slimdog

I doubt if the Nation has either the assets or the inclination to get involved with itv again. Don't forget that since leaving itv, the Nation has taken a 10% stake in TTV and provides a great deal of their news coverage. But even with TTV they have had to make 50% cuts in the workforce.

So, reading about another pirating infringement at the expense of international law, this time condoned at the highest levels of government, leaves me with mixed feelings as well.

Whilst the headline is somewhat misleading the truth is that Thailand is neither pirating the medicine or breaking any International laws. Thailand has announced that it will seek a Compulsory licence from the trademark holder. The licence in question is in total compliance of the WTO Cancun agreement of which both Thailand and the USA have signed.

The copyright holder, Merck, will be paid some money for each tablet produced.

Firstly:

The the brand name of the drug as used in Thailand is Stocrin

There is no reason why the government needs to break down the composition of the drug, as by law, all parmaceuticals sold in Thailand have to be approved by the FDA. For a drug to be licenced for sale the company has to give a comprehensive collection of data including the exact make up of the drug, any side effects, results of field studies etc.

What Thailand is proposing to do isn't new. At the moment there are about 20 different drugs manufactured in Thailand using the compulsory licencing act including the GPO/Vir AIDS drug. This will be the first time THIS government has done this, and it is in full compliance of the WTO treaty.

With people living longer due to ARV medication, there are now more people who are building up a resistance to certain ingredients of combination therapy. hiv/Aids patients will still need additional medication to Stocrin and some of these are already available in Thailand in generic form.

Goodbye Noel. I will miss your postings and your brilliant wit.

May you rest in peace with the knowledge that you touched many lives.

With the deepest of respect

Slimdog

While it might seem preposterous, you have to remember that bail was granted by a Military court 10 days after the coup...

To the best of my knowledge, Lt-Colonel Manas Sukprasert is now the only suspect still in military detention. Manas whist a Major was also implicated in the conspiracy to commit murder in the Prayoon murder case a number of years ago, but was released for lack of evidence.

probably because the concept would be completely alien to thais. they would expect the woman to have her husband's surname.

The Names Act was first discussed in Parliament in 2000 when it passed it's first reading. Basically the law states:

The House of Representatives passed its first reading of an amendment to the Names Act seeking to allow married women to use their maiden names. The proposed amendments would allow married women to choose between their maiden name and their husband's surname. The bill also allows children to take the surname of either parent.

Just checked: the Names Act was changed finally in 2005..

Constitutions are a product of the tme they were written and as such need to be practically ammendable but not so easily that they are changed every week. That is a hard balance to achieve and one that few if any country has ever gotten right.

I think they got the balance about right in the previous constitution..

Amendment of the Constitution

Section 211.

An amendment of the Constitution may be made only under the rules and procedure as follows:

(1) a motion for amendment must be proposed either by the Council of Ministers or members of the House of Representatives of not less than one-third of the total number of existed members of the House of Representatives or members of the Senate and the House of Representatives of not less than one-third of the total number of existed members of both Houses.

The members of the House of Representatives may propose or jointly propose such motion only in accordance with the resolution of the political party to which they belong;

(2) a motion for amendment must be proposed in the form of a draft Constitution Amendment and the National Assembly shall consider it in three readings;

(3) the voting in the first reading for acceptance in principle shall be by roll call and opening voting and the amendment must be approved by the votes of not less than two- thirds of the total number of existed members of both Houses;

(4) the voting in the second reading for consideration section by section shall be decided by simple majority of votes;

(5) at the conclusion of the second reading, there shall be an intervening period of fifteen days after which the National Assembly shall proceed with its third reading;

(6) the voting in the third and final reading shall be by roll call and opening voting and the promulgation of its as the Constitution must be approved by the votes of more than one-half of the total number of existed members of both Houses;

(7) after the resolution has been passed in accordance with the above rules and procedure, the draft Constitution Amendment shall be presented to the King and section 93 and section 94 shall apply mutatis mutandis .

For reference Section 93 & 94 were:

Section 93. After a bill has been approved by the National Assembly, the Prime Minister shall present it to the King for singature within thirty days as from the date he receives such bill, and it shall come into force as an Act upon its publication in the Government Gazette.

