News from Thailand – February 16, 2013

­Never seen before in Thailand and from February 20 to 24 in Hua Hin: a musical on the beach. A cast of 55 actors, including pop singer Sheranut Yusananda and heartthrob Siwat Chotchaicharin (pictured) then perform Klaikang wool (Far From Worries), a musical in which the royal couple's love for the Thai people is central.

That is about to happen in the Suan Luang Rachinee park with a view of the sea and a Royal Navy battleship (photo). And it is no coincidence that Klaikangwol Palace is located nearby, where King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit spent their honeymoon in 1950 and in 1932 King Prajadhipok agreed to abolish absolute monarchy in favor of constitutional monarchy and abdicated.

Admission to the musical is free, but visitors must reserve their place in advance via 091-424-0430-2.

– It comes as no surprise and the expected decision was made on Friday: no limited curfew in the South. The Center for the Implementation of Policies and Strategies for Solving Southern Problems believes a curfew would only exacerbate the situation. The existing laws and regulations must be sufficient to control the situation.

According to Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary general of the National Security Council, the situation in the South is improving because residents are more willing to cooperate. However, concerns were expressed during yesterday's meeting about a possible escalation of violence in retaliation for the failed attack on the marine base in Bacho (Narathiwat) on Tuesday night. But the security services are confident that the situation can be handled with input and cooperation from the local population, Paradorn said.

The proposal for a curfew was made last week by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung after the murder of two farmers in Pattani and four fruit traders in Yala. Yingluck supported the idea on Sunday after five soldiers in Raman (Yala) and two people in Pattani were killed. Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat (Defense) was previously against, but later qualified his rejection.

Religious leaders and the population immediately announced that they did not see anything in a curfew. They reason: the measure is not effective because the insurgent attacks always take place during the day. In addition, the measure disrupts daily life too much. The last time a curfew was in effect in the South was in 2006.

– Sanan Kachornprasart, advisory chairman of the Chartthaipattana party, died yesterday at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok at the age of 77 from acute blood poisoning, which led to respiratory and circulatory problems.

Sanan, who held the rank of Major General, served as the Minister of the Interior, Industry and Agriculture. In 2000, he was banned from political office for 5 years by the Constitutional Court because he had drawn up a false statement of assets. After those 5 years, he resigned as secretary general of the Democratic party. In 2005 he made his political comeback by forming the Mahachon party and in 2007 he joined Chartthaipattana, coalition party of the current governing party Pheu Thai.

Sanan was born in Phichit province. He served as a cavalry officer and was discharged from the army in March 1977 for his role in the failed coup against the Thanin Kraivixian government. He was imprisoned for treason, but was pardoned within a year. Sanan owns the country's largest ostrich farm and has a vineyard where the Chateau de Chalawan comes from. According to the newspaper a famous wine, but I can't confirm that because I've never drunk it.

– As promised, the dock workers in Khlong Toey went on strike yesterday afternoon, that is, they refuse to do overtime. About XNUMX trade unionists went to the headquarters of the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) to support their demand for the resignation of the director-general. He allegedly refused to compromise on overtime pay. The workers will strike at least until Monday, when the PAT board meets.

The chairman of the Bangkok Shipowners and Agents Association says the move will delay the shipment of 15.000 containers to Singapore, causing significant damage to Thai exporters.

– The man would be on the run, in Cambodia and later in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That's what prosecutors learned from the Thai FBI's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) about Suwitchai Kaewphaluek, who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2005 murder of Laotian dissidents.

But the DSI told a white lie: the man was in a witness protection program of the DSI, because he was a key witness in the case of a Saudi businessman who disappeared without a trace in 1990. And that businessman would know more about the theft of jewelry from the Saudi royal house by a Thai.

According to a lawyer, the DSI broke the law because the court issued an arrest warrant against Suwitchai in 2009. The witness protection program does not apply to persons against whom an arrest warrant has been issued.

Suwitchai lives in the UAE under a different name. The Public Prosecution Service found this out in December when a police officer gave a witness statement in court in the case of the missing Saudi businessman. The OM wants to put Suwitchai to the test about that disappearance. The Criminal Court gave permission for this at the beginning of this month. The approved questions will go to the UAE. Suwitchai cannot be extradited because there is no extradition treaty with that country.

