Minister Chadchart Sittipunt (Transport) – and we are not exaggerating – has become an internet sensation. A photo of him wearing a black shirt and shorts and walking barefoot is edited in countless ways.
For example, the minister can be seen at the head of a row of mannequins with clothes from Vivienne Westwood, as a boxer who beats Muhammed Ali, as a man on the moon with Neil Armstrong and as a player in the Superbowl.
The minister thinks it's funny. 'I was first surprised and then amazed, because some of these pictures show fantasy and creativity. I have to laugh about it. I don't take them seriously because they are meant to be a joke and they are fun. Humor is important, because life already has enough tensions.'
The picture that sparked it all was taken when Chadchart fed monks on their morning rounds in Surin. Someone snapped the photo, sent it to Chadchart's Facebook page, and it sparked a real hype. And that will continue for a while. The nerve center of the Chadchart fever is the Facebook page 'Chadchart: The Toughest Transport Minister in the Universe', which has already scored more than 100.000 Likes.
– The last bell sounded last night for the famous Lumpini Boxing Stadium on the Rama IV road. Thousands of fans, promoters and officials came to the 58-year-old stadium to say goodbye. The stadium moves to a new facility on Ram Intra road, which can accommodate 8.000 spectators. The opening ceremony is scheduled for February 28.
– The Chinese company Shenzhen Yitoa Intelligent Control Co, which has withdrawn as a supplier of tablet PCs for the Prathom 1 students in the educational zones 1 and 2, can expect a hefty claim for damages.
The company should have delivered the tablets in December, but announced at the end of January that it would cancel the contract due to the political unrest in Thailand, disagreements about the contract and communication problems.
Within 45 to 50 days it will be safe to look for a new supplier for the tablets, says Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng (Education). The students are expected to receive the toy in June, when they are now in Prathom 2.
Apart from the students in zones 1 and 2, Mathayom 1 students in zone 3 have not yet seen a tablet. The company that supplies the tablets has been accused of inflating prices, but it has turned out that this is not the case. When these students get their tablets, the message does not say.
– It is business as usual at Thai Airways International on Monday, says acting president Chokechai Panyayong in response to a brochure calling on the staff to shut down the company. Purpose: to put pressure on the leadership to oust the chairman of the board and Chokechai. The union says it does not know who made the leaflets.
The chairman and Chokechai have filed a complaint against four employees, including the chairman of the union and his predecessor. They led a campaign for wage increases in January. The declaration was made at the insistence of the shareholders. According to them, this action has caused damage to the company. That would have been proven by research.
– 21 persons of royal descent ask the Crime Suppression Division to investigate six people who are alleged to have committed lèse-majesté through messages and photos on Facebook. The group previously accused the government of lese majeste, but that complaint went in the drawer [or in the trash?]. She has also sent a petition to the Prime Minister with the same result.
– In the south of Thailand, insurgents have hung banners criticizing Thailand's problematic politics. They hang in 34 places in Narathiwat and Yala provinces. The text reads: 'Siam fails to govern the country, so how can it govern Melayu Patani?' The banners also included suspicious-looking boxes, but they turned out to contain no bombs.
In Bacho (Narathiwat), soldiers narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded while on patrol at a school.
In Kabang (Yala), officers came under fire on their way back to the station after escorting teachers. No one was injured.
In Bacho (Narathiwat) a man was shot dead in front of his home and in Yaha (Yala) a man was also shot dead. Two people were injured in that attack.
According to Paradorn Pattanatabut, secretary general of the National Security Council, insurgents are stepping up their attacks because the government is now "weak".
Bangkok shutdown
– Three ministries received a visit from protesters yesterday. First they went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and demanded that the officials stop work. After a few had done so, the journey continued to the Ministry of Science and Technology and Industry. Whether officials left there, the message does not say.
The tour continued through the business center of Bangkok with the aim of raising money for the farmers who have not yet seen satang for the rice they have surrendered under the rice mortgage system. Money will also be collected for the farmers on Monday. The target amount is 10 million baht; yesterday 8 million baht would have been raised. The exact destination has not yet been announced.
PDRC protest leader Thaworn Senneam acknowledges that the siege of government buildings has had little effect so far. The PDRC is still considering whether Prime Minister Yingluck's home and that of her cabinet members will be besieged. According to him, the protests will certainly continue until Songkran (April 13).
– 58 anti-government protest leaders are not allowed to leave the country. They have been banned from doing so by the CMPO, the body responsible for the state of emergency, said a statement yesterday from Tarit Pengdith, head of the Department of Special Investigation (Thai FBI).
