News from Thailand – April 10, 2013

The rural doctors' actions against the introduction of performance-related pay have prompted a backlash from the Dental Council, Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Pharmacy Council.

They think it is a good system because it encourages doctors to work harder and not to refer cases to a provincial hospital that they could handle themselves.

Manas Kanoksil, hospital director at Udon Hospital, says more than 50.000 appendicitis cases have been transferred from district to provincial hospitals, delaying treatment. The fear to operate yourself is partly the result of a lawsuit in 2002. The Ministry of Health then had to pay compensation of 600.000 baht to the family of a woman who had died during such an operation in the hospital of Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The Rural Doctors Society protested again yesterday against halving the inconvenience surcharge and introducing the new reward system known as P4P (pay-for-performance). This time about six hundred doctors gathered in front of the headquarters of ruling party Pheu Thai. They tore up portraits of the health minister and handed over a letter of protest addressed to the party board. According to the doctors, the new system, which took effect on April 1, will lead to an exodus of doctors.

– The second peace talks between Thailand and rebel group BRN may be postponed. Thai delegation leader Paradorn Pattanabut hinted this yesterday after a second grenade attack on the home of an adviser to Vice Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, who is responsible for policy in the South.

Malaysia, which is following the talks as an observer, has also hinted at a postponement because elections are being held. The Malaysian parliament was dissolved on April 3 and Malaysians will go to the polls on June 27. The first conversation took place last month; the second meeting is scheduled for April 29.

Yesterday, the home of former Muslim MP Najmuddin Uma in Narathiwat was shelled. That also happened on Monday; then the roof and a ceiling were damaged. Yesterday the grenades landed at a neighbor's house and one resident was injured.

It seems as if insurgents have started targeting important people. Last week, a bomb attack killed Yala's deputy governor and an assistant governor. Najmuddin is a member of the so-called Wadah group, a group of influential Muslims. Chalerm takes advice from nine members of the group, including Najmuddin.

Sunai Phasuk, an adviser to the Thai branch of Human Rights Watch, said Najmuddin is one of the few people who could influence the insurgents responsible for the recent wave of violence. But the hard core of the insurgents considers him a defector because he works for the government.

– A police patrol vehicle was slightly damaged in an explosion in Bacho (Narathiwat) on Monday evening. The four occupants were not injured.

– Although the red shirts continue to deny they ever existed, a senate subcommittee found that on April 10, 2010, heavily armed 'men in black' (named after their clothing) attacked security forces at the Kok Wua intersection of Ratchadamnoen Avenue. The troops had been sent there to put an end to the red shirt protest.

Commissioner Nanthadet Meksawat has criticized the slow progress made by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI, the Thai FBI) ​​with its investigation into the death of General Romklao Thuwatham that day. He says the general was killed by two grenades thrown from the redshirts.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has heard more than 10 witnesses and sifted through reams of evidence. She concludes that the April 26 violence was not caused by security forces; they acted in accordance with the law. The chairman of the Senate committee doubts the number of deaths of XNUMX that the confrontation would have claimed.

Not coincidentally, the commission announced its findings a day before the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) is holding a commemoration of the April 10 battle.

– Muslims and Rohingya in Thailand have appealed to the UN and the US to intervene in the violence in Rakhine in Myanmar. Some XNUMX Rohingya and Muslims from Bangkok and the Far South delivered letters to the Myanmar and US Embassy and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees yesterday. In the letters, they appeal to the Myanmar government to stop what they call "genocide".

In addition to Rakhine state, other places including Bago and Yangon are also experiencing arson attacks, ambushes and attacks. The violence occurs repeatedly with no sign of resolution. "Our civil government and Aung San Suu Kyi are neglecting the plight of people born in the same country as them," said Abdul Kalam, one of the protest's coordinators.

– About three hundred drivers of minibuses demonstrated yesterday at the Royal Plaza against the strict enforcement of the speed limit. If caught exceeding the 110km limit, they will be fined 5.000 baht for the first offense and 10.000 baht for subsequent offenses.

