Thailand
Phuket Media Watch: Cabinet to meet in Phuket; PM’s son to participate in celebrations

– Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community
The Cabinet is expected to hold mobile meetings in all 77 provinces, including Phuket, in order to stay in touch with each locality, Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said yesterday, voicing confidence that political stability would enable the government to complete its four-year term.
“Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra plans to hold meetings and stay overnight at every province,” he said.
Yongyuth said Yingluck might not pick the same meeting venues as former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had done, adding that mobile Cabinet meetings in the South will take place in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Songkhla and Phuket.
Yingluck is scheduled to chair her first mobile meeting in Chiang Mai next week. She said the idea of having the Cabinet convened in every province came up as Yingluck chaired yesterday’s meeting on policies pertaining to provincial clusters.
He said the prime minister instructed provincial governors to show tangible results on flood recovery efforts by March, a month after the disbursement of the funds.
The job performance evaluation for every governor will hinge on the post-flood recovery, he said.
He said he would hold talks with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in order to speed up compensation payments to residents hit by the flooding.
The government is determined to help flood victims across the country, including those living in the South, seen as the backyard of the opposition Democrats, he said.
Yongyuth said Justice Minister Pracha Promnok, in his capacity as director of the Flood Relief Operations Centre, would oversee the compensation payments.
He also said his Interior Ministry had a firm policy to punish any culprits involved in irregularities in connection with the flood relief supplies and at the same time to ensure fairness to officials wrongly accused.
While the country celebrates National Children’s Day tomorrow and Bangkok police are beefing up security at 19 celebration sites, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her son will join in the occasion at the Government House.
Emphasizing culture and IT in accordance with the 2012 Children’s Day motto “Unity with Knowledge, Preserve Thai Identity, Mind the Technology”, the Government House event from 8am to 3pm, will provide free WiFi Internet connections,
At 9:55am, Yingluck and son Supasek Amornchat will watch a “Pearl Harbour” marching band performance at the Thai Khu Fa front yard next to Suan Lumpini School. The band won the Hong Kong Marching Band Contest 2011.
The PM and her son will invite youth representatives to sit on the prime minister’s chair and pose for pictures with them, before coming out of the Thai Khu Fa building to greet children and watch fun activities at various booths at the Santi Maitree Building.
The premier will also meet 200 representatives of the southernmost provinces’ young people and watch their five-minute performance, before getting together with the student council to hear their recommendations to the government.
Yingluck and her son will open a savings account at the Government’s Saving Bank to set a good example for other kids. Supasek will write a message on a crab-shaped card and put it on a board for the lucky draw for the Prime Minister’s scholarships.
Metropolitan Police spokesman Preeda Sathaworn said police would dispatch 400 officers to provide security at the 19 celebration sites on Saturday, especially Sanam Seu Pa, where a big crowd of parents and kids is expected to keep 150 police officers busy.
Preeda suggested parents put their home and phone number information in their kids’ pockets and keep children’s photos in their phones for quicker and easier identification by police if families get separated.
Meanwhile an ABAC poll, conducted from January 4 – 11 on 1,205 Bangkok youth under 19, said the occupation of pilot/airhostess was ranked the most popular job by the youths at 30.8 per cent; followed by actor/singer at 29.1 per cent; doctor at 28.9 per cent; businessperson at 25.7 per cent; and the police at 24.4 per cent.
Only 0.2 per cent of the kids wanted to be politicians.
Most children (65.3 per cent) said their parents gave them enough family time, while 34.7 per cent said otherwise.
— Phuket Gazette Editors
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Crime
Gunman kills mayoral candidate, injures 4 other municipal candidates at funeral

