News from Thailand – September 26, 2014

The Hindu god Phra Witsawakam must be involved to reconcile the students of two vocational schools and prevent further bloodshed. Yesterday staff and former students of Rajamangala University of Technology (Uthen Thawai campus) went to Pathumwan Institute of Technology to do penance and beg for reconciliation.

Yes, reconciliation, because students from both programs can't get along or see each other. And that is an understatement, because six students from Rajamangala shot dead two PIT students on September 12 in retaliation for the death of a Rajamangala student more than two weeks earlier.

"We hope to close the gap and start over," said Thongphun Thasiphent, dean of Uthen Thawai's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Architecture. Both programs hope that the public apology serves as an example to the struggling students and helps to de-escalate the tensions between them.

The secretary-general of the Office of the Higher Education Commission (OHEC) has threatened to shut down institutions if their students riot. He has the support of the NCPO (junta) for this. Uthen Thawai and PIT said yesterday that they would report future incidents to Ohec and provide names of leaders and fighters to the NCPO when fighting resumes.

– Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha lost his temper yesterday when reporters asked him to comment on an article in Time criticizing the police investigation into the murders on Koh Tao. [They could also have referred to a posting on Thailandblog, but Prayuth will not read our blog.]

Prayuth protected the police. “If we rush the police too much, the wrong suspects will be apprehended. We try to base the research on scientific evidence as much as possible. We don't make anyone a scapegoat.'

Yesterday, the police acquitted the son of the AC bar manager (the bar where the victims had been on Sunday evening). He was not on the island at the time of the murders. The police are looking for the perpetrator in four groups of suspects: foreign workers, male foreign tourists, those who had an altercation with the two Britons in the bar and local community leaders [a euphemism for mafia?].

171 DNA samples have now been taken. The search is still ongoing for the mysterious 'Asian-looking' man who walked to the crime scene on Sunday night and returned in a hurry 50 minutes later, as evidenced by CCTV footage.

– It has been reported before and the newspaper will repeat it once again: the new passenger terminal of Don Mueang (terminal number 2) will only be ready at the end of next year because the renovation is not going smoothly. Twenty-eight activities are scheduled, but only five of them have been completed. Work is still in full swing on escalators, lifts, electricity and the computer system.

When the new terminal is in operation, the 90-year-old airport will be able to handle 30 million passengers a year, up from 18,5 million now. Don Mueang's main user is AirAsia. The chairman of Airports of Thailand thinks that the airport can still handle the upcoming high season, which starts next month. The expected increase in passenger numbers is manageable.

– Three popular waterfalls in Chiang Mai were temporarily closed yesterday after heavy rain and strong currents. The safety of tourists could not be guaranteed. These are Mae Sa in Doi Suthep National Park, and Mae Klang and Mae Ya in Doi Inthanont National Park.

– Good news for the 50 boars, three sheep, two goats and a Chital deer in Wat Juay Moo (Ratchaburi): they will be released back into the wild and some will go to a research center. The temple had taken care of the animals that had been brought there by residents. However, the Sangha Supreme Council recently banned temples from keeping wild animals to prevent them from being used for making amulets. [?]

– Don't be so stubborn and drop the murder charges against former Prime Minister Abhisit and his Deputy Prime Minister Suthep, the Democratic party tells the Public Prosecution Service. The court has dismissed the case, so why appeal, wonders former Democratic MP Thaworn Senneam.

Thaworn sees the recent arrest of five so-called 'men in black' as an additional reason to let the case rest. Abhisit and Suthep have both been charged with murder because in 2010 they gave the army permission to fire live ammunition during the red shirt disturbances if necessary. During the turbulent April and May, 90 people were killed, including soldiers. They would have been killed by the 'men in black', a heavily armed brigade in the red camp.

– The weekly pep talk from Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha (now spelled Chan-o-cha by the newspaper; a letter writer this week pointed to Bangkok Post already on the modification) on the television remains. Prayuth says he must be able to continue to inform the population about the decisions of the NCPO (junta) that he leads. [That's his other cap.]

According to media reports [but can you trust them?] the episode of Returning Happiness to the People be the last tonight. Prayuth is even considering making a second TV appearance over the weekend, but in his capacity as prime minister.

Critics [who are they?] criticize the program's one-way traffic. The government should give people more opportunity to express their views.

– The Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission is drowning in complaints about corrupt officials, especially at the Ministry of the Interior. In the past four months, the committee received significantly more complaints than in the same period last year; in the past two months there were 188: 91 on public sector procurement projects and 97 on illegal land use.

Violations were allegedly committed by officials of 133 (out of 171) government departments. Apart from BiZa, most complaints concerned the Royal Thai Police, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transport. Customs was the most accused of taking bribes and the Department of Local Administration plus municipalities and counties received complaints of corruption.

The Thailand Research Institute yesterday released the results of a study on the impact of corruption on long-term growth, based on 2007 and 2008 data collected by the Court of Auditors and annual reports from the National Anti-Corruption Commission. BiZa is also at the top with an average of 1.544 complaints per year.

– I call it posturing. The National Legislative Assembly (the appointed emergency parliament) yesterday became embroiled in a 'heated' debate about the formation of parliamentary committees. Can one and the same committee deal with both national security and foreign affairs?

NLA member Noranit Sethebutr found it confusing, also because that committee will often have to travel abroad to explain the situation there. Other members did not see that objection; threats to national security are borderless. Foreign affairs and national security are intertwined.

After a suspension, the chairman spoke the redeeming word. Foreign affairs will be placed in a separate committee and national security will move to the home affairs committee.

– After a chase of two SUVs, agents and soldiers yesterday in Takua Pa (Phangnga) were able to arrest the drivers plus 37 Rohingya refugees. One of the drivers tested positive for a drug test. The police had been tipped off that some refugees from a plantation in Khura Buri were going to Takua Pa.

The drivers have admitted to smuggling refugees by water from Rakhine in Myanmar to Songkhla and Satun on several occasions. The route went through southern islands and through the jungle with shelters in several places to avoid detection. The refugees were later divided into smaller groups and scattered across the country or taken abroad. According to one source, "influential figures" and officials are involved in the smuggling, which has been going on for a long time, in Phangnga province.

– Fifteen people, including the mayor of Karon on the island of Phuket, have been charged by the police with illegal business operations on the (public) beaches Karon, Kata and Kata Noi. They have to go to the police on Wednesday.

The violations are not from today or yesterday, because in 1979 the provincial court of Phuket already sentenced a number of illegal sellers. They were fined 6000 baht and jailed for three months. [No further details.] The Central Administrative Court previously [no date] established that the municipality is not authorized to rent out space on the beach. The municipality benefited: Karon was good for 1,38 billion baht per year, Kata and Kata Noi for 1,15 billion baht.

– The street vendor who was hit by a stray bullet seven months ago in Lak Si died yesterday. The man was hit in the neck during a shooting. The bullet lodged in his spine, paralyzing him. The shooting took place at the Lak Si district office which had been besieged by anti-government protesters to prevent elections from being held. One of the shooters is known as the 'popcorn gunman' because he hid his firearm in a bag that normally contains corn. The man was arrested in March, but he has not yet been convicted.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

More news in:

Asian Games: Qatar pulls out over hijab ban
US praises Thailand's fight against human trafficking