Teachers Vow To Stop Using Ais Mobile Phones

[george]

Teachers vow to stop using AIS mobile phones

BANGKOK: -- Angry teachers protesting against the school-transfer plan vowed Thursday to stop using mobile phone sevice of Advanced Info Service owned by the family of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thanarat Somkhane, an coordinator of the ally for the protection the national education, said teachers would be told to stop using AIS mobile phones as a protest against the government for ignoring their demand for the termination of the transfer plan.

Thanarat said some teachers in Nakhon Pathom had already stopped using the AIS services.

He said several tens of thousands of teachers would join the anti-government rally at the Lumpini Park on Friday and they would be told to boycott AIS.

The teachers Thursday also sent some 2,000 representatives to submit a petition to the Royal Palace for an intervention in the government's plan to transfer supervision of government schools to local administrative bodies.

The petition had been signed by over 100,000 government school teaches nationwide.

--The Nation 2005-12-08

[torgate]

"teachers would be told to stop using AIS mobile phones"

Strong words to counter in a court. Sounds like a case for the Civil Court on grounds of defamation and loss of income. Go get em PM.

[astral]

We all have a choice about which services to use.

It is a free country................... so far.

[Heng]

Let'em switch to DTAC, Orange, or Hutch already... services surely more commensurate to their salaries.

[sierra01]

We all have a choice about which services to use.

It is a free country................... so far. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

freeish anyway

[kat]

Let'em switch to DTAC, Orange, or Hutch already...  services surely more commensurate to their salaries. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why the snobby attitude? Is making less money a crime or a social taboo? It'll most likely be the people with less money that change the sorry state of this country - let's hope. So far, I have yet to see what the people with money have done, except to "eat the state". What a banquet.

[george]

Update:

Northeast teachers to protest in Khon Kaen, burn Thai Rak Thai cards

BANGKOK: -- Thai Rak Thai membership cards and SIM cards from a telecommunication company controlled by the prime minister's family will be burned Monday in northeastern Khon Kaen by teachers protesting the government transfer of state-run schools to local administration.

Thanarat Somkhanay, a coordinator of teachers opposing the school transfer, said protesting teachers will protest outside a school in Phol district and burn their Thai Rak Thai membership cards and Advance Information Service (AIS) SIM cards, belonging to a telecom firm controlled by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's family.

Responding to warnings by Education Minister Chaturon Chaisang that senior education officials will be disciplined for letting teachers skip classes and stage an anti-government rally, Mr. Thanarat said demonstrations would from now on be held on weekends and public holidays instead of normal working days in order to avoid causing problems to students and to not annoy the general public.

Dismissing Mr. Thaksin's reasoning that the real cause behind the teachers' protests was in part their huge debts, Mr. Thanarat said the government should instead provide teachers a Bt3,500 monthly cost-of-living allowance to enable teachers to live today's economy.

He said he planned to file lawsuits at the Administrative Court, the Civil Court and the Criminal Court against Mr. Chaturon and the education ministry on alleged violations of the ministry's regulations concerning education.

Mr. Thanarat said he did not know which teachers planned to run for a special Senate election but he said that if this accusation, made yesterday by the prime minister, was true then support should be given to them because the teacher candidates would be truly concerned about education in the country.

--TNA 2005-12-11

[ratcatcher]

Why the snobby attitude? Is making less money a crime or a social taboo? It'll most likely be the people with less money that change the sorry state of this country - let's hope. So far, I have yet to see what the people with money have done, except to "eat the state". What a banquet.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Reminds me of.............

The Beatles - Piggies

Have you seen the little piggies

Crawling in the dirt

And for all the little piggies

Life is getting worse

Always having dirt to play around in.

Have you seen the bigger piggies

In their starched white shirts

You will find the bigger piggies

Stirring up the dirt

Always have clean shirts to play around in.

In their styes with all their backing

They don't care what goes on around

In their eyes there's something lacking

What they need's a damned good whacking.

Everywhere there's lots of piggies

Living piggy lives

You can see them out for dinner

With their piggy wives

Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

George said it so eloquently 40 years ago . Need I say more?

Edited December 11, 2005 by ratcatcher

[Heng]

Let'em switch to DTAC, Orange, or Hutch already...  services surely more commensurate to their salaries. 

Why the snobby attitude? Is making less money a crime or a social taboo? It'll most likely be the people with less money that change the sorry state of this country - let's hope. So far, I have yet to see what the people with money have done, except to "eat the state". What a banquet.

