News from Thailand – November 4, 2013

The Pattaya Bali Hai pier, where the capsized and sunken ferry should have docked. Seven passengers were killed, including four foreigners. On the homepage an archive photo of the ferry.

The business community is also defending itself against the controversial amnesty proposal. The Thai Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Thai Industries and the Thai Banker's Association are gathering today to determine their further strategy, after earlier resistance had no effect. Further point by point:

• The Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand (ACT), an umbrella body of numerous organizations and companies, today handed over a letter of protest to the President of the Senate [who has yet to consider the proposal]. The ACT previously sent letters to, among others, the UN and the American embassy.
• The Thai Chamber of Commerce will conduct a survey among its members in the country and will determine its position based on the results.
• According to ACT member Danai Chanchaochai, the amnesty proposal shows that the Yingluck government supports corruption. Corruption is the main cause of the slowdown in the country's development, he says. Danai points out that foreign investors are becoming more and more aware of good governance and take this into account in their investment decisions.
• The Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations is preparing a seminar on the impact of the amnesty proposal on the Thai stock market.

– From the red shirt camp reports Bangkok Post a rally at Ratchaprasong intersection, the area the red shirts occupied for weeks in 2010. The newspaper does not provide details about that meeting. She does quote Tida Tawornseth, president of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD, red shirts).

“The opposition to the [amended] amnesty proposal by the Red Shirt members is an illustration of their political maturity. The red shirts' political ideas are maturing and they are beginning to move away from clinging to individuals towards justice and public interests.'

– Academics expect that the Constitutional Court will leave no stone unturned in the amnesty proposal. Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, vice-chancellor of Thammasat University, also thinks the government will be in trouble if it wants to scrap Article 309 of the constitution. This article exonerates the coup plotters [September 2006] from prosecution and legitimizes the decisions of the commission investigating corruption under the Thaksin government.

When Article 309 falls, says former senator Seree Suwannapanon, Thailand's credibility in the eyes of the international community in the country's efforts to fight corruption will die. Seree refers to Thaksin's sentence to 2 years in prison for his assistance with a questionable land purchase by his then-wife and to the 46 billion baht seized from Thaksin for tax evasion. Those decisions could then be reversed.

Opposition to the amnesty proposal has flared up after a parliamentary committee decided to extend the amnesty to the army, protest leaders and authorities [read: Abhisit and Suthep, who are held responsible for the victims who fell in 2010]. In the original proposal [which has the support of the red shirts] the amnesty only applied to people who were arrested during the disturbances, for example because they violated the Emergency Ordinance.

– Former Prime Minister Thaksin already sees the storm: the government of his sister Yingluck bites the dust at the Constitutional Court and the National Anti-Corruption Commission. Thaksin takes into account that elections will be held early next year.

The oracle in Dubai is also concerned about the waning popularity of 68 Pheu Thai MPs from the North and Northeast. A poll showed that they were supported by only 15 percent of respondents. To prevent the party from losing parliamentary seats, two new political parties are kept in reserve. They can later merge with Pheu Thai.

According to a source at Pheu Thai, it is highly likely that the Constitutional Court will reject the amnesty proposal, the constitutional amendments (including changes to the election procedure and composition of the Senate) and the proposal to borrow 2 trillion baht for infrastructure works, because they are unconstitutional.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission can give the government a hard time because of the corruption-ridden rice mortgage system and because of the 350 billion baht budget for waterworks, which offers plenty of opportunities for corruption.

Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit tries it one more time. The amnesty proposal is not aimed at helping one particular person [read: Thaksin]. It is in the interest of the people and offers a blank amnesty for the sake of national reconciliation. But who still believes that?

– Today a public hearing will be held in Muang (Nakhon Sawan) on the planned water works in the province, including the construction of the Mae Wong dam in the national park of the same name. But the residents still don't know anything, some don't even know that a hearing is being held today and pro-government politicians are mobilizing proponents of the dam to come en masse to the hearing. In addition to the construction of the dam, the government also plans to establish water storage areas in the province and construct waterways.

