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Re: Protests update
Shooting the foreign messengers won't kill the news
Pravit Rojanaphruk
@PravitR July 15, 2015
A disturbing topic that has recently been a top, but off-the-record, point of discussion among many foreign correspondents is the difficulty in getting a work visa and accreditation. Despite being such an important issue, this subject has barely made the news in Thailand.
Reuters recently reported that some foreign journalists were finding it very difficult to get their accreditation. However, it also cited a flat denial from the Foreign Ministry that it was making things difficult.
So, what's all this fuss about?..... (read more).......
http://linkis.com/nationmultimedia.com/Vlyls
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Re: Protests update
'Two parties' behind southern attacks
14 Jul 2015
WRITER: MANOP THIP-OSOD AND AEKARACH SATTABURUTH
The Democrat and Pheu Thai parties slammed a military member of the National Reform Council (NRC) on Tuesday for saying тАЬtwo political partiesтАЭ were conspiring on a campaign of sabotage in the South and planning Bangkok rallies to topple the junta.
Thawatchai Samutsakhon, who is on an NRC committee on political affairs, cited an intelligence report on Tuesday morning that there might be bomb attacks in the three southern border provinces between Wednesday and Friday.
He claimed two unidentified political parties were pulling the strings behind the latest flare-up of violence in the far South by jointly providing financial aid to perpetrators..... (read more).....
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politic ... rn-attacks
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Re: Protests update
New Thai anti-graft law extends death penalty to foreigners
By AP News Jul 15, 2015
BANGKOK (AP) тАФ Thailand has enacted a new anti-corruption law that extends a maximum penalty of capital punishment to foreigners as well as Thais.
Previous legislation provided various punishments, including a possible death penalty, for Thai officials convicted of bribery, though apparently no one was ever executed for the crime.
The new statutes, which took effect July 9 and are part of a separate anti-corruption law, extend those punishments to non-Thais working for foreign governments and international organizations.
The military government that took power after the ouster of an elected civilian government last year has said countering corruption is one of its major goals.
http://asiancorrespondent.com/134167/ne ... oreigners/
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Re: Protests update
An interesting opinion from a Thai social critic, anti-globalist, anti-Taksin, anti-West journalist.
Democracy? Don't hold тАКтАКтАКтАКтАКyour breath
Sanitsuda Ekachai Op-ed Editor
15 Jul 2015
NEWSPAPER SECTION: NEWS
As long as our culture is deeply rooted in militarism and racism, don't expect a smooth ride towards democracy. I've come to this conclusion after trying to understand why a large number of educated middle-class people still support military dictatorship or why the so-called pro-democracy groups refuse to question Thaksin's authoritarianism.
You might argue that as arch enemies, the Prayut and Thaksin rules are worlds apart. But are they?
The Thaksin-Yingluck governments provoked widespread anger for glaring abuse of power that mocked ethical standards and implied large-scale corruption. They pushed for megaprojects that will destroy local livelihoods and the environment. They turned a blind eye to state complicity in human trafficking and slave labour. They allowed abuse of the lese majeste law for political gains. And they dismissed not only the aspirations of the southern Muslims for administrative decentralisation, but also the same calls for other parts of the country.
What difference has the military regime made?
Admit it, had it not been for boycott threats from the European Union and the United States, there would have been no policy moves to clean up the fishing industry and crackdown on human trafficking rackets.
The military regime has not only pushed for environmentally-destructive projects of its arch enemy, it has also passed laws and regulations to speed them up. Local resistance is silenced by military might. Controversial projects include mining in protected forests, fracking in Isan villages, a deep-sea port at Pak Bara that will annihilate the Andaman Sea, and the promenade that will destroy a long stretch of the Chao Phraya River.
Meanwhile, crackdowns on the forest poor have become more lethal. So has the abuse of the lese majeste law to silence political dissents.