– Would a culprit ever be found in the case of the demolished construction of the 396 police stations, which the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is investigating? Yesterday the DSI spoke with former Chief Constable Wichean Potephosree of the Royal Thai Police (RTP), who in September 2010 asked then Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban to agree to the selection of the contractor, PCC Development and Construction. Wichean told the DSI that the procedure was clean.

A committee of the RTP announced this week that it had not encountered any irregularities, but the DSI is not convinced of this. However, without a complaint from the RTP as the victim, the investigation is doomed to come to a halt. According to Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, the contractor has outsourced the work to subcontractors in violation of the contract. Because they were not paid, they stopped work last year.

– The Siamese and saltwater crocodile may be removed from the list of endangered species if it is up to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The ministry will present this next month at the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to Cites in Bangkok.

Both crocodile species are now on Appendix 1, a list of the world's most endangered species, of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The ministry wants them moved to Appendix 2, which will allow them to be traded in a regulated manner.

According to Parntep Ratanakorn, Dean of the Veterinary Faculty at Mahidol University, the crocodile population is now stable thanks to captive breeding programs. Operators of XNUMX crocodile farms in the country have invested in conservation programs and released them into the wild. The proceeds from the trade in the animals would free up money to improve those programs.

Thailand will also propose moving the protected rosewood from Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 next month in an effort to stem the rampant illegal smuggling.

– Give us back the authority to appoint our school principals and deputies ourselves, say teachers in the South. The Confederation of Teachers of the Three Southern Border Provinces is making this request for decentralization which is already enshrined in the 2009-2018 Education Plan. According to the federation, the current procedure is too slow and has led to a shortage of managers.

On Thursday, federation teachers spoke to the Deputy Minister of Education about their request. He kept himself fairly flat with the remark that education policy in the deep South must be carefully formulated. [Clutched in the reed?] According to the teachers, the position of school director is important because it forms the link with the army and the government.

– The United States should pressure Myanmar to take back the Rohingya refugees, who now have temporary shelter in Thailand. Colonel Teeranan Nandhakwang, deputy director of the Army's Strategic and Security Affairs Division, argued this yesterday at a seminar organized by the Institute of Asean Studies at Chulalongkorn University. According to him, Thailand cannot exert that pressure because many Thai companies are currently investing in Myanmar.

Between January 9 and Wednesday, 1.772 Rohingya refugees entered Thailand. The reception facilities in Songkhla are bursting at the seams. Some Rohingya have been transferred to Trat, Ubon Ratchatani, Nong Khai, Mukhadan and Kanchanaburi.

– My name is Haas: that is the common denominator in the statements of the three persons who were in the car with which Somchai Khunploem was taken to the Samitivej Srinakarind hospital in Bangkok at the end of last month. The nurse who was in the car also told the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday that she was unaware that Somchai had been on the run for nearly seven years from a 30-year prison sentence and had been living in Chon Buri for ages.

Somchai, convicted of corruption and the murder of a political rival but a powerful man in Chon Buri, was detained on January 30 on his way back from the hospital. The CSD would like to know who helped him to evade justice. The 'I knew nothing' nurse previously worked at the health center of Saen Suk. And who was the mayor of Saen Suk? Right, Somchai aka Kamnan Poh aka the Godfather of Chon Buri.

The other two occupants of the car have been interrogated before and said the same as this lady.

– The couple who won 42 million baht in the State Lottery in November last year, died in a traffic accident in Udon Thani on Thursday evening. While riding the motorcycle, they were hit by a Porsche. The driver, an 18-year-old Loatian jeweler, had pressed the accelerator hard to get to the border crossing of the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge in time.

– No extra points for the Mathayom 6 students (graduating class), who are affected by mistakes in the exam assignment of the science exam. That earlier decision is reversed, the relevant questions are now disregarded in the assessment.

The awarding of extra points had been criticized because the weaker brothers would also benefit from this. Close examination of the questions added another error, so that 23 of the 90 questions were not graded.

