Heavy rains drench North’s rice fields
PUBLISHED: 3 August 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
On Wednesday, heavy rains continued to fall in Mae Hong Son’s Sop Moei neighborhood in northeastern Thailand, flooding homes and grain fields while sweeping a village gate.
All areas will experience heavy rain on Thursday, according to a warning from the Thai Meteorological Department( TMD ).
Rainstorms have been ravaging Si Wa Doe town in the Sop Moei region of Mae Hong Son for more than a year, causing flash storms that have destroyed the town’s bridge and homes and cut it off from the main road to other areas.
Additionally, the storms have severely damaged settlements in tambon Mae Suat in the same city. Large trees were cut down and dispersed across the streets, reducing customers.
On Wednesday, Sop Moei president Akarapan Poonsiri announced that he had given the Volunteer Defence Corps and local administrations orders to clear the roads and resume customers.
Additionally, he claimed that a large stone that was blocking Highway 105 in tambon Mae Khatuan of the city had fallen on it after sliding down from the hills. Possible rock slides or floods along the route should be avoided by owners.
Display floods and hurricanes, according to Chaiporn Sakunlikhitpat, a worker at the USO Net center in the Sop Moei city village of Si Wa Doe, had cut off the area’s web.
Even worse, torrential rains had destroyed rice fields. According to Mr. Chaiporn, the village even lost power.
A reasonable rain is also present in Thailand’s North, North East, and East and will remain there for a few days, possibly causing flash floods, according to satellite images released by the TMD on Wednesday.
According to the TMD, Typhoon” Khanun” over the Pacific Ocean is anticipated to move close to southern Okinawa state, Japan, the upper portion of Taiwan, and China until Thursday.
Heavy rains and rising water levels will be present in the regions along the Mekong River, which have already flooded the locals’ corn fields.
2 more tourists drown in Phuket
PUBLISHED: 3 August 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
PHUKET: According to police, two American tourists drowned and a third was successfully rescued after being swept out to sea by the rough waves later on Tuesday night.
In the past five weeks, four travellers have drowned in the lakes off Phuket as a result of their deaths.
Despite the red flags posted along the beach that indicated hard water conditions, the three men reportedly went swimming on Tuesday night close to the Naga monument on Karon beach.
The various two gentlemen were declared dead at the Patong and Chalong institutions after being discovered, but one of the men was saved by lifeguards.
The American embassy promised to inform their family members.
PT dumps MFP from alliance
Now, the party will reveal a new coalition line-up.
All eyes are now on whether the Palang Pracharath Party ( PPRP ) and the military-affiliated United Thai Nation Party,( UTN ), will be invited today to join a new alliance led by Pheu Thai that split from the Move Forward Party yesterday( MFP ).
Along with the seven unique coalition allies attempting to form a government, Pheu Thai abandoned the MFP and revoked the MoU it had signed.
The MFP insists on amending Part 112 of the Criminal Code, also known as the stability guess rules, so the group will then move on to form its own partnership.
Cholnan Srikaew, the president of Pheu Thai, made the announcement yesterday evening.
He explained to the media that the eight-party bond instructed Pheu Thai to win more support from various parties and senators so a government had been formed after the MFP failed to secure the necessary political support for Pita Limjaroenrat, its leader and only PM candidate.
According to Dr. Cholnan,” it turns out they do not take any change to Section 112, and some parties also said they will not visit a government with Move Forth anyhow.”
Therefore, Pheu Thai informed the MFP yesterday at a meeting that it would name Srettha Thavisin as its own candidate for prime minister after withdrawing from the eight-party ally.
According to Dr. Cholnan,” Pheu Thai and Mr. Srettha will keep Part 112 unchanged and the new government will not have Move Forth in its coalition.”
Move Ahead will be in the opposite, he said, and Pheu Thai may make an effort to win enough seats in parliament.
Dr. Cholnan stated that he would reveal now which parties do make up the new partnership.
Dr. Cholnan responded,” Only wait and see ,” when asked if the UTN and the PPRP may be invited to join.
According to observers, if Pheu Thai includes either or both the PPRP and the UTN, it is anticipate facing harsh criticism for breaking its promise to not work with the so-called” brother” parties— those associated with military officials involved in the 2014 coup— before the May 14 vote.
