Security tightened as Yala blast kills one ranger and wounds two more
A member of a ranger patrol was killed and two others wounded in a bomb attack in Bannang Sata district of Yala yesterday morning.
The attack occurred at about 7am. Rangers and volunteers were patrolling on foot at Ubae Moo 1 village in tambon Bacho when a bomb hidden in the area suddenly exploded, according to the Bannang Sata police station radio centre.
The force of the blast injured three members of the team, one of whom died later.
Volunteer ranger Wanchai Muthasukphaisarn, 28, sustained serious injuries and was later pronounced dead. Sgt Wichian Panyo and volunteer Wimol Chanthakhun suffered from chest pains and ringing ears. They were being treated at Bannang Sata Hospital.
Police blamed the attack on the unrest in the southernmost border provinces, where more than 7,000 people have been killed since sectarian conflict resurfaced in 2004.
Ek Yangaphai Na Songkhla, the Betong District Office chief in Yala, has ordered tighter security for the safety of locals and tourists in Betong, one of the popular tourist destinations in the South. Checkpoints have been set up while more patrol officers will be deployed to ensure public safety.
Pita mulls stepping aside for PT
Bid to curb Senate power faces uphill battle
Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat says he will step aside and allow Pheu Thai to take the lead in forming a government if he fails to secure enough support in parliament to become prime minister in the second round of voting and curb Senate power in co-electing a PM.
He made the comment via a video clip on his official Twitter page yesterday as the eight prospective coalition parties prepared for a meeting on Tuesday to decide their next steps.
The main topic of discussion will be whether to renominate Mr Pita for the prime minister post in parliament this Wednesday after he fell short of securing a majority during his first try last Thursday.
“We have a few chances left to fight together in two battles for the establishment of a government in accordance with the people’s mandate,” Mr Pita wrote.
“The first battle […] is the vote for the prime minister [position] on July 19, and the second is the proposed amendment to Section 272 of the constitution to remove senate power in choosing a prime minister forever.
“Both battles will never be won if we cannot change the minds of senators to be on the side of the people.
“If we do our best in these two battles, and it is clear that the Move Forward Party does not have a chance to lead the forming of a government, I am ready to open the way for the Pheu Thai Party to become the leader in establishing a government of the eight coalition parties under the MoU we made together.
“All the MPs from the Move Forward Party are ready to support Pheu Thai’s prime minister candidate.
“But until that day we won’t give up,” Mr Pita said.
On Friday, the MFP submitted a proposal to parliament, seeking to scrap Section 272 of the charter, which allows the 250-member Senate to join MPs in selecting a prime minister.
The move came a day after Mr Pita failed to muster enough support to back his bid to land the job. It is the seventh attempt to strip the Senate of the power to co-elect a PM to date.
However, observers doubted the MFP’s efforts would bear fruit as the proposal faces a major hurdle — a requirement for the approval of both senators and MPs.
At least one-third of senators, or about 84, must give it the nod.
Key Pheu Thai and MFP figures held talks on Friday night to discuss the second round of the voting and evaluate the situation, said a source at the eight-party coalition.
During the talks, MFP and Pheu Thai strategists discussed an issue raised by some parliamentarians, as to whether the same motion regarding Mr Pita’s nomination could be resubmitted to parliament on Wednesday.
They evaluated what the senators might do at the next meeting, and also whether the parties from the outgoing government might nominate a PM candidate.
The meeting did not decide whether the coalition would renominate Mr Pita, said the source, pending talks with other coalition partners.
Pheu Thai also reportedly disagreed with MFP’s move to amend Section 272 and strip the senators of their power to co-select the prime minister. Doing so would be an uphill task because a motion on this issue requires at least 84 votes from the Senate.
Pheu Thai secretary-general Prasert Chantararuangthong said the conclusion reached at the meeting of the coalition parties on Tuesday will be relayed to a meeting of Pheu Thai MPs later that same day.
He also said that House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha met with legal experts for talks on whether the motion regarding Mr Pita’s nomination can be resubmitted to parliament.
