City Police Ordered to Step Up Vice Suppression

BANGKOK: -- A deputy PM has instructed the city police to step up measures to prevent and eradicate drugs and other vices in the area after reports about an increase in Bangkok's entertainment venues with horse racing machines and drug sales.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung delivered drug suppression policies for Bangkok's entertainment venues to commanders and deputy commanders from nine districts under the Metropolitian Police Bureau's jurisdiction.

Chalerm revealed that only 600 of some 1,500 entertainment venues in Bangkok are licensed.

He said some under the jurisdiction of the Makkasan and Huay Kwang police stations are openly selling amphetamine and methamphetamine on their premises.

Some under the jurisdiction of the Phlap Phla Chai 1, Bang Rak, Samrae, Buppharam and Bukkhalo police stations, have horse racing machines and act as illegal lottery bookies.

The deputy PM instructed the city police to seek cooperation from entrepreneurs to immediately inform the authorities of their business rivals' illegal activities.

Moreover, Chalerm also ordered all police stations in Bangkok to step up vice supression by using proactive measures to prevent smuggling of illegal substances and other vices into their areas and emphasize close monitoring of risk groups.

Asked about the proposal to hold drug-related inmates in separate facilities, the deputy PM said he agrees with the idea to hold only major drug kingpins in solitary cells to cut their networks.

He proposed that a particular remand center could be set up as a model to carry out a pilot project.

However, further details of plan will have be to be studied.

Further questioned about Rak Thailand Party leader and party-list MP, Chuwit Kamolwisit's disclosure of information about gambling dens in Bangkok, Chalerm affirmed that the police have already shut down all gambling venues which are openly advertised to the public

The deputy premier went on to say that most gambling venues existing in the capital are not permanent as they usually change their locations frequently.

Chalerm confirmed that he has never protected the national police chief and the city police commissioner over the existence of gambling dens in the capital.

Thaksin: Successful Reconciliation Will Bring Thailand More Prosperity

NONTHABURI: -- Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra made a phone-in to red-shirt supporters, saying the ongoing conflict is easy to solve and Thailand can become a happier and wealthier nation if reconciliation is achieved.

At a Chinese banquet organized at Nonthaburi Provincial Hall presided by Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit, Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives Nuttawut Saikuer.

Nuttawut delivered his speech titled 'Politics is Everyone's Business' to the guests, including a number of red-shirt supporters.

He said Thai politics over the past five years have been characterized by conflicts, starting from the yellow-shirt group going out in protest against the government and giving flowers to soldiers who staged the coup.

Then the coup leader ran in election and was elected as MP, which was unprecedented.

Nuttawut pointed out that some people are now thinking that politics is the sharing of power among certain group of people and the idea might give rise to further conflicts.

He called on all Thais to be sensible and help solve the ongoing conflict by a peaceful means.

Reports revealed that self-exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra phoned in to red-shirt supporters that he has not seen them for a long time and he wants to come back home.

Thaksin also gave a blessing to his supporters on the occasion of New Year and told them to be patient as they will become wealthier soon.

The ex-premier said Thailand can be a wealthy nation once its people stop fighting against each other over trivial matters.

He is confident that if reconciliation is achieved, all conflicts will be happily resolved and he can be reunited with his supporters.

Suchart launches ministry with more tablets, promises of action

BANGKOK: -- As many as 900,000 tablets would now be handed out to all Prathom 1 and some Prathom 4 students (first and fourth graders), newly appointed Education Minister Prof Suchart Thadathamrongvej said after meeting with the tablet policy management committee yesterday on his first day in office.

The newly declared number of tablets is an increase from the previously agreed 700,000, with a Bt1.9 billion budget.

As a result, the meeting agreed to submit a request to the Cabinet for another Bt1 billion in budget for the extra tablets, he said.

Suchart said all 860,000 Prathom 1 students under different ministries would be given the tablets, while the remaining tablets would be distributed to some Prathom 4 students.

Thailand would buy all the tablets from China under a government-to-government contract, he added.

At his policy declaration session at the Education Ministry, Suchart vowed to care for students and teachers as if they were family members - and rush to put the Pheu Thai Party's education policies into practice.

Hundreds of state officials from across the country attended the session yesterday. Many more watched the declaration live on National Broadcasting Services of Thailand (NBT channel) and Educational Television of Ministry of Education (ETV satellite channel) and listened to the policies on radio.

Red-shirt supporters from many provinces cheered Suchart and gave him a warm welcome to the ministry.

