Gov rebuffs Shark lawyer

PHUKET: Provincial Governor CEO Pongpayome Vasaputi has flatly rejected a message from a Canadian lawyer representing Kevin Radke, managing director of the company that owns the Shark Club, urging him to reverse his order closing the club permanently. In the email message, which was copied to the Gazette, lawyer Kieran Bridge wrote, in part, “Your order to close the Shark Club, unless it is quickly revoked, will seriously damage the reputation of Phuket and of Thailand as a tourist destination.” He added, “Perhaps even more important is the damage that your order has caused to the confidence of potential investors in Thailand. “The message that your order sends to potential investors is that even when someone makes the sort of contribution that Mr Radke has made to Thailand, he will still lose his investment at the whim of the Thai government. “Needless to say, no investor will be attracted to Thailand in these circumstances. “The Canadian financial press and the international media will find this matter very newsworthy. Mr Radke has authorized me to bring this matter to the attention of my contacts at those media, including the Financial Post and the BBC World Service, if your closure of the Shark Club is not immediately reversed.” Gov Pongpayome retorted, “We need good foreign investors, not bad ones. If they think it’s too difficult to invest here, or believe that they cannot realize their plans, then they shouldn’t come here. We don’t want them anyway.” He added, “I’m certain that tourists come to Phuket because we have a beautiful island. We sell its attractions as a natural, peaceful place. “[For tourists], entertainment is just the sauce; they don’t care about it much. We don’t need more entertainment investment; in fact, the number of entertainment venues should decrease. “As for bars, service girls and gays, we don’t support them, but if they follow the rules we’ll put up with them. If they break the rules, we won’t put up with them anymore.”