BKK-Bangkapi

In a related news, the USA, a country certainly acting according to international standards, has given on 7 April the go-ahead to target al-Awlaki, a US-citizen, who is now in Yemen, and to capture or kill him for allegedly threatening his home country.

BBC News: US approves killing US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki

...Which makes me think that NGO read in thai with the proper pronunciation describes quite well some of these organizations)

Seriously, I think that whatever action to keep Thailand united needs full support now.

...meanwhile Turkish air-force is bombing Kurds rebels and no one on CNN, at EU parliament, from HRW or whatever Amnesty NGO is advising restraint (even though last I checked neither Istambul nor Ankara were burning). I hope everything will be settled properly and we won't have to read in 20 years from now news like "For the 3rd consecutive day Thai air-force successfully bombed several rebel bases in the People's Republic of Lanna"...

Robert Amsterdam must also be include on the terrorist list for his involvement with Thaksin and his blatatnt terrorism.

Hey Bobby A. your client is toast.

Call off your PM specialists, no matter how much lies they spout on the net,

the evidence is gonna way out pace your wildest efforts.

Wow, you guys are getting more and more ridiculous. You don't see the lawyers of Pinochet, Saddam Hussein or Milosevic put on terrorist lists either, and those people did much worse. Just shows that a lot of people talking here don't know a whole lot about anything. Sorry, that's the truth. Lawyers represent the client in legal matters, they don't necessarily support the actions of the client.

Since Mr. Amsterdam only represents his client and is reportedly in Thailand to voice in person his client's view on the situation, I think it would be a good idea for displeased Bangkok residents (Thai and expats alike) to pay him a visit and to strongly object in person to his disputable statements, with a demand in abstentia to pass the message. People preferring emails: #removed per forum rules#

No comment video from Swiss TV

TSR No comment VDO

Third idea that came to mind:

1) People have right to protest, like they have the right to eat, but no one said it must be free of charge

2) Therefore, protesters should carry the costs caused by their disruptions, destructions or loss of business opportunities

3) In the light of this, an independant commitee shall be created to assess all direct and indirect costs caused by a protest. Details of the assessment are made public, assessed amount is without appeal.

4) Costs must be shared equally between leaders and base protesters. As such, leaders should pay for 50% of these costs and the base protesters the other half.

5) At the discretion of the independant protest damages evaluation committee, low damages protests can be expedited in a quick charged amount to leaders only.

6) In case of more important protests, such as the last one, a perimeter is delimited and "collection teams" are enforcing collection of the charges as described in my previous post.

7) Basic fee is set to THB 2,000 per day per protester leaving the protest site prior to the end of the protest and the assessment of the damage.

8) At the end of the protest, final costs are assessed and a 50% portion is divided by the estimate number of protester left at the site. Amounts are duely collected by the collection teams.

9) Leaders are only allowed out of the site once the amount left to pay is determined and settled by them.

Next idea I had:

1) Until Tuesday, exit fee of Redland is free of charge

2) From Wednesday to Thursday, anyone willing to go out of Redland will be charged THB 1,000 as an administrative contribution for security services

3) On Friday the exit fee will be increased to THB 2,000 per person. Additional THB 1,000 will be charged per "overstayed" day from Saturday onward.

4) From Wednesday onward, each entry to Redland will be charged THB 30,000 per person and THB 5,000 per kilo as check-in duty

5) Any overstayer found in Redland from Wednesday 19th will be removed and charged a removal fee of THB 50,000. Unable or unwilling to pay will face a jail term of 6 months.

6) All fees are to be collected by joint police-army teams at exit checkpoints. 50% of collected amounts will be shared equally among collection team members, rest will be used to compensate damaged businesses and workers

7) Application for collection teams members will be endorsed by CRES commity. Deadline for application expires on Tuesday 2PM. Successful candidates will be informed by their direct superiors.

I just had a good idea, eliminating "double standards"

1) Suthep and PM surrender

2) All red leaders, including the hardline ones, surrender

3) Bail is granted to all of them, but against THB 100,000,000 deposit

4) Violation of bail conditions means immediate jail term and forfeit of deposit

Let's see then who get vouched to get out...

3) The government will ensure that the media will function as a constructive tool.

By banning the opposition TV and radio channels? How can there be fair elections under such circumstances?

Perhaps you forget they were not banned - they were taken off the air for violating their charters, specifically for incitement.

All they have to do is say, oops, ok, we'll abide by the agreement we signed - which is to live by the charter, which is not onerous - they will be able to reopen their stations. Of course, after the compromise with the red shirts is finalized.