Asked if Pheu Thai will nominate Mr Pita for the vote, Mr Prasert said the party must comply with the decision reached by the eight parties and must also wait for the outcome of the meeting chaired by Mr Wan.
A source at Pheu Thai said the party would nominate Srettha Thavisin, one of the party’s three prime ministerial candidates, for the PM vote on Thursday if Mr Pita failed on his second try.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a potential Pheu Thai candidate for prime minister, is not ready to be nominated, the source said.
Mr Srettha refused to comment on the matter yesterday.
Reservoir ‘golfer’ charged with damage to national park
NAKHON RATCHASIMA: Khao Yai National Park will press charges against a golfer who plays golf near the Sai Sorn reservoir, located in the national park, as his action is against the park’s rules and could harm not only wildlife but also visitors.
Kittichai Roongpaiboonwong, a senior forest officer of the park, led an inspection team to the reservoir yesterday after receiving a report regarding the golfer using the reservoir area for sports practice.
The team saw two golf balls, a trace of a golf tee, and torn grass leaves due to golf practice at the spot. The golfer also posted on his Facebook account that he checked in at the reservoir at 2 pm on July 14.
A set of pictures and videos of the golfer, whose identity has not yet been released, was sent to the national park chief, Chaiya Huaihongthong, on July 14. The evidence showed a White Toyota Camry with a clear licence plate, which led to authorities’ identifying the culprit.
The evidence was also passed to Environment and Natural Resources Minister Varawut Silpa-archa and Atthaphon Charoenchansa, acting director-general of the Department of National Parks, which led to Facebook posts from both figures criticising the incident.
The golfer will be charged for practising sport in a non-permited area.
Bus driver runs over, kills two uni students who fell off bike
Police are yet to press charges against a bus driver who ran over and killed two students of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) yesterday, as they are still establishing the facts around the accident.
Jorakeh Noi police station was alerted to the incident which took place along the Chalong Krung Road in Lat Krabang district around 6.45am yesterday.
Police investigators found the bodies Chattiyakorn Suriwat, 20, and Areeya Suthatchote, 21, both students at KMITL’s School of Science, under bus No 1013.
According to witnesses, the students riding a motorcycle had crossed a railway junction and made a right turn to enter the university when their motorcycle fell to the ground. The students had landed on the road as the bus, which was also heading to the university, came from behind and ran over them.
The girls were wedged under one of the wheels of the bus and died at the scene, according to Manit Karaket, a rescue volunteer from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation.
The rescuers struggled to remove the bodies.
The police said Somyot Iamsa-ard, the 44-year-old driver of the bus, waited at the scene for police. However, he was not charged immediately.
Police said they would not press charges against him until they finish running a test on the victims’ bodies and on Mr Somyot’s blood sample to establish if he was under the influence of alcohol.
Also, the officers were reviewing footage from the surveillance cameras in the area.
The bodies of the two students were undergoing forensic examination at the Police General Hospital.
In Malaysia, trading using vending machines a way for lower income group to avoid handouts
GOVERNMENT FOOTS VENDING MACHINE RENTAL
During the launch of the IPR project back in February, Economic Affairs Minister Rafizi Ramli had termed it a “fishing rod” for people to attain financial independence.
There are three thrusts to the project – namely the Food Entrepreneur Initiative (Insan), the Agro Entrepreneur Initiative (Intan), and the Services Operator Initiative (Ikhsan).
Amiruddin is a participant of the Insan initiative, which provides food entrepreneurs with a self-service vending machine to sell food and drinks at strategic locations around the country such as transportation hubs and hospitals.
He told CNA that he had applied for the initiative online after its launch.
As part of the initiative, the government pays for the monthly rental of the vending machine for two years, with the entrepreneur earning the profits from their sales. To keep prices affordable for consumers, packs of food sold have a cap of RM5 per box.
Amiruddin estimates that almost 90 per cent of the food is sold out daily, with the rest given to the homeless or for self-consumption.