Arrest warrants have been issued against 58 of the 19 leaders; 39 others are charged with rebellion and election obstruction. If they try to flee the country, they will be stopped at the border. Provincial courts have approved arrest warrants for XNUMX suspects for blocking elections, mainly in the South.
Pengdith also said that the expulsion of Indian businessman Satish Sehgal, chairman of the Thai-Indian Business Association, for allegedly violating the emergency ordinance will continue. The Immigration Bureau has formed a committee to investigate the matter. The final decision rests with the cabinet. Sehgal can appeal to the administrative court.
According to Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul (Foreign Affairs), the proposed expulsion has no consequences for Thai-Indian relations. “The Indian government will understand because that country, like Thailand, adheres to democratic principles. Sehgal's speeches did not correspond to democratic ideals.'
– Not only Sehgal is in danger of being deported, but also four other foreigners. Human rights lawyer Surapong Kongchantuk says that the CMPO is not authorized to deport persons. Neither the Immigration Act nor the Deportation Act provide any legal grounds for doing so. Only the Minister of the Interior can deport someone and the court must grant permission.
Immigration was reportedly ordered to revoke Sehgal's visa today and order him to leave immediately. The lawyer warns CMPO director Chalerm Yubamrung not to circumvent the law, because then he has a problem.
– A guard was injured in a grenade attack Thursday night at a local radio station in Pathum Thani. The building was slightly damaged. The station is run by 'hardcore' red shirt leader Wuthipong Kachathamkun, the man accused of arranging red shirts to disperse protesters outside the Lak Si district office on February 1. That led to a firefight with six wounded.
On Thursday evening, two grenades were fired at the Chaeng Wattana protest site. Luang Pu Buddha Issara, who is in charge there, says it was probably tests to test the trajectory of grenades. No one was injured. The monk, a former soldier, thinks more attacks will follow. He has forbidden the police to investigate, because he does not trust them. Soldiers could.
Elections
– Disagreement over the date of re-election in 28 constituencies in the South, where a district candidate was missing because protesters prevented their registration in December. The Electoral Council (EC) says that the government should issue a Royal Decree with the date; the government, through minister Varathep Rattanakorn, says that the government cannot do this.
The government previously issued a Royal Decree dissolving the House of Representatives and setting February 2 as the election date. According to Varathep, it is the task of the EC to hold re-elections in constituencies where the elections were disrupted.
A total of 10.284 polling stations are due for re-election, both for the February 2 elections and for the January 26 primaries, when polling stations were blocked.
725 district ballots have been found on the side of a road in Thung Yao (Nakhon Si Thammarat). It has now been established that they are real. The Electoral Council is investigating where they came from. There was no vote in the province on Sunday because no polling station could be fully occupied with the required nine officials.
– Former governing party Pheu Thai does not believe there are legal grounds to invalidate Sunday's elections. But the party is taking that possibility into account, says PT Secretary General Phuntham Vejjayachai.
The party yesterday called on the EC to go ahead with the re-elections and complete the election process "out of respect" for the 20 million voters who cast their ballots on Sunday (47,72 percent of the number of Thais eligible to vote). PT considers the turnout to be 'satisfactory', although the average turnout in the period 2001-2011 was 71,36 pc.
PT party leader Charupong Ruangsuwan says PT and its coalition partners agree that reform should be a priority for the new government. When the reform process is completed, new elections will be called. The reform process is expected to take a year.
– The National Ombudsman rejects the request of the opposition party Democrats to examine the validity of the elections and to initiate proceedings before the Constitutional Court. The ombudsman says he is not authorized to do so; the constitutional article on which the Democrats rely would not apply to this case. All very complicated and legal sharpening with only one goal in the end: the elections must be declared invalid. Find Democrats and protest movement PDRC.
Rice news
– Anointing words from Prime Minister Yingluck for the farmers who have been waiting for months for money for the rice they sold to the government, but she did not mention a date on which they will be paid. The Department of Commerce and the Treasury are doing their best, but the cabinet is bound hand and foot because of its outgoing status, she says.
In Nakhon Phanom, farmers threaten to occupy the third Thailand-Laos Friendship Bridge if they are not paid within seven days. Twenty farmers' representatives from twelve districts gathered yesterday.
In Suphan Buri, five hundred farmers from ten districts gathered in front of the Province House. In the province, 20.000 farmers still have to receive money, a total of 2 billion baht.