It behooves the station owners/managers to urge the red shirts to accept the compromise as soon as possible. The faster they compromise, the faster the stations will be back on the air.

I agree to that... let's imagine you are in France and suddenly an independant TV station starts to call for bringing down the Eiffell tower since this apostate construction is higher than the dome of some mosque, calls to burn down all state offices since they don't allow niqba within and calls to murder all non-believers government officials since they don't allow the preaching of the truth... don't you think it would be appropriate to bring such hatred off-air?

Where's the compromise?

This sounds just government BS "we're here to help you"

Abhisit is going to have to get real and act like a real leader!

Examples of compromises, among others:

1) Grant anticipated elections in 9 months instead of end of term

2) Cutting the 1st compromise by additional 3 months

3) Listening to the others' points and opening the discussion on possible improvements on the situation

Not compromising would have been to stick to stay in office until the end of term, seal-off Redland with no supplies whatsoever, cutting electricity and water and after 2 weeks of siege crush the mob with overwhelming force.

Yes I think this is a main point. Amnesty! Most of them out on bail already. Difficult question, but i think they must face justice, because many of their crimes is to serious.

.. As one said, I think Thailand is more a country of global justice, where well being of a majority is more important than to put some individuals behind bars, as in the west where individual justice is more important. I think amnesty to all leaders will be granted, with possibly some "MIB" caught and locked-up later on, and let's move on

This sounds very nice and finally unlock the situation. Also it makes really govt look like the good guys willing to compromise while the other side... Reds would be crazy to refuse after the bad days they had. However, with terrorists charges threatening and no mention of amnesty in his 5 points program, they might ask to have amnesty added as a number 6 prior to give in.

I don't think a video showing they were paid to protest would stir up that much trouble. I think most Thai's already assume that, and having confirmation wouldn't change anything. The reds would just say "They're paid for their time, but the pay is so low they wouldn't turn out if they didn't support the cause."

And since I don't speak Thai, I don't really watch any of the Thai channels. Do they not have any investigative reports?

I've always assumed there's a lot more detail and information out there that never makes it to TV since this is an expat forum and few actually speak the language with great fluency.

I understand some Thai and my wife is a native speaker. On TV there are definitely far less investigative reports than in Europe (not much room left between ads, soaps and talk-shows). In 5 years I never saw any "government toppling" investigative report on TV (which is the main source of news for the masses) but maybe I did not watch enough. With regards to the paid mob, although some thais assume it, it is still contested in forums and not spoken of abroad. 500B per day is probably 5 times what they make up north, not to mention free food, free concert and other benefits. Furthermore, a good investigative report could also expose much more of the reds sinister activities, possibly to stir enough trouble to get rid of them.

Remember the ACORN scandal in the US? Undercover journalists were able to make 4 videos that blew up the whole organization... I guess the Reds don't deserve better treatment, it is high time to expose them once and for all.

You might want to look more into it. Turns out the videos were unusable as evidence due to heavy editing. Once the DA's got ahold of the unedited tapes, the cases fell apart.

And the unedited tapes have never been released to the public.

From the LA Times, quoting the California Attorney General after viewing the unedited tapes: "The evidence illustrates that things are not always as partisan zealots portray them through highly selective editing of reality," Brown said. "Sometimes a fuller truth is found on the cutting room floor."

I just checked and you are right, my mistake that I did not follow the ACORN case after the initial exposure. However, the point I wanted to make is that some more investigative journalism would be nice to see in Thailand, not only "breaking news" with no in-depth digging of the subject. If we look back in history, stories resulting of long investigations proved more effective in bringing a change. I might be wrong, maybe nowadays it is tweet-style news that make deeper prints in the public opinion... Still, lets not forget that a good majority of thais don't read much Pantip forum and tweets...

Man from Phichit asks Democrat to help send him, 24 friends home

I've had a few relatives join the rally from time to time. They made really good money doing it...and according to them...it was a great PARTY! They had a lot of fun, and after a few days, returned home...I know for sure, if they didn't get any money for doing it, they would have never gone to Bangkok....

I wonder why an undercover journalist team doesn't try to trap them with hidden camera, pretending to join red rally and then air a report on how things really are. Imagine, a 3-4 days report showing everything, picturing the recruiter in E-San explaining the "terms and conditions of the assignment", the "safety deposit of ID cards", the "punching in" and the "salary" collection, all this from within the stage with clear faces in close-up. Such a report would surely make its way to ASTV or Nation TV and so long for the "democracy ideals" claims. Remember the ACORN scandal in the US? Undercover journalists were able to make 4 videos that blew up the whole organization... I guess the Reds don't deserve better treatment, it is high time to expose them once and for all.