All these moves - including pushing the Rohingya boat people out to sea, the PM's daily blitz against the press, his disdainful remarks about "stupid" rice farmers, or his latest gaffe by comparing the Uighurs migrants with breeding animals - are outrageous and unacceptable. Yet they are understandable given where he comes from.
Like other soldiers, PM Prayut has been trained in a system that is deeply feudal and authoritarian. Its patriotism is one that is rooted in the myth of racial purity of ethnic Thais, or racism. Its main mission is territorial defence against outsiders, who then need to be dehumanised first before being obliterated. Meanwhile, the Thainess it advocates means complete submission to authority, military-style.
Should we be surprised then with what he is doing and saying?
As national leader, his views that are out of touch with the modern world are worrying. But what is a lot more alarming is how they still strike a chord with a large segment of society, particularly those who consider themselves urbane and well-educated.
For me, it is more shocking to see supposedly educated people pouring hate on migrants and asylum seekers and lambasting international organisations and the West as imperialists for interfering with our internal matters.
In fervent support for the regime, they casually discard the fact that labour exploitation violates both human rights and basic morality.
Education is believed to be a panacea for many ills in society. It is supposed to bridge disparity and teach us a sense of decency. We must ask what kind of education we have that teaches people it is okay to discriminate and exploit while keeping the door to life's opportunities open only to the privileged few.
Despite our economic advances, our society is still deeply hierarchical - and patriarchal - with widening disparity. Unfortunately, our education system hasn't helped. Apart from catering for the privileged few, it functions as a tool to instil militarism and cultural bigotry in young minds. It is why exploitation of the poor - and women - has not disappeared with economic development. And why ethnic discrimination is still alive and well among supposedly cosmopolitan city people.
To restore democracy, the military must return to the barracks. But that's not enough.
The charter writers want to make us believe the new constitution will pave the way for real democracy. That's nonsense. Unless we get rid of the militarism in our heads, the weak and poor will continue to suffer under ballot-box democracy. And doing away with military dictatorship will remain a mere illusion.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... our-breath
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Re: Protests update
NSC: No evidence parties funding South violence
15 Jul 2015
The National Security Council has received no reports that political parties are funding violence in the southern border provinces, as claimed by Gen Tawatchai Samutsakhon, a National Reform Council member and former commander of the 2nd Army Region, NSC secretary-general Anusit Kunakorn said on Wednesday...... (read more)....
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politic ... h-violence
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Re: Protests update
Radio operators in hot water for blocking Prayut's show
The Nation July 16, 2015
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission (NBTC) and the Second Army Region have threatened to severely punish 250 radio operators in the Northeast if they continue to block the broadcast signal of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha's weekly radio programme.
The NBTC and the army discovered that 250 radio stations in Nakhon Ratchasima and Buriram provinces failed to relay the broadcast signal of Prayut's weekly show, called "Returning Happiness to the Thai People".
Asawin Mungkhunkamkhao, director of NBTC Region 2, said the station operators would be asked to sign a memorandum of understanding promising to strictly follow the instruction to relay the broadcast signal without any conditions and if they fail to carry out the task, they will be given a warning and then they will find themselves unable to renew their licenses or see them permanently revoked.
The National Council for Peace and Order may also take the operators inside military camps to have their attitudes adjusted.
http://linkis.com/nationmultimedia.com/6MXQ8
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Re: Protests update
New Public Gathering Law Won't Affect 'Innocent' Protests, Prayuth Says
July 15, 2015
BANGKOK тАФ Thailand's military leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has assured the public that a new law restricting political gatherings won't affect any "innocent" or peaceful protests.
"Many countries around the world have this law," Gen. Prayuth said at Government House today, referring to the Public Gathering Act of 2015, which was approved by his Cabinet last night.
"Don't look at it and think that officials want to restrict any rights," he continued. "If the rallies are innocent rallies, peaceful, unarmed, and in accordance with democracy, they can go forward. Who would forbid that? The only exceptions are rallies that don't have innocent intentions or are ready to escalate violence. We have learned lessons about that in the past, haven't we?"
