Business
Amari appoints new AGM based in Patong

PHUKET: ONYX Hospitality Group, which operates the well-known Amari hotel brand, has announced a restructure of its key hotel and corporate operations roles in Thailand. As part of the restructure, ONYX has promoted their talented hospitality professionals Pierre-Andre Pelletier and David Cumming to the positions of Vice President Area General Manager for Southern Thailand and Bangkok, respectively.
Both veterans in the hospitality industry, Pelletier has been part of the ONYX family for over 20 years and this year will mark Cumming’s 10th anniversary with the group.
In his new role, Mr Pelletier, a Swiss national who earned his diploma in Hotel Management at the renowned Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne, will be based at the Amari Phuket as the hotel’s general manager as well as overseeing the group’s other properties in Samui, Krabi and Hua Hin.
Pelletier joined Amari in 1993 and served as General Manager at Amari Watergate Bangkok since 2002. In his new role, he will be applying his extensive knowledge and experience working with the Amari brand in instituting smooth operations and safeguarding the international operating standards at each property under his supervision.
“My new role [also] involves the development of the Amari Residence project in Phuket and then to expand Amari Phuket into a multi-concept complex with the addition of serviced residences to the existing hotel,” said Mr Pellitier.
Despite entering his new position in a time of political uncertainty that is having a negative effect on tourist arrivals in the region, Mr Pelletier maintains a positive outlook and said he has weathered previous crises in Thailand, of both the natural and man-made variety.
“I have been through most of the crises here in Thailand, from the political crises to the floods in 2011. My response is to always ‘keep calm and work hard – don’t complain about something that is out of your control’.
“Challenging – yes, but I believe every challenge is an opportunity waiting, and I am looking forward to see how I can work on these opportunities.
“Times like this are a perfect opportunity to take a fresh look at your business and adapt – I plan to do just that. Work on your strengths, while changing what needs to be changed and crank up the sales efforts – this is my little recipe for success,” he told the Phuket Gazette.
Mr Pellitier said he is relishing the opportunity to work in Southern Thailand and to build on Amari’s long-standing presence and strong reputation in the region.
“One of the biggest strengths of Amari Phuket is its fantastic location on Patong beach.
“Not to forget the name and reputation of the hotel and the Amari brand, which is recognized as a leading Asian hospitality provider in the region.
“I have a great, newly renovated product at hand and I am confident there are many good things to come.”
As part of this restructuring, both Mr Pelletier and Mr Cumming will also oversee future hotel openings in their respective regions and will report to Douglas Martell, the recently appointed Executive Vice President – Chief Operating Officer.
Streamlining this operational function will further support the group’s aim to revitalize its core products and ensure the successful implementation of ONYX Hospitality Group’s strategy to become one of Asia’s leading hospitality groups by 2018.
— Mark Knowles
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Thailand
Facebook removes “information-influencing” pages linked to Thai military

Facebook has confirmed the removal of 185 accounts run by the Thai military and allegedly involved in information-influencing. The social media giant says the accounts were deleted for engaging in what it calls, “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. In total, 77 accounts, 72 pages, and 18 groups have been removed from the platform, in addition to 18 Instagram accounts. It’s the first time Facebook has taken such action against accounts linked to the Thai government.
The accounts were associated with the Thai military and were targeting people in the southern provinces, Facebook said its regular report on coordinated inauthentic behavior. The south of the country has been the scene of decades-long conflict, with insurgent groups in the majority-Muslim, Malay-speaking region calling for independence. To date, around 7,000 people have died in the ongoing struggle.
Facebook says the deleted accounts were most active last year and used both fake and real accounts to manage pages and groups, both openly military pages and pages that hid their links to the military. Some of the fake profiles pretended to be people from the southern provinces.
The report mentioned a post by the now-removed account named “comprehending the operation” in Thai. The page posted the logo for Amnesty International Thailand and wrote “The NGO never cares about ordinary citizens because they have no role in society. Normal people are not famous. Any case is not big news. They are not worth the investment of foreigners so they will not do anything to help. This is why we don’t see anything from the NGO.”