Originating from the same party as former education minister Woravat Auapinyakul, most of the announced policies are similar to Woravat's and in line with the party's intentions. Some policies will be added to improve the current ones. In addition, Suchart has some ideas about educational development he said he would try to push forward as well.

"My party's administration concept is about taking care of people as family members - and I will apply that to my administration at the ministry, too. I won't force teachers and students to do what the ministry wants to achieve, but will listen to them and what they want."

"With a commitment to a student-centred approach, students will be allowed to think out of the box or think differently and voice their needs," he said.

To adhere to the concept, Suchart vowed there would be no corruption and no cheating among students and teachers. "Although I support donations to provide more educational resources to schools, I will try to ensure no "tea money" bribery at schools. Teachers' recruitment and transfer processes and their academic standing assessments will be open and transparent - they should be allowed to defend their work during the assessment."

Technology-based learning is among the major policies of the party, which he will continue - including the tablet distribution to students and "e-education" programmes and contents developed to change schools to life-long learning centres.

The new minister said he would continue the English Speaking Year policy initiated by Worawat and strongly supports it. "We will try to seek more English native speakers for schools to encourage students to practise it. Every school should stop paying for unnecessary events and hiring companies to make banners printed with my picture to welcome me. The money should be used to hire foreign teachers instead. The Chinese language will also be promoted among interested students."

To open more opportunities for students to pursue education abroad, Suchart said he would add one more scholarship in addition to the current one-district one-scholarship project.

He also pledged to continue dealing with teachers' debt, merging small schools with management problems, creating students to be professionals, and a graduates' endowment fund.

Suchart talked about an idea that would allow agriculturists to transfer their experience to upper secondary and vocational education. Also, he urged officials of the Ordinary National Educational Test to provide a test every month instead of once a year to help students.

"The ministry's administrators and officials must implement their policies [promptly] otherwise they will be transferred," he said.

Five Killed in Crash Resulting from Shooting

A total of five people died in a crash caused by a drive-by shooting early this morning.

A witness in the truck says the attack resulted from a brawl between one of its passengers with someone at a pub.

Three of the victims were identified as Somchai Sitthipong, Worrawuth Wicchupanyapong, and Arom Saelao.

The incident also injured two other people.

Four men were first sent to Bangpakok and Ratburana hospitals for medical treatment and two of them later died.

The shooting took place at the entrance of Soi Suksawas 23, just 1.5 meter from Bangpakok Hospital.

Investigators said they found ammunition rounds and two 9 millimeter-caliber bullets in the sedan believed to be carrying the gunman.

They also found two bullet holes on the left side of the pickup truck.

A witness who was a passenger in the truck said it was carrying 10 friends from a pub on Rama III Road.

The witness said one of his friends had a quarrel with a group of revelers at the pub before their truck was shot more than 10 times by a gunman.

He believes the shooting was a result of the brawl.

He said the attack caused the truck to crash into a tree.

Investigators are now in the process of identifying and searching for the six in the suspected sedan for interrogation.

New minister on US blacklist

PM's Office Minister Nalinee sanctioned by Treasury Dept office for dealings with Mugabe regime

The Yingluck II Cabinet, announced yesterday evening, was immediately rocked by a controversy after new face Nalinee Taveesin, who was appointed PM's Office minister, was exposed as being on a United States blacklist due to her alleged business connections with Zimbabwe.

Nalinee's name was on the US blacklist of "cronies" of the much-abhorred Zimbabwean regime. The disclosure was certain to put more strain on bilateral relations after the US Embassy's recent terrorist warning on its website upset the Thai government.

Nalinee described the issue as a mix-up.

"It was a misunderstanding on the part of the US. This happened a long time ago. I didn't do anything as alleged," she told the Krungthep Turakij newspaper.

Nalinee's qualifications to be a minister attached to the Prime Minister's Office had been checked constitutionally before the Cabinet list was submitted for His Majesty the King's approval, Cabinet secretary-general Ampon Kittiampon said yesterday.

However, Ampon said he was not aware that her name was on the list of Zimbabwean Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in November 2008.

About two decades ago, the revelation that veteran politician Narong Wongwan was on a US blacklist all but ruined his political career. He was a prime ministerial candidate when news about the blacklist knocked him off his perch.

Robert Amsterdam, the lawyer for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, reportedly wants to compare former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva with Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for Abhisit's alleged role in the bloody crackdown against civil disobedience last year.

The US OFAC designated in the SDN list Nalinee Joy Taveesin, then an ordinary Thai businesswoman, for her facilitation of a number of financial, real-estate and gems-related transactions on behalf of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace Mugabe and other Zimbabweans on the SDN list.

