Thailand Live Wednesday 8 Feb 2012

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Thailand Live Wednesday 8 February 2012

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 7 Feb 2012

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SUPER MAX

Super security prison established: Thailand

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GARDEN PARTY

Abhisit queries 'insensitive' flood party

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Thai govt establishes single anti-flood command

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Soggy sentiment expected for Valentine's Day: Thai flood aftermath

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LESE MAJESTE LAW

Dispute over call for vote on TU political ban

The Nation

Student union vice president denies proposal was official

BANGKOK: -- An assistant to the vice president of the Thammasat University Student Union has proposed that students vote to end the conflict over whether the university should open up its campus for political campaigning, including on changes to the lese majeste law.

However, the deputy president of the union said the proposal was only a personal idea of the assistant.

Thammasat University (TU) rector Somkit Lertpaithoon yesterday posted on his Facebook page a picture of a letter submitted to him by Panupong Rodthong, an assistant to the vice president of the union.

The letter was printed under the student union's letterhead and dated February 6.

It stated that the union - Tha Phrachan Campus - had agreed that violence should be prevented, and had proposed that students vote on the issue.

Somkit added a hand-written comment to the letter, saying that he agreed it was possible but that the voting process should be undertaken by the students themselves.

However, Rakchart Wong-Arthichart, vice president of the union, posted a message on his Facebook page rebutting Panupong's claim, saying there had been no resolution on the issue and Panupong was falsely using the organisation's name in putting forward the idea.

"I believe that the student union still insisted its request for the university administration to revise its decision [banning campus use for political campaigning], and there had been no statement afterwards," he said.

Rakchart said he had posted the message on Somkit's post, but it had been deleted. He then posted the link to his own posts instead.

Panupong, nevertheless, posted on Facebook in reaction to Rakchart's comment, saying, "The letter sent came from a proper [union] meeting and voting process. It did not come from personal opinion. We hope that you stick to democratic principles, as you have been calling for, and we propose you vote to reduce conflicts."

In response, Rakchart then posted asking Panupong to prove the claim about the meeting, as he did not acknowledge a union meeting had made such a resolution.

Somkit's post drew more than 144 comments and had more than 120 shares. The comments were posted on different angles of the conflict, including whether the lese majeste law should be changed, Somkit's conduct, the student union's conduct, and the letter itself.

Many of the comments were from Oh Wong-Arthichart.Among the comments, Supawat Sukhaparamate posted: "TU Student Union, please find agreement among yourself first, would you?"

Wilaiporn Pohthongkham posted: "Please clarify to people who don't understand, Thammasat lecturers or students. I have a headache [am confused] now."

Sitthisak Ponthaisong posted: "Excuse me. I have read some comments and found many people do not understand the meaning of democracy."

TU's executive board has drawn criticism after it decided to ban the use of its campus for campaigning to change the lese majeste law.

Somkit said earlier that the board would meet again this coming Monday to review its ban.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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STOPPAGE TIME

If freedom could talk, this would be the message: Thai opinion

Tulsathit Taptim

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EDITORIAL

Remember public servants who put Thailand first

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Cheap steel could cause collapses: Thailand

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Drug smuggler gets life term

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Appeals Court yesterday upheld the death sentence for an Iranian man caught smuggling 4.3 kilograms of crystal meth worth Bt10 million into Thailand, then commuted it to life in prison due to his useful confession.

Alireza Mahmoud Pour Emam Chaei, 28, was arrested on July 30, 2009 at Suvarnabhumi Airport with 4.3kg of ice hidden in a bag of snacks.

He told police his friend asked him to deliver the bag to a Thai man at the terminal's fifth gate but he didn't know the bag contained drugs.

The lower court had sentenced the man to death but reduced it to life, so he appealed for lighter punishment on grounds that he had no intention to commit a crime.