Section 94. If the King refuses His assent to a bill and either returns it to the National Assembly or does not return it within ninety days, the National Assembly must re-deliberate such bill. If the National Assembly resolves to reaffirm the bill with the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total number of existed members of both Houses, the Prime Minister shall present such bill to the King for His signature once again. If the King does not sign and return the bill within thirty days, the Prime Minister shall cause the bill to be promulgated as an Act in the Government Gazette as if the King had singned it.

As you are aware Article 30 of the interim constitution bans current memebers of the National assembly from "Contesting an Election" for either the House of representatives or Senate, but there is absolutely nothing to stop them from being "Selected" for the Senate....

The date of 22nd October was dismissed as a possibility due to the fact that it fell during Ramadam and the mosques in the south of the country (which serve as election stations) would not be able to be used.

More likely that this date was passed over because it is the Chulalongkorn day long weekend.

Decision soon on poll date

Published on May 23, 2006

The Election Commission will decide soon whether to shift the date for the new election back to October 29, as suggested by the government, EC secretary-general Ekachai Warunprapa said yesterday.

The EC initially proposed October 22 for the poll, but the government rejected the date as it coincides with the end of Ramadan and would inconvenience Muslims, Ekachai said. "Before finalising its decision, the EC may invite political parties for consultation," he said.

Source:http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/page.news.php?clid=5&id=30004679

There are a 366 different dates possible in a year and 31 dates possible in the month of October....that means the chances of the October election being postponed and still being the October election is approximately 31 out of 366.

Actually there are only 52 possible dates in a year, as all elections have to fall on a Sunday. The date of 22nd October was dismissed as a possibility due to the fact that it fell during Ramadam and the mosques in the south of the country (which serve as election stations) would not be able to be used.

With the April elections cancelled partly due to the fact that it was felt by the Supreme Court that insufficient time was allowed for opposition parties to campaign, the new EC will be conscious of allowing the maximum time possible (60 days from a Royal Decree). With a Royal Command not possible until after the Senate speaker has forwarded both the names of the Senate selectee's and the future President of the EC to his Majesty(EC Meeting scheduled for this Thursday), the earliest date would be for a new Royal decree to be issued around 19th September at the cabinet meeting and for the election to be on the 12th November which would be 54 days after the decree came into effect.

No Its not about 3 times border run.

From what I'm reading its stating that the 30 day visa on arrival will be extended twice within Thailand hence there will be no border run.

At that point presumably you're leaving the country to return to your own at which point no doubt you can return on same visa basis after a "certain period" of time ??

Chivas

Thats the way I read it as well. By the looks of things the "New" regulations would make extending a visa at an immigration office easier, with a longer period of time (30 days as opposed to current 10 days) renewable twice. It is also possible that people who currently have to get a 15 day VOA will at the very least have a considerable number of immigration offices they can go to in order to get the visa,(Chiang Rai etc) which would be better for Chinese tourist comings down on the boat from Yunnan or travelling overland. Where there would be a clampdown is on visa run's to bordering countries.

Five EC members selected

The Senate Friday voted to elect the new five election commissioners as following:

1 Apichart Sukhakkanon, chief justice of the Environment Division of the Supreme Court

2 Somchai Jung-prasert, chief of the Supreme Court judges'quorum

3 Prapan Naikowit, deputy attorney-general

4 Sumet Oupanisakorn, senior judge of the Southern Bangkok Criminal Court

5 Sodsri Satayathum, a senior Supreme Court judge and the only female nomimee

The Nation

Flights cancelled to avoid opening chaos

Airlines are beginning to cancel flights on September 28 in order to avoid the chaos expected on the day that Suvarnabhumi Airport is officially opened.

Local budget carrier Nok Air has announced it will cancel 30 flights on September 28, and Singapore Airlines and Air France have both informed the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) that they will cancel one flight each.

DCA director general Chaisak Angkasuwan said the two international cancellations involve a passenger service of Singapore airlines and a cargo flight of Air France.