"Ironically, Nalinee Taveesin has participated in a number of initiatives on corruption and growth challenges in Africa and Southeast Asia while secretly supporting the kleptocratic practices of one of Africa's most corrupt regimes," according to a OFAC statement issued on November 25, 2008.

As a consequence, American citizens or entities were prohibited from doing business with her, while her assets, if they went through a US jurisdiction, would be frozen.

Zimbabwe was sanctioned by the US in 2003 for its undemocratic practices. In 2005, an executive order by then president George W Bush expanded the list of sanction targets to include immediate family members of the designated individuals of the Zimbabwean sanctions as well as those who provide assistance to the sanctioned targets.

Nalinee said she was close to many countries' leaders, not just those governing Zimbabwe. She insisted that she did not do any illegal business overseas.

Cabinet secretary-general Ampon said he had reviewed Nalinee's |credentials for a ministerial post |and found nothing against Thai laws. Her name was submitted together with other new ministers for His Majesty's approval, and got royal endorsement yesterday evening.

If appearing on the SDN list is not against Thai law, she is still eligible to be a minister, Ampon said.

"But if such a status is against Thai law, we have to consider the matter again," he said. "At this moment, don't make any premature conclusion."

Compensation for Tak Bai victims considered

Defence Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha yesterday voiced support for the idea of extending compensation guidelines to cover the surviving family members of the 87 people killed in the Tak Bai incident in 2004.

Yuthasak also suggested that adjustments be made to the compensation provided for security forces killed or injured in the violence-plagued South.

"I think the Tak Bai victims should be compensated because they were killed without any justification," he said.

The Pheu Thai-led government has a standing policy to bring about reconciliation and compensating victims of political violence is part of the move to mend fences, he said.

He added that he was in charge of taking care of soldiers killed or injured while trying to quell violence in the deep South, while Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit would oversee the disbursement of compensation for victims of political disturbances. He said that as per his understanding, Yongyuth would need a week to map out guidelines for disbursing the compensation.

Meanwhile, Yongyuth said guidelines for compensating victims of the insurgency in the South was also being mapped out and that Justice Minister Pracha Promnok was in charge of working out both sets of guidelines.

He went on to say that only innocent victims would be compensated, and not those who were prosecuted for criminal offence.

In response to the Democrat Party's attack that the compensation was unfair, Yongyuth said everybody was entitled to their opinions but the government would not be deterred from paying victims of political turmoil.

Government officials involved in drawing up guidelines for victims of violence in the South, said the debate on who exactly was entitled to compensation was still inconclusive because the insurgency erupted eight years ago.

In addition, demand from state officials like teachers and defence volunteers for the same compensation package further complicated the issue.

Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha said the compensation package should be reviewed, computed and paid on a case-by-case basis depending on the circumstances of each victim.

As for disturbances related to the 2010 red-shirt rallies, he said security forces and civilian victims should not be entitled to the same compensation packages.

"The military already has guidelines applicable to all branches of the armed forces, and confusion will ensue if a specific incident or a political disturbance is used as the benchmark to calculate compensation," he said.

There are 400,000 troops and the country can hardly afford to dole out Bt7.75 million for each soldier killed on duty, he said, in reference to the compensation package meant for civilian victims in political disturbances.

Asked if he agreed with the amount earmarked for civilians, he said the government had already finalised its decision on the matter and would have to bear the consequences.

He said he hoped the compensation would be a positive gesture for reconciliation, though he did not believe everybody would be happy about it.

Thailand arrests Hezbollah suspect after US Bangkok alert

 

The embassy said US citizens should "keep a low profile" in Bangkok

Thai authorities have arrested a Lebanese man with suspected links to Hezbollah militants, after receiving a warning from Israel.

The arrest came hours after the US advised its citizens in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to be on the alert over a possible terrorist threat.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said one man was being held over possible immigration offences.
The situation was now under control, he said, and urged people not to worry.
"Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been co-ordinating with Israeli officials since before the New Year," Reuters news agency quoted Mr Yoobamrung as saying.
He told the Associated Press news agency police had been tracking the two men and called one in for questioning.
"Technically the two men have not committed any crimes under the Thai law, so we could only use the immigration law to keep this one suspect in custody," he said.
An official at the defence ministry told Reuters that Israel had contacted them on 22 December with information that two or three suspects could be planning an attack in Thailand, but that those individuals had left the country. A second warning came on 8 January, he said.
Israel's foreign ministry declined to comment on the reports.
'Low profile' Hezbollah is a Shia Islamist movement which holds several seats in Lebanon's parliament as well as being the country's most powerful military force. Its defining platform is hostility towards Israel.
The movement is backed mainly by Syria and Iran and is considered by the US to be a terrorist organisation.
The US embassy in Bangkok issued a warning on Friday that Americans should "exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather".
It said they should "keep a low profile in public areas, particularly areas frequented by foreign tourists", without giving further details of the potential threat.
The Thai authorities had said there was no need for a general alert as it would "cause panic and affect our tourism".
Bangkok has been hit by several small scale bombs in recent years in what are thought to have been politically motivated attacks, and Thai Islamist insurgents regularly carry out attacks in the southern provinces.
But attacks on or by foreigners are rare.

