Thailand Live Wednesday 27 Apr 2011

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Thailand Live Wednesday 27 April 2011

News, Bits and Tweets

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Keep up to date with live updates from the news, hour by hour.

For breaking news,national, regional and international news updates on a daily basis only, this thread is closed to commentary so that those who wish to follow the news can find it here...

Commentary is still open for Thailand news in the relevant thread posted in News Clippings.

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Related topic: Thailand Live Tuesday 26 Apr 2011

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Thai-Cambodia clashes continue into fifth day

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Thai PM Abhisit says border clashes won't affect election

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Marty: The sooner Abhisit, Hun Sen meet, the better

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PM Abhisit orders review of relations with Cambodia

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SAMUI

No more soaks for Samui

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EDITORIAL

Asean must show its worth as a regional authority

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GUEST COLUMN

Green joins red and yellow on Thailand's political battlefield

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Seh Daeng's daughter seeks answers, might contest under Pheu Thai banner

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Ranong aims to cash in on its hot springs

By The Nation

Ranong plans to promote its hot springs in a bid to become one of the exemplary cities under the Commerce Ministry's "creative economy" initiative.

Under the project, the ministry will provide financial support to 10 provinces that submit the best proposals.

"Our province can become a great destination for health and eco-tourism," Ranong Governor Wanchart Wongchaichana said yesterday, adding that Ranong's hot springs had the added benefit of lacking the strong odour of sulphur.

"Our landscape is also beautiful," he said, adding that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation had recognised Ranong as a biosphere reserve.

"The culture also has strong appeal. Despite the diversity and differences, people are caring towards one another," Wanchart said.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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Govt sets new guidelines for foreign workers

By The Nation

Cabinet yesterday issued a five-point directive to tackle issues of illegal immigrant workers and the unlawful employment of foreigners - including reopening registration, once again, for those failing to meet the February "final deadline."

Under new guidelines, immigrant workers are allowed to bring in children under 15 who can stay in Thailand for one year with each permit. Those due for repatriation are allowed to work temporarily in Thailand under a case-by-case permission.

Drastic action is threatened for Thai employers or those providing illegals with shelter- and the workers themselves who do not cooperate by registering - including blanket inspections and arrests at local factories, together with heavy fines and alternative imprisonment.

Direct employment of workers from Laos, Burma and Cambodian is encouraged in Thailand to reduce the number of illegal immigrants, and their subsequent smuggling into Thailand jointly by smugglers and corrupt officials.

Provincial and regional committees will be set up to work on immigrant worker issues under the supervision of a national board, through integration. A board under the Labour Ministry handling overall employment of foreign workers will be upgraded to a new department, pending Civil Service Commission approval.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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Drugs in diapers; fake insurance policies alert

By The Nation

Narathiwat

Police arrested a Thai man yesterday allegedly carrying 24 grams of heroin hidden in baby diapers in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district. The drugs were worth about Bt170,000.

The 26-year-old suspect, Mahadi Teng, reportedly confessed that he had bought the drug on several occasions from a Malaysian national at Bt3,500 per tube - to sell to customers for Bt9,000 a tube.

Meanwhile, three youths were arrested and one fled after a police officer was shot in the leg during a sting operation in Soi Pracha-uthit 79 in Bangkok's Thung Kru district on Monday night, Deputy Metropolitan Police chief Euapong Komarakul na Nakhorn said yesterday.

Following an earlier drug bust, police set up the "sting" to arrest four alleged drug dealers in a car, but the suspects realised it was a trap and tried to speed away.

Police pulled a truck in front of their car and Pol Lt-Colonel Poj Bumrungchat called on the fugitives to surrender. One shot at him before fleeing on foot.

Separately, the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) has got together with the Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) to monitor the industry more closely after some drug dealers were found to have bought insurance policies for people already deceased in a bid to launder drug money.

AMLO acting secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat and OIC secretary-general Jantra Buranareuk yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to strictly supervise insurance firms and prevent criminals from using them as channels to launder money or fund terrorist activities.

Seehanat said the collaboration would be a great help in its anti-money laundering work as it obliged the OIC to send suspicious insurance policies valued at over Bt2 million to AMLO for checking.

Insurance companies have to report operating results to the OIC every 30 days, Jantra said. So far the office hasn't found any suspicious insurance policies because of OIC regulations for careful monitoring of customer information.

She said that in this year's second quarter the OIC would launch a Smart Card system to follow insurance representatives' movements and those of customers making insurance claims.

