New Chamber Chairman slams smear attempt

PHUKET: Pamuke Achariyachai, the new chairman of the Phuket Chamber of Commerce, today called a press conference to slam a report in the national newspaper, Matichon. The report, in this morning’s issue of the newspaper, quoted an unnamed member of the Chamber as saying, “It’s such a shame. The Chairman of the Chamber should be a person of good image, not someone who ignored a court order.” The quote apparently referred to a court case against K. Pamuke 11 years ago, in which it was found that one of his hotels exceeded height restrictions. Slamming the report as inaccurate, K. Pamuke said, “I want to tell the reporter who wrote this to pass a message on to the person he quoted: When you want to give information to a newspaper you must have documentary evidence and really know what happened. “A newspaper should judge carefully what to publish, and be objective,” he added. “I don’t deny that I was involved in a court case because construction of my hotel was not correct. But that case was resolved on May 18, 1990.” Showing reporters a copy of the order issued by the court at that time, he stressed, “I was fined about 200,000 baht but the court did not order me to pull down any part of the construction.” Plainly taking the quote as an attempt to smear his reputation, K. Pamuke said, “I was elected Chairman according to the procedures of the Chamber. I think that attempting to discredit me in this way is not how a civilized person behaves.” K. Pamuke was elected Chairman of the Chamber two days ago following a debacle in which the former Chairman, Charn Wongsatayanont, and 74 other members had their memberships voided because of irregularities in their applications. Four months earlier, K. Charn beat K. Pamuke by 11 votes to 10 in the biennial elections for the Chairmanship. K. Pamuke told the press conference today, “Phuket Governor Pongpayome Vasaputi, in his capacity as Provincial Registrar, has called for all nine [remaining] members of the committee to meet him next Tuesday [July 31], in order to work out ways to solve the problem of membership.” He added that an extraordinary meeting of the entire membership would be held on August 21 at The Metropole hotel. The meeting would discuss three topics: clearing up the membership problem; changing the wording of some rules to make them clearer; and electing 12 members to fill positions on the committee left vacant by the membership upheaval.