A gunman shot and killed a woman running for mayor and wounded 4 others at a funeral in Ratchaburi, a province west of Bangkok near the Myanmar border. Police say they suspect the shooting was politically motivated. Out of the 4 people injured, 3 were running in the March 28 municipal election while another was the kamnan, a government official of a tambon, which is a sub district.
The gunman is still at large, but police say they suspect the shooter is Wanchart Niamraksa, a member of the Ratchaburi provincial administration organisation.
The gunman opened fire just as the kamnan of tambon Don Sai, Yingpan Kanket, was lighting candles and incense sticks under a Buddha image to start the ceremony, witnesses say. Shots were fired from behind the main Buddha image at the temple’s open prayer hall, witnesses say.
Bullets hit 5 people, including Yingpan who is in critical condition. Varaporn Niamraksa, who was running for mayor of the municipality, was shot and died at the hospital. Nakhon Wanpen, Somthawil Srirat and Monthien Jaitham, who are all running for the municipal council of tambon Don Sai, were shot.
Police found 2 spent .22 cartridges and a 11mm spent shell at the scene. The suspect faces charges of murder, attempted murder, carrying firearms and ammunition without permission and carrying them in public without a proper reason.
SOURCES: Nation Thailand | Bangkok Post
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Phuket
Thailand News Today | Covid passport talks, Thai Airways heads to court | March 2

In today’s Thailand News Today…. The island of Phuket has a firm plan to get its residents vaccinated leading up to an October opening for tourists, the Thai PM backs up his police over last Sunday’s protest violence and Thai Airway’s employee union criticises the changes to employee contracts.
But the plan must be approved by the national government by April, if the province wants to open tourism by October 1. Phuket has a resident population of around 300- 400,000 people.
Before you go rushing off to book your plane tickets we’d stress that this is another in a long list of proposals that have not come to fruition and we’d urge patience until the Government approves the plans.
Meanwhile the island has taken delivery of 4,000 doses of the Chinese Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccinations started yesterday, with priority given to 1,500 healthcare workers and 500 “at-risk” officials exposed to Covid-19 patients.
On a broader note… Thailand’s Tourism Minister says he has asked the Public Health Ministry to approve a vaccine passport scheme aimed at reviving Thailand’s devastated tourism sector. According to the Minister, the government is looking to the World Health Organisation to issue a statement on vaccine passports before it makes a final decision on the matter.
The Thai PM, Prayut Chan-o-cha has defended police action against protesters taking part in Sunday’s anti-government rally in Bangkok. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Bureau used tear gas, a water cannon and rubber bullets in an effort to drive protesters back from the PM’s residence. The PM insists the actions were in line with international standards. He says that police did not violate the protesters’ rights.
Thai researchers are claiming that horseshoe bats are not responsible for transmitting the Covid virus to humans. A researcher with the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases-Health Science Centre, says that even though the bats have tested positive for a coronavirus, it is not the strain that is transmissible to humans, and it’s certainly not the virus that causes Covid-19.
As Thai Airways tries to sell new contracts and conditions to its remaining workforce, the labour union of the national carrier is challenging changes to the employment contracts, where Thai Airways employees are being asked to agree to changes as part of the bigger financial rehabilitation program.
But a union representative says the new contracts are unfair because it includes fewer leave days and shorter holidays. The union has filed a complaint with the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare.
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Thai army medic accused of injecting troops with fake Covid-19 vaccine during UN mission

A medic for the Royal Thai Army was dismissed and his medical license revoked after injecting troops with fake Covid-19 vaccines during a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The “vaccine” was actually just water. The medic, who is also a lieutenant, apparently injected 273 Thai troops with the water shot and charged 607 baht, or around $20 USD, per injection.
A soldier noticed the bottles the medic was using for the injections were unlabelled. A superior then launched an internal investigation and found that the bottles were just filled with water. Under the UN’s orders, the medic was dismissed and sent back to Thailand. His medical license was also revoked.
Thai media first reported the news, saying that a Thai army doctor at a South Sudan field hospital was suspended from duty due to an investigation into alleged fraud. The medic reportedly worked at the hospital from December 2019 to December 2020.
Following the news report, Thai Supreme Commander General Chalermphol Srisawat confirmed that a medic had been injecting troops with water and claiming it was a Covid-19 vaccine.
SOURCES: Thai PBS | Nation Thailand
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