Opinion
The Thaiger Opinion Columns.
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Phuket benefits from NCPO’s no-nonsense measures
PHUKET: Following the unprecedented crackdown on the island’s notorious transport syndicates in recent weeks, it is becoming clear that few provinces in Thailand are benefitting more from the no-nonsense measures ordered by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) than Phuket. Now the cleanup, aimed at ending illegal businesses in Phuket, has targeted another scourge that has increasingly tarnished…
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Military Rule in Phuket: I’m thinking Maldives
PHUKET: Ask anyone, and their first impression of the Maldives is the iconic Indian Ocean archipelago with possibly the most beautiful beaches in the world. Everyone has heard of them, and most have wanted to visit them. What most people do not know about this collection of 1,192 islands is that it has developed its reputation as one of the…
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Best news: Notorious transport syndicates shut down
PHUKET: It may have taken military action, but the long-overdue purge against some of the island’s most notorious transport syndicates is, hands down, the best news the island has had in decades. While the Phuket Gazette remains cautiously optimistic – and staunchly secular – we cannot help but join our readers in rejoicing that something is finally being done about…
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Relative psychology in Phuket: coup, curfew, news
Patrick Mattimore, now retired, was an Adjunct Professor of Legal Reasoning and Case Briefing: Tsinghua/Temple Law School LLM Program in Beijing, teaching psychology to students there. He has also been an online columnist for Gazette partner newspaper the China Daily, covering a variety of topics from why rumors spread panic to selfies among the tuhao. Here, he takes a look…
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Turning others’ bad reputations into profit
Manop Pukpaya, 46, has been working as a Phuket taxi driver since 1997. He has a certificate in sales marketing from Dusit Commercial College Bangkok and for the past three years has run his own taxi service.Here, he talks about how the bad reputation of taxi drivers in Phuket and a good online review helped him expand his business, and…
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Crying out for a fair shakedown
PHUKET: Few Phuket Gazette news reports have generated more comment and debate in the social media than our recent article about vendors of pirated goods in Patong banding together to stage a protest against alleged extortion by government officials (story here). Scores of officers from a variety of government agencies, the protesters claimed, had been demanding too much in bribes…
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Phuket’s transformation: The times, they are a changing
PHUKET: The times are changing, always have and always will – especially in Phuket. Even in the couple of years I’ve been lucky enough to live here, I have witnessed drastic changes all over the island. One of the most obvious transformations is new structures. Even though I travel around the island frequently, it is shocking how different the skyline…
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Kamnan Winai fighting for a clean Karon
Winai Chidchiew, 40, is the Subdistrict chief, or Kamnan, of Karon. He has a master’s degree in political science of local development and a bachelor’s in law from Ramkhamhaeng University. He also has a bachelor’s degree in community development from Rajabhat University. Here, he talks about why he does his job despite assassination attempts, and how he thinks Karon’s problems…
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Mayor to tackle Patong corruption
Chalermluck Kebsup, 50, was voted in as Patong Mayor in the polls on April 26 (story here). She has a master’s degree in political science from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University and was Phuket Member of Parliament for 10 years, from 2001 to 2010. She is also a Patong native and a prominent businesswoman. Ms Chalermluck has also received the state…
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Save the living dead: put down the smartphones
PHUKET: Having recently become addicted to the American TV show The Walking Dead, where the survivors of a zombie-virus plague battle for survival in the post-apocalyptic landscape of America, I couldn’t help but think about a more insidious zombie plague that is slowly taking over the world. The zombies are all around us, everywhere… they could be your best friend,…
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Balancing good and bad in a digital age
PHUKET: There is an apocryphal “curse” attributed to the ancient Chinese that is typically rendered as: “May you live in interesting times”. While its origins are sketchy at best, its popularity appears to be growing in this new era of digital information overload. The days of a popular culture developed through a limited mainstream media are long gone. Content consumers…
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When noise is good
PHUKET: I stopped at my local 7-Eleven on the way home from work the other night, tired out from a day of peering at my computer screen and mildly irritated for the umpteenth time at the inconvenience of having to buy something – drinking water – that I get out of the tap where I come from. As I entered…
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Legal enigmas: foreigners beware
PHUKET: The news stories that have spilled across the pages of the Phuket Gazette over the past few weeks have thrown into sharp relief what it takes for a foreigner to live on this paradise island. A Russian woman who had made her home here being refused re-entry to Thailand last month because officers from the Immigration Bureau suspected her…
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Policing a Protestocracy
PHUKET: Few stories in recent memory better reflect the collective failure of local police to maintain law and order than the recent blockade of Thepkrasattri Road by residents of Thalang (story here). The closure paralyzed traffic in the north of the island for more than eight hours, inconveniencing untold thousands of visitors – many of whom will never choose to…
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Time for a resolution checkup
PHUKET: The Thai New Year has come and gone, and I can’t help but think about the resolutions I made for my own new year in January. For Westerners like me, the half-year point is quickly approaching and thoughts of resolutions made in good faith on January 1 are probably a distant memory. As I stared into the face of…