Surin Man Married His Dead Girlfriend

Could this is be a proof of true love? News of a Surin man marrying his dead girlfriend became viral on social media after the news had to 'shared' more than 50,000 in the cyber world.

It was the 'talk of the town' on Facebook. The story about a young man from Surin Province marrying his diseased girlfriend. Pictures of a man, dressed in a black formal wear, putting a ring on the finger of his late girlfriend, circulated like wild fire on the popular social network site and YouTube. 50,000 people had clicked to share the stories and expressed their condolences for the groom

Chadil Deffy, or Deff Yingyuen, stated his love for his late girlfriend, Sarinya or Anne Kamsook. Much to the surprise of his friends, on January 4, Deff posted on his Facebook page, inviting his friends to an wedding-cum-funeral rite for his longtime girlfriend at a local temple in Surin Province.

The couple had been together for 10 years. They made a promise to get married before the bride died in an unexpected accident. Deff said their wedding was postponed due to conflicting schedules and his decision to continued his studies before he settled down in a matrimony with Sarinya.

After having been through thick and thin with Sarinya for over a decade, Deff stood by his promise and married her in a bittersweet ceremony.

Tiger skins and bones seized in Thai customs swoop

Thai customs officials have said they have seized four boxes of smuggled tiger skins and bones worth tens of thousands of dollars in the post, believed to be destined for interior decoration.

Thai police officers display the heads and carcasses of tigers seized from a truck in Hua Hin, Thailand,

The tigers, whose parts were found earlier this week, were thought to have come from Indonesia and eventually be destined for China, according to Somchai Poolsawasdi, director general of Royal Thai Customs.

"There were four boxes, and each box contained one tiger skin, bones and a skull. Each one weighed around five kilograms (11 pounds)," he told AFP.

He said the parcels, thought to be sent be a trafficking gang, were en route to Mae Sai in northern Thailand and came through Bangkok's main post office, where officials received the tip-off.

"The way they processed these tigers, I think they were meant for furniture or decoration," he added.

Anti-trafficking group Freeland said the tiger parts were worth an estimated $60,000, warning that the poaching and trafficking of tiger meat, bones and skin was a key cause of the declining wild Asian tiger populations.30 Dec 2011

"The confiscation of these tiger skins and bones is commendable and has clearly hurt the criminals financially," said Tim Redford of Freeland.
"However, with so few tigers left in the wild, stopping any more ending up like this is vital."
Thailand is one of just 13 countries hosting fragile tiger populations and is a hub of international smuggling. Worldwide, numbers are estimated to have fallen to only 3,200 tigers from approximately 100,000 a century ago.

Govt debt policy will make the currency 'worthless'

Opposition warns about dangers of printing money to fund spending plans; slams neglect of flood victims

The government move to force the central bank to print money for paying off public debt would reduce banknotes to worthless paper, the opposition warned yesterday.

The government has cut Bt43.43 billion from some projects and used the funds to finance other projects, including water-resource management, transport projects and supporting villages and local governments, Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong said yesterday. He was speaking during the second reading in Parliament of the 2012 Budget Bill, with proposed government spending of Bt2.38 trillion, and a deficit of Bt400 billion.

Opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva criticised the government expenditure plan for fiscal 2012 for not responding to the needs of flood victims. He said the government had not cut unnecessary spending and was not focusing on the much-needed areas. He also vowed to petition the Constitution Court if the government issues an emergency decree to borrow funds without proper reasons.

During the debate, Democrat MP Sansern Samalapa charged: "The government's plan to force the central bank to repay the debts of the Financial Institution Development Fund would result in the printing of more money for the government."

He was referring to the government's efforts to shift public debt of Bt1.14 trillion to the Bank of Thailand's account, as it wants to borrow more money to finance the large budget deficit.

