Business
Heritage tourism on Phuket

PHUKET: While Phuket has become a leading mass tourism destination and Thailand’s second market after Bangkok, travel specialists and local businesses are digging deep into the island’s rich culture and history to satisfy a growing demand from high-end visitors seeking immersive experiences on the island.
The local Baba culture provides one such source of inspiration for those wanting to venture beyond the confines of the luxury resorts and spas. Straits Chinese, locally known as “Baba” or “Peranakan” settled in Phuket in the 19th century, drawn by opportunities in the island’s then fledgling tin mining industry.
Pranee Sakulpipatana, vice president of the Thai Peranakan Association, whose family has lived in Phuket for 150 years, says when she was a child, 99 per cent of the 65,000 people living in the town were Baba. Since then, the urban population has grown to 350,000, significantly diluting the community.
However, Pranee says the influx of residents from around the country and the millions of tourists who visit the island each year are nothing to be afraid of. “We have a strong culture, and I tell locals we can use that to show people what Phuket is all about. The success of the annual Phuket Old Town festival [which follows Chinese New Year] shows the strength of Peranakan culture.”
For the past decade Pranee has also been reviving the Baba wedding tradition.
What started as an initiative to help the island lure back tourists after the 2004 Asian tsunami, has grown into a regular fixture on the local calendar. Back then, the Ministry of Culture was desperate to help the local tourism industry recover.
“Phuket was facing a crisis,” she says. “The ministry asked us if there was anything we could do to help. I had seen a wedding where a few couples had their photos taken in front of the Thai Hua School [a Sino-Portuguese building that formerly housed the first Chinese-language school on the island but is now a museum]. I thought that was something we could work with.”
Phuket held its first Baba wedding festival on October 23, 2005. Forty eight couples joined the celebrations – a significant number given it was the year 2548 in Buddhist Era – which are hosted in local historic buildings and feature a tea ceremony, various rites and rituals specific to the Baba culture, traditional dress and plenty of local cuisine.
“It took a lot of energy, but I turned my abstract dream into a reality,” says Pranee. “I am proud to show our culture and give back to Phuket.”
The festival, which has grown in popularity ever since, was held on June 20 this year.
Blue Elephant Cooking School and Tourism Authority of Thailand supported the event, which now targets high-end wedding planners from as far afield as India, Korea, China, Japan, Australia and Germany. The event cost about 40,000 baht per couple, including two nights accommodation.
Travel specialists agree that Phuket’s unique history and culture can be used to market the destination with wealthy visitors. Khiri Group has developed its ‘Cultural Walk’ to provide small groups with a chance to explore Old Town at street level.
“The walk is all about learning the local lifestyle,” says Andre van der Marck, the company’s vice president. “So we visit a local shrine and pay respect to the spirits, then visit the ‘oldest herb shop’ in town and learn about traditional medicine.
“We also explore historic Chinese shop houses in the beautiful streets of Thalang and Soi Romanee, and visit old-style barbers. Food has to be present too, so we will try the Muslim influenced roti, and some Chinese food that was brought here by Hokkien immigrants in the 19th century.”
Hans van den Born, managing director of Diethelm Travel Thailand, agrees that Peranakan culture, Sino-Portuguese architecture and the mansions of former tin barons, as well as visits to local fishing villages can all feature in itineraries for luxury groups.
“We run a number of half-day and full-day tours for small groups, all of which can be customized. These are especially popular with people who have been to Phuket before and want to see another side to life on the island.
“Certainly more can be done to promote cultural tourism in Phuket, but the more awareness there is, the more it will be developed.”
Jules Kay is a marketing consultant, editor and content curator with 15 years experience working in the Southeast Asian luxury property, lifestyle and tourism sectors. His latest project is an exclusive mixed-use residential resort development on Kamala Beach (www.montazure.com).
— Jules Kay
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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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