News from Thailand – September 28, 2014
Members of Parliament and Senators are required to report their assets and liabilities to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC). This rule also applies to the current emergency parliament (NLA, National Legislative Assembly), because the NLA members perform the duties of both parliamentarians and senators.
Following this reasoning, the NACC has therefore instructed the NLA members to provide insight into their financial position. She points out that after the 2006 coup, the then NLA members had to do the same.
But 28 NLA members disagree. They have asked the Administrative Court whether they should make the demanded notification. One of them is Noppadon Intapanya, adviser to the NCPO (junta). He and his co-complainants reason: we are not 'political office holders', so that rule does not apply to us.
The request to the court must have hit the NACC like a bombshell, because they knew nothing about it. She came to know by chance thanks to a press release from the Administrative Court, which says that the court will decide on Tuesday whether she will hear the case.
But the NACC apparently is not resentful - at least in public - because the secretary-general says he has no problem with the petition of the group of 28. The NLA members had until September 7 to submit their financial statements. Whether that happened, the message does not say.
– The taxi will be more expensive from November and the metro ticket from the beginning of next year. Minister Prajin Juntong managed to persuade the BMCL, which operates the underground metro, to postpone the fare increase. Originally it would have started on September 1, but it had already been postponed for a month. From January 1, a metro ride will cost 1 or 2 baht more.
According to a source at the company, the delay results in a loss of revenue of 7 million baht per month, or 42 million over six months. [Gosh, Bangkok Post can count today.] Despite this, the company agreed to the postponement in order to spare the cost of living in the short term. [Or getting a white foot at the junta.]
It is not yet known what the taxi fares will look like. It is studied hard. The increase is related to the expected price increase of LPG and CNG (natural gas) next month. The starting fee of 35 baht will probably remain unchanged. The minister expects the rate to rise by 8 to 11 percent.
– Princess Chulabhorn, the youngest daughter of the royal couple, was admitted to hospital last week with stomach problems, shortly after she returned from Turkey. The doctors have in her stomach small growths found and bacteria on the stomach wall. Those creeps are fought with medication. Earlier this month, the princess also suffered from gastritis.
– The police arrested a couple on Friday who sell weapons and ammunition via Facebook and they had been doing so for two years. She tracked down the couple after teenagers arrested for street fights declared on the Facebook page Tonkkarn Jing bought their guns.
Be on the FB page pen guns and bullets for sale. They turned out to be sent from post offices in Muang and Sam Kok (Pathum Thani) and Sena and Bang Sai (Ayutthaya). On Friday, the police witnessed how the woman posted eleven packages. She then went to an apartment in Bang Sai, where she was arrested. Her husband was later arrested.
The harvest of the seized weapons was shown during a press conference yesterday. The two suspects were also photographed (not available).
– Soldiers in Tak province have been put on high alert after the Mae Sot border post has been temporarily closed due to the heavy fighting between the Myanmar army and Karen resistance fighters (the newspaper calls them 'rebels').
There was fighting between the two from half past ten yesterday morning until noon about four to five kilometers from the border. Shells and mortars were fired at the center of Myawaddy. Five people were reportedly killed and ten injured. After the fighting stopped, the border reopened in the late afternoon.
According to sources, hostilities flared up in August when the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army began blocking and 'taxing' imports from Thailand.
– The Ministry of Transport will allocate an amount of 800 billion baht for a ten-year infrastructure development plan. That amount is intended for a thorough overhaul of railways, local roads and highways with the main aim of better connecting Thailand's major cities.
Other uses of the money include the design of areas as economic zones, solving traffic problems in large cities, better connecting public transport systems between provinces and a network of gateways create [through roads?] to promote border trade.
After 10 years, the logistics costs will have reduced by 2 percent from the current 15,2 percent of the gross domestic product, the ministry expects. Private car traffic is also decreasing, according to the ministerial crystal ball: from 59 to 40 percent. The speed of freight trains must be increased: from the current 39 to 40 km per hour to 55 to 60 km per hour and that of passenger trains from the current 50 km per hour to 60 to 80 km per hour.
The message goes on to list a laundry list of blessings, but I leave them unmentioned except that the ministry wants to end the constant derailments of trains by replacing the wooden sleepers with concrete ones. Six new light rail connections are planned for Bangkok.
– The chairman of a cooperative on the Chatuchak weekend market yesterday protested against the State Railway of Thailand, which operates the market. According to him, the SRT does not do that well. He accuses the SRT of tolerating unregistered sellers on the market, duping the official sellers.
His protest came to a premature end when the police arrived. Because the gentleman did not want to come along, officers grabbed him and carried him to a waiting police van. And that resulted in a nice picture for the newspaper (not available).
– Suan Dusit Poll has once again gauged the popularity of the junta. Of the 1.626 people surveyed, 52,64 percent were 'quite satisfied'. According to that narrow majority, the coup plotters are doing their best to solve the country's problems and run the country. 38,93 percent expressed satisfaction that peace has been restored to the country and protests or chaos have ended. They also praised the transparency of the board. A tiny minority of 8,43 percent is dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.
– The Phuket police has arrested three Bulgarians on suspicion of skimming. When they were arrested, a hundred people had already complained that they had lost money because of the work of those miscreants. To catch the trio, the police had posted at ATMs.
– Thailand wants to become a member of the UN Human Rights Council from 2015 to 2017 and of the UN Security Council in 2017 and 2018. Those wishes are supported by the other countries of Asean, Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn said after attending an informal meeting with his foreign affairs colleagues yesterday.
Tanasak is in Washington for the 69th United Nations General Assembly. He also spoke yesterday with representatives of American companies, including Coca-Cola and Chevron, while eating a soft-boiled egg during breakfast or perhaps scrambled egg [also tasty]. According to Tanasak, the companies still have faith in Thailand.
And with this good news, dear readers, we close News from Thailand today. And now click through to the other news that is in separate posts.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
More news in:
Killings Koh Tao: No suspects yet
New iPhone already on sale, but twice as expensive as in the US
About this blogger
-
Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
Read the latest articles here
HotelsJanuary 13 2025Escape to luxury and nature at Roukh Kiri Khao Yai
News from ThailandJanuary 13 2025Same-sex couples in Thailand can register their marriage from January 23
Food and drinkJanuary 13 2025Eating in Isaan (video)
thai tipsJanuary 13 2025Photography tips: How to take better beach photos in Thailand?
The Suan Dusit Poll: I just checked their website: http://dusitpoll.dusit.ac.th/polldata/2557/25571411783417.pdf
There are no figures on the people who didn't want to participate or who said 'I don't know'.
52.64 percent were quite satisfied and 38 were very satisfied. 'Quiet satisfied' therefore does not mean 'very satisfied' but 'fairly satisfied'.
There was another question: 'What problems and obstacles do you see in the further work of the junta (NCPO)?'
44.60 percent said the 'seizure of power' ('concentration of power') and the absence of democracy was a major problem
33.27 percent feared a decline in the economy (especially tourism)
22.13 percent felt that the 'opposition' had too little influence
@ Tino Kuis Thanks for the addition. The 'Very Satisfied' category was missing from Bangkok Post. Incidentally, international comparisons of opinion polls show that categories such as 'fair', 'a lot' and so on do not mean the same in every country. The Dutch are not easily 'very satisfied', Americans love such a category.
Hi Dick,
I think the registration of assets that the members have is a very good thing.
Perhaps there are people who have recently received a "donation" and who are against it and therefore do not want to declare it.
If one wants to fight corruption, those people who are close to everything there must fully agree that this is being checked.
All this can help Thailand to reverse the debts that originated from rice, etc. a bit.
LOUISE