News from Thailand – July 9, 2013

The 'jet-set' monk Luang Pu Nen Kham is retroactively removed from office when it is proven that he had sex with an underage girl. This is what Phra Khru Wisutthiyan, provincial head monk of Si Sa Ket, the province in which the monastery of Luang Pu is located, says.

The monk "must know what he has done and must appear before a committee of monks formed to investigate his alleged sexual affairs," said Phra Khru Sisutthiyan. The allegation of sex with a minor comes from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI, the Thai FBI), which is investigating the monk.

The DSI will ask the police to take action against Luang Pu. The girl, now a woman, says he is the father of her now 11-year-old son. The DSI wants to examine the DNA of the woman and her son.

Luang Pu was ordained as a monk in 1999. The retroactive effect would apply from the moment he first slept with a woman. The monk is currently in France and will not say when he will return.

He made headlines after a video surfaced on YouTube showing him sitting in a private jet and wearing expensive branded items. He is suspected of money laundering and is said to have had sexual relations with a number of women and girls.

The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) will ask the court today for a search warrant for the home of Luang Pu's parents in Ubon Ratchatani, the monastery and the office of the Khantitham foundation. The CSD suspects the monk of illegally acquiring money and assets.

Photos: Police inspect a building allegedly owned by the controversial monk. The picture on the homepage shows the monk in a private jet with a bundle of US dollars in his hand.

– More suspicious money flows, this time from the Sattha (Faith) Foundation, a foundation that was probably founded by the World Peace University (WPU). The WPU recently made headlines for selling college degrees. The foundation has called on the population to donate money for 'needy'. The Department of Special Investigation will check where the money ended up.

The office of the Higher Education Commission has confirmed that the WPU cannot call itself a university, as it is registered as a 'limited partnership'. The rector of the WPU, on the other hand, claims that the WPU is a university under US law. According to him, 300 people have so far received a university degree for their commitment to world peace. These people come from the world of media, marketing and creative professions. The rector denies that money is being asked for the degrees awarded. According to the DSI, this concerns 1.200 people.

– Former Prime Minister Thaksin is in talks with the Bakrie family to buy its 23,8 percent share in the coal mining company Bumi Plc in Indonesia. He has engaged investment bank UBS for this. The price he would pay for it is unknown. This writes the Sunday Times in yesterday's edition.

Founded by financier Nat Rothschild and the Bakrie family, Bumi has been battling board squabbles for two years, an investigation into financial irregularities and business going bad as the price of coal has slumped.

– The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) welcomes Thailand's peace dialogue with resistance group BRN and will support any initiative leading to peace and stability in the South. The OIC makes this beautiful promise on its website, a few days after Prime Minister Yingluck had a meeting with OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Istanbul. It is the first time that Yingluck has met a top man of the OIC.

The OIC advocates that southern provinces take responsibility for their internal affairs through a system that enables residents to exercise their cultural and linguistic differences and manage their natural resources while respecting the country's constitution and territorial integrity. Ihsanoglu hopes that the dialogue with the BRN (Barisan Revolusi Nasional) will be expanded and that other organizations and groups representing Muslims in the South can participate.

Yingluck told Ihsanoglu that the government is lifting the state of emergency in five areas after consultation with the local population. Progress is also being made in the field of education, with schools and religious centers established earlier this year to serve the local population. Furthermore, the government and the armed groups in the South have agreed on a ceasefire during Ramadan. Ramadan starts tomorrow.

– Eight soldiers were injured yesterday in Krawa (Pattani) when a bomb exploded under the road surface when their army truck drove over it. The front part of the truck was completely destroyed. The injured have been taken to Mayo and Pattani Hospital.

– Environmental groups opposing the planned 350 billion baht water management projects have asked the South Korean government to provide information about the South Korean company K-Water that will dig a waterway of almost 300 kilometers and build water storage areas. They urge the South Korean government to support popular control.

It is expected that the construction of the waterway will meet with great resistance, because thousands of families will have to make room for it. The River Basins Network, an umbrella organization of eleven environmental groups, fears saltwater intrusion into the Chao Praya River because a large part of the water is drained through the new waterway. The network will submit its own plan to Prime Minister Yingluck. That plan would have no negative consequences for residents and the environment.

– Three people died when in Huai Mek (Kalasin) a bang fai 500-kilo rocket hit the crowd. After the flare had launched and was half way up, it went wrong and turned around. About XNUMX people witnessed the drama. Ten people were trampled and injured in the panic. A bang fai  is a bamboo or PVC pipe filled with gunpowder. Money can be wagered on the performance of each arrow.

– In the crash in San Francisco with the Asiana Airlines aircraft, two Thai flight attendants were injured. One of them is in intensive care. The crash and fire killed two Chinese girls and injured dozens of passengers.

