Thai Bar Chides Legal Overreach of Anti-Alcohol Crusader

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Thai Bar Chides Legal Overreach of Anti-Alcohol Crusader

By Teeranai Charuvastra
Staff Reporter



BANGKOK — A legal scholar has urged the alcohol regulation board not to interpret the law on its own after its chairman threatened legal action against beer gardens for promoting consumption of alcohol.

Sarawut Benjakul of Thailand’s bar association – the lawyerly kind – said threats of legal action against beer gardens and even the musicians performing there were based on an overly broad interpretation of the law.

“You have to look clearly at what the law bans, and what it doesn’t ban,” Sarawut told Thai News Agency yesterday in an interview. “Interpreting the law in a vague way will only cause confusion to the people and businesses.”

He said the law must be clear, and “the person who raised the issue that beer gardens may be illegal has to come up with specific examples [of the law being broken.]”

Sarawut avoided mentioning Samarn Futrakul by name, but his comments presented the strongest backlash yet to the Alcohol Control Board director’s prohibitionist campaign, which has grown over the past year into a broad assault on the availability and marketing of alcohol.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1446802768

-- Khaosod English 2015-11-07

[klauskunkel]

the law must be clear

let's take it a step further and say "every law must be clear"

[waldroj]

That's got to hurt!

Just when Samarn was really starting to ramp up his evangelical offensive, he gets a timely message to put up, or leave it to the professionals to interpret the law.

[Bluespunk]

Was their no one able to tell this "crusader" buffoon he didn't understand the law correctly.

[LannaGuy]

"Thailand’s bar association" close it!!!

[NongKhaiKid]

Samara needs to be careful or he'll cop some serious AA for getting above himself. Talking crap in public is reserved for those well above his pay grade.

He is however showing potential as his D attitude and BS, well who knows as one day he might be in charge of the country ! As with others of that ilk I refrain from saying ' running ' it.

Edited November 7, 2015 by NongKhaiKid

[thelonius]

the law must be clear

let's take it a step further and say "every law must be clear"

Such as the new law banning the sale of alcohol at venues "near" schools, perhaps?

[01322521959]

You'd thdn have to ban all the mom and pop shops from selling alcohol ,,,

[Srikcir]

“Interpreting the law in a vague way will only cause confusion to the people and businesses.”

This culture is promoted by the Junta's reliance on judgement in enforcement of NCPO directives under Article 44. The rule of law has become the ruin of law.

[NongKhaiKid]

You'd thdn have to ban all the mom and pop shops from selling alcohol ,,,

A month ago the mom and pop stores in my area were told to observe the rules in effect for supermarkets etc as in 1100-1400 and 1700-2300 only for sales.

Needless to say they are obeying to the letter of the law. ?

[Ulic]

Koi pang, huba, huba. Three beauties.

[anon4546543]

Please lets put this into perspective. There is a crackdown on some advertising of alcohol that seems to be concentrated on one brewery. There is a lady down my street that openly sells her product. Her name is Chrystal Methe. No one seems to want to shut her down.

[louse1953]

Koi pang, huba, huba. Three beauties.

Whats expensive fish got to do with 3 good lookers.

[Maestro]

Any talk by any government official bout something being against the law without citing chapter and verse of the respective law law is, in my opinion, nothing but hot air, a tacit admission that he does not now the law.

This is the Samarn Futrakul being talked about:

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/samarn-futrakul/5a/b18/327?trk=seokp-company_posts_secondary_cluster_res_author_photo

The problem is that the bosses, the ministers of the ministries where these blabbermouths are employed, do not care and take no action. In the case of Samarn, this would be the Minister of Public Health. If I were the minister, I would order a deputy minister to order Samarn to submit, within 24 hours, a written report explaining the legal basis on which he arrived at the opinion he publicly pronounced. Then I would ask the opinion of the legal department of my ministry for its opinion on this report and if Samarn were found to have been wrong, I would demote Samarn by one rank and assign him to a job where he will have no further occasion to make public statements on ministerial affairs.

P.S. I see that chapter and verse have been cited in the OP of this topic, but apparently not in Samarn's original public pronouncement, or it was not included in that news report.

Section 32 of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act explicitly prohibits alcohol promotion by showing the names or logos of an alcoholic brand as part of marketing.

PS2: Sorry, the reference to Section 32 of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act s not in the OP of this topic; I saw it in another news item on the web. Some journalists think that the readers of their publication are not interested in such minor details.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Maestro
Added postscript

[Maestro]

By the way, that's an interesting law, forbidding the use of the logo and the brand for the promotion of a product.

[Maestro]

From an English translation of the Alcohol Beverage Control ACT B.E. 2551:

Section 32. No person may conduct an advertisement of an alcoholic beverage or express the name or sign of such beverage in a manner directly or indirectly claiming the existence of certain properties of or encouraging another to consume an alcoholic beverage.

A manufacturer of an alcoholic beverage, irrespective of its kind, may conduct an advertisement or act of public relations only in a manner providing information and knowledge beneficial to the society, without any picture of an alcoholic beverage product or its package, save a picture of its sign or sign of the manufacturer. This shall be subject to a ministerial regulation.

The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not apply to an advertisement of foreign origin.

Section 43. Any person who contravenes section 32 shall be liable to imprisonment for not more than one year, or a fine of not exceeding five hundred thousand baht or both.

In addition to the penalties under paragraph 1, the contravening person shall also incur a fine of not exceeding fifty thousand baths per a day throughout the time of contravention or until the contravention is corrected.

Source: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Alcoholic_Beverage_Control_Act,_BE_2551_(2008)

[Maestro]

So now we have it. A beer company can say that "beer makes you awsome at sex", for example with reference to this news story, but must not show or mention the logo and brand name of its beer. Understood.

A beer company may encourage people to consume beer – "come on, boys and girls, drink beer" – but without showing or mentioning the logo or brand of its product. Understood.

[callaway]

Those 2 darlings, left and centre, are enough to want me to throw my Leo in the bin and drink Chang. This is providing they come and personally serve it to me. Just gorgeous. Next this gentleman Samarn will tell us it is against the law to look at these lovelies. OMG Thailand is starting to become a police state and losing everything people love about the place. The laid back atmosphere is getting degraded day by day.

[Baerboxer]

“Interpreting the law in a vague way will only cause confusion to the people and businesses.”

This culture is promoted by the Junta's reliance on judgement in enforcement of NCPO directives under Article 44. The rule of law has become the ruin of law.

You really do post some ludicrous comments in your attempts to blame the Junta for everything. As if were perfect under their predecessors.

The Shins were the masters at vague, creative or downright twists in their attempts to either interpret laws in their favor or justify their ignoring them.

Much has been written about the vagueness of the wordings of many Thai laws, the often strange interpretations by the courts and the general bias towards those with money.

That didn't start suddenly and the party that's been in charge for most, the actual majority, of this century did nothing to change it. Neither did their rivals and predecessors.

Nothing to do with the Junta or their culture. It is the culture of Thailand and it's relationship with the law in its entirety.

[LivinLOS]

Those 2 darlings, left and centre, are enough to want me to throw my Leo in the bin and drink Chang. This is providing they come and personally serve it to me. Just gorgeous. Next this gentleman Samarn will tell us it is against the law to look at these lovelies. OMG Thailand is starting to become a police state and losing everything people love about the place. The laid back atmosphere is getting degraded day by day.

Actually yes.. they have said beer girls uniforms have to go (and not in the good way).