The demonstration in front of the Ministry of Commerce in Nonthaburi is entering its third day today (photo home page). The farmers come from Ratchaburi and other provinces. Earlier, farmers in Ratchaburi blocked the Rama II road, the main route to the South, but that blockade was lifted after six days on Friday.
– The only way a new government can pay the farmers for their surrendered rice is by selling the rice from the government stock or by resigning the Yingluck government. The current way of getting out of the impasse is going nowhere. This is what two former finance ministers say.
Korn Chatikavanij (Democrats) says the farmers can be paid within a year if the government manages to export 8 million tons of rice and sell 10 million tons domestically. But for some reason, the Department of Commerce is on top of the rice supply. “The ministry has never explained why it is in no rush to sell. It behaves like this is a land of misery. Even the Public Debt Management Office has asked how much rice is in stock, but the Department of Commerce is tight-lipped.'
Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, also a former finance minister, agrees with Korn. Sell that trade, even if it leads to heavy losses. And if the government resigns, it opens the way for a new government to borrow money to pay the farmers. [The current government is not allowed to do this because of its outgoing status.]
Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association, thinks it will take the government 5 years to sell the current stock, which he estimates at 20 million tons. When rice is stored for more than 3 years, the quality deteriorates and it will not be easy to sell it abroad.
– The Electoral Council has been shot in the wings because of allegations that the council is blocking loans by the (outgoing) government, so that it cannot pay the farmers. Not true, says Election Council Commissioner Somchai Srisuthiyakorn: the government has so far not asked permission from the Electoral Council at all. However, the Electoral Council has stated that taking out new loans is not permitted due to the caretaker status of the government.
The Electoral Council thinks it is unfair that it is now being blamed for the lack of payments to the farmers. The council does not leave it at that and threatens legal action against the slanderers.
Political news
– Prime Minister Yingluck does not intend to resign. But that can't be news, because she's said it countless times. This time she is responding to an open letter from Pridiyathorn Devakula, former finance minister. Pridiyathorn advocates resignation and the formation of a 'neutral' government. The current government has failed in many areas, is his stern assessment. The open letter has already scored a counter-open letter written by Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong. You can guess what it says.
Yingluck wonders whether such a neutral government has more powers than the current outgoing government. “If a neutral government has more power, it would mean tearing up the constitution. […] We must all protect democracy and its mechanisms to keep the democratic process going.'
Pridiyathorn insisted yesterday that the constitution does not preclude the formation of an interim government. "If the current government still had credit, I wouldn't have made the proposal."
Pridiyathorn also responded to a rumor that he was involved in the so-called 'Khao Yai declaration'. A number of people are said to have gathered at a resort in Khao Yai to plot to form a neutral government. Pridiyathorn would receive the post of Economic Affairs. "I'm not aware that such a plan exists."
www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post
From our correspondent Tino Kuis in Chiang Mai
Unofficial election results, taken from the Thai-language newspaper Matichon Weekly from February 7.
The Thai parliament consists of 500 members. 125 members are elected through national party lists. Due to the lack of data from many provinces, nothing can be said about this yet. However, a rough estimate from previous elections says that half of this list, say sixty members, will consist of Pheu Thai party members.
The other 375 members are elected through a district system. Due to the boycott of the elections and a number of other reasons, about 80 districts, mainly in provinces in the South and somewhat less in Bangkok, could not vote. These areas are not included in the following list.
Results of the district system, divided over North, Isan, Central and South. I will only mention the seats that the Pheu Thai party won and the other seats, which I will not further subdivide.
- North: Pheu Thai: 58 seats; other parties: 6 seats
- Isan: Pheu Thai: 112 seats; other parties: 16 seats
- Central: Pheu Thai: 66 seats; other parties: 26 seats
- South: Pheu Thai: 5 seats; other parties: 6 seats
That gives the Pheu Thai party a total of 241 seats and the other parties 54 seats from the district system, where voting was possible. The Pheu Thai party will not get as many extra seats from the districts where voting has yet to take place. However, add the seats from the party lists and the Pheu Thai party will obtain around 300 seats in the 500-seat parliament, a clear majority.
However, nothing is certain at the moment. There will still be a lot of water flowing through the Chao Phraya before an official result can be announced.
Editorial notice
The Bangkok Breaking News section has been canceled and will only be resumed if there is reason to do so.
Bangkok Shutdown and the elections in images and sound:
www.thailandblog.nl/nieuws/videos-bangkok-shutdown-en-de-keuzeen/