Nothing snobby about it. Among the ruling party, I think the last thing on the list that is a concern is "change of mobile phone operator."

[ilyushin]

You have to fight with what you have. Its not about quality of services ,money and/or income. This can quickly turn into a much bigger issue than just teachers switching off AIS.

What will you do? They have made their message clear.

[Scott]

I really don't understand exactly why the teachers are opposed to the transfer. I don't want to sound silly, but I am just not up-to-date on the arguments on either side.

Can anyone enlighten me before I change my mobile phone!

[sierra01]

Dismissing Mr. Thaksin's reasoning that the real cause behind the teachers' protests was in part their huge debts, Mr. Thanarat said the government should instead provide teachers a Bt3,500 monthly cost-of-living allowance to enable teachers to live today's economy.

Are teachers the only people in Thailand with debts, why are they in debt? If it's through living beyond their means then it's their problem, not the Govt's.

[Heng]

Are teachers the only people in Thailand with debts, why are they in debt?  If it's through living beyond their means then it's their problem, not the Govt's.

My thoughts exactly.

[sriracha john]

Perhaps the teachers wonder why it's ok for the government to forgive the billions of debt owed by farmers, but as the farmers tend to be uneducated, they are generally easier to lead around by the nose (and vote TRT) than are teachers. The farmers stage a protest and their demands are met... the same is apparently not true of teachers.

Edited December 12, 2005 by sriracha john

[Tomissan]

I really don't understand exactly why the teachers are opposed to the transfer.  I don't want to sound silly, but I am just not up-to-date on the arguments on either side.

Can anyone enlighten me before I change my mobile phone!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From what I understand, this is the jest of the protest. Please feel free to fill in the blanks or correct where necessary.

Teachers are protesting the transference of power from Bangkok to the locally elected officials who are voted in by local people. Most locally elected officials have little or no education and the teachers feel the shift in authority will create more local corruption, confusion, etc.

Now, teachers are able to borrow up to 1 million baht at no interest or very low interest on their signature with the payback coming directly from their salary and if loan authorization is given to local officials there may be wide spread corruption, kickbacks and a less efficient school system. sort of a slap in the face, if you will

i.e., "our boss never finished the 3rd grade".

Edited December 12, 2005 by Tomissan

[sierra01]

Perhaps the teachers wonder why it's ok for the government to forgive the billions of debt owed by farmers, but as the farmers tend to be uneducated, they are generally easier to lead around by the nose (and vote TRT) than are teachers. The farmers stage a protest and their demands are met... the same is apparently not true of teachers.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was under the impression that at least some of the farmers debts were the result of bad Govt policies, low yields due to weather etc. Situations like that deserve Govt help, but if they spent Govt loans or grants on new mobile phones, motor cycles etc instead of cows, seeds, tractors or whatever then they should be left to sink or swim by themselves. Anyone, not just teachers or farmers, that gets into debt by living beyond their means shouldn't get any help at all.

I could go out today and buy a new car on my credit card, no way could I afford the repayments, could I reasonably expect my Govt help me? Of course not. 2 years ago I had my UK flat repossessed because the people that rented it decided they wanted to live there for free, I couldn't afford to keep up the mortgage repayments until I could turf them out and get someone else in. Did Mr Blair help me? No, the system is set up to protect the big boys, Joe Public can go screw themselves

[Scott]

Tomissan--Thanks, it now makes sense. I tend to support decentralization, but in this case there is a very good argument against it.

[Jai Dee]

KHONKAEN GOVERNOR SAYS THE RALLY OF TEACHERS SHOULD BE ABIDED BY LAW

The Governor of KHON KAEN says the rally of teachers protesting the government transfer of state-run schools to local administrative bodies can be done but should remain under certain restrictions and that every units should create unity.

Following this morning's rally of 500 teachers at PHOL PHITTHAYAKHOM (พลพิทยาคม) School of KHON KAEN's PHOL (พล) district, the Provincial Governor CHET THANAWAT (เจตน์ ธนวัฒน์) said the officials have been assigned to monitor on the movement of the teachers and that they behave in disciplined manner.

He has also instructed police officers to take care of the venue, however, teachers have decided to hold demonstrations on weekends and public holidays to avoid causing problems to the education system.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 12 December 2005

[sriracha john]

The Governor of KHON KAEN says that every units should create unity.

I am in total agreement with the Right Honorable Governor.....

every units SHOULD create unity...

because without units, there would be no unity

and without unity.... well, quite frankly... that would be the end of units.