News from Thailand – November 12, 2014
Was the motto 'Tidy is tidy'? That question arises following a firefight in Chiang Dao (Chiang Mai) between the border police and a gang of drug smugglers.
Border police shot dead five smugglers early yesterday morning, but none of the officers were injured. The firefight ensued as police tried to stop the smugglers. Five smugglers managed to escape.
Police took six bags of ya ba (methamphetamine pills) and some weapons. A total of 420.000 pills were intercepted. [Would they all have been counted by hand?] The smugglers are believed to have been members of the Lahu ethnic minority group, also known as the Muser hill tribe. The police suspect that the men were hired to transport the drugs across the border, which strikes me as an ironclad conclusion.
– China and Japan are going to withdraw their travel warning for Thailand. Prime Minister Prayut was told this by both prime ministers in Beijing. Prayuth is in China for the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, six of the fifty countries that issued travel warnings after the coup have now withdrawn them.
China and Japan are two important countries for tourism, because of the 26 million foreign tourists who visited Thailand last year, 26 percent came from those countries. In the first nine months of this year, 3 million Chinese visited Thailand, a decrease of 17 percent year-on-year.
– More news from Beijing. The US and Russian presidents are concerned about the situation in Thailand. They have asked Prayut if the situation is back to normal, to which he replied that the political climate is improving but the country needs more time for political reform. He has asked them to suspend their judgment until it is realised.
Russian President Putin has Prayut on updates asked about the progress of the reforms. Mind you: This is all coming from Prayut's mouth, so for what it's worth.
– A 23-year-old Thai woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Istanbul for cocaine smuggling. She was arrested in June in the transit lounge of Atatürk airport for acting suspiciously. Police found more than a kilo of cocaine in her luggage.
The woman had been on holiday in Brazil with her African boyfriend and made a stopover in Istanbul on the way to Vietnam. She claimed not to know there were drugs in her bag. The judge initially sentenced her to 12 years, but deducted 2 years because of her exemplary behavior during her pretrial detention.
– The police are looking for Thein 'Hasan' Win, a 53-year-old Rohingya with the Myanmar nationality, who is suspected of ties to the southern resistance. He allegedly slipped into Thailand to use the country as a base for his illegal activities. He would like to have his face remodeled in Thailand and then return to Myanmar to carry out attacks.
The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) has called on the population to remain calm and not to panic if they spot the man, but to alert the authorities. According to ISOC spokesman Banpot Pulpian, there are no indications that the southern resistance is supported by international or regional terror groups. He also considers it unlikely that Thailand is the target of terrorist groups, although a slightly increased risk of attacks on foreign embassies and companies is taken into account.
– The income tax reduction for tax brackets 100.001-300.000, 500.001-750.000, 1-2 and more than 4 million baht will remain in force for an additional year. The reduction is still a decision of the Yingluck government. She left the other discs untouched.
– For those who are interested. The whips of the NLA (National Legislative Assembly, emergency parliament) have decided to postpone the decision whether former Prime Minister Yingluck is eligible for impeachment proceedings. Yingluck's lawyers have asked for more time to study the file.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission has asked the NLA to retroactively remove Yingluck from office. As chairman of the National Rice Policy Committee, she would have done nothing to address the corruption in the rice mortgage system and the spiraling costs. See also the post: Rice Mortgage System: Yingluck's Precious Legacy.
– Another thing for those interested. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam suggests that parts of the new constitution be put to the people in a referendum instead of the entire constitution. The question of whether or not a referendum has been being whined about for some time and that whining will continue for some time to come. According to Wissanu, the entire constitution is 'too complicated' for the common people. He also has other objections to a referendum on the entire constitution, but you'll have to read that for yourself in the article Wissanu open to selective charter poll on the website of Bangkok Post.
– The best way to support farmers is not through price interventions (such as the mortgage system for rice) but through disaster insurance and input subsidies (making seeds and other supplies available). The input subsidies encourage farmers to produce more food at lower costs. This is what Hiroyuki Konuma of the FAO Asia-Pacific said at a UN conference on food loss and waste. 'Those two resources are a much healthier way to help farmers.'
– The campaign is called 'Sustainable Mobility Project 2.0'. The aim is to prevent traffic congestion through simple measures. A trial has been running on a 3-kilometre section of Sathon Road since June and has already resulted in a 20 percent increase in the average speed of 20 km during peak hours. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of vehicles that use the busy route daily, 390.000, by 10.000.
Some measures: A bottleneck for Bangkok Christan College has been solved by the school buses at Central, Tesco and The Mall dropping off and picking up students instead of in front of the school. Businesses along the road have been asked to change working hours and the adjustment of the traffic lights has been better geared to the traffic flow.
The Ministry of Transport wants to use the Sathon model, as it is called, as a model for other roads in the capital with traffic problems: Rama IV road at Witthayu junction, Narathiwat Ratchanakharin road and Charoen Krung road. They will be available in May and September next year.
– He sometimes missed a single day, after a public holiday for example: the man on the motorcycle who promptly came tearing into Nathong 1 every morning at half past five. I could already tell from the familiar sound that he was coming. Stopped in front of my hotel, took out two newspapers, the Thai one, from his full panniers with a quick wave of his arm Daily News and the English language bangkok mail, and gave it to me or the night watchman. Thanks to that prompt service, I was able to start News from Thailand early.
But the delivery will be stopped for the next 5 days. 'She is busy', said the receptionist, who hardly speaks English. I'll have to make do with that vague statement. No idea who that 'she' is. Oh yeah, This is Thailand, we say. This means that I have to look for the newspaper in the neighborhood, hoping that the two kiosks I know are not served by the same delivery person. And when it does, I have to go into town. To make a long story short: The section will appear later in the next 5 days.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
Dick,
Some things in life are worth the wait. This also includes your “News from Thailand”. 😉
“…According to Wissanu, the entire constitution is 'too complicated' for the common people. He also has other objections to a referendum on the entire constitution, but you will have to read that for yourself in the article Wissanu open to selective charter poll on the Bangkok Post website…..”
He's right. The 'anti-corruption' section in the new constitution is definitely too complicated for the ordinary Henk and Ingrid here. Or would he spare them a strain of laughter?