In related news, an Iranian man was arrested for drug smuggling at Suvarnabhumi Airport yesterday after customs officials found 56 packages of crystal methamphetamine worth about Bt1.5 million in his stomach.

Mozawi Mazum, 27, who arrived on a Mahan Air flight from Tehran, reportedly confessed that he was paid US$5,000 to deliver the drugs to a contact in Pattaya.

He claimed this was his first attempt to do this.

Some 30 smugglers have been arrested and narcotics worth more than Bt147.2 million seized at the airport since October 1 last year.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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Police turn to public for help

By The Nation

Police are enlisting the eyes and ears of citizens by launching a pilot crime-watch project in Hua Mark, Lat Phrao and Wang Thong Lang.

Under "Peuan Khanghong Teunpai" (crime watch by friends next door), neighbours in apartments and communities were given whistles to blow for help in an emergency.

Major-General Suthee Nainkunthee, commander of Metropolitan Police Division 4, said yesterday that the project, with collaboration from Ramkhamhaeng University and the Bang Kapi District Office, would bring residents in the same compound together to get to know each other, watch out for any crimes and quickly alert police.

Bangkok has many apartments, although only 1,903 are registered, and most of them take in all kinds of tenants, which could breed vice, he said.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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US urges restraint over border row

By The Nation

The US has expressed deep concern over clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops on the border, urging both sides to exercise restraint.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement issued on Monday that the US urged Thailand and Cambodia to refrain from provocative acts and immediately take all necessary steps to reduce tension and avoid further conflict.

"The loss of life, displacement of civilians, and damage to property is regrettable," she said.

Moreover the US supported the efforts of Indonesia in its role as chair of Asean to work with both countries to reach a resolution.

"The United States is also engaging with Thai and Cambodian officials directly on this matter. We continue to urge the Royal Thai Government and Royal Government of Cambodia to resolve their disputes peacefully to help strengthen regional stability," the statement said.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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EDUCATION

Abhisit aghast at lack of knowledge

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Border villages are now ghost towns

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BURNING ISSUE

Thailand needs to reconsider its position

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Pheu Thai to retain Pattani City plan

By THE NATION

The opposition Pheu Thai Party will maintain its plan to establish a Pattani City to allow more power for residents in the deep South - although the man behind the idea has left, one of its local MPs said yesterday.

Creating a Pattani City is a policy of Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, a former prime minister and ex-Army chief who resigned recently as Pheu Thai chairman and left the party.

Pheu Thai MP for Yala Sukarno Matha said yesterday the party would go ahead with the policy of establishing a Pattani City - as well as pushing for the drafting of a Pattani Bill to set up a new administrative zone covering the border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat.

He said the proposed law would allow local residents to elect their provincial governors and give more power to local administrations.

Sukarno said that after Chavalit's departure, many residents in the southern border provinces doubted Pheu Thai remained serious about implementing Chavalit's idea if the party wins the next election and becomes the government.

The MP said the party would also follow advice from fugitive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra about working with neighbouring countries in a bid to solve the insurgency problem at the southern border.

Thaksin is believed to pull the strings behind Pheu Thai and is seen as de-facto party leader.

Pichet Sathirachawal, who heads Pheu Thai's campaign team covering the Andaman coastal provinces, said the party would rely on the red shirts to help with election campaigns in the South.

Pichet said Pheu Thai needed support of red-shirt rallies in southern provinces as campaigns alone would be unable to draw large crowds in a region where the rival Democrat Party is very popular.

He expressed optimism Pheu Thai would fare better in the next poll than its predecessor, People Power Party, did in the 2007 election. People Power was dissolved by court order in 2008 for electoral fraud.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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Strong opposition to reform plan

By PRAVIT ROJANAPHRUK,

SIRARED CHERDCHUSILP

THE NATION

A plan to decentralise local administration - proposed recently by the National Reform Committee led by former premier Anand Panyarachun - met fierce opposition and outrage from the Government Officers Association of Thailand yesterday.

They said if such reform was carried out, Thailand would cease to exist as a unitary state and collapse and lose its sovereignty.

"Everyone wants power. We have to control them. The day such reform is taken will be the day Thailand disintegrates," Lieut-Colonel Kamol Prachuabmor, president of the 20,000 member association of retired and current senior officials from the powerful Interior Ministry, told The Nation.

He was speaking right after a more softly worded press conference denounced the reform plan.

Kamol said the proposed reform did not make sense, as local people would not be ready even "50 years from now".

Senior members of the association claimed the plan would see an end to the role of the Interior Ministry in appointing village headmen, kamnans, as well as district chiefs and provincial governors.