The Appeals Court saw the death sentence commuted to life as appropriate to the case.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Cartoons to teach history

The Nation

CHIANG MAI: -- Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Science's math lecturer Atichart Kettapun and a team have written and published a cartoon book about Thai history from the perspective of mathematics, to promote students' interest in both history and maths.

The book of cartoons was published under the Thailand Research Fund-sponsored research and network development project to promote history learning among Mathayom 4-6 students at Chiang Mai schools.

Atichart said the cartoons, published last month, resulted from a discovery by history teachers of primary schools that students weren't interested in history related to maths- such as the lunar calendar, Lanna calendar or Lanna measuring methods.

As a result, Atichart and the team produced the cartoons to help students learn and have fun about the subject.

The book's suitable for primary class teaching, for class supplementary in secondary schooling, and for the general public's reading at leisure.

History and maths teachers are free to download the cartoon file for their class usage at www.atichart.com

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Drug trafficking: Chalerm looks to cross-border help

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Caution ordered at Red Cross Fair

The Nation

AYUTTHAYA: -- The Red Cross Fair's light and sound show, to be held from February 10-19 in the Ayutthaya historical park, will be sited 10 metres away from the world heritage site - and there would be no firework lighting, Culture Minister Sukumol Kunplome said yesterday.

A 10-metre section of Wat Mahathat's ancient wall collapsed after the devastating flood last year. Sukumol said the authority was seeking Bt4 million to fix the wall, and is awaiting a full report from the Fine Arts Department.

She has instructed the department to closely monitor the situation and find innovative construction and restoration methods to fix and strengthen the ancient sites.

As for the upcoming fair, Sukumol had discussed with the province ways to prevent further damage.

Organisers agreed to have the stage moved 10 metres away from the site while the speakers were also shifted and turned outwards, she said.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Court sides with villagers in compensation case

The Nation

The Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a lower court's ruling ordering a company to pay more than Bt36 million in compensation to 151 Karen villagers.

The Karen, who live in a remote village in Kanchanaburi's Thong Pha Phum district, sued Lead Concentrate Co Ltd, claiming that lead emissions from its factory had harmed their health.

The case has dragged on for more than a decade, and the defendant still has the right to petition to the Supreme Court. Surapong Kong-janteuk, who heads the Lawyers Council's human-rights subcommittee on the stateless, migrant workers and displaced people, yesterday accompanied the plaintiffs' representatives to the courtroom.

"The plaintiffs have been fighting for this case for a long time. They are happy with this verdict," Surapong said.

The court, however, dismissed a separate complaint seeking to force the company to rehabilitate Klity Creek, which runs through their neighbourhood. The court accepted an argument that the lead leak was caused when three sludge wells burst during a storm, and that lead contamination had been found in many areas in Thong Pha Phum district.

In 2008, the 151 Karen villagers lodged a separate complaint with the Administrative Court against the Pollution Control Department (PCD) over its slow response to the leak and contamination of Klity Creek, Surapong said.

"The Supreme Administrative Court is now looking into that case," he said. According to an affidavit, the plaintiffs seek more than Bt28,000 each from the PCD.

Surapong said the lead contamination in the creek would affect not just locals, because water from it flowed to the Mae Klong River, which provides raw water for the Metropolitan Waterworks Autho-rity's tap-water production.

"What we want most is the rehabilitation of Klity Creek. We want clean natural water for our daily life and for the future of our children," said Yaser Nasuansuwan, one of the plaintiffs.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Push for salary hike for teachers: Thailand

Full story: http://www.thaivisa....chers-thailand/

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Pattani shooting probe to take a month

THE NATION

PATTANI: -- An investigation into a shooting incident late last month in Pattani in which five villagers were killed - allegedly by Army paramilitary rangers - will be completed in a month, Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha said yesterday.

"The joint military-civilian probe will decide whether the rangers overreacted, violated rules of engagement, or used excessive violence," he said. "If so, the villagers will be compensated."

Yuthasak said villagers should be compensated because the rangers were partly responsible for the shooting. He said the criteria for compensation would follow the probe results and the amount decided later on.

