News from Thailand – November 28, 2014

Thailand and Vietnam have agreed to increase trade between the two countries to US$ 15 billion by 2020. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha (right) and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung think they can achieve that goal by promoting trade and investment with especially in the field of agricultural products such as rubber and rice.

The two leaders agree on more things, but you can read all about that in 'Thailand, Vietnam set $15bn trade target' (see website Bangkok Post).

Prayut visited Vietnam yesterday. In addition to the prime minister, he spoke with the president, the chairman of the National Assembly and the chairman of the Thailand-Vietnam Friendship Association. 2016 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to Prayut, Thai-Vietnamese relations are now at a good level, as both countries have done their best to strengthen them.

Whether it stays that way remains to be seen, as Laos threatens to build a dam in the Mekong that will have disastrous consequences for the Mekong delta, Vietnam's main rice barn. That dam can be built because Thailand purchases electricity. I will return to this issue in another post.

– Former Senate President Nikom Wairatpanij is not allowed to provide additional evidence to defend himself in the impeachment proceedings against him. The emergency parliament rejected his request in question.

Nikom and his House of Representatives colleague have been nominated by the National Anti-Corruption Commission for impeachment and a 5-year political ban. Has to do with procedural errors that both Pheu Thai people made at the time when dealing with a proposal to amend the composition of the Senate.

The additional evidence consists of a 4-hour edited video showing parliament's deliberations on that proposal. According to Nikom, the NACC refused it before, but that is being contested by an NACC member. The NACC used 120 hours of video in its investigation. Deliberations on impeachment proceedings begin on January 8 [your editor's birthday].

– The students who made the forbidden three-finger gesture during Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's visit to Khon Kaen last week fear for their lives. “Every day we worry about whether or not we are being shadowed or watched by you know who,” says Sasiprapa Raisa-nguan.

The student was yesterday with three other members of the so-called Dao Din student group as a guest of a team from the independent TV channel Thai PBS, which had won an award from the Isra Institute and Unicef ​​for a broadcast on children's rights. The Dao Din group had previously been interviewed by that team for the program Voice of the People who Change Thailand.

The offending finger gesture, borrowed from the film Hunger Games, was made during a speech by Prayut. The five students who made it were taken to a military base for a "re-education" interview and then released. Sasiprapa: 'If the government is afraid of a simple three-finger gesture from students, this country is very weak.'

– Former opposition leader Abhisit was a guest yesterday at the Constitution Drafting Committee, the committee that will write the new constitution. He proposed that the law be put to the people in a referendum. According to him, this will put an end to possible opposition or protests. Without a referendum, the constitution's legitimacy would always be questioned, he believes.

Abhisit hopes that when that hurdle has been passed, the country can concentrate on economic developments and there will no longer be any need to argue about politics and the constitution. With regard to the question, Abhisit pleaded for a clear choice, not a simple yes or no. He also called for the relaxation of martial law to remove obstacles to holding public hearings.

– The Thailand page of the US-based organization Human Rights Watch has been blocked within Thailand. When you log in, you are redirected to the message 'This website has inappropriate content and has been suspended'. In recent weeks, HRW has strongly criticized the detention of dissidents. Asia director Brad Adams takes the block as a compliment. "We must be doing something right."

– The Supreme Court has no mercy on a former police officer who was arrested in 1999 for possession of drugs and intent to sell them. The court upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal to imprison the man for life. He had been sentenced to death by the ordinary court; the Court of Appeals made it life in prison for providing useful information during the trial.

– Nineteen skeletons were found in Lop Buri in July, which are more than 2.500 years old and date from the so-called Bronze Age. Furthermore, bracelets made of shells were uncovered, a bronze axe, a handloom and pottery.

– There is progress in the legislation against commercial surrogacy and the trade in babies. Yesterday, the emergency parliament approved the stricter regulations in first reading. A committee will now consider the bill again and possibly make adjustments. This will be followed by second and third readings. The legislation comes in response to the discovery that a Japanese man had put a large number of surrogate mothers to work for him for a fee.

– Five men received the death penalty yesterday from the court in Pattani for the murder of four soldiers in July 2012. Two others were seriously injured in that shooting.

The suspects targeted a Pattani Special Task Force 5 patrol. A total of eighteen men in three pickup trucks chased the patrol. After the shelling, they fled with guns, communications equipment and body armor. The authorities expect retaliation because of the heavy sentences.

– The police in Samut Prakan arrested a 47-year-old American who was wanted in his own country and in Thailand for rape and assault. Upon his arrest, police confiscated two fake passports that made him a British citizen and an American by a different name. He also held two international driver's licenses in the same names.

Arrest warrants had been issued against the man by the Denton County Court and Harris County Court in Texas and the Criminal Court in Thailand. The suspect has managed to work as a language teacher in two schools in Nakhon Si Thammarat and three in Bangkok in recent years, using the fake passports.

– A teacher at Rajabhat University in Si Sa Ket is suspected of trying to get a student into bed in exchange for high grades. The university has formed a committee to investigate the matter.

The teacher had taken the student to a hotel room, where she managed to call another teacher while he was taking a bath and ask him to alert the police. The call did not come as a surprise to this teacher, because the student had already informed him that she had been invited to dinner. Rumors have been circulating for some time about the man's frank behavior, which would have even led to pregnancies. The student had gone with him on purpose to set him up.

– The head of the district Wang Nam Khiew (Nakhon Ratchasima) does not get his way. He had asked the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) to refrain from taking action against illegally constructed holiday parks in Thap Lan National Park during the high season. The man was afraid of damage to tourism and also thought actions were bad for the mood during the upcoming holidays. However, the DNP continues. According to the agency, there are 314 cases of illegal land use, covering an area of ​​2.238 rai.

In the neighboring province of Prachin Buri, the service will continue on December 11 with the demolition of the Ban Talay Mok Resort. A lot is happening in Chaiyaphum as well. Since August, according to the governor, 4.066 rai have been recaptured from squatters. In Saithong National Park, the DNP and the army have made short work of a cassava plantation of 760 rai. The head of Thap Lan National Park has been transferred after receiving death threats.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

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