The government plans to borrow Bt400 billion to finance the budget deficit in fiscal 2012 and plans to borrow another Bt400 billion to finance post-flood restoration projects.

"Suppose the government takes an extreme position by asking the central bank to print money to finance government expenditure of Bt2.38 trillion? People would be happy for a while, for there would be no need to pay taxes, but then the banknotes would become worthless paper," he warned.

Such measures were implemented by some governments in Latin America and they experienced hyperinflation and the collapse of their economies, he said.

Sansern also did not agree with the government's plan to force the BOT to provide soft loans amounting to Bt300 billion for flood victims' recovery from the disaster, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises and households.

The loans would fuel inflation, and that would adversely affect people. He said the government's move requiring commercial banks to pay more fees to the Deposit Protection Agency would push up the lending rate, adversely affecting borrowers. He opposed plans to use funds accumulated by the DPA to repay public debts.

Former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij expressed concern over the ballooning public debt. "The government must tell the public when it will stop borrowing and have a balanced budget," he said. The current government plans to repay only Bt1.4 billion of the public debt for fiscal 2012, which is too small compared with the previous Democrat-led government's debt payment of Bt45 billion annually, he argued.

He also accused the government of lack of transparency in the Bt120 billion in spending earmarked for post-flood recovery in fiscal 2012.

"Of the total amount, details of projects are available only for Bt48 billion," he said. The conflict between the government and the central bank on public-debt payment has also eroded public and investor confidence in the economic management of the country, Korn said.

He also charged the government with being unprepared for the possibility of higher interest costs on public debt. The current cost is 4.8 per cent of the public debt of Bt4 trillion, with debt equivalent to 41 per cent of gross domestic product. A rise of 1-2 percentage points in the interest rate would cost dearly, Korn warned.

He said government revenue was likely to decline because of the corporate-tax cut and tax break for diesel users. The opposition has called for some budget cuts, arguing that there are only eight months left in the current budget period and the government will likely not meet the spending target.

Parliament is expected to vote on the third reading of the bill tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the government is going to issue four new legislations to manage public debt of close to Bt2 trillion, or about 20 per cent of gross domestic product, as part of efforts to restore the economy affected by severe floods last year.

The Cabinet yesterday approved in principle the issuing of four new laws, but it was not yet sure whether the government would issue an emergency decree or normal laws through parliamentary procedure, Deputy Government Spokesman Chalitrat Chandrubeksa said yesterday after the Cabinet meeting.

The government will consult with related parties, he said.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong proposed to the Cabinet to issue emergency degrees for the transfer of the Bt1.14-trillion debt owed by the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) to the Bank of Thailand as the government wanted to reduce its annual budget burden for debt repayment.

Kittiratt also wanted the government to issue an emergency decree to order the central bank to provide soft loans of Bt300 billion to support small businesses and households affected by floods. Next is an emergency decree to borrow Bt350 billion for restoring the economy. The fourth decree is to create an insurance fund pool of Bt50 billion, aimed at assuring foreign insurers to accept reinsurance from Thailand.

Finance Minister Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala yesterday told the opposition during the 2012 Budget Bill debate that the government is urgently in need of funds for investment in the post-flood recovery.

He said the FIDF debt previously created an annual budget burden of Bt65 billion for interest rate payment, which has now dropped to Bt45 billion.

The burden limits the government's ability to borrow for financing new investment projects needed after the floods, he said.

He assured them that the government will not force the central bank to print money to repay public debts.

"We'll not damage monetary and fiscal discipline," he said.

Thirachai said the current public debt, currently equivalent to about 40 per cent of GDP, is not high and it is manageable.

Hippo eats dwarf

DSI to crack down on illegal foreign-run businesses

Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tharit Pengdit said yesterday his office would crack down on foreigners using Thais as nominees to buy land and run businesses from which they are legally excluded, while his deputy Narat Sawettanan said 536 websites had been shut down since December 13 for allegedly having lese majeste content.

Tharit said many foreigners were using Thai nationals as nominees to run businesses prohibited for non-Thais under the Foreign Business Act 1999. The businesses include logging, newspapers and property development. He said the DSI was cracking down on foreign gangsters encroaching on forestland and running property projects as well as extorting others in Koh Samui, Pattaya City and other tourists cities, while human traffickers had brought Chinese prostitutes into Thailand. Claiming foreign gangsters aimed to launder money in Thailand-based businesses before transferring it offshore, Tharit said the DSI would be more proactive in going after them before Thailand entered the Asean Economic Community in 2015. He urged members of the public to alert the DSI to any suspicious activities.