it seems that I was wrong with my first impression or observation.
The main reason now given for this behavior is :
" NATIONALISTIC SENTIMENTS "
Protest against Singapore escalates to airbase
By Veera Prateepchaikul for Bangkokpost.com
The Thai military has not been transparent enough about its agreements with Singaporean. It is the role of the parliament to make the Thai military disclose the content of the deals to the public.
About 500 people gathered in front of an airbase in the northeastern province of Udon Thani Friday morning calling for the withdrawal of Singaporean troops who have been using the former American-built airbase for training.
The protesters who claimed to represent people from 19 northeastern provinces at first converged at Thung Sri Muang field in the municipal area before moving toward the airbase where they submitted a demand to the base commander demanding that the government review the bilateral agreement allowing Singapore's air force to use the airbase for training. The protesters later dispersed.
Earlier on Thursday, representatives of the protesters submitted a similar demand to the National Legislative Assembly.
The protest against Singapore's use of the airbase represented what was seen as growing nationalistic sentiments among quite a few Thais against the island state following the Shin-Temasek telecommunications deal.
Remarks recently made by General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, chairman of the Council for National Security, that he would like the ownership of the Shin satellites to be returned to Thailand seemed to have fanned the flame of nationalism. Since then, there have been talks about buying back ShinSat, a subsidiary of Shin Corp which owns the satellites, from Temasek Holdings, Singapore's investment arm.
Some assemblymen are likely to raise the issue about the Singapore's use of the Udon Thani airbase for a debate in the parliament.
It is hoped that this political move was not motivated by nationalistic sentiments, but stemmed from the urge to find out the truth about the secret deal between the Thai and Singaporean military and to resolve the issue in a manner beneficial to the country and not harmful to the good relations between the two countries.
It should be noted that the public was totally kept in the dark about the agreements of military cooperation between Thailand and Singapore, namely the use of the airbase in Udon Thani and the training ground for Singapaorean troops in Kanchanaburi province.
As far as the Thai military was concerned, it was fair to say that the military had not been transparent. Nobody outside the military seemed to know the content of the deals which should be made public.
The duty of the parliament is to make the military reveal the content of the deals to the public so that it could be judged whether the deals should be reviewed.
Hope they get their wish, would be good for a quieter Udon.