There is a mobile application to monitor and track inventory and sales of the food, with participants able to top up boxes in the vending machines when stocks run low.
Amiruddin and his wife spend about two to three hours each day preparing the food, with Amiruddin admitting that it was tough at first. He and his wife have, however, gotten used to the routine.
“There is more continuity and sustainability in this programme compared to direct cash aid. There are many benefits for the community as the traders can earn more income while the public can purchase cheap meals,” he said, adding that he sells about 100 boxes of food a day.
As of June, over 10,000 people have signed up for the Insan program.
A total of 100 machines are operating, with the government targeting 5,000 of these machines to be up and running by the end of this year.
Illegal trade in butterflies is rife; collectors deny being the main problem. They may have a point
A LIFETIME OF PAINSTAKING SEARCH
In Shikoku, 80-year-old doctor Haruki (not his real name) has amassed about 10,000 butterflies over a lifetime. He bought 80 per cent of his collection, paying upwards of US$7,500 (S$9,900) for his most valuable specimens.
He still hopes to expand his collection. “I accumulate so many of these butterflies in my house as a collector because it’s hard to be satisfied with just one (of each species),” he said.
He is driven to make his collection of various species as complete as possible by, for example, obtaining a rare female of a particular species. Some butterfly species are sexually dimorphic, which means the males and females differ in size, shape and colour.
One such species, the Ornithoptera croesus or Wallace’s Golden Birdwing, lives only in North Maluku.
It is highly sought after, but since 2017, the Indonesian government has specifically suspended all trade in the species — unlike other Cites (Appendix II) species, in which international trade is generally allowed with an export permit or re-export certificate.
US-China dialogue going nowhere in South China Sea
For the second time in a month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met China’s foreign policy chief Wang Yi amid a flurry of high-level meetings between the two superpowers.
Earlier this month, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Beijing, where she met top Chinese technocrats. Former US secretary of state and current climate envoy John Kerry is set to visit China this coming week.
The latest Blinken-Wang meeting took place on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign minister meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The US diplomatic chief characterized the bilateral meeting as “candid and constructive”, with the two sides addressing a host of geopolitical fault lines, most notably in the South China Sea.
The latest Blinken-Wang meeting was sensitively timed. Last week, the Philippines, along with its key allies, commemorated the 7th anniversary of the arbitral tribunal award at The Hague, which rejected the bulk of China’s expansive claims in adjacent waters as inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Eager to win trust among its Southeast Asian neighbors, China announced the completion of the second reading of the final version of a Code of Conduct (COC) aimed at more effectively managing the maritime spats. But both the US and its regional allies remain skeptical about the direction of the negotiations, which have been dragging on for literally decades.
The latest high-level meeting between the two superpowers was dominated by exchanges over a host of grievances, beginning with Taiwan. China has been accusing the US of unduly interfering in regional affairs, while the Biden administration has pushed back against China’s intimidation of its Asian partners.
On July 13, Chinese fighter jets closely monitored a US Navy patrol plane flying through the Taiwan Straits, with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducting massive wargames nearby.
For its part, China’s commerce ministry renewed its call for the United States to lift “unilateral” sanctions against leading Chinese companies just days after Yellen’s high-profile visit.
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is reportedly planning her own travel to Beijing to address tit-for-tat tech sanctions between the two superpowers.
Tensions have been particularly high following a recent report by Microsoft, which implicated Chinese state-linked hackers in secretly accessing email accounts of American government officials.
“[This] is of deep concern to us, and…we will take appropriate action to hold those responsible accountable,” a senior US State Department official said in response to the latest Chinese hacking attacks on key US departments.
The Blinken-Wang meeting came shortly after Manila commemorated the anniversary of the South China Sea UNCLOS ruling, a precedent that is winning renewed international support.
“As provided for in UNCLOS, the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision is final and legally binding on both parties. We call on the Philippines and China to abide by its terms,” said the United Kingdom Foreign Office in a statement, underscoring its support for the Southeast Asian nation.