I have heard today that these new rules are more or less related to the self-sufficiency policy. Thailand needs to be able to be an independent country, without a need for so much foreigners, nor their money or their investments.

Cheers.

Work permit regulations.

We are advised that work permits with the term “Consultant” in the title will not be accepted in future. It is felt the term is too vague and potentially condones work related activity contrary to the alien labour act. Obviously, work permit holders need to consult their lawyers about the detail.

I would appreciate some clarification on this. For example, if someone is holding a WP under BOI promotion with a job title like "Engineering consultant", does that mean that his position will be rejected when the WP is renewed? Or does it have to be amended and become "Engineer expert" prior the next renewal time?

Thanks for bringing up this issue.

Bank of Thailand Governor MR Pridayadhorn Devakula cut short his trip to attend the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting in Singapore and he will arrive Bangkok at noontime. He said he agreed to accept to become Prime Minister. Nonetheless, it was expected that there would be a press conference at the Arm Force auditorium Wednesday.

The Nation

Thanks a lot, Lopburi, for your impression.

Let's see if we get some comments from people having experienced this, otherwise I'll take the precaution to move something abroad to be in a position to TT 400K back.

When you got a job and got extended, did you convert to 'b' ? Did you get your work permit ?

I got the work permit and then I got the extension of my "O" visa. It was never converted into a "B". It's also ok to apply for a WP with a "O" visa: normally if you are under 50 and you want to suppport your spouse, you are supposed to work. If you stay long-term on your "O" with 400K in the bank, the question will come after one or two years on where your income is coming from and why you don't work.

Cheers.

I didn't convert my "O" to a "B". My "O" was extended based on my employment status and my marriage certificate. The requirement to get it extended is to show either 400K in the bank, or 40K per month income and a work permit. The question is then when the job is gone but there are 400K in the bank coming form the job: is the "O" extended or not?

I came last year with a non-O 90 days (Thai spouse) and found a job so I got it extended on a yearly basis. If one day I loose my job and want to apply for an extension of my non-O by showing the 400K in the bank, can this money come from the savings I made while working here? I have read somewhere that you need to show that this money came from abroad. On the other hand, the savings I made are in excess of these 400K and I paid taxes on the corresponding salary. The goal is not to have a break in the consecutive years that I am staying here (PR application).

Thanks in advance.

Dear Sir,

Thanks for your very informative and professional reply. I've sent you a conventional e-mail for further discussions.

Kind regards

Hello,

My company (Swiss based) is considering setting up a subsidiary in Thailand in order to develop its market. Its worldwide activities are developping and distributing analysis instruments. 500 employees worldwide, revenue of about MUSD 100, capitalization of MUSD 50.

The Thai subsidiary activities will be to advertise, promote its products and find new customers for the mother company in Switzerland. Its employees will perform visits to leads and perform demonstrations of the instruments. The sales and service contracts will be concluded between the customer and the mother company and the orders will be placed directly by the customers to the mother company. The subsidiary employees (or, if it's an issue as described in an earlier post, a sub-contractor of the Swiss company) will perform installation and service on the instruments. The activities of the subsidiary will be 100% funded by the mother company. The planned expenses for the subsidiary are of MBHT 4/year with 3 thai employees and 1 foreign MD.

My question: For such activities is it possible to register the subsidiary as a Representative Office? Or does such activities make the mother company having a permanent establishment in Thailand, and therefore having all income generated in Thailand beeing taxed at 30%? PLC with Thai ownership is not an option due to company policy.

At http://www.thaistartup.com/Representoffice.htm it is said that a Thai Representative Office is not subject to Thai corporate tax.

Additionally Switzerland has a double taxation agreement with Thailand:

http://www.rd.go.th/publish/7619.0.html

It is defined in chapter 5 that a branch is not considered as a permanent establishment if its activities are to collect information, advertise or perform activities of auxiliary character in Thailand. However if the branch habitually secures orders on behalf of the foreign mother company, even if it has no authority to conclude contracts, it will be considered as a permanent establishment. In my specific case are the activities described part of this scope?

Thanks in advance.

In fact GBH stands for "grievous bodily harm"

Found with Yahoo at http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/bocsar1.nsf/pages/cjb10text

Cheers.