how much corruption had been made. Tanks from country like Ukraine and fighting jets from Sweden. The purpose for all these military spendings is not really to upgrade or modernize their wings but rather than to pocket huge commission from these deals. So, the more they buy, the more commission they earn. Don't be surprised with a sharp incline in all these spendings. The Thai generals with salaries of BHt 30,000 can drive a few Mercedes Benz that cost BHt 15,000,000 and live lavishly in a hundred millions Baht home.
Quality comment or not?
5 
0
2Nganadeeleg // Sep 3, 2010 at 6:06 pm
The increased military spending figures would be even more striking if shown in dollar terms, judging by this GDP graph:
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:THA&dl=en&hl=en&q=thailand+gdp+graph
Quality comment or not?
1 
0