The Nation

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30012935

I'm not sure about the dates that sbk mentioned (2001), but I do recall that earlier than this in 1997 during the height of the Asian crisis the Government did increase the departure tax to B2000, but it was rescinded a few months later once Thailand had secured a loan from the IMF. I never actually left Thailand during this period, so it never effected me

All ten working for EC is not enough - there are thousands of EC officials managing elections upcountry and serious clean up is needed. New EC commissioners will need time to assert their influence and put right people in place.

I suspect the new commissioners don't know themselves how long it might take to make the whole EC body ready. Not until they move into new offices and start working. Even then they might run into obstacles and postpone the elections again.

We are looking at December or even later if any of EC people on the ground decide to sabotage on a local level.

Congratulations Plus, I was wondering how long it would be before someone realised that organising an election involves more than just 5 people.

Which brings me to one of the main problems, it's not a question of people on the ground sabotaging an election, the main problem for the new Election Commission is actually getting people on the ground..

At the last General Election (2005) 1.2 million people were employed by the Election Commission in order to run the elections. After nearly 7 months of continuous bad press, people haven't worked out that there might be a few people who no longer wish to have anything to do with the ECT. Getting rid of the old commssioners may have been great press, but it still leaves a bad feeling for all the other people employed by the ECT, not the least of which is that they have a great fear of ending up in Prison themselves. For the small amount of money that the ECT gives to the Provincial and Constituency commissions many are simply not interested.

There was an interesting article in the Nation about two weeks ago stating that in all 400 constituencies the EC has had great difficulty in getting sufficient people, in most instances the numbers who have applied are not sufficient by Law..

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/pag...amp;id=30011569

Adding to this is yet another court case involving the former EC, which is due to read its verdict next week, (15th September).

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/pag...amp;id=30011167

No the Election Commission has no power to make changes to the annual Military re-shuffle. They can, if they wish not give approval, in which case the re-shuffle would have to wait until after the elections, after which the approval of the EC is no longer required. The same would apply to any other Civil Service post provided that Section 75 of the constitution is upheld.

Section 75. The State shall ensure the compliance with the law, protect the rights and liberties of a person, provide efficient administration of justice and serve justice to the people expediently and equally and organise an efficient system of public administration and other State affairs to meet people's demand. The State shall allocate adequate budgets for the independent administration of the Election Commission, the Ombudsmen, the National Human Rights Commission, the Constitutional Court, the Courts of Justice, the Administrative Courts, the National Counter Corruption Commission and the State Audit Commission. readiness

One area which hasn't been mentioned has been the recent removal from office of the General Pallop from the ISOC

Section 215. Ministers vacate office en masse upon: (1) the termination of ministership of the Prime Minister under section 216; (2) the expiration of the term or the dissolution of the House of Representatives; (3) the resignation of the Council of Ministers. The outgoing Council of Ministers shall remain in office for carrying out duties until the newly appointed Council of Ministers takes office but, in the case of the vacation of office under (2), shall not exercise its power to appoint, transfer or dismiss a Government official holding a permanent position or receiving a salary or an official of a State agency or State enterprise, except with the approval of the Election Commission. The provisions of section 118(7) and paragraph two thereof and section 204 shall not apply to the outgoing Council of Ministers which remains in office for carrying out duties under paragraph two. In the case where the ministership of the Prime Minister terminates under section 216 (1), (2), (3), (4), (6) or (8), the procedure under section 202 and section 203 shall apply mutatis mutandis.

Technically the government should have waited to dismiss the General until EC approval was given, unless of course they are still paying him..

Two additional THAI flights, TG8815 and TG8817 from Hong Kong and Singapore, were to land on the new airport's western and eastern runways simultanenously Friday afternoon.

I wonder at what point in time the passengers were informed that they would be landing at Suvarnabhumi airport, not Don Muang:

When booking the flight?

When checking in?

During the flight?

Was anybody reading this on one of these two flights?

--------------

Maestro

My understanding is that these were not commercial flights, and were limited to employee's of Thai Airways only..

For anyone who hasn't read it, there is an interesting article in The Bangkok Post today:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Horizons/31Aug2006_hori006.php

A little snippet is:

Arriving passengers exit at level two of the passenger terminal where they can queue for a taxi. Unlike Don Muang, taxis are not allowed to park kerbside at the exit. They park three kilometres always at the remote parking area, next to the bus station.