Pattani police have set up a investigation team to look into the case. The team travelled to Bangkok to report on the progress of the probe to the Royal Thai Police.

A villager was shot dead, possibly by insurgents, at a tea shop in Narathiwat's Si Sakhon district yesterday. The victim, 39, died at the scene after taking two bullets in the chest. Quoting eyewitnesses, police said two men on a motorcycle arrived at the shop and opened fire with a pistol on a group of four villagers in the shop, before they fled.

Police said that judging from the manner of the shooting, the attackers aimed to harm not only the victim but others as well, and were possibly insurgents wanting to hurt innocent civilians.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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No room for women on facebook board

Bloomberg

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Pakdeeharn is new govt mouthpiece

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Cabinet has approved Pakdeeharn Himathongkham as deputy government spokesman, following the transfer of Anuttama Amornvivat to secretary of the Social Development and Human Security Minister, acting government spokeswoman Thitiman Chaisaeng said yesterday.

"It is a quota from the Bangkok group," Thitima said, referring to a faction within the Pheu Thai Party led by banned politician Sudarat Keyuraphan.

"The reasons for changing the deputy spokesman are Anuttama's lack of ability in explaining economic issues, and Sudarat's wish for Pakdeeharn to work on Bangkok related topics," a source from Pheu Thai party said.

The term of Bangkok's governor expires next January and Pheu Thai will put up a candidate to contest the election against the Democrats.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Businesses used flood crisis to get rid of workers, labour groups say

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Employers used last year's flood crisis to lay off at least 3,000 blue-collar workers, Patchanee Kumnak, coordinator of the Thai Labour Campaign, said recently.

She added that many workers from Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani provinces who had lost their jobs sought help from provincial governors and the Labour Ministry, but to no avail.

"Things have been very slow," Patchanee said.

She also accused some businesses of exploiting the flood crisis to crack down on labour unions. Chalee On-soong, president of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee, acknowledged that in some cases, key labour leaders were made redundant during the period.

"Yes, you can say that the situation was exploited," Chalee said. "If all union leaders are gone it's tantamount to the destruction of labour unions."

Saeng-arun Kaenpetch, a union leader at an electronics factory in Pathum Thani province's Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate, said she along with other labour-union leaders had been fired even though the Labour Court has yet to approve the terminations.

She said the Labour Court was trying to resolve the conflict by telling her and her colleagues to accept the compensation that is required by law and that it would be pointless to return to work because their employers no longer wanted them. She said she had also been told that she would be mistreated at the factory, which is owned by a firm from a Southeast Asian country.

However, she insists that she has the right to return to her previous job and that at 38 years of age, she would find it difficult to land a new job with a similar pay package.

"I am getting old and will not be able to find a [factory] job elsewhere." She said many of her colleagues had been removed during the flood in December and that some had lost contact with one another, making it difficult to make a collective effort.

She added that some of the workers who got their jobs back had been put on the minimum-wage level rather than the pay scale they were at earlier.

Chalee, meanwhile, said the authorities would not listen if the workers did not start staging protests as a collective force, adding that it would be a while before the Labour Court or the Labour Ministry did anything.

"But if they don't push the government, then it will not see things through. They need to go back again and again and demand action," Chalee said.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Unspent govt project funds to be used on rehabilitation

Piyanart Srivalo

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Cabinet yesterday discussed shifting loans taken under the previous government to new projects aimed at rehabilitating victims of last year's severe flooding.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has instructed ministries to review the unspent funds borrowed under the previous Democrat-led government's Development Policy Loan, which was part of the Strong Thailand project. The unspent funds would be moved to the current government's post-flood rehabilitation projects, according to deputy government spokesman Anusorn Iamsa-ard.

Four projects under the Public Health Ministry worth Bt3.42 billion and one from the Transport Ministry worth Bt1.82 billion would be the first few to lose their unspent funds to flood-rehabilitation projects, the spokesman said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na Ranong told the Cabinet yesterday that about Bt8.8 billion of the loans taken by the previous government had not been earmarked for any particular projects.