The association, which met and discussed the matter, concluded that local people were not ready to elect representatives at all levels and they had concerns that people running for local polls were corrupt. Local people needed to be supervised by the Interior Ministry's appointed officials, they argued.

One member, a former governor, said the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration wouldn't have time to consider the proposed plan. Whatever party headed the next government would not carry out such reform because it would be akin to "cutting their own legs and power".

Prasarn Sukrangsan, a board member of the association and former governor of Angthong province, said local elections or devolution would not lead to genuine local representation.

"The worst thing would be to abolish [the appointed] village headmen and kamnan who are local representatives [of the Ministry]. Are those elected representatives really representing the people? Those who voted for the Tambon Administrative Organisations (TAO) chiefs were told they had already received money [for voting for a vote-buying candidate] so they couldn't make any demands [for assistance] afterwards. Our kamnans and village heads are different, however."

The proposed decentralisation document published last Monday, stated on page 4 that: "The top-down administration of the country has become ineffective, not in line with increasingly complex reality, to the point that in many instances, it has become the cause of the problem itself. More importantly is the concentration of state power at the centre which leads to vast economic disparity between the capital and other cities while not being able to open up adequate political space..."

Some members of the association said they would press all competing political parties to declare whether any party supports such the reform plan or not, so the association and local officials will not vote for them.

Prayoon Promphan, vice-president of the group, said he saw good intent at the reform committee but thought their proposal was just "too radical".

Asked by The Nation if some older cities might be more ready for a trial of devolution and decentralisation, one member admitted he didn't trust some local people, whom he thought harboured deep-rooted resistance to the notion of central administration and a unitary state.

"Deep down, the sense of being an independent city state is still there," Parnchai Bovernrattanaparn, a former governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province, said. Parnchai said old cities like Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were examples of this.

"What will happen if there's no [administrative] connection?"

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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Pattani governor narrowly avoids roadside bomb blast

By The Nation

The Pattani governor and his three-man entourage survived a motorcycle bomb which was set off yesterday as his motorcade returned from official duties in Panareh district.

Niphon Naraphithakkul and the three other officials suffered ringing ears and chest pain after the blast, estimated to have been caused by 3kg of explosives hidden in the motorcycle. They were treated at a hospital and later discharged.

The motorcycle - a bronze Honda Wave - had a fake licence plate and was stolen from Panareh market last month. Police said the attack was possibly the work of local Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) insurgent commandos.

Niphon's entourage was returning from two events - one at a school and the other at a stadium. The scene of the attack was near a mobile signal tower, which suggests a phone may have been used to set off the bomb.

Witnesses said Niphon's vehicle sped away from the scene despite three tyres exploding, before it stopped 1.5 km away in front of a police station, and all four occupants were taken to hospital. There was a security detail travelling ahead of Niphon's pickup, but it was not hit by the blast.

Security officials also put out an alert warning of another car-bomb after a Mitsubishi Titron pickup was reported stolen recently. The owner of the motorcycle used in yesterday's blast also filed a missing vehicle report with police.

Speaking later, Niphon said the attack was meant to warn the local population against cooperating with authorities, which were working successfully on the peace process and winning them over.

He said the bomb could have been a symbolic act to mark the seventh anniversary of the Krue Se mosque incident (when about 30 attackers were killed after a series of morning raids that left another 70 dead, most of them opponents of the then Thaksin government).

Niphon said Muslim clerics and community leaders were cooperating with authorities while giving lectures on true Islamic principles to residents to prevent them being misled spiritually by insurgents.

"The insurgent leaders are unsatisfied with efforts by the authorities to win over the population and want to use the attack as a starter for more violence," he said.

Police said the site was a surprise location for a roadside bomb attack, because it was a coastal road connecting two tambons in the district and busy with residents and tourists.

-- The Nation 2011-04-27

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AFP: Thailand pulls out of planned ceasefire talks with Cambodia

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Thailand Elite Card Closes Down To The Tunes Of 2.5 Billion Baht

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Thai stock index opens on Wednesday at 1,105.06, up 8.11 points /MCOT

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Thai Government Agencies Step-up Efforts against Money Laundering

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Chamber hopes government won’t close border checkpoints to counter Cambodia

BANGKOK, April 27 (TNA) – Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) Vice Chairman Nikom Wairatpanich on Tuesday expressed his hope the government would not opt for a closure of border checkpoints in the wake of the clash between Cambodian and Thai troops along the frontier.