The” uncles” are the PPRP leader Prawit Wongsuwon and former UTN chief adviser and candidate for prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Dr. Cholnan even expressed confidence that Mr. Srettha would receive the necessary support from MPs and senators during the upcoming, tentatively scheduled election session.
Pheu Thai, according to Dr. Cholnan, would never object if the MFP did not support Mr. Srettha.
The MFP has the freedom to cast its ballot however it pleases, he declared.
According to the constitution, a candidate for prime minister must receive at least 50 % of the 750 people of both the lower and upper chambers of parliament, or 376 votes in total.
However, all eyes are on whether the Constitutional Court will take a complaint today asking it to rule on the constitutionality of parliament’s July 19 decision to disqualify Mr. Pita from the position of prime minister. The voting won’t take place until the judge’s decision if the complaint is accepted.
Dr. Cholnan continued by saying that the contract may be changed by a Pheu Thai-led government because it prevented the formation of the government.
After that, the government would give the people back control and convene a fresh election.
He claimed that a Pheu Thai-led government would support some of the MFP’s proposed policies, including the passage of laws promoting alcohol use, marriage equality, and the replacement of military conscription with volunteer recruitment.
Akanat Promphan, the secretary-general of UTN, stated yesterday that the party may be prepared to hold talks once Pheu Thai made it clear that Part 112 may be left alone.
Gen Prayut had already left the UTN, so it was pointless to refer to it as an” brother” party. However, Mr. Akanat added that there were still a few issues that needed to be discussed before deciding whether or not we would meet.
Senator Kittisak Rattanawaraha declared that he was prepared to support a member for prime minister from the new union and that Mr. Srettha is anticipated to win the position.
The MFP and Pheu Thai played a key role in the initial eight-party union that it created. After being proposed as prime minister on July 13, Mr. Pita was unable to secure the support of the legislature. The MFP therefore gave Pheu Thai the go-ahead to guide the formation of a partnership.
The MFP’s pressure on changing Area 112 was opposed by the majority of senators and many MPs.
Online boost for Rcep trade
PUBLISHED: 3 August 2023 at 4:00 p.m.
According to Rachada Dhnadirek, a deputy government spokesperson, the government is working to steadily expand the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership( Rcep ), which will be aided by expanding online sales channels.
In the first five weeks of this year, commerce between Thailand and RCEP members has increased.
Particularly, Thai imports of processed land materials to important markets like Asean, China, and Japan have increased.
Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are the free business agreement’s 15 members. Together, they make up about 30 % of the world’s GDP and 70 % of its population.
According to Ms. Rachada, the intra-trade of processed land goods, such as sugar and canned fruit, vegetables, and seafood, has grown extraordinarily.
Fresh, frozen, and dried fruits are among the Rcep’s most well-liked agricultural goods.
Automobiles, automobile accessories, and plastic products are also experiencing strong growth in intra-bloc business.
Thailand’s exports from January to April increased by US$ 422 million($ 14 billion baht ), or 107 %, from the same time last year. The majority of these imports go to South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, and Australia.
According to Ms. Rachada, the state is promoting Thai fruit export via online shopping channels.
According to her, the Commerce Ministry frequently talks about ways to broaden the buying channels for Thai goods using e-commerce platforms and contemporary business businesses.
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Kenneth Jeyaretnam issued POFMA order over Facebook, LinkedIn posts on Ridout Road rentals
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Taiwan FM says conflict with China would have ‘disastrous results’
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Vietnamâs rapid ârescue flightâ trial stokes anti-corruption fervour
The convictions on Friday of four formerly high-ranking Vietnamese Communist Party officials amidst a highly public corruption trial with dozens of defendants has some people questioning the motivations of party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Eighteen days into what has been called the “rescue flight” trial and was expected to last a month, the four ex-officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, health and public security received life sentences. Charged for their involvement in bribery-related schemes, fraud and abuses of power that resulted in a multi-million-dollar scandal within Vietnam’s 2020 Covid-19 response, they avoided the death penalty recommended by prosecutors.
Though none of the 54 total defendants convicted in the trial were sentenced to death, 18 were eligible for capital punishment. Among the wide net of defendants were 10 businesspeople and civilians who received suspended sentences.
