News from Thailand – February 15, 2013

The most striking couple in the district office of Bang Rak (Bangkok) was a lesbian couple on Valentine's Day yesterday, but there was no marriage certificate for them. The law does not allow same-sex marriage. Bang Rak is a popular place to get married as the name means 'district of love'.

The couple had gone to the district office to draw attention to a proposal from the Sexual Diversity Network (SDN). The network has its own version of it civil partnership draft bill, which is currently being presented to the public in a number of hearings. The network fears that the version drawn up by a parliamentary committee will not make it to the cabinet.

Although that version has the support of gays and lesbians, the SDN will come up with a civilian version just in case the cabinet doesn't give the green light. Such a civilian version with 10.000 signatures goes straight to parliament.

– Captain Somkiat Polprayoon, commander of a special marines unit, is not proud of the victory his unit achieved against the militants on Tuesday night. “There is nothing to claim victory. We are all people from the same homeland,' he says. "My message to the insurgent is: stop violence and fight for your cause by peaceful means."

The attack by the 50 heavily armed militants on the marine base in Bacho (Narathiwat) was repelled because it was expected. Residents had reported on their movements last week. "People even told us how many militants were in the area and what weapons they were carrying." [This message makes no mention of the target map, which was previously found on a killed militant.]

Four of the militants have now been apprehended: three drove a pickup truck in Rueso district with traces of blood on a door and one was arrested while being treated for a gunshot wound at Narathiwat hospital. But he denies participating in the attack.

Connoisseurs of the violence in the South fear that reprisals are to be expected. Sixteen militants were killed in the Marines' counterattack. The militants will also want to bolster their ranks with new recruits. Major attacks like this one are unlikely. Presumably, the militants will resume their old strategy of killing high-ranking officials and kidnapping individuals. Because an important local leader has been killed, this could lead to a reduction in violence in Bacho.

A lecturer at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani says the dead militants are heroes in the eyes of sympathizers. Their deaths could garner even more support for their actions. During the funeral of the slain militants in Yuelor village (Bacho, Narathiwat), villagers recited prayers in honor of the dead, praising them as 'martyrs'.

– A suspect in last year's bombing at the Lee Gardens Plaza hotel in Hat Yai (Songkhla) has confessed after days of 'intense interrogation' [sic!] that he and two other men left the pickup truck with bombs in the hotel's parking garage have parked. Previously, they had prayed in a mosque in Hat Yai. After leaving the deadly pickup, they had fled to Nong Chik (Pattani) in another pickup. The car was driven by a fourth man.

In tambon Khlong Mai (Pattani), a combined group of police and military rangers has arrested a 33-year-old man. Police suspect he was also involved in the hotel bombing, but whether he was the fourth man is unclear. The man had ten arrest warrants for several bomb attacks in Hat Yai and an attack on a military base in 2011.

– A committee of the Royal Thai Police has found no evidence of corruption in the tender for the construction of 396 police stations. The committee draws this conclusion on the basis of the documents studied; she did not hear witnesses. They are heard by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which is investigating the same case. "With the evidence that the DSI has, the DSI may be able to identify irregularities that we could not see," said Jate Mokolhatthee, chair of the committee.

Today the DSI hears Wichean Potephosree, former chief of the state police. Under his rule, the police asked then Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban to sign the contract with the contractor. The contractor then outsourced the work. The subcontractors stopped work last year because they were not paid. Initially, the work was to be tendered regionally, but Wichean's predecessor changed that to a central tender. Suthep approved that decision.

– The dissident UDD leader Kwanchai Praipana of the red shirt group Khon Rak Udon (People who love Udon Thani) maintains his criticism of national UDD chairman Tida Tawornseth. He says leaders of red shirt groups from XNUMX northeastern provinces decided at a meeting in Lamphun on Monday to stop participating in rallies with Tida because they disagree with her decisions.

Kwanchai yesterday criticized UDD leader Jatuporn Prompan [another hothead] who has accused him of destroying the UDD with his criticism of Tida. "I'm just dissatisfied with Tida and have no problem with the UDD," said Kwanchai.

[See further News from Thailand from yesterday.]

– Residents of tambon Sai-iab have asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate the government's plans to build three dams on the Yom River, including the highly controversial Kaeng Sua Ten dam. NHRC member Niran Pithakwatchara, who attended a seminar on human rights violations in Chiang Mai yesterday, has promised residents to look into their complaint.

[See also the article The color of money is anything but green.]

– The National Ombudsman urges Prime Minister Yingluck to reconsider the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to return former Prime Minister Thaksin's passport. The Ministry has previously ignored the same request from the Ombudsman.

Under a ministry regulation, a passport cannot be issued to a person against whom a Supreme Court warrant has been issued or who has been banned from leaving the country. In October 2011, Thaksin got his passport back, which had been revoked by the previous government.

At the time, Minister Surapong Tovichatchaikul (Foreign Affairs) motivated the decision by pointing out that Thaksin's stay abroad will not harm Thailand or other countries. Thaksin fled Thailand in 2008 when he was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Since then he has lived in Dubai.

