This government is said to be outperforming the previous one on three issues, namely the Bt15,000 starting salary for all civil servants with a bachelor’s degree; the Bt300 daily minimum wage; and the drug-suppression campaign.

However, the Abhisit government was seen to be superior on two counts – the Cabinet line-up and paddy-price intervention scheme. The only issue both governments are on a par with is education, while both of them have failed to end the political conflict and quelling violence in the South.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday that he was willing to drop his lawsuits related to the two financial decrees provided the government can outline its spending plans on water management and flood control.

“I have no intention of blocking the government’s work on flood control and will end the court battle if the government can spell out its planned spending to justify the decrees,” he said.

The main opposition party is seeking a judicial review from the Constitution Court on grounds that the government did not have the justification or the urgency to issue a decree on the Bt1.14-trillion debt transfer to the Bank of Thailand and one on the Bt350-billion flood-control loans.

The two decrees are designed to give the government more room for incurring public debt.

Abhisit said the government did not need additional loans for its flood-control measures.

Under the current budget, the government already has Bt200 billion at its disposal to spend on flood control as well as a mandate to seek additional loans of Bt150 billion without having to issue any decrees, he said.

He urged the government to focus on carrying out flood-prevention measures ahead of the rainy season instead of being obsessed with raising public debt even before it has worked out its spending plans.

Since Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is scheduled to go on a field trip from February 13 to 17 to check on flood control, Abhisit said he hoped the trip would yield a tangible outcome. However, he added that he was worried the trip might just be a publicity stunt to re-circulate ideas for mega-projects that have never got off the drawing board.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Govt-ahead-on-3-issues-but-behind-on-2-poll-30175158.html

The government is drafting guidelines on the compensation for the victims of violence in the deep South, Yongyuth said yesterday after chairing a meeting of a committee on development in the region.

Innocent victims of violence at the hands of security officials, such as five local Muslims killed by Army rangers over the past week, would qualify for compensation, he said.

Rangers killed five villagers on Monday as they were on their way to a funeral in Pattani’s Nong Chik district. Authorities said the rangers mistook them for insurgents who had launched M79 grenades at a ranger outpost earlier. If the victims are proved to have been innocent, the government would definitely compensate their families for their loss, Yongyuth said.

The government earlier announced plans to compensate families of victims who died and those who were injured during the political chaos since 2005. Opposition and civic groups called on the government to expand the compensation to cover all victims of violence caused by security officials.

Asked if this included victims of the Krue Se and Tak Bai incidents in the South in 2004, Yongyuth said the government would consider incidents on a case-by-case basis to see if they met the criteria. Nearly 200 people have died in mishandled operations to contain the uprising and protests in Pattani and Narathiwat since 2004.

The government initially planned to compensate only victims of the recent political violence, but it has drafted new regulations to cover other incidents, he said.

Yongyuth insisted the government would proceed with compensation for the victims of political violence despite strong criticism from the Opposition and civic groups that the payments favoured red-shirt victims.

“The government definitely has to compensate them. Nobody wants to die or get hurt when it happens; the government is obliged to compensate them,” he said.

Asked if too much of the compensation was going to red shirts, Yongyuth said relatives of victims associated with the yellow-shirt group, such as Angkana Radabpanyaarvudh, who died during the October 7, 2008 protest, and Colonel Romklao Thuvatham, who was shot dead during a red-shirt protest in April 2010, would receive the same treatment.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Victims-of-state-violence-in-South-to-be-compensat-30175161.html

The spectrum-management and broadcasting master plans will drastically change the landscape of the Thai television industry with up to 100 digital-TV channels being available for public viewing in the near future.

The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission aims to grant digital terrestrial TV broadcasting licences late this year and expects to see the number of digital-TV channels grow to 100 within the next five years, NBTC broadcasting committee chairman Natee Sukonrat said yesterday.

About 50 licences are expected to be handed out in the first lot by early next year.

The move is in line with the NBTC draft of the spectrum-management master plan aiming to take radio and TV broadcasters to the digital era within four years after the master plan takes effect.

After a long delay plagued with disputes stemming from political and business motives, the NBTC came into full existence just a few months ago. Formed under a constitutional spirit that treats broadcast and telecom frequencies as national resources that are to be shared and must benefit all Thais equally, the NBTC apparently has hit the ground running with its digital-TV plan.

Natee told the Nation Multimedia Group yesterday that the watchdog was expected to trial the digital terrestrial TV broadcasting system in June in its attempt to educate viewers on a wider scale. Free-TV operators will be invited to conduct the test.

The NBTC digital-TV plan seems set to shake up the television-industry landscape as the operating costs of TV will significantly go down. The large number of new channels will draw a massive number of content providers to the long-monopolised playing field.

