News from Thailand – October 24, 2014
Airports of Thailand, the manager of Thailand's six major airports, expects 50 million travelers in the coming peak season (present-March), 10 percent more than in the same period last year.
The number of flights rose by 6,6 percent to 337.500. Airlines that use Don Mueang in particular plan to operate more flights. Chiang Mai, Suvarnabhumi and Phuket are also getting busier.
The forecast for Suvarnabhumi is 826 flights per day, more than the current number of 780. The number of passengers arriving each day will increase from 122.600 to 137.800, of which 117.100 are international and 20.700 are domestic passengers.
– The parents of the two guest workers from Myanmar suspected of the double murder on Koh Tao today visit their sons in the prison of Koh Samui. They are accompanied by staff from the Myanmar Embassy and lawyers from the Lawyers Council of Thailand.
Three British police officers arrived in Thailand on Wednesday to observe the investigation into the murders. The team consists of one Metropolitan DCI of homocide and crime unit, a forensic expert, also from the With, and an experienced detective from Norfolk.
– The Minister of the Environment has ordered an investigation into Tarit Pengdith, the disgraced former head of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI, the Thai FBI). Tarit is suspected of illegally using land in Pak Chong (Nakhon Ratchasima).
The Second Army Corps is already dealing with that matter. On Wednesday, a Corps legal team visited Tarit's property. See for background information News from Thailand from yesterday (penultimate post).
-The District Court of Don Muang is now electronically informed by the Department of Probation. Advantage: officials no longer have to drag files to court. Don Muang is the first court to do so. The head of the DP suggests that other services also follow a good example, such as the Royal Thai Police and the Public Prosecution Service.
– The Department of Probation (probation) has ordered 3.000 electronic ankle bracelets (cost 70 million baht). Drug offenders wear them around their ankles when they're grounded instead of going behind bars. The tires will be delivered at the end of this year.
The service has already used 200 tires as a test, but they were rented and had to be returned. The authorities expect that the use of the tires will prevent recidivism.
– The Interior Ministry and the military are warning officials of any rank, including provincial governors, that they are caught smuggling duty-free goods across the Thai-Cambodia border. According to the director-general of Customs, this practice mainly takes place in Aranyaprathet.
The minister has not yet received any information about the involvement of civil servants, but he says in advance that he will not spare anyone. In Aranyaprathet, these would be local soldiers, BiZa officials, kamnans (tambon heads) and phuyaibans (village chiefs). The smuggled goods are mainly textiles and counterfeit goods.
– The organization Thai Energy Reform Watch urges the government to postpone the auction of new oil concessions, because it will only lead to internal conflicts. The auction is the 21st since 2007. 29 blocks will be auctioned: six in the Gulf of Thailand and 23 on the mainland, mainly in the Northeast. Those blocks are good for 28 to 141 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 20 to 50 million barrels of crude oil.
According to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, they generate 20.000 billion baht in foreign investment and create XNUMX jobs. He says Thailand will have to import more energy if the country fails to find its own energy sources.
According to the ministry's Department of Mineral Fuels, Thailand's oil will run out in eight years. TERW member Rosana Tositrakul says this is not correct; some permits will then expire. She also points out that the National Reform Council was not consulted.
Prasitchai Nunuan of the Partnership of Energy Reform believes that the Petroleum Act should be amended. The current law gives the government the exclusive right to approve concessions without involving the population.
– The Minister of Justice urges the authorities to sit like a goat on the oat box with the payment of the douceurtje of 1.000 baht per rai to rice farmers, which started this week. The money should go to the farmers and not to the landowners. Concerns about this were recently raised at a meeting at the ministry because the database [of the cadastre] is not up to date and the owners could abuse that gap.
– Women should be given a greater role in drafting the new constitution. That constitution should contain guarantees for equal treatment of men and women and measures against domestic violence. The best way to achieve this is to appoint women to form the CDC (Constitution Drafting Committee).
Senee Chaiyaros, vice chair of the Law Reform Commission, made this plea during a two-day seminar of the Girls Guides Association. Another speaker thinks that at least one third should be women. The CDC will have 36 members.
– Three academics argue for an independent body that should be given the task of monitoring the new government that will be formed after the elections. It must check whether the required organic laws are being passed and whether they are in accordance with the constitution.
In this way it can be prevented that those laws are not enacted, as happened in the past. Political considerations played a role in this, making previous constitutions useless for certain purposes. However, the proposed body should not have too much power, allowing it to intervene and cause a political imbalance.
The new constitution will be written by a committee based on reform proposals from the recently formed National Reform Council. A temporary and concise constitution is now in force. New elections will not take place until early 2016.
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
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