Speaking of spreading rumours the government would close border checkpoints in a number of provinces adjacent to Cambodia, he said the private sector opposed the possible move and saw no reason for the government to do that in retaliation.

He said closing the checkpoints would mar the trade atmosphere of both countries.

“The political conflicts should be separated from trade issues. If we close border checkpoints with Cambodia, I am afraid many trade partners such as China, Vietnam, and Singapore will take this opportunity to supply more products to the country,” he said.

Mr Nikom said he did not think closing the checkpoints would be helpful, but said that both countries should resume negotiation although the talks were fruitless in the past.

Should the two countries have sincerity in the negotiation, he believed, the border conflicts would be finally resolved.

“In terms of trade value, the trade between Cambodia and Thailand totals almost 80 billion baht a year, 7 billion baht a month, or 200 million baht a day. Should the border checkpoints be closed, the Thai private sector will be affected. So, we want the government to turn to count on the negotiation rather than the border checkpoint closure,” he said. (MCOT Online News)

-- TNA 2011-04-27

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Police Shut Down Illegal Red-Shirt Community Radio Stations

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Cabinet Authorizes Procurement of New Public Buses

With only one Cabinet meeting left next week, the Transport Ministry was one of the biggest winners at yesterday's Cabinet meeting after the procurement of nearly 2,000 new public buses in a 4-billion baht deal, as well as a 2.1 billion baht for reconstruction in the flood-hit South was approved.

Transport Minister Sophon Saram announced that the Cabinet has approved the procurement of 1,957 new buses, 1,579 of which are regular buses and 378 are air-conditioned, for the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority.

The new buses will replace the aging fleet which has been in service for more than 17 years.

The deal was also approved earlier by the State Enterprise Policy Committee, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Trairong Suwankiri.

According to the report, the deal is worth approximately 4 billion baht.

However, it is not part of the 4,000 NGV bus leasing project proposed earlier by the Transport Ministry. The final decision of the deal rested with Trairong.

At the same time, the Cabinet has approved 2.1 billion baht for reconstruction in the flood-hit South as proposed by the Monitoring Committee on Disaster Rehabilitation.

The restoration effort will be carried out by nine state agencies including the Transport Ministry, which will be responsible for the repair of damaged roads and airports.

The automobile tax restructuring put forward by the finance minister was not discussed during yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij expects the matter will be considered at the next meeting.

-- Tan Network 2011-04-27

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Border residents asking for more bunkers

BANGKOK, 27 April 2011 (NNT) – Residents along the Thai-Cambodian border have urged authorities to construct more bomb shelters to ensure their safety, according to National Police Chief Police General Wichean Potephosree.

Police General Wichean stated that he had already ordered the Provincial Police Region 3, the Border Patrol Police and the Immigration police to coordinate with the provincial administrations in evacuating residents out of the battle zones to any of the 22 safer temporary shelters along the border.

The Police commissioner-general said that local residents are calling for construction of more bunkers since the existing number is inadequate while the situation in the border areas remains intense.

Police General Wichean said further that border patrol police, the military and provincial administrations have set up a combined force of soldiers, police and civilians to take care of the property of villagers who are forced by the situation to leave houses and take refuge in temporary shelters.

As for security measures for the Cambodian embassy in Thailand, the national police chief disclosed that the embassy is situated in the Internal Security Act (ISA) enforcement zone where security operation is already tight. He added that there is no need to provide reinforcements.

-- NNT 2011-04-27

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Commerce Minister Approves of Border Closure to Block Weapons Transport

The commerce minister says the ministry does not oppose border closures along the Thai Cambodia border, if the move is needed stop weapon transport channels.

Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai said she has ordered the Department of Internal Trade to pay close attention to the Thai-Cambodian border skirmishes.

She said the closure of two border points, the Sa Ngum border crossing in Srisaket Province and the Chong Jorm border crossing in Surin Province, has slowed border trade.

Porntiva said border trade in Sirsaket and Surin has amounted to 1.6 billion baht so far this year, or 4.6 million baht per day.

She said border skirmishes have decreased border trade by 79.4 percent, compared to the same period last year, adding that border trade has not declined significantly over the past three days.

Permanent-Secretary of Commerce Yanyong Puangraj said Thailand's exports to Cambodia are predominantly through the border crossing at Sa Kaeo Province.

He added that most of the consumer goods, fuel, and construction materials are exported through the Chong Jorm border crossing.

Portiva reiterated that the Commerce Ministry will have no problem if the government and the Thai foreign ministry feel the need for border closures to block weapon transport channels.

-- Tan Network 2011-04-27