He added that digital broadcasting technology would enable the maximum use of TV broadcasting spectra and provide better service quality to viewers.

But the watchdog might not need to specify the technology platforms that the broadcasters should use for the trial.

The NBTC’s draft of the broadcasting master plan determines that the watchdog will complete the details of this digital switch-over plan for TV broadcasting within one year and for radio broadcasting within two years, and will start digital radio and TV broadcasting within four years. It will also complete regulations on licensing of digital TV broadcasting within two years and for digital radio broadcasting within three years.

Natee said prospective digital-TV broadcasters should be encouraged to use a common infrastructure to create a cost-effective operation.

The watchdog will put the drafts of the spectrum, broadcasting and telecom master plans for nationwide hearing next Friday.

They are expected to become effective in March.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Revolution-looms-for-Thai-digital-television-30175162.html

Of those injured, nine were in critical condition at press time.

Driver Ratchanon Intanon, 31, who did not sustain any injuries, told police that one of the tyres burst while the van was moving, which made him lose control of the vehicle. The van provided transportation services between Phitsanulok and Tak.

Ratchanon has been detained for further questioning and will face legal action if he is found guilty of reckless drivin

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Van-plunges-into-ditch-killing-4-injuring-14-30175156.html

Prison commanders will face drastic action if they cannot cope with the government’s strict policy on drug dealing in prison, which is now a national priority that will be completely tackled within one year, Justice Minister Pracha Promnok said yesterday.

He did not offer details of the action such commanders would face, but said they would need to “consider their future under the ministry”, and that efficiency in implementing the policy would be the main criteria for evaluating their performance.

Five hundred highprofile drug convicts from all prisons will be sent to Khao Bin Prison in Ratchaburi and a few other maximumsecurity facilities next week.

Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said revenge killings or “silencing” murders among drug dealers was a possibility, but that no violent or extrajudicial measures would be used by police or other authorities.

A search at highsecurity Bang Khwang Prison in Bangkok conducted by 400 officials yesterday turned up a large number of contraband items, including 39 mobile phones, homemade knives and short pikes, gambling paraphernalia and moonshine alcohol.

Prison commander Vishanu Prajongkij said Pheerayuth Phaetsakul, an inmate implicated by highprofile drug suspect Niphon Kanchart, was now in a solitary confinement but denied any wrongdoing. Niphon was arrested on January 25 in possession of crystal methamphetamine and amphetamine tablets worth more than Bt1 billion in a Bangkok home he rented from an actress.

Slums targeted

Metropolitan police have targeted 18 slums where drug abuse is rampant for searchandsuppression operations. In raids yesterday, 60 suspects were apprehended – nine of them for unlawful possession of firearms – and 1,472 amphetamine tablets and six firearms were seized, along with a quantity of ammunition.

Two suspected dealers, Kittiphan Panoy and Thanandorn Khongjan, were arrested in possession of an AK47 assault rifle – an indication, according to Bangkok police chief Pol LtGeneral Winai Thongsong, of drug suspects’ violent tendencies and willingness to fight to the death if confronted during police searches or arrests.

Three robbery suspects with long criminal records were male minors aged 16 and 17, the officer said, adding that this was another indication of the high degree of violence among young career drugrelated criminals.

Khlong Phai Prison in Nakhon Ratchasima last year discovered more than 100 mobile phones smuggled in by various means, including visitors hiding them in their anal cavities, relatives hiding them in food and supplies, and the use of slingshots and remotecontrol aircraft to deliver them over the prison’s walls.

Prison commander Khongkrit Phongthawat said that of 841 inmates serving life terms, 88 drug convicts would be relocated to Khao Bin, while two prison guards had been suspended for assisting inprison drug deals.

A total of 3,348 inmates facing terms of 15 years to life are detained at Khlong Phai.

It costs an inmate Bt500,000 to purchase a Blackberry or highend Nokia phone model and get it smuggled into the prison, as these can connect to the Internet, making them highly sought after. Conventional models able to make voice calls go for 10 times their normal prices.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Pracha-puts-commanders-on-notice-over-drug-traffic-30175129.html

As part of the government’s preparation for water and flood management this year, a tour to survey major waterways across the country will be conducted on February 13-17, Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Vichaidith said yesterday.

The Tour of Happiness will be conducted in all key river basins covering provinces and areas which are origins and ends of rivers and waterways, which would inspect restoration plans in place, measures implemented under a central government committee and flood and evacuation plans in provinces involved in addition to a contingency plan in Lop Buri, Yongyuth added.

The committee, the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management (SCWRM), estimated that the water situation would be better than last year, if the rainwater volume was the same or not much more than last year. The SCWRM has worked with the Royal Irrigation Department to directly deal with dam operators to make sure the release of water would be done on a daily basis starting from late May – before the wet season’s peak in June or July.