Image overlay translates to “The NGO never cares about ordinary citizens because they have no role nor money.”
On another now-removed account, named “truth about my home Pattani” in Thai, a post said “Muslim leader declares southern border is a peace zone. The southern separatists started a movement by spreading the idea that Thailand is under control by different believers so that people would come and fight for their religion. This was declared that the action clearly violates Islam faith.”

Image overlay translates to “Southern border is not Jihad zone.”
When contacted by Reuters, the military had no comment on the removal of the Facebook accounts, with a spokesman saying the organisation does not comment outside of official press conferences.
The head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, Nathaniel Gleicher, has confirmed the reasons behind the platform’s decision.
“This is the first time that we’ve attributed one of our takedowns to links to the Thai military. We found clear links between this operation and the Internal Security Operations Command. We can see that all of these accounts and groups are tied together as part of this operation.”
He adds that the accounts had spent around US$350 on advertising on both Facebook and Instagram. One or more of the pages had about 700,000 followers and at least one of the groups had 100,000 members. Gleicher says the accounts were removed because of their misleading behaviour and not because of the content being posted. The content included support for the military and the monarchy, with allegations of violence and criticism of insurgent groups in the south.
It’s not the first time accounts linked to the Thai military have been removed by a social media platform. In October, Twitter removed 926 accounts it says had links to the army and posted pro-military and pro-government content. The Thai army has denied any involvement with the accounts in question. In November, Twitter also suspended an account posting pro-monarchy content that was found to have links to the palace and to thousands of other accounts posting similar content.
To read the February 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report, click HERE.
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Central Thailand
Airline executive arrested for failure to pay wages of 150 workers

An airline executive has been arrested in the central province of Samut Songkhram, after complaints from150 employees that they had not been paid. Chawengsak Noiprasan, who had a court warrant issued against him in October, was taken to Don Muang police station from a property in the Bang Khan Take sub-district. He is a board member of Siam Air Transport.
The airline began operations in October 2014 with services out of Don Mueang to Hong Kong, using 2 Boeing 737-300s. 2 Boeing 737-800s were added to its fleet in late 2015. It expanded by adding Zhengzhou and Guangzhou in China to its network in early 2015. In late 2015, the airline launched flights to Macau and Singapore. In 2017, the airline ceased all operations.
But according to an article in the Bangkok Post, the carrier operates a number of scheduled and charter flights from Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport. The Post reports that, as Chawengsak signs the company’s legal paperwork, all legal matters concerning the airline fall to him.
The Metropolitan Police Bureau says the executive has admitted to ignoring a 30 day notice issued by the labour inspector and ordering the payment of wages to 150 workers. It’s understood he is also wanted in relation to 7 other cases.
The authorities sought Chawengsak’s arrest following complaints from employees who say they haven’t received their wages for 2 months. It’s understood the airline had previously deferred salary payments for over 8 months. 150 workers filed an official complaint with Don Mueang police and also approached media outlets, asking them to pressure the airline into paying the money owed.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Business
Governments & old media versus social media – who will win? | VIDEO

We look at the recent changes made by the Australian and Indian governments to except control over the world’s biggest social media platforms. India has issued strict new rules for Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms just weeks after the Indian government attempted to pressure Twitter to take down social media accounts it deemed, well, anti social. There is now an open battle between the rise of social media platforms and the governments and ‘old’ media that have been able to maintain a certain level of control over the ‘message’ for the last century. Who will win?
The rules require any social media company to create three roles within India… a “compliance officer” who ensures they follow local laws; a “grievance officer” who addresses complaints from Indian social media users; and a “contact person” who can actually be contacted by lawyers and other aggrieved Indian parties… 24/7.
The democratisation of the news model, with social media as its catalyst, will continue to baffle traditional media and governments who used to enjoy a level of control over what stories get told. The battles of Google and Facebook, with the governments of India and Australia will be followed in plenty of other countries as well.
At the root of all discussions will be the difference between what governments THINK social media is all about and the reality about how quickly the media landscape has changed. You’ll get to read about it first, on a social media platform… probably on the screen you’re watching this news story right now.
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