– The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD, red shirts) will deploy 3 volunteers on March 10.000 to monitor the governor elections in Bangkok, says UDD chairman Tida Tawornseth. Because they are not allowed to enter the polling stations according to the electoral law, the UDD has asked the Electoral Council, the Bangkok electoral panel and the municipal clerk to keep a close eye on the elections. According to Tida, the number of invalid votes in the July 2011 national election was unusually high.

Bangkok's electoral commission confirmed yesterday that the UDD is not allowed to observe elections in polling stations, but election candidates can appoint one representative per polling station. Bangkok has 6.549 polling stations. A list of names must be submitted to the electoral commission by Wednesday at the latest.

Electoral Council member Somchai Juengprasert says that buying votes is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The candidate no longer gives money directly, but suggests that the person goes shopping. The amount will be refunded later. Another method is that voters are asked to provide their bank account number. After they have voted, an amount is deposited on it.

– In the past 5 years, alcohol consumption in terms of value has decreased by 50 billion baht, which the Thai Health Promotion Foundation attributes to anti-alcohol campaigns. One such campaign was the call to stop drinking during Buddhist Lent.

– Unemployment has risen sharply in one month, from 200.000 in December to 350.000 in January, but the Department of Employment attributes this to the end of the harvest season in the agricultural sector and not to the increase in the minimum daily wage to 300 baht per 1 January.

January also saw a reduction in the number of vacancies: by 26.900 to 100.000 jobs. The decline was greatest in service and retail.

– The dock workers are going on strike today, unless director-general Viroj Chongchansittho of the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) hangs up his winch. The union accuses him of not complying with an agreement made during consultations with the Ministry of Employment. It was then agreed that Viroj would reconcile with the employees, but he failed to do so. The Ministry has ordered the PAT to round up 300 stand-in workers. In trade union terms, they are called strikebreakers. The strike will begin at 16.30:XNUMX p.m.

– The Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) says that 70 percent of young people regularly make contacts via social media and are therefore at risk of sexual harassment and unwanted pregnancy.

Over the past two months, the QLF conducted research among 2.800 young people into their leisure activities. 76 percent regularly use Facebook, LINE and WhatsAPP, 51 percent use the internet immediately after getting up and 40 percent before going to bed.

30 percent said they had been sexually harassed by people they met through social media. The young people gave their phone number, revealed personal information and sometimes met the people they had chatted with on social media.

Economic news

– Although Prime Minister Yingluck stated on Tuesday that the government is sticking to its offer to organize the World Expo in 2020, Minister Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan, notably a minister attached to the Prime Minister's office, has serious doubts about this because of the costs involved. Kasetsart University has calculated it at 73 billion baht: 40 billion for facilities and buildings and 33 billion for infrastructure (railways and roads).

The minister points out that 70 to 80 percent of the revenue of the most recent expo in China came from domestic visitors. "If we organize this event in the same way, it will be difficult to reach 10 billion baht in ticket sales."

The Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau is currently finalizing its own revenue study. “If it shows that the expo is beneficial for the country, we should do it. If not, then we shouldn't. The use of taxpayers' money must be reasonable, worthwhile and of benefit to the country," said Niwatthamrong.

In addition to Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, Russia and the United Arab Emirates are also preying on the exhibition. The decision will be made in November. If Thailand wins, the expo will be held in Ayutthaya.

– After an on-again, 10-year relationship with Chang Beer, Carlsberg is finally back on the market, but now as a partner of Singha. Singha Corporation, the brewer of Singha and Leo, will distribute the Danish beer through its network in Asia. Singha will also gain access to Carlsberg's eight breweries in Asia to make Singha products. Carlsberg has two factories in Laos, one in Cambodia, four in Vietnam and one in Malaysia.

Singha, now the fifth largest beer brewer in Asia, hopes to become one of the top three within five years. Carlsberg is currently in 5th place. Starting next month, Singha will be brewing Singha for the European market in a Carlsberg brewery in Russia. That is cheaper than serving the European market from Thailand.

– The Ministry of Energy has asked the Ministry of Transport to limit the number of vehicles that run on LPG. The widespread use of the gas in the transport sector weighs heavily on importer PTT Plc.

The Minister of Energy hopes that LPG will gradually be replaced by CNG (compressed natural gas, natural gas) when the network of gas stations is expanded to cover the entire country in the coming years. Thailand currently has 483 CNG stations, most of them in and around Bangkok. They serve 380.000 vehicles.

LPG consumption in the transport sector amounts to 14 percent of total gas consumption. Due to the subsidy on LPG [from the State Oil Fund], use has increased annually by 15 to 18 percent in recent years. Motorists benefited from a subsidy, which was actually intended for domestic use. The number of LPG vehicles has also risen sharply from 70.000 a decade ago to over 1 million last year.

www.dickvanderlug.nl – Source: Bangkok Post