THE WEEK THAT WAS Phuket Sandbox murder couldn’t have come at a worse time

[rooster59]

 

The murder of the Swiss government lady who arrived as a tourist under the Phuket Sandbox scheme could hardly have come at a worse time for Thailand. 

 

There are very few tourists in the country and for one to be murdered - and possibly even raped - in a country desperate for the return of the tourist dollar is simply horrendous.

 

Thailand is already reeling from easily the biggest surge of Covid-19 cases and deaths since the pandemic began. While visitor numbers in the Sandbox were low at least it was a start offering a ray of hope.

 

Now potential tourists, already freaked and cancelling due to the Covid numbers coming out of Thailand are seeing “murder of tourist” on international news front pages. 

 

If they haven't decided yet about the wisdom of a trip to Thailand, that may be a tipping point. 

 

Worrying were statements on many stories that the police were looking at not just criminals but migrants. With the wounds of Koh Tao and the incarceration of the Burmese unhealed, this smacks of Captain Renault in Casablanca and his line “round up the usual suspects”.

 

As in the movie, this can be seen as getting their hands on anyone for the sake of it. Maintaining face but caring little about justice.

 

Following the tragic discovery of the body of Nicole Sauvain-Weisskopf, 57, on Thursday the cavalry arrived the next day in the shape of RTP chief Gen Suwat Chaengyodsuk. 

 

This is the bespectacled Commissioner-General’s first major test after he replaced Gen Chakthip Chaijinda last September. He was accompanied on the flight by the cream of Thailand’s forensics investigators.

 

On Saturday afternoon, police announced the arrest of a local man, who they say confessed to the murder. 

 

While many are almost gloating online at the discomfiture of the Thai authorities and people, Rooster of course welcomes the arrest but hopes the investigation that led to the suspect being apprehended is both thorough and transparent. 

 

The family of the deceased deserve this. And the country demands it.

 

Contrary to many claims that the Thai police are bungling and haphazard, when they put their minds to it they often resolve cases well and quickly.

 

Thai PM Prayut - our master who remains in khaki, hollow be thy name - barked his usual orders for a quick arrest like the general he really is. 

 

Big Too had a very bad week. The numbers of infections flew past 20,000 daily and 200 deaths. The best he and his cronies could do was pluck some figures from the ether for vaccines in the coming weeks and months. They have been doing that since February.

 

Interestingly, there are now few forum comments about the numbers being falsified. The curmudgeons seem almost satisfied with 20K going on 30K.

 

Yet, in my opinion, while the numbers could probably be trusted last year, this time they are highly misleading. With reasonably cheap test kits available many thousands more are likely infected and resorting to home isolation, something that was introduced like the slow vaccine rollout far too late.

 

Mor Lab Panda called this an embarrassment in his online comments saying that follow-ups were not being done and people were being left to die.

 

Along with millions of others, this columnist and his family remain in lockdown and only go out for food and essentials. I don’t expect much change for months and the children will not be back in school until near the end of the year at the earliest.

 

My eight year old daughter faced the ubiquitous “tests” this week with Rooster insisting that she do them with minimal help, and Mrs R determined to ensure the best results possible. I gave in a little…..the angst created by online learning with small children has been one of the most difficult things to cope with in all my time in Thailand, despite 30 years in education.

 

I was, however, pleasantly amused by a trip to Home Pro to get a new washing machine. They were all behind protective tape like at a crime scene and I feared Mrs R would have to continue doing things by hand.

 

No, the lady staffer assured me, I could actually buy one! Just not touch it!

 

Prayut’s week looked really grim on Friday. A day earlier Tweedledumb’s sidekick Tweedledee, Prawit, had ordered everyone to get tough on fake news and intimated that provincial “fake news” centers could be set up to handle the backlog.

 

He should have checked his watch. Within hours the Civil Court issued an injunction to stop the PM’s gagging of freedom of speech and internet censorship order announced in the Government Gazette deeming it to be illegal. 

 

Prayut massively overstepped the mark. Yes, false claims about herbal remedies for Covid and damaging anti-vax statements need to be prosecuted. But he was caught out trying to restrict legitimate news stories and criticism of his government and now looks like what Brits call a right muppet.

 

Kind of a Kermit in Khaki who’d have no chance with Miss Piggy.

