Santika Fire

[dee123]

I have been trying to find out what actions if any were taken against the "Police Colonel" who had shares in the Santika nightclub.An earlier BBC report said that license checks were ignored once he had become a shareholder.Has he been named? Or have the Thai newspapers failed to do their job again?

[dee123]

Here's the BBC report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7865349.stm

[roamer]

Seem to recall the name was published early on ? Nothing much will happen of course, bit unfair to blame the newspapers; in any society you will find journalists trying to get the truth out, not always possible. God knows enough of them have died for their trade.

[TallForeigner]

In my eyes this is still one of the biggest scandals of this year. Certainly nothing reasonable has been published and even less has been done revealing and punishing all the catastrophic negligence and blatant corruption behind the scenes.

The last thing I heard was that the investigations concluded that the fire was to be blamed on one of the band members who ignited fireworks on stage. He is the scapegoat and as far as I know he is the only one punished and rotting in jail. The manager and major shareholder of Santika apparently offered a settlement of 30'000 Baht for families who lost a loved one and for badly burnt or otherwise injured survivors. I vaguely remember that this offer of a settlement created an outrage and I guess it has not been paid out.

The sad sad truth of the story is that all those people involved in the Santika case who enriched themselves, all the officers and authorities who closed their eyes and opened their pockets and who are all responsible for the tragedy by grossly neglecting any safety regulations will walk free.

[roamer]

If your looking for the truth here your unlikely to find it. Of all the media operating from Thailand this is probably the most cautious source not wishing to hurt its revenue. Its little short of disgusting the self serving censorship that is being applied to one of the biggest internet stories affecting Thailand with threads continually being deleted. This place can call itself whatever it wants but not a source of news, it perverts the whole concept of news.

[mrtoad]

Sadly this particular case highlights highlights all that is wrong with Thailand and how it protects certain members of society. This whole thing is shameful, and it would be nice if some of the foreign press started picking up on this story, and how it has been covered up.

[dee123]

Seem to recall the name was published early on ? Nothing much will happen of course, bit unfair to blame the newspapers; in any society you will find journalists trying to get the truth out, not always possible. God knows enough of them have died for their trade.

No,I don't think the "police colonel" name has been published.If so please supply a link.And No again as to "bit unfair to blame the newspapers".Top officials being named and shamed in the press would dramitically reduce the likelyhood of them getting involved in criminal activities in the first place,and also prevent them remaining in their positions once exposed.What are newspapers for? if not for reporting on crime and corruption as part of their current affairs agenda.Hopefully doing this would then allow for the paving of the way for real "Public Servants" to occupy positions of power.

As it stands at the present time the Thai English language newspapers (and other Thai media)are falling well short of International standards of journalism.Often "burying" stories.i.e. placing articles on their websites well after the event is forgotton,and where no one is likely to read them,because of fear of goverment reprisals.Abhisit turned up immediately after the Santika fire,and "promised a thorough investigation".Yes an investigation happened,but was it "thorough"??....did they investigate why the Santika was allowed to remain open for 5 years in a area where night clubs were not permitted?and if so who was directly to blame for this?Was there a seperate investigation on the very real possibility that the police were heavily involved in allowing this to happen thus ignoring safety regulations.Where does the buck stop?Was this "police colonel" really unaware of the corruptt

ion going on?The Thai public deserves answers to these questions.People were fingered and blame was opportioned,so what everyone wants to know is; what have you done to punish the "guilty",and are they still in their jobs or not?.....Please Thai press let us know.

[Crossy]

A number of nonsense posts have been deleted.

Let's stay on-topic.