During the Tour, business people and members of the industrial sector would be invited to take part in sessions scheduled in Ayutthaya, home to several industrial estates which were heavily inundated last year. The Tour comprises two sectors – tours led by the prime minister and inspection visits made by relevant agencies, before information achieved would be jointly used and assessed for overal analyses afterwards, Nivatthamrong said.

Asked about comments by flood expert Pramote Maiklad that the government was full of projects and still lacking implemenations, Yongyuth said what would be learned during the Tour of Happiness would be materialsed and put into action.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, speaking during a meeting yesterday with Yongyuth present, had instructed all relevant government agencies and ministers involved in flood and water management to submit their progress reports and possible suggestions to her by February 8.

She would give details about the progress and the Tour in her radio address on February 11, before commencing the trek two days later.

Areas in four eastern Bangkok will not be expropriated and used as floodways, as feared by the public and speculated by the media, because homes were built before a law became effective, said MR Premsiri Kasemsant, director Department of City Planning

Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).

What the DCP could do now was to control construction of buildings or slums by canals or rivers into the water while dealing with existing structures in violation of law. A revised city planning policy will instead turn non-residential areas in the four districts – Khlong Sam Wa, Nong Chok, Min Buri and Lat Krabang – into suburban parks, said deputy director Amornrat Krityanwat.

The BMA has begun dredging underground drains and walkway sewerage to cope with rainwater volume in preparation for flood prevention this year. Prisoners are now hired to do the job on 277 road in Bangkok, completing the work in 13 roads totalling in 41,096 metres of the drains, or 4.26 per cent of a total distance covering metres.

Speaking during a inspection of the work yesterday, Bangkok governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the work must be done by May, jointly by city workers doing the job in soi while the prisoners were in charge of the dredging on main Bangkok roads. He said the budget for the dredging was the BMA’s and welcomed funding from the government.

He said negotiations with owners of homes built into canals and rivers would be soon begin. He said they numbered in several thousands after illegally building their homes into the water for decades.

The Interior Ministry called on the public to take easy on the Bt5,000 government pay for each owner of flooded home, saying that they money would be ready and given to all of those registered and deemed qualified.

Deputy permanent secretary Pracha Terat said the pay was expected to be all handed out in the next 45 days, and pleaded with the public for understanding for the time-consuming process. He said those who had not submitted the request to do so, and the ministry welcomed feedbacks and queries through its 1567 call centre service.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Dam-water-to-be-released-from-May-30175134.html

The queries on newly-appointed PM’s Office Minister Nalinee Thavisin have been raised again during the House of Representatives meeting on Thursday by Democrat Party MP Rachada Dhnadirek.

Ms. Rachada asked the premier whether she is aware of the blacklisting of Mrs. Nalinee.

Last month, the US Embassy in Bangkok issued a statement, confirming that Mrs. Nalinee’s name has been on the list of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) since 2008, 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 Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list.

With her name on the blacklist, American citizens or entities have been prohibited from doing business with Mrs. Nalinee, while her assets, if they went through a US jurisdiction, would be frozen.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told the Lower House that she is confident the appointment of Mrs. Nalinee Thavisin as a minister to the PM’s Office is a legitimate decision.

The PM added that Mrs. Nalinee is qualified to hold the position, based on her educational credentials and work experience. Moreover, there has been no indication that her appointment will violate the Constitution.

However, PM Yingluck stated that if a proof can be produced to prove that Mrs. Nalinee’s appointment is against the law, she will be ready to review her decision.

Source:  http://www.thailandnews.co/2012/02/thai-pm-yingluck-defends-appointment-of-us-blacklisted-minister/

ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said the framework would comprise four areas: national security, the economy, peace in the country, and national infrastructure. The fourth area would include network infrastructure, utility services and energy.

The ministry will set up a National Cyber Security Policy Committee to develop the draft of the framework in the near future. It will also revise two relevant laws, the Cyber Crime Law and the E-Transaction Law, to support the policy framework.

Moreover, the ministry has set up two new agencies to handle online malfeasance, the Cyber Security Operation Centre and the Thai Computer Emergency Response Team (ThaiCERT). About 300 cyber-attacks have been reported to ThaiCERT and the agency has been able to solve about 80 per cent of the problems, usually within a couple of days.

Prinya Hom-anek, president of ACIS Professional Center, said this was the right time to develop a framework for cyber-security policy. However, he urged the ministry to choose experts and specialists with experience both internationally and domestically to help develop the draft.

Anudith said: “I think this is the first step in Thailand’s creation of a security framework to give people, businesses and government confidence to run online transactions, which will drive e-commerce and protect it from cyber-attacks and crime. As the next step, the framework will lead to a national master plan for cyber-security.”