Meanwhile, Yingluck also instructed ministries to find out whether any of the Strong Thailand projects were tainted by irregularity. She asked if such projects could be cancelled and Cabinet secretary-general Ampon Kittiampon said it could be done provided no agreements had been signed, the spokesman said.

Yingluck told the Cabinet meeting that projects with tied-in budgets should go ahead, while those with no details and unspent funds should be modified into projects for flood rehabilitation.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Public deserves more respect over lese majeste law

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- By now many Thais might have already decided as to where they stand on the fiercely emotional debate over proposed amendments to the controversial lese majeste law. After all, there are only two choices: will you or won't you sign and support the proposed amendment presented by the Nitirat group of law lecturers?

I, for one, have already decided.

Regrettably, though I am confident that Nitirat and the Campaign Committee to Amend Article 112 (CCAA) have good intentions, I cannot sign a petition that would legitimise criminal penalty for an act of lese majeste, even though the maximum penalty might be cut to three years as opposed to 15. My principles and conscience will not let me sign because I do not believe in criminalising free speech.

Whether you support Nitirat or oppose them, you should carefully read through their proposals and related literature from all perspectives and not fall for conspiracy theories that do not come with supporting evidence or that might be part of a hate campaign.

Nitirat and the campaign committee's proposed three years maximum penalty is possibly a pragmatic concession to the royalists. We can always debate as to whether another, albeit much less talked about, proposal from the Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) is more pragmatic and realistic, especially since they propose that the maximum penalty be reduced to six years instead of three. However, where do we draw the line between principle and pragmatism?

Perhaps there's never a satisfactory answer to all this as it depends on where one has placed his or her priorities. I received an angry e-mail from one well-known scholar, who is a member of CCAA, after I made it known publicly on prachatai.com online newspaper that I'm far from satisfied with the way the campaign is being run. I feel that the whole process could be much more participatory, transparent and that the proposal from Nitirat had "already been completed" without any public deliberation.

Members of the general public are, therefore, just facing a ready-made top-down passive choice on whether or not to sign the petition. This is unfortunate because the involved groups could have made the campaign process an act of participatory democracy and public deliberation.

The angry academic, whom I have known for years, wrote to me in English, saying: "CCAA is not public-financed, not run by tax money, not an elected office. Nobody paid them to do this. It is a temporary campaign by private citizens. It is not a secret campaign … What the CCAA have done is as OPEN as a campaign is supposed to be. They hope that once the draft is presented to the public, then the public can debate … Then it's up to the Parliament to bring this draft up for discussion or not."

It is obvious that I and the scholar, who shall remain anonymous, see things differently. It may be inefficient to involve more people, including members of the general public, to form small groups for deliberation even before the proposals are made and take part in selecting the first 112 committee members. Often times, the general public is left with little or no choice but to passively support one group or the other.

Such passivity and dependency through a top-down approach cannot bring about a democratic culture. Whether the law is amended or not is important, but the democratic and participatory process in driving or opposing the campaign is no less important.

The public deserves to be treated better than having to choose between one group or another, with little or no say in how the stance of each group is formulated.

-- The Nation 2012-02-08

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Apple TV Prototypes in Production...?

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Aussie woman falls overboard from yacht near Phuket

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Mystery Of 1.3 Million Baht Of Torn-Up Money Solved By Chonburi Provincial Police

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Another Child Drowns At Phuket's 'Lethal Lagoon'

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Chao Phraya River overflows, inundating Ayutthaya's Sena District, officials say unseasonal rain caused high water level, not water discharged from dams /MCOT

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Thai stock index opens on Wednesday at 1,108.65, up 7.53 points /MCOT

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Conditions for 3G Service Auction Expected in 3 Months

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Cobra Gold 2012 Opens In Nakhon Ratchasima

F16, file photo. Source: wikimedia

Full story: http://www.thaivisa....hon-ratchasima/