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Public transport and closing legal loopholes critical, says Phuket’s new Senator
Phuket Senator Chaiyot Punyawai, 47, officially became Senator of Phuket on April 10. A graduate in law from Ramkhamhaeng University and now studying for his master’s in law, Senator Chaiyot works in a local law firm and is the president of the Phuket branch of the Lawyers Council of Thailand. Here, Mr Chaiyot talks about the role of senators and…
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Phuket’s most dangerous job
Saijai Luesup, 48, has been working as the Workplace Safety Department of Phuket Provincial Labor Protection and Welfare Office chief for almost four years. She has a bachelor’s degree in public health from Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. PHUKET: Construction sites pose the greatest danger to workers in Phuket. Because of this we are very thorough with our safety inspections, which…
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Can’t wash your hands with dirty water
PHUKET: Hardly a week passes nowadays without a damaging news report about water-related issues in Phuket. Of these, none could be more harmful to the island’s reputation than reports of untreated wastewater flowing directly into the sea at some of the island’s most popular beaches. Such reports are nothing new. Sadly, untreated wastewater entering Patong Bay is now so common…
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Ticking off the Songkran bucket list – respect before revelry
PHUKET: By the time you read this, I hope you took a plastic bag with you to the shop to buy your copy of the Phuket Gazette. Songkran has once again come and gone, having been celebrated by the traditional bucket load. Most Phuket oldtimers I know choose to stay indoors during the Thai New Year, happily avoiding the deluges…
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Sustaining Phuket people and environment
Sayan Chanachaiwong, 56, has been Kathu District Chief for about five months. With a master’s degree in political science from Ramkhamhaeng University, he worked as district chief in the restive Deep South province of Narathiwat for more than nine years, most recently in Su-ngai Padi, before coming to Phuket. Here, he talks about his three priorities for Kathu. PHUKET: My…
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Travel a la carte
PHUKET: When I first came to Thailand, I came to travel. I went north and south, south and east. Sadly, since I moved here permanently, I find myself lacking the time to explore this country, and if I manage to secure some time off, I travel abroad. Luckily, there is a way to travel even when short on time and…
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Phuket double jeopardy: too much, too fast
Former Phuket Senator Tunyaratt Achariyachai, 59, represented Phuket in Thailand’s Upper House for six years. She graduated with a master’s degree in public administration from Manila University in the Philippines. Here, Ms Tunyaratt identifies her proudest achievements during her term as senator and what she still sees as the critical issues facing Phuket. PHUKET: When I was voted into office,…
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Phuket Opinion: Three cheers for clean police
PHUKET: The opening of the Karon Police Station in 2012 to serve the southwest of the island was a well-intended move, one expected to take pressure off the Chalong police who were previously responsible for the entire south of the island. Events in recent months have shown that the truncation did not stop the scandals that have plagued the Chalong…
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Tempest in a longtail
PHUKET: I could feel the Sea Sheperd weekend warrior rising up in me, ready for battle, after reading about the “Yamu Night Fishing Game.” As a sunny-weather marine conservationist, I have no issues with sport fishing competitions. However, I suffered a knee-jerk reaction to seeing “sharks and rays” listed as a category for the Yamu fishing tournament. Glimpses of proud…
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Essence of life endangered in Phuket
PHUKET: It is sad, but not surprising, that it took a recent public intervention to finally stop a well-known local Phuket businessman from backfilling an important water storage reservoir on the island. Given our nation’s growing reputation internationally as a hotspot for protests, it is difficult to fathom why so few demonstrations on the island are ever fomented by the…
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Stop killing sharks
PHUKET: I came across awful images of a man gutting a juvenile blacktip reef shark on Facebook via Go Eco Phuket and was horrified to see that it happened on one of our local beaches, Kata Noi (story here). It was clear that this man was a spear fisherman from the wetsuit he was wearing and the spear hole on…
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Hooked on saving sea life
Wisit Itthiwarapornkul, 50, is the president of Go Eco Phuket. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marine science from Kasetsart University and has worked in the dive industry for more than 10 years. Here, he talks about ways to resolve conflicting local interests in the sea and makes suggestions about what we all can do to preserve the health…
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Corralling young Phuket minds for a collective economic community
PHUKET: After years of apparent neglect, it is good to see the Embassy of Myanmar’s Labour Attache taking steps to ensure that at least some of the untold thousands of Myanmar workers on the island are being treated fairly by their Thai employers (story here). The history of Myanmar workers in Phuket is a tale of sadness and suffering that…
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Helping youngsters to get back on the right track
Chatree Taveesup, 47, is a Krabi native who graduated from the Faculty of Law at Ramkhamhaeng University in 1989. He worked at Juvenile Observation and Protection Centers in Songkhla, Phang Nga and Yala before becoming Director of the Juvenile Center in Phuket in 2012. Here, he talks about the problem of juvenile crime in Phuket and suggests ways to deal…
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Outdated laws need overhaul
PHUKET: The recent minor fining of five men who confessed to the illegal felling of protected forest reserves on the island highlights the need for an overhaul of the antiquated Forest Act BE 2484 (1941), the terms of which are sadly out of date in this day and age of substantial monoculture, dwindling biodiversity and ever-increasing human overpopulation. Loud but…
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