The verdict appears to confirm a sensational flare in the “blazing furnace” campaign (chiến dịch đốt lò), an anti-corruption purge spearheaded by party leader Trong. It’s the same campaign that led to President Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s abrupt resignation earlier this year – an unorthodox move in Vietnam, where most political redirections are carefully orchestrated.
This latest trial focused on additional graft allegations from deals made at the height of the country’s pandemic response. Previously, private medical company Viet A Technologies was found guilty of collecting $22 million (about 521 billion VND) in illegal revenue by overcharging for Covid testing kits in collusion with hospital managers and senior officials nationwide.
“I don’t like disciplining my comrades … but I have to do it. As Uncle Ho said, I have to cut off a wormy tree branch to save the whole tree,” Trong said publicly after sentencing in that trial.
In this newest round, a wave of prominent ex-party members, including former Hanoi Deputy Mayor Chu Xuan Dung and Vietnam’s former ambassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam, were found guilty of manipulating the organisation of Covid-era repatriation flights. The stipulations of “combo flights” required citizens who were abroad during the pandemic to make a single payment for plane tickets back to Vietnam and subsequent quarantine fees.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposed a total of 772 repatriation flights. To win licensing, air transport providers bribed senior officials to broker 372 combo flights and, presumably, the balance of the 400 other flights.
Hoang Dieu Mo, general director of the An Binh Trading, Tourism and Aviation Services Co., caught wind of this bribery scheme early, according to documents presented by state media. One of the 10 businesspeople caught up in the trial, she received licensing for 66 of the 372 flights, spending nearly $1.5 million (about 35 billion VND) to bribe eight officials from the five ministries involved in the licensing process.
The collusion between airlines, tourism companies and officials to “rip-off” desperate expatriates, students and foreign workers trying to get back to Vietnam during the pandemic caused major public outrage, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Although ticket prices were already exceptionally high, he said, excess demand for the limited seating on repatriation flights resulted in a system of waiting lists.
“Because some people could not be put on the list they had to actually bribe officers in the (Vietnamese) embassies,” said Giang.
The trial that we are witnessing right now is multifaceted – not only purifying the party or cleaning up bad roots.”
Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
As the case fueled citizens’ outrage, some experts were left asserting the purge and its sensational coverage by state media reflects an attempt by Trong to either ostracise outliers with forced resignations, summary stripping and public trial, or to simply consolidate the party and its image.
“The anti-corruption campaign has many different goals and the trial that we are witnessing right now is multifaceted – not only purifying the party or cleaning up bad roots that the party has been propagating,” said Giang a day before the sentencing. He saw the anti-corruption purge as an opportunity for party members to take out rivals, taking into account that the next party congress is scheduled in less than three years.
Bill Hayton, associate fellow with the Asia-Pacific programme at the policy institute Chatham House, concurred.
“The general secretary is using the campaign to take out his opponents. And I think it’s fair to say that he perceives his opponents as a corrupt class,” said Hayton. “People who are willing to damage the interests of the Communist Party as a whole for their own personal benefit pose a threat to the legitimacy of the Communist Party system because they’re willing to allow individual ambition over party discipline.”
As the public uproar metastasized, the Hanoi People’s Court disclosed during the trial that total bribery money equaled $9.5 million (more than 224 billion VND), of which $2.65 million was given to police officials to avoid prosecution.
Pham Trung Kien, former secretary to the deputy health minister, was found guilty of accepting 253 bribes totaling $1.8 million during an 11-month period. One of the four convicted officials, he received a life sentence for his involvement in the graft scandal.
“I did not ask any firm to be granted a certificate for rescue flights. Instead, they contacted me for help,” he pleaded during the hearing.
During the proceedings, prosecutors said 21 officials and civil servants were charged directly for receiving nearly $7 million in bribes from 100 businesses “to solve administrative procedures for repatriation”.
Thirty-three others faced such charges as enabling bribes, fraud and power abuse, according to the indictment. Some officials such as Dung, who was the most senior in the pool and received 16 years in prison, and Nam, who was sentenced to 30 months, each returned $75,000 to the state as a means to “fix the consequences”, state media reported.
“The system is designed to get people to confess, so that investigators can get people higher up the food chain,” said Hayton.
According to Vietnam’s appellate procedures, the defendants may file an appeal with the immediate superior court within 15 days of the judgement.
“I think some might choose this option, as their sentences are harsher than proposed,” said Giang.