Similar to most international airports, a taxi supervisor radios a batch of taxis from the remote taxi rank managing the queue from a pool of around 400 authorised taxis.

Limousine counters are located on both the fourth and second floors, but also park at the same location as the public taxis.

Tour groups will exit through immigration and customs on level two, but unlike individual travellers, they will go down one floor to where tour buses will park. Tour companies, car rental and banks will have counters in the foyer of level two.

There is another option for passengers who want to avoid the level two taxi queue or want to travel by bus to the city. They can board a complimentary shuttle bus that takes 10 minutes to transfer from the terminal to the bus station. The taxi ranks and car rental pick-up and drop off areas are next door. Long-term parking lots for up to 10,000 cars are also located across the street from the bus station.

Plus

I would be most grateful if you could quote the source where the Charges relating to "No-Vote" were dropped by the OAG.

To the best of my knowledge the Charges against the Democrat Party are:

Boycotting the April 2 election,

Conspiring with the People's Alliance for Democracy to overthrow an elected government

Wrongfully encouraging voters to cast "no votes".

Instigating Songkhla residents to obstruct candidacy registration for the April 23 repeat vote

Paying the Progressive Democratic Party to file fraud charges against the Thai Rak Thai Party.

Just to let you know, I have no particular interest in the outcome of the election, but laws concerning the Constitution and Organic laws within Thailand are of interest to me. (Sad I know)

I think many of the Airlines were convinced that the Airport wasn't going to open until next year, and didn't push their Head Office's for either budgets, or even signing lease agreements with the Airport.

I don't see how inducing voting AGAINST someone is an offence here. In fact PAD's goal has nothing to do with elections at all, they also had no problems demonstrating before the April elections, and they didn't encourage people to abstain from voting.

My understanding is that when a Royal Decree is in effect no one is supposed to discourage, or for that matter illegally encourage, the voting against any particular politician or political party.

Remember that it was violating Article 44, which is one of the charges levelled against the Democrat Party, when they were charged with encouraging people to vote "No-Vote".

As you mentioned, PAD did rally, prior to the April Election without any difficulties. However it might be difficult to argue that previous commissions allowed the practice, when the same commission was convicted of dishonest and corrupt practices.

Whilst generally, the Election Commission is the organisation which will investigate charges of election fraud, with no commission in place, it is arguable about the police's role, especially as the PAD are not a political party. Technically should they not get involved then they could themselves be taken to court for dereliction of duty.

I think this one will have to be argued out in either the Constitutional or Administrive courts to get a clear answer.

How can the PAD violate election laws if they are not a political party?

Section 44. No candidate nor any person shall commit any act to induce electors to cast a ballot for him or her or other candidate or any political party or to abstain from voting for any candidate or political party by the following means:

(1) Providing, giving, offering, promising to give or preparing to give properties or any other benefits which can be calculated in money value to any person;

(2) Giving, offering or promising to give money, properties or any other benefits whether directly or indirectly to the community, association, foundation, temple, education institution, asylum or any other institution;

(3) Advertising for an election by organizing an entertainment;

(4) Treating or promising to treat any person with meals;

(5) Deceiving, forcing, threatening, intimidating, slandering or inducing the misunderstanding in the popularity of any candidate or political party.

The embattled general said Thawatchai used to be a sergeant when he was serving as his official driver when he was the secretary to the Defense Council. Thawatchai was only a sergeant at the time. Pallop did not explain about his promotion to the rank of a lieutenant.

The Nation

Looks like the guy just got promoted....

Army officer says denies parking car near Thaksin's house

Lt Gen Thawatchai Klinchana, who was arrested in connection with alleged assassination attempt against the prim minister, denied he had driven the car to the PM's house.

A police source quoted Thawatchai as claiming that he was hired Bt200 by someone to pick up the car, which was already parked there.

Thawatchai told investigators that he hired a taxi motorcyclist to pick up the car and he was arrested when he opened the car's door.

The Nation

Well Done....

Or the Brits

Has been colonised; but not by the French..