– Two fires yesterday, at least fires that made the newspaper: in the Bang Lamung district (Pattaya) a fire broke out in the Prima Place hotel on Thursday night. The fire started in a room on the third floor that had been rented for a week by a foreigner. The hotel owner, alarmed by black smoke, saw her emerge from the room before the fire took hold. Firefighters had the fire under control within half an hour. The damage is estimated at 200.000 baht, so that's not too bad.

In Khlong Toey (Bangkok) a fire broke out in a building, about which the newspaper does not give details. Here the fire brigade had their hands full for an hour.

– Hooray, Thailand has another record. Previously hula hoop, now the longest kiss where the lips are constantly together. A Thai couple earned 58 baht and two diamond rings from that kiss of 35 hours, 58 minutes and 100.000 seconds. Of course the match took place in Pattaya, where else can they kiss for so long?

– Most of the clients of prostitutes in Southeast Asia are South Koreans. This reports Guru, usually the naughty Friday sister of bangkok mail, but this time she is serious. The claim is made by the Korean Institute of Criminology (KIC), but according to Guru there is no hard data on which to base that conclusion.

According to an earlier report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, South Koreans are the main clients of child prostitutes in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The KIC assumes that many Koreans are unaware that sex tourism in Southeast Asia is illegal. They would be lured to sex venues by local tour guides.

Economic news

– Stock market traders have called on the authorities to take action to prevent damage to the stock and real estate markets. According to them, they are besieged by a massive influx of capital.

But Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong (Finance), former president of the SET, does not see the stock market as a problem. He sees the rise in the SET index, which is worrying traders, as natural given domestic economic growth. The minister says that the stock market watchdog has sufficient resources to prevent fraud and manipulation.

He does note, however, that a bubble is forming in the real estate market as a result of a sharp rise in land prices in Bangkok. "Land price speculation is growing on the theme of the Asean Economic Community."

The minister says that the Bank of Thailand, the Ministry of Finance and the commercial banks must take measures to control the inflated prices that are not matched by demand. 'I'm not in a position to say whether the current low policy rate right or wrong, but there is considerable speculation in some areas.'

– The Bank of Thailand says that the appreciation of the baht has slowed and has remained within the same limits as the other regional currencies. But Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul does expect foreign capital inflows to increase as a result of measures taken by major economies, where growth has stagnated over the past five years. He says the Thai economy has several means to deal with the consequences.

The bank's Monetary Policy Committee will meet next Wednesday to discuss the policy rate. It is now 2,75 percent. The business community and the Ministry of Finance have pushed for a reduction. They believe it could curb capital inflows from abroad, a view not shared by many economists.

– Tata Steel (Thailand), Thailand's largest producer of long stalk, asks the government to increase the import tariff on Chinese steel wire. Chinese companies can sell their product 15 percent cheaper because China gives exporters a 9 percent export tax refund. In addition, they declare the wire to customs as a compound of boron and chromium, which entitles them to an exemption from import duties. The Department of Commerce has lifted the import tariff this month as a temporary measure hot rolled steel increased by 33,11 percent. The normal import tariff is 5 percent and zero percent for countries with which Thailand has a free trade agreement.

- Thais do not like to travel domestically because the places they want to visit are too crowded, and tour operators prefer foreigners, according to a poll by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) and University of Thailand the TCC.

The top five provinces that Thais do not return to are Chon Buri (Bang Saen and Pattaya), Bangkok (Dusit Zoo, Siam Center and department stores), Sa Kaeo (Rong Kluer market), Rayong (Ban Pae) and Samut Prakan (Crocodile Farm and zoo).

The top five most desired destinations are Phuket (Laem Phromthep), Chiang Mai (Doi Suthep and Chiang Mai Zoo & Aquarium), Phetchabun (Khao Kho), Krabi (Separated Sea) and Saraburi (Jed Sao Noi Waterfall).

Of the 1.200 respondents, 80,4 percent prefer a trip in Thailand to a trip abroad because of the good value for money prices and the environment; 19,6 percent prefer to travel abroad to gain new experiences and get to know other cultures. About 64,8 percent have no travel plans for this year, the others have already planned their trip.

Furthermore, the website of the TAT was unknown to 46,9 percent of the respondents and the TAT wants to change that in collaboration with tour operators.

www.dickvanderlugt.nl – Source: Bangkok Post