 

Step in Capt Thammanat Prompao, the convicted heroin smuggler. The best the new head of the Palang Pracharat party could do was burble fake news when a media outlet suggested he was eying the top job at Government House. 

 

Chuwit Kamolvisit - playboy night club owner, politician, outspoken presenter and himself a convicted felon - went on Facebook to say that Thammanat was a quick learner in politics and a shrewd operator. 

 

In true Chuwit style he said these were just the qualities needed to be a gangster or a politician!

 

(Foreigners in Bangkok around in the noughties will remember his finger-jabbing election posters claiming that if chosen he will name and shame). 

 

Whether Thammanat, the Agricultural and Cooperatives minister, could really make a bid to be PM remains to be seen. Given the rise of some world leaders in recent years Rooster would not be in the least surprised if he succeeded.

 

Anutin the health minister went to Thanyaburi Hospital and spouted such nonsense that ASEAN NOW needed to put a fact check on what came out of his mouth. 

 

If he was being economical with the truth this was the biggest sale since the billions in the rice pledging scandal.

 

According to the DPM, Thailand was well on the way to 70% vaccinations and the provinces were overflowing with great vaccines thanks to him. 

 

No, only just over 20% have got a first dose and double vaxxed folk are mostly doctors who are getting the virus in their hundreds. Now actually over a thousand after cases in Samut Sakhon. 

 

Reports of the unavailability of vaccines outside Bangkok are everywhere, whether it is for Thais (lacking and in short supply) or foreigners (virtually non-existent).

 

Whether to get involved or not when seeing a crime being committed in Thailand was in the news this week.  A Scottish man in Chachoengsao was taken to hospital after being stabbed in the arm by a Thai stealing from a gasoline machine. 

 

The Scot recognised a car and whipped out his phone. 

 

There are times when it is possible to be a Good Samaritan in Thailand but this was not one of them. 

 

Believe me, I’d love to get out on the streets for some of the protests, both as a legitimate journalist and a concerned resident who loves Thailand. 

 

Forget it - I’m staying home and will continue with my four decade policy of letting them get on with it…..and perhaps writing in support behind a pseudonym. 

 

Newbies to Thailand get involved, older hands don't, not least of all because we stick out like sore thumbs.

 

This week featured my once a year trip to see my lovely doctor, delayed since April but unable to be put off any longer. 

 

From behind his shield and PPE, Dr D regaled me with his criticism of his country’s vaccine rollout saying that he wanted to forego a third jab and give it to a more deserving foreigner, like Rooster….who he described as a “model patient”!

 

We almost high-fived until we remembered protocols.

 

I’ve never seen him so animated as he swore about being unable to attend his son’s PhD ceremony in Japan. We never had time to discuss the chances of his beloved Manchester City winning the EPL again or indeed, my beloved Harry Kane joining them in that quest!

 

I’m more than able to interpret my blood test results myself, but the 725 baht bill for seeing Dr D is always money well spent!

 

A jobs’ site suggested that the unemployment rate was the highest in five years at 1.96%. And the rest - the country looks like it is on enforced holiday at the moment.

 

Much merriment greeted the news that certain sunscreens are being banned in marine parks, a story that made the BBC. The other usual suspects - Thai bashers and people who claim Thais are xenophobic - were out in force saying that foreigners were now being left to get skin cancer. Give it a rest.

 

I thought that the ban seemed eminently sensible given the evidence and one had already started in Hawaii. The Thais might need to ask the Americans how it can be enforced, however. 

 

In other pandemic news down Pattaya way, the authorities in Koh Larn said visitors would need two jabs as well as their passport or Thai ID card to enter. 

 

In Krabi there were dozens of checkpoints even on the smallest interprovincial roads as officials denied there was a 500 baht entrance fee.

 

No, someone had set up a 500 baht antigen test kit facility further down the road so that people would not need to go home!

 

You have to admire the Thai entrepreneurial spirit at times.

 

Though it could be made clear how these kits are going for 40 baht a time in the UK. 

 

In Chiang Mai, a British man reckoned he was some kind of Robin Hood after he imported cocaine through his solar cell business and distributed a million baht to kids and Covid poor. 

 

It wasn’t mentioned how much he had kept for himself.

