News from Thailand (incl. Bangkok Shutdown and Elections)

The provinces of Lampang and Phrae are shrouded in mist due to forest fires on parched lands in the North. The concentration of particulate matter exceeded the safety limit yesterday, according to the Pollution Control Department. The agency has advised residents to wear face masks when going outside. [Yes, I wouldn't wear those indoors.]

The Royal Rain-Making Center in the North intends to generate rain in places where bushfires have broken out. Large areas of forests in the provinces of Lampang, Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son are on fire. Neighboring provinces are struggling with a lack of water. We are waiting for the ideal weather conditions, under which the sprinkler planes can take to the air.

In Mae Hong Son, authorities have set up firebreaks. [A method I know from the Veluwe. Another method is coniferous to plant deciduous forests.] Temperatures are rising every day in the province, so the risk of forest fires is high. Firebreaks have also been constructed in Si Sa Ket in the northeast.

In any case, the farmers are not yet being blamed by the governor of Mae Hong Son. They only commit the use of slash-and-burn (burning harvest residues) in April.

– Prime Minister Yingluck received a warm welcome in the North yesterday and she could use that, I think. At Chiang Rai airport she was greeted by a large group of fans, many dressed in the red of the red shirts [that makes sense]. Today the Prime Minister is visiting her hometown of Chiang Mai. A red shirt leader in Chiang Rai has said that Yingluck should only use one of the two places as her temporary office to avoid interference from the PDRC.

On Monday, Yingluck was harassed by PDRC members during a visit to the OTOP center in Saraburi. They jeered her and blew whistles.

– It never hurts to ask a valued diplomat for advice on how to get out of the political crisis and that is what Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul (Foreign Affairs) did yesterday when he called UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Surapong proposes that the UN be asked as a mediator. He will present this idea to the CMPO.

– Temples have already been broken into five times this month and the police will do something about it. One such theft took place at Wat Khao Din in Uthai (Ayutthaya). The thieves guild made off with a good amount of booty and destroyed the surveillance cameras. The temple has been broken into before, but suspects have not yet been arrested.

Fifty Crime Suppression Division officers visited the temple on Friday to pay respects to the abbot and talk about tracking down the thieves. The CSD's Special Forces Unit will work with local law enforcement to investigate thefts elsewhere in the country.

At the beginning of this month, the police in Saraburi found a broken open collection box. It was stolen from a temple 10 kilometers away. The latest theft took place in Sakon Nakhon on Tuesday. Money also disappeared from a collection box.

– The Secretary General of the Office of the Education Council, who is threatened with dismissal, opposes. The EC's civil service committee decided on Tuesday to nominate her for dismissal because she had approved a purchase of teaching materials for vocational education, although the required documents were missing.

Sasithara Pichaicharnnarong was then Secretary General of the Office of the Vocational Education Commission. The materials were overpaid and some vocational schools couldn't even use them. Sasithara has filed a complaint in both the criminal and civil courts.

– Both the EIA and the EHIA must be sloped. They are outdated and do not provide residents with the opportunity to adequately protect the environment and their natural resources. These abbreviations stand for Environmental Impact Assessment (environmental impact assessment in the Netherlands) and Environment and Health Impact Assessment. They are mandatory for major projects.

The plea for revision was made yesterday at a seminar on environmental reform. These reforms are necessary because local populations increasingly come into conflict with project developers.

"The population no longer has confidence in the process," said one of the speakers. He cited the example of the planned deep-sea port of Pak Bara in Satun. Residents call the EHIA "the devil's way" to destroy their community, which depends on fishing and tourism. Or what about the Map Ta Phut industrial estate. All XNUMX factories have passed the EIA studies, but the population still suffers from air pollution.

– There is nothing wrong with the construction drawing of the Chakri Naruebodindra medical center in Samut Prakan, the Engineering Institute of Thailand has determined. On Tuesday, a concrete beam crashed, killing ten construction workers. The design is in order, the contractor and constructor are reliable companies.