Adisak Chantanuwong, secretary general of the Environmental Committee for the Lower Northern Provinces, says a one-day hearing is not enough to listen to those affected by the works. His group has been given 5 minutes.

Two thousand people were invited to the hearing. Residents in remote areas complain that they have to travel far to attend the hearing. They also have problems with the registration via the internet.

Sasin Chalermlarp (of the protest walking tour against construction of the dam) expects the meeting to be dominated by supporters. They have the right to express their opinion, but we will continue our protests. The environmental and health impact assessment of the project is inaccurate about the ecological impact on Mae Wong National Park.”

– Police yesterday in Prachuap Khiri Khan found a TNT bomb and two grenades at the house of a village chief and another man. She believes they were placed because both do not support the rubber farmers' protest.

The protest that started on October 26 with the blockade of the Phetkasem Road is slowly fading away. The farmers have already cleared the half of the road towards Bangkok. The other is still being occupied, but demonstrators swarm out one by one. Police say they heard the sound of exploding pin-pong bombs and fireworks along the route.

– A defense volunteer was killed in a bomb attack at Toh Deng station (Narathiwat). When he opened the level crossing barrier for eight colleagues, a bomb exploded. The man later died in hospital from his injuries. The eight colleagues were unharmed. Rail traffic was halted for two hours.

Two soldiers were injured in a bomb attack in front of a mosque in Sungai Kolok (Narathiwat) on Saturday night. They patrolled there with two colleagues.

– Ten shops in the Sam Phan Nam floating market in Hua Hin went up in flames on Saturday night. It took firefighters an hour to contain the fire.

– The Japanese business newspaper Nikkei reports that a Japanese consortium will build a 23-kilometer rail link in Bangkok. It also supplies 63 trains and builds 16 stations. Twenty technicians will be stationed in Bangkok for 10 years for maintenance. The line will come into operation in 2016. The message does not state which line it concerns.

– The Office of the Consumer Protection Board has banned the sale of pest products that can deliver electric shocks. Those things are dangerous for children and people with heart conditions. These include pens, car keys and electrical switches. They are good for a shock of up to 500 to 1000 volts.

– The Ministry of Transport has asked bus operators and manufacturers of parts to stop using highly flammable materials, such as curtains, foam, leather covers and wooden upholstery.

Comments

– Some expats also claim it: protesters in Thailand are paid to demonstrate. Red Shirt leader Suporn Atthawong now says that about the protesters at Samsen station. Bangkok Postcolumnist Veera Prateepchaikul, who visited the protest location the past three evenings, is clear about it: Pure nonsense.

The demonstrators are working people in their thirties and there are many over 50s. Teenagers and students are in the minority. They must be too busy with their smart phones, he sneered. Veera writes that Thaksin and his cronies have seriously underestimated the strength of the resistance against the blank amnesty and against himself. Thaksin predicted that the rally at Samsen would draw no more than 10.000 protesters; according to the organization there were 50.000 on Saturday, although the police muttered that there were 7.000 to 8.000.

Veera calls on the Democrats to clarify what the ultimate goal of the protest is. Is it just about the bill or is there a hidden agenda? Show leadership, because the party cannot afford to put the burden on the Constitutional Court to decide on the amnesty proposal.

– Two comments about the ferry disaster on the website of Bangkok Post:

• Now to search, and search, and search for the owner and the driver of this ferry which, as in the case of the Bangkok Santika night club fire took years and, of course, the court found the owner innocent of doing any wrong. One must understand that Thai officials have a totally different understanding of “wrong doing” than most of the rest of the world ! (Don Aleman)
• Just returned from 3 weeks in Pattaya… I love to go to Koh Larn, but I always hire one of the speedboats after I encountered one of these Ferries in the bay… it was swaying badly under the weight of it's passengers, and I never forgot that. That Ferry driver needs to be prosecuted. (gwats)

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

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