 

Along with his Maid Marion - Siriporn the DJ - he’ll face the Sheriff of Nottingham and find out he’ll see the light of day in about 2040, despite his largesse and half off for admission.

 

And not to mention that Little John in clink awaits.

 

Also in Chiang Mai the Chang Pheuak police arrested a bank robber within two hours after he got away with 20,000 baht from an SCB branch.

 

He’d filled in a deposit slip with “This is a robbery and I have a gun”. Unlike at waterfalls, plod had CCTV everywhere and found him at home with some of the loot. 

 

His name turned out to be Kasikorn - maybe he should have tried another bank!

 

Finally, INN’s spineless report about Anutin’s hospital visit at least contained the best typo of the week.

 

They said the health minister arrived with “Shinovac”.

 

Raising the possibility that Thaksin Shinawatra might be donating vaccines and making a comeback.

 

He could hardly do any worse. 

 

Rooster

 

-- © Copyright ASEAN NOW 2021-08-07

[internationalism]

life is cheap in thailand. Reincarnated comes back, so no need to protect life. But similar stories with the other religions.

Way too many tourists, and expatriates, die needlessly - accidents, murders, "suicides".

Edited August 7, 2021 by internationalism

[darksidedog]

44 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

 

As in the movie, this can be seen as getting their hands on anyone for the sake of it. Maintaining face but caring little about justice.

In two sentences that is about as fair a summation of the Thai judicial joke system as I have ever read. You do not have to be guilty, you just need to be in a situation when you will work as a good plausible and any real investigation, requiring brains and sophistication, is not needed.

[RichardColeman]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

Interestingly, there are now few forum comments about the numbers being falsified. The curmudgeons seem almost satisfied with 20K going on 30K.

The fact they can do 670,000 vaccines in a day , but struggle with 50K of tests, i would say is evidence of falsification. Promote the positives, hide the negatives. 

[AnotherFarang8]

>Now potential tourists, >already freaked and >cancelling due to the Covid >numbers coming out of >Thailand are seeing “murder >of tourist” on international >news front pages. 

Potential tourists are freaked about the insane number of bureaucratic hurdles they must hop around and humiliating acts they must submit themselves to to get to the sandbox and also puzzled about what to do if they get there with all entertainment venues closed. These worries make the lion’s share of worries now. The virus makes it to the list of worries only because of how fubar the vacations can be if said virus causes the slightest symptom in a tourist that would go unnoticed in other circumstances but will subject said tourist to highly unpleasant conditions in a special observatory incompatible with vacation mode, if registered by authorities of Phuket. All in all, there is no reason to believe that tourist worries are not caused artificially. Sufficient proof can be found in how other countries with comparable covid cases have had no difficulty attracting millions of tourists in the past 12 months. Murder a worry? Oh please. <deleted> 3 PCR tests, that’s a worry. Tourists ain’t coming. It feels like speaking to aliens.

[malibukid]

you know things are getting bad when CNN's reporting of the Bangkok protest was  censored like it was last night.

[roo860]

test kits are free to anyone in the UK, packs of 7, local pharmacy.

[jacko45k]

15 minutes ago, malibukid said:

you know things are getting bad when CNN's reporting of the Bangkok protest was  censored like it was last night.

It was on Sky this morning.... might depend which supplier of CNN it is.

[George Aylesham]

Rooster - you're really on form today with your weekly dose of commonsensical humour - welcome in these hard times.

[Clarkey611]

43 minutes ago, roo860 said:

test kits are free to anyone in the UK, packs of 7, local pharmacy.

Picked some up recently at both Boots and Superdrug. All they want to know is the age group of the users! No monies paid.

[Kalasin Jo]

Good piece rooster. I totally agree with you.

 

I'm outside Thailand and want to return but Covid is rife where I live there, Kalasin province, with no sign of vaccines, rumour fuelling a fear of them amongst an uneducated population and now an increasing reliance on so called "herbal remedies" to ward it off.

 

The government there became far too complacent over their success last year and failed to order sufficient vaccines.

 

I am double Pfizer biontech vaccinated here in France where approx. 60% of the population is now vaccinated. Although infections are still high hospitalisations and deaths are low.

 

So I'm not planning to return until the current wave abates AND those double vaccinated are allowed to self isolate at home and only if positive tested rather than shelling out for Phuket sandbox or Bangkok ASQ.