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Common abbreviations

UDD: United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (red shirts)
Capo: Center for the Administration of Peace and Order (body responsible for applying the ISA)
CMPO: Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (responsible body for the State of Emergency that has been in effect since January 22)
ISA: Internal Security Act (emergency law that gives the police certain powers; applies throughout Bangkok; less strict than the Emergency Decree)
DSI: Department of Special Investigation (the Thai FBI)
PDRC: People's Democratic Reform Committee (headed by Suthep Thaugsuban, ex-opposition Democrat MP)
NSPRT: Network of Students and People for Reform of Thailand (radical protest group)
Pefot: People's Force to Overthrow Thaksinism (ditto)
PAERN: People's Army and Energy Reform Network (action group against energy monopoly)

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Bangkok shutdown

– How many more children have to be killed before we realize that conversations are badly needed?' Phra Phaisal Visalo (picture homepage), abbot of Wat Sukhato, made a penetrating plea for a peaceful solution yesterday. He was speaking at a gathering of monks and activists at the October 14 Memorial.

The protests, which have now claimed 22 lives, should convince people on both sides that violence and hatred must end, Phra Phaisal said. "I hope that conscience and consciousness will prevail and be quickly restored."

According to Phra Phaisal, the desired talks are not intended to immediately resolve the long and complicated conflict, but to prevent more accidents: both protesters, police or other authorities and innocent people.

– The television station of the public channel Thai PBS and the Royal Thai Police Sport Club on Vibhavadi Rangsit road in Laksi (Bangkok) were bombarded with three grenades yesterday. Two grenades landed in the parking lot of Thai PBS. One exploded and damaged three cars. The third grenade, which also failed, landed on a riot police tent on the grounds of the sports club. The shells were fired from the (elevated) Don Muang toll road. The police suspect that the sports club was the target, because that is where the nerve center of the CMPO is located.

The message also refers to previous attacks this week. Gunshots and grenade explosions were heard around the protest locations Pathumwan and Ratchaprasong on Tuesday evening, the Chaeng Wattana location also experienced explosions and shelling and Sunday night was a bumblebee at the Lumpini location.

The military is considering equipping soldiers with firearms, but that would have to be approved by the CMPO. Soldiers have been stationed in eighty places since yesterday; a total of sixty companies. The security of vulnerable locations, such as courts and buildings of independent institutions, has been strengthened.

Army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha says there is a risk of civil war if the parties involved in the political crisis do not respect the rules. According to Prayuth, it is not true that the violence is the work of foreign groups.

Prime Minister Yingluck has appealed to action leader Suthep Thaugsuban to consider negotiations to prevent violence.

– The arrest of two more marines from the Naval Special Warfare Command (Seal) raises questions about the role of the navy in the anti-government protests. The two, who were apprehended at a checkpoint in Thon Buri, were carrying firearms and ammunition. Which aroused suspicion: the police found two PDRC guard cards. The two would have known to work as security guards at the Silom location.

Rear Admiral Winai Klom-in, SEAL's commander, says the men have nothing to do with politics, but are stationed in the South. They were on leave in Bangkok.

On Monday, the police in Rayong already arrested three Seal boys, but they had since been dismissed. They were in possession of NSPRT VIP cards. Winai also had its own explanation for that.

– According to Tarit Pengdith, head of the DSI and member of the CMPO, protesters have besieged or occupied eleven government buildings in Bangkok. The CMPO is investigating 188 cases of obstruction of the elections on February 2.

Elections

– It has been announced countless times and it is now finally happening: the Electoral Council asks the Constitutional Court to tie the knot on the problem of re-elections in 28 constituencies in the South. District candidates could not be voted on there on February 2 because their registration had been thwarted by protesters in December. So actually it is not possible to talk about re-elections, but about elections, which require a Royal Decree. No, says the government, not necessary; yes, says the Electoral Council, because we are not authorized.

A nice legal challenge (with a political undertone), because the Council of State does not think a Royal Decree is necessary. This issue is crucial for the new parliament: if 28 seats remain unoccupied, it will not be allowed to work and a new government cannot be formed. The maximum is 25 of the 500 seats. The Electoral Council is going to ask the Court more questions, but I will not mention that because it is complicated enough as it is.

Correction

– The message 'Red shirts close the office of the corruption committee' is on the posting Mortgage system for rice: Trade unions against buying promissory notes.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post

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/