He said the ministry expected that the first draft would be completed by next month, and then it would be submitted for public hearing. The ministry will submit it to the Cabinet by year-end.

He said various cyber-attacks such as phishing, spam and malware were causing damage and waste for business and the country as a whole.

“I think the national cyber-security policy framework will create confidence [that we will] cope with threats and protect against illegal attacks in cyberspace,” Anudith said.

On another matter, he said the ministry would submit to the Cabinet within a few days the conclusion of its evaluation of the performance of the executive board of the Software Industry Promotion Agency.

Seven employers’ confederations will team up with the Federation of Thai Industries to file a petition with the Administrative Court to stop the government implementing its 300 baht daily minimum wage policy.

Representatives from the seven employers’ associations yesterday met to discuss their plan.

Prasit Jong-assayakul, president of the Employers’ Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry (EconThai), said the confederations would meet the FTI on Monday to set guidelines to formulate the petition.

About 100 member companies of the FTI have shown their interest to join the move, while the seven employers’ confederations have mustered support from 50 companies to file the petition.

Mr Prasit said the petition would be lodged on behalf of companies as the confederations were not legally permitted to bring the charges to the court.

The petition is expected to be submitted after the new wage rise is enforced on April 1.

Earlier, some businesses had petitioned the court against the wage increase, but the court rejected their petitions, citing damage had yet to occur.

Mr Prasit said the 300 baht wage increase would adversely affect the country’s economy in both short and medium terms. For instance, when the Asean Free Trade Agreement is expanded to zero tariffs on almost all goods by 2015, investors are likely to relocate their production bases to neighbouring counties such as Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia where labour is cheaper, he said.

He said the recent flooding had badly hit business operators. Many small business enterprises had gone out of business while large manufacturing firms such as Honda and Toshiba have yet to resume their production lines.

“Why doesn’t [the government] repent? Unless the wage rise is reviewed, affected SME operators could not return to business and new operators will find it hard to run their businesses,” Mr Prasit said.

Atthayuth Leeyavanich, secretary-general to the EconThai and a member of the tripartite Central Wage Committee, said the employers’ proposal seeking postponement of the enforcement of the new wage rate from April 1 this year to Jan 1 next year would be on the national wage committee’s agenda this month.

“The wage hike is not in line with the good governance principle as the wage should not be increased by 40%,” he said.

Meanwhile, a group of workers from seven factories hit by last year’s flooding yesterday sought help from the Labour Ministry saying they had not received their wages since October.

Sompon Puangchan, 33, leader of the Seidai Kasei (Thailand) company’s labour union, said the company had neither paid wages to 159 workers nor called them to work since October. Most workers wanted a clear answer from the firm regarding their employment. If the firm wanted to terminate their work contracts, it must abide by the labour law to pay wages and compensation based on employees’ service years, Mr Sompon said.

Labour Protection and Welfare Department chief Arthit Ismo said about 2,000 workers from the seven factories were expected to be affected.

Source:  http://en.isnhotnews.com/?p=17986

Wan, the newly appointed adviser to the transport minister, led the inspection of a number of taxi motorcycle queues in Bangkok, reportedly following a request by taxi motorcyclists. The first queue inspected was at Sukhumvit Soi 70/5, where the motorcyclists said they paid Bt45,000 each month to “protectors”.

The motorcyclists said the protectors had also dispatched 20 unregistered riders to pick up passengers, resulting in their income being cut while having to still pay the monthly protection fees. Wan and Chalerm Changthongmadan, head of the Association of Taxi Motorcyclists of Thailand, vaguely identified who the protectors were. “This queue is located in areas under the influence of a retired Army general and military officers come to collect the fee,” he added.

They did not mention the role of local police or traffic police who were supposed to tackle the problem but were not present during yesterday’s inspection of several locations.

Quoting the association’s head and other taxi motorcyclists, Wan said lawfully registered riders, who totalled around 190,000 nationwide, had to pay Bt120 each day to protectors, in addition to monthly fees. “This could amount to Bt684 million each month that the protectors have been enjoying,” he added.

There are 4,453 queues registered with district offices, as of 2003, while there were around 1,000 non-registered queues operating illegally, he said. Wan inspected a few other queues in Sukhumvit and Bang Na areas during his tour yesterday. “I cannot tell you the time frame for dealing with the issue but it will be reported to the prime minister,” he added.

To start tackling the problem, Wan said he would seek help from his father Chalerm, to register the 1,000 queues – which would see their licence-plate colour changed to yellow. He called on taxi motorcyclists to file complaints with the police or petition him directly, if they were attacked by the protectors after refusing to pay the fees.

Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/BT684m-extorted-from-taxi-bikes-30175085.html