The demonstrators demand that the speed limit be raised to 120 km. They also think they should be able to pay the fine at the checkpoints instead of going to the Land Transport Department or the Transport Co. The minister has advised them to enter into talks with the Land Transport Department.

– How long has this not been discussed: the purchase of 3.183 buses that run on natural gas for the public transport company of Bangkok (BMTA). This has already been discussed under the previous government. But yesterday the cabinet finally took the plunge. It provides 13 billion baht for the purchase, to be repaid over a period of 10 years.

The BMTA is expected to save 26 billion baht annually on fuel costs when the buses are in operation. Of the 3.183 buses, 1.524 are air-conditioned and 1.659 have to do without. They cost 4,5 and 3,8 million baht each, respectively.

– The army television channel 5 in its morning news program yesterday showed a portrait of Meryl Streep instead of Margaret Thatcher. The channel has made an apology on the website of channel 5. Meryl Streep plays the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, who died on Monday, in the semi-biographical film The Iron Lady. A TV station in Taiwan showed pictures of Queen Elizabeth. Maybe you didn't pay enough attention in history class.

– At the Bang Krarang reservoir in Kaeng Krachan (Phetchaburi) an elephant was found whose head was chopped off and the tusks were missing. The animal was discovered by villagers who went fishing there. The head of Kaeng Krachan National Park said the elephant had been dead for three weeks. On March 8, an elephant was also found near the reservoir.

– Next week it will happen. The oral explanation of Thailand and Cambodia in the Preah Vihear case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The sessions can be followed live on www.phraviharn.org, on NBT channel 11 and on three radio stations. The official language in The Hague is French. An English and Thai translation will be provided. The Court itself also broadcasts the hearings on www.icj-cij.org and via the UN website webtv.un.org.

Cambodia will speak on Monday, Thailand on Wednesday, both countries then again, after which the case will end on April 19. The Court is expected to rule in October. For those who didn't know [do you still have those people?]: the case revolves around the property of 4,6 square kilometers at the Hindu temple. Cambodia approached the ICJ in 2011 with a request to reinterpret its 1962 judgment awarding the temple to Cambodia.

Army Commander Prayuth Chan-ocha says the current military exercises in Nakhon Ratchasima have nothing to do with that case. Exercises are held here every year.

On Saturday, about 150 people wanted to set up a protest camp at the entrance to Phra Viharn National Park (the Thai name of Preah Vihear), but they were stopped and left.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

Dossier

Dossier is a section with information about topics that are or have been regularly in the news. Dossier provides background information, based on articles Bangkok Post. The column won't appear every day, but for now I can get ahead with the topics I've collected data on over the years. I hope that the blog readers correct errors and/or add information where necessary.

P-Move
P-Move stands for People's Movement for a Just Society. The group consists of many members of the defunct Assembly of the Poor. They belong to the Anti-Pak Moon Dam Network, the Four-Region Slums Network, the Northern Farmers Federation, the Northeastern Land Reform Network, the Southern Farmers Federation, and the Bantad Mountain Range Land Reform Network. These groups had previously united in the Land Reform Network of Thailand before joining P-Move.
The Land Reform Network advocates communal land tenure, a land bank for landless farmers, and a progressive land tax. Two residential communities have now received a communal land deed and a Community Land Deed Office is being set up. Some ideas, such as limited land ownership, have not yet been realized.
Apart from the Land Reform networks, other networks also operate under the banner of P-Move, such as action groups against dams, mines, electricity projects and biomass power plants. P-Move also campaigns for stateless people, the rights of contract farmers and the amendment of unjust laws against forest dwellers.

Traffic in Bangkok
Bangkok's roads are designed for 1,6 million cars. At the end of April, Bangkok had approximately 7 million cars. It will therefore come as no surprise that the average speed in the morning rush hour is 16,3 km per hour and in the evening rush hour 23,5 km.
Between 2002 and 2012, the Bangkok vehicle fleet increased by an average of 5 percent annually or 240.000 vehicles. From January to July 2012, 582.279 new cars were registered and in August 42.509.
Areas to avoid as a driver are Asok, Lat Phrao, Sathon, Siam, Ramkhamhaeng, Pratunam and Rama IV Road.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Guru, October 12, 2012)