“The UK does not take a position on competing sovereignty claims, but strongly opposes any claims that are not consistent with UNCLOS. Adherence to international law, including UNCLOS, is fundamental to ensuring there continues to be a safe, prosperous and stable South China Sea,” the statement added.
For its part, the French Embassy expressed concern over China’s aggressive maneuvers against Philippine vessels in recent weeks and, accordingly, called on the Asian superpower to abide by “Arbitration award rendered under UNCLOS on the 12th of July 2016,” which rejected Beijing’s nine-dash line claims in adjacent waters.
The European Union also released a statement emphasizing how the UNCLOS ruling is legally binding and indispensable to resolution of the maritime disputes.
As the Philippines’ sole treaty ally, the US was also resolute in backing the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling and warned China against “routine harassment” of smaller claimant states in the South China Sea.
In response, China accused the United States of “ganging up” on it and seeking to force the arbitration case on the Asian superpower.
“The US ropes in allies to play up the issue each year on the anniversary of the illegal award to gang up against China and to exert pressure, and force China into accepting the award,” the Chinese embassy in Manila said in a spirited statement accusing the US of being the true “mastermind” behind the arbitration.
Sensing growing pressure over the issue, however, China has once again invoked the ongoing negotiations over a regional COC in order to project good will and peaceful intention towards its neighbors.
During the recent ASEAN meeting, China’s top diplomat Wang and Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudim, who hosed this year’s annual ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting, tried to strike a positive tone on the South China Sea disputes by announcing supposed progress on the COC negotiations.
Former Chinese ambassador to Washington and China’s current Foreign Minister Qin Gang skipped the event due to health reasons
“China supports the formation of a guideline document by all parties to accelerate the COC [code of conduct] and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in the early conclusion of the COC.” Wang said, after China and ASEAN jointly announced that both sides have reviewed yet another draft of the pact under negotiation.
There is, however, deep skepticism among many observers. As early as the 1990s, ASEAN states proposed a legally binding COC in order to prevent the escalation of South China Sea disputes, especially after Beijing seized the Manila-claimed Mischief Reef shortly after departure of American bases near the area.
In 2002, the two sides settled on a transitional agreement, namely the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), as a prelude to a more robust pact down the road.
But claimant states, notably China, repeatedly violated the DOC’s emphasis on the need for “restraint” and, accordingly, avoidance of any provocative action which would exacerbate the disputes.
After long-drawn negotiations, the two sides announced the finalization of a “draft” for the COC in 2018. But a cursory look at the at the outline of the COC framework makes it clear that China is still unwilling to subject itself to any binding document.
In the section on “objectives”, the draft document states the need to “establish a rules-based framework containing a set of norms [author’s emphasis] to guide the conduct of parties and promote maritime cooperation in the South China Sea.”
In the section on “principles”, the document suggested that it will not be “an instrument to settle territorial disputes or maritime delimitation issues.” In short, the current COC negotiations are, at best, a repackaged version of the DOC.
There is growing concern that China is simply using the COC negotiations as cover for its militarization of the disputed land features in the South China Sea.
Washington has warned against any new pact which would reinforce China’s expansive claims in the area at the expense of freedom of navigation and overflight for external powers.
America’s fears were reinforced in light of reports that Beijing had been pushing for a COC which would allow it to exercise de facto veto over the prerogative of other claimant states to (i) conduct naval exercises with “countries from outside the region” and (ii) engage in joint energy exploration projects with “companies from countries outside the region” in the South China Sea.
As a result, the US and its allies have repeatedly underscored the need for a legally-binding document in accordance with modern international law, namely the UNCLOS.
“We remain committed to upholding freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea – a critical throughway for global commerce and connectivity – and we support ASEAN’s negotiation of a code of conduct consistent with international law,” Blinken said during his visit to Jakarta this week.
South Korea’s Yoon pledges more military supplies, aid to Ukraine
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Xi calls for ‘solid’ security barrier around China’s internet
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Thai PM frontrunner Pita says only one more shot at forming government
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