 

Reports from my wife who returned in January and family in Thailand say food is short locally, mask wearing is haphazard, gambling dens continue, the villages are full with those who have returned from Bangkok and tourist places as no work upsetting the fragile local economy and bringing Covid, field hospitals are being set up and schools used to isolate the infected. I worry for them because it will be a miracle if they don't get infected and sick.

 

Is Thailand a third world country? This situation suggests it still is when ordinary Thai folk are living on the edge like this now.

 

It's so sad.

 

[NE1]

" Phuket Sandbox murder couldn’t have come at a worse time "

 

So when would be a good time to murder somebody ?

[Albert Zweistein]

"A country desperate for the return of the tourist dollar "  The leaders, with all their arrogancy " dirty farang " and hub of this, hub of that don't deserve the return of the tourist dollar altough I feel sorry for the poor people who are suffering.

[thaimacky]

1 hour ago, Clarkey611 said:

Picked some up recently at both Boots and Superdrug. All they want to know is the age group of the users! No monies paid.

Boots in Central Plaza Udon: Baht 1500 for 5

[MrJ2U]

Great for TAT.

They can use this for terrible tourist numbers.

 

They did the same thing with this capsized boat.

 

"The salvaged vessel of Phoenix PC Diving, which capsized and sank off the popular resort island Phuket on July 5, 2018, killing 47 Chinese tourists."

 

Tourism has been going down for a long time.  Beautiful island but stories of being ripped off and overpriced hotels were the real culprits.

Thais have social media.  There bombarded with bad stories from Phuket.

[DaveSamutP]

They found someone to arrest almost instantaneously! Gotta make this go away and start getting those tourists back before the economy collapses 

[Zack61]

[DaveSamutP]

We Safe Thailand Safe Touris Safe

[Chris HIckson]

Pleased to see that We Safe Thailand Safe have found a sterile bubble so no mask required.

[Mavideol]

4 hours ago, roo860 said:

test kits are free to anyone in the UK, packs of 7, local pharmacy.

assuming you are in the UK......there is NOTHING for free in Thailand   555

[roo860]

11 minutes ago, Mavideol said:

assuming you are in the UK......there is NOTHING for free in Thailand   555

"these kits are going for 40 baht a time in the UK." that was Roosters comment, which I was replying to.

 

 

[csmith]

”Phuket Sandbox murder couldn’t have come at a worse time”

 

… so there is a good time for murder … I didn't know that.

[Sandy Bottom]

"Forget it - I’m staying home and will continue with my four decade policy of letting them get on with it…..and perhaps writing in support behind a pseudonym."

 

I am surprised that no one else jumped on this.  

How about "Chicken"? - No Relation to "Rooster"

[Mike k]

8 hours ago, malibukid said:

you know things are getting bad when CNN's reporting of the Bangkok protest was  censored like it was last night.

France 24 reported today I was surprised it wasn't censored 

[malibukid]

10 hours ago, Mike k said:

France 24 reported today I was surprised it wasn't censored 

it's just being censored locally

[Artisi]

16 hours ago, DaveSamutP said:

They found someone to arrest almost instantaneously! Gotta make this go away and start getting those tourists back before the economy collapses 

Fortunely for the local Burmese lads it must have been an easy one to solve and no connected family / mafia needed  to guide the arrest. 

[Mike k]

10 hours ago, malibukid said:

it's just being censored locally

That was on PSI satellite TV when the cave rescue was being done if France 24 started to report on it it went off air 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Mike k
Added to comment

[Black Angus]

Hi Rooster I am still awaiting a reply to my last message. Know you are busy but please try,

[Thorix]

What a horrible place! If you do not get a positive. 40+ CT PCR test, you get murdered. Fortunately, the Mass Mierda reports a 150% increase in foreign investment since the last TV terror outbreak campaing started back in June. Everything will be fine. Just relax and go back to sleep. We are in good hands. Everyone will be jabbed soon and tourists happy to get ripped will flock by millions again.

[PAULPACKAGE]

Couldn't have come at a worst time????? 

So should an advert be put in the paper saying, 

" To anyone out there at the moment who maybe thinking of, murdering a tourist, coukd you please, just put it on hold for a while,???? 

Never ever a right time for murder sorry.