News from Thailand – March 31, 2013

Bombing Narathiwat.

A day after an army captain was killed in an ambush in Narathiwat and fourteen members of his patrol unit were wounded, two military rangers were killed and four others wounded in a bomb blast in Pattani yesterday.

The rangers patrolled a road in Ban Khaek Thao in a pickup truck. As they passed a parked pickup truck, the bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked near the car exploded. The rangers' pickup truck was heavily damaged, and a Mayo District hospital vehicle traveling behind it was also damaged, but the occupants were not injured. After the bomb exploded, insurgents fired on the rangers and a brief 5-minute firefight ensued.

In Yala province, police have arrested a man wanted in a rubber plantation for at least five attacks in Than To district between 2005 and 2009. Police were tipped that he was hiding there.

– A proper cost-benefit analysis of the infrastructure works that the government wants to finance with a loan of 2 trillion baht is missing. 'There are enormous risks associated with these investments. The government must review its priorities and check whether the construction of a high-speed line is urgent.' This was said by Pairoj Wongwipanant, former dean of the Faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn University, at a forum in Bangkok yesterday.

Other criticisms that could be heard concerned the lack of input from the population. Sangsit Piriyarangsan, dean of Rangsit University's College of Social Innovation, said people should be given the opportunity to see how the funds are being spent. When the government fails to make the selection of executive companies transparent, it is in the 'hot seat'. Sangsit also wondered that the high-speed rail lines to Nakhon Ratchasima and Hua Hin will substantially increase the country's productivity.

Naturally, there were also words of concern about corruption. Tortrakul Yomnak, head of Engineers for Thai, said the bribe amount could be "staggering".

The House of Representatives debated the proposal in the first term on Thursday and Friday. After a committee has studied it (it has 30 days to do so), the second and third term will follow, but that will not be until May, because parliament will go into recess on 20 April.

– If we cannot win on the quality of the arguments, then we will try on the quantity. Thailand has prepared a 1.300-page defense in the Preah Vihear case. Cambodia is a bit more modest with 300 pages. From 15 to 19 April, both countries will face the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for an oral explanation.

Cambodia has gone to the Court with a request to reinterpret its 1962 judgment that awarded the temple to Cambodia. It wants to elicit a ruling from the Court about the 4,6 square kilometers at the temple claimed by both countries. According to Veerachai Palasai, Thailand's ambassador in The Hague and delegation leader, the Court is not competent to make a ruling. The disputed land is a different matter and has nothing to do with the 1962 ruling. Let's hope that the Court thinks so too, but academic Srisak Wallipodom doubts that. "I think Thailand will lose. Residents of both countries will suffer the consequences and Thais will suffer the most.”

– For the second harvest of the 2012-2013 rice season, the government has allocated a budget of 74,2 billion baht. It is expected that 7 of the 9 million tons of harvested rice will be offered for the rice mortgage system. Farmers then receive 15.000 baht for a ton of white rice and 20.000 baht for a ton of Hom Mali (jasmine rice). The total expenditure for the two harvests comes to 224,2 billion baht.

What can be earned back from that is looking at coffee grounds. The government pays 40 percent more than the market price, so the bought-up rice will only be able to sell at a loss. The mortgage system is pre-financed by the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives. Farmers complain that they have to wait a very long time for their money.

– In Bang Bua Thong (Nonthaburi) a stillborn baby with an umbilical cord was found yesterday in a black plastic bag. Presumably the baby had died two days earlier. A witness saw how a car stopped at 3 am at the place where the baby was found and two men left a bag behind. When they caught sight of the witness, they hurriedly fled.

– A 13-year-old boy in Photharam (Ratchaburi) died after being stabbed in the neck with a knife. The boy was able to ask for help in a shop, but he died after being admitted to hospital. The police assume that the boy knew his attacker and that he lured him to a remote place to attack him there.

– In a collision yesterday in Si Maha Phot (Prachin Buri) between a minivan and a truck, three passengers and the driver were killed and five passengers injured. The van, which was on its way from Bangkok to Khao Soi Dao (Chanthaburi), collided with the truck at high speed, which turned right.

– Bad luck for the thieves who wanted to empty an ATM after getting the back open with a blowtorch. The alarm of the Krung Thai bank in Pathum Thani went off and the police took a look. Bank staff determined that nothing had been stolen.

– The police of Chachoengsao is looking for a couple who managed to defraud ten people by pretending that they could get rich with gold trading. The father of the man being sought owns a gold shop. Two men, who say they have lost a million baht, filed a report.

Political news

– Members of Parliament of Pheu Thai are not allowed to make a foreign trip for the next three months, because the motto is: all hands on deck. Every vote is needed as the House of Representatives considers proposals to change the Constitution. And the proposal to borrow 2 trillion baht for infrastructure works will be returned to parliament in two terms.

From tomorrow to Wednesday, parliament will debate three proposals to amend four articles in the constitution. Pointwise:

• Article 68 now gives the populace the opportunity to file a complaint with the Constitutional Court on matters that are detrimental to the constitutional monarchy. That possibility should be removed, the submitters believe.
• Article 117 stipulates that half of the Senate is appointed. Choose all, is the proposal.
• Article 190 stipulates that all international contracts, agreements, etc. require parliamentary approval. Time consuming, so adapt.
• Article 237 deals with the abolition of political parties. When a single party member commits electoral fraud, the party is swept into ruin. Unreasonable, so change it.

Economic news

– Effective today, Hong Kong Airlines is adding a fourth flight per week to its Bangkok-Hong Kong route. A larger aircraft is deployed on the daily route Hong Kong-Phuket, an A330-200 with 140 seats in economy class and 8 in business. Also effective today, the frequency will be increased on the routes to Taipei, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Kunming, Fuzhou, Sanya and Haikou. The route to Bangkok will continue to be flown with the A330-200 (259/24 seats) and A330-300 (260/32 seats) wide-body jets.

About three quarters of the passengers who fly to Bangkok and Phuket are Chinese, the rest mainly Thai. The route to Bangkok is also served by Thai Airways International and Cathay Pacific with five and six flights a day respectively.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post