The new law passed by the junta-appointed interim government prohibits public gatherings from blocking the entrances or disrupting the operations of state agencies, airports, ports, train stations, public transportation terminals, hospitals, educational institutes, religious buildings, embassies, headquarters of international organizations, and other venues that the authorities may declare as off-limit.
http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... 6§ion=
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Re: Protests update
Thai Consulate in Germany attempts to bar anti-junta academic
Submitted by editor2 on Wed, 15/07/2015
The Thai Consulate in Germany threatened to withdraw donations to a German university in Frankfurt for inviting an anti-junta lecturer to talk about Thai politics.
According to Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a fierce critic of the Thai junta who is a Thai Associate Professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, the Thai Consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday, 14 July 2015, threatened to withdraw funding to the Goethe University of Frankfurt for inviting him to speak as a guest lecturer about Thai political development.
Pavin posted on his Facebook profile on Tuesday a message that he was contacted by the staff of the Goethe University of Frankfurt at short notice to cancel a special lecture on Thai politics, which he had been invited to give...... (read more).....
http://prachatai.org/english/node/5315
Thai Junta Threatens German University
Posted on July 15, 2015 By Our Correspondent Headline, Politics, Thailand
Thai Junta Threatens German University
Pavin Chachavalpongpun
Thai embassy in Berlin tries to stop speech by dissident exile academic
The long arm of ThailandтАЩs junta apparently reaches to Germany, where Thai officials attempted to block a speech by dissident academician Pavin Chachavalpongpun to students at the Southeast Asian Department at Goethe University in Frankfurt by threatening to cut off funds to the program.
Pavin has been a target of the National Council Peace and Order almost since the May 22 coup that ended representative democracy in Thailand. Frankfurt, where he now is on a study program, is the overseas home of Thai Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, the heir to the Thai throne, which could or could not be important.
PavinтАЩs Thai passport has been revoked and the Thai foreign ministry has attempted to pressure Japan, where he normally teaches at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, to extradite him back to Thailand. He is one of hundreds of dissidents who have gone into exile, but is one of a relatively small number of high-value targets that the government would particularly like to retrieve..... (read more)........
http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/th ... niversity/
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Re: Protests update
Govt urged to pay farmers
THE NATION July 17, 2015
The water supply cut, which took effect yesterday, is expected to affect 1.4 million rai of paddy fields in central region
A NATIONAL network of rice farmers has urged the government to pay compensation to farmers whose paddies have been damaged by the sharp cut in water supply to the agriculture sector.
Ubonsak Bualuang-ngam, chairman of the Rice Committee of National Farmers' Council, said the compensation sought by the grouping's members is about Bt3,000-Bt4,000 per rai - the amount the farmers have already invested in their farmland before the water supply was cut off yesterday.
"We submitted letters to the government twice, but there has been no response so far. Such a compensation would be necessary because we followed the government's advice by starting the annual rice crop on May 1..... (read more)...
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 64628.html
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Re: Protests update
EU warns Thailand still not doing enough to end illegal fishing
17 Jul 2015
WRITER: REUTERS
The European Union has warned Thailand that it is still not doing enough to stamp out illegal fishing practices, Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said Friday, reigniting the threat of a ban on seafood exports to the EU.
In April, the EU had given the country six months to address issues related to "illegal, unreported and unregulated" fishing, such as ensuring all boats are registered, have authorised equipment and are fitted with a Vessel Monitoring System. If the country failed to do so, it faced a total block on exports to the trade bloc.
Stricter regulations went into effect this month and many of the country's fishermen stopped work either in protest against the new rules or because they didn't want to risk stiff penalties if caught.
While the government thought it had fulfilled its obligations to the EU, it apparently has fallen short....... (read more)......
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... al-fishing