Pawn in a political game

Hun Sen (L) led Siwarak Chotipong by the hand in a media publicity stunt on the day Siwarak was released on 14th Dec.

Many believe Hun Sen engineered Sivarak's arrest just to help his pal Thaksin

Published: 19/12/2009
Bangkok Post

It was good news the Cambodian king granted a royal pardon to jailed Thai engineer Sivarak Chutipong. But it was regrettable the Puea Thai Party and certain other people used the occasion to attack Thailand's Foreign Ministry by accusing its staff of causing the arrest of Sivarak, said Nongnuch Singhadecha, a writer for Matichon.

Puea Thai's swift strike against the Foreign Ministry after Sivarak's release only affirmed the belief among some observers that his arrest had been engineered by Hun Sen and ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to discredit the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration - making it look ineffectual in freeing Sivarak from jail.

It also seemed to be aimed at Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who Puea Thai and Thaksin consider their arch enemy.

Nongnuch believed the drama would be used by Puea Thai in its no-confidence debate early next year in the House of Representatives against Mr Abhisit and Mr Kasit.

Nongnuch asked if Sivarak was really a security threat to Cambodia, then why was Hun Sen in such a hurry to go ahead with a royal pardon as requested by Sivarak's mother and Puea Thai chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. If Sivarak was really guilty as charged, he should have served time in jail and Hun Sen should not have helped secure his release so soon.

So in Nongnuch's opinion, Sivarak's arrest was really engineered