– A baby was found in an uninhabited house in Na Yong (Trang), the third case in one week in the province. A passerby noticed the crying child. The baby, who weighs 1,8 kilograms, has been admitted to Trang Hospital.

– In the prison of Mae Sot (Tak) a man, who had been sentenced to 19 years on June 9 for drug possession, hanged himself.

Opinions

– I wonder how the government can effectively tackle corruption when it mistreats an honest and hard-working civil servant like Mrs Supa. Or, is the real truth that the government has no intention of addressing the root of the problem at all. This is what columnist Veera Prateepchaikul writes in his weekly column Think Pragmatic in response to what the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance has said about the mortgage system for rice.

To recap. Supa was heard by a Senate committee last week. She heads a committee that investigates the mortgage system. She stated that the system is at risk of corruption at every stage, starting from the registration of the farmers who want to participate to the return of their paddy (brown rice), the storage of the rice and the sale.

That did not go down well with Prime Minister Yingluck, Supa's own minister and members of parliament from the ruling party Pheu Thai. Yingluck challenged her to call man and horse, the minister set up a committee that will scrutinize her statement and PTers accuse her of colluding with the opposition. "In the performance of her duties," said PT spokesman Prompong Nopparit, "she behaves as an opponent of the government rather than a loyal official."

It is not the first time that Supa has come under fire. In May, a report was leaked that put the loss on the mortgage system at 260 billion baht. The government called the amount exaggerated and kept it at 136 billion baht. Supa defended the report. She won general admiration for her courage to tell the truth about the ill-conceived system. This in contrast to a handful of civil servants and then Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom (Trade), who know the ins and outs, but chose to keep their mouths shut to save their skin.

Veera wonders: what kind of officials do the government and Pheu Thai prefer? To ask the question is to answer it, and it is also a warning to other officials who may have a tendency to blow the whistle on the populist system or some other project. (Source: Bangkok Post, July 8, 2013)

– Update: The Senate Economic, Commercial and Industrial Affairs Committee has come to Supa's aid. Supa stated last week during a hearing by a senate committee [same?] that the rice mortgage system is susceptible to corruption at all stages. This irritated Prime Minister Yingluck; Supa's minister ordered an investigation into her allegations.

At a press conference yesterday, the committee washed the government's ears. According to Senator Wanchai Sornsiri, the remarks of both amounted to threatening an official who abides by the law and the constitution. That would cause one impeachment procedure can be. The Supa investigation violates the rights of those testifying before a parliamentary committee, it hinders the work of a parliamentary committee and discourages other officials from revealing the truth, Wanchai said.

Political news

– It seems that the audio clip with a conversation between Thaksin and Deputy Minister Yutthasak Sasiprasa (Defense, photo), which has surfaced on YouTube, is real. Yutthasak previously denied that the voice in the clip belongs to him, but now he says the clip should be examined first to see if it is real. He stated this in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Yingluck.

Yutthasak met Thaksin on June 22, eight days before the cabinet change, at a Hong Kong airport restaurant. They spoke, according to the clip, about his return to Thailand, changing the rules for the so-called reshuffle [the annual army staff transfer round] and increasing the government's grip on the army.

Prime Minister Yingluck says the clip will not cause problems between the army and the government. “The government and the military respect each other. '

An anonymous source at the Defense Ministry says Thaksin and Yutthasak discussed the report that two top military officials have promised to assist Thaksin's return if he does not get involved in politics. According to the source, the clip says that the army commander-in-chief is on the leash of the government. Thaksin said he has great confidence in General Prayuth Chan-ocha, commander of the army.

According to the source, this explains why Yingluck became Minister of Defense. Thaksin apparently wants to appease the armed forces. He will not transfer the commander in chief and the army chief, which gives him the certainty that there will be no coup.

In the clip, Thaksin also says he has great confidence in Amornthep Na Bangchang, adviser to the naval commander. According to the source, Aormthep misses the chance to be promoted to naval chief, because this would mean that Thaksin calls the shots.

[I really enjoy all this chikanering.]

Economic news

– By the end of the year, 99,6 percent of Thai households (22.688 million) will have a television, ACNielsen (Thailand) expects against 92,8 percent in 2008. Thais watch TV for an average of 3,49 hours a day. The most popular are soap operas, followed by entertainment, news and miniseries.

According to Sinthu Peatrarut, general manager of the company, TV remains the dominant platform, although people are more and more content view on computers, smartphones and tablets. To reach a mass audience, TV is the most effective advertising tool, he says.

In the first five months of this year, sales of television sets fell by 20 percent on an annual basis to 4 million. Consumers are apparently waiting for television regulator NBTC to make a clear decision about digital TV.

The Kasikorn Research Center expects the sales value of TVs to rise by 6,4 to 10,7 percent this year to 37 to 38 billion baht. K-Research predicts that the average Thai household will have two or three devices in the near future, compared to one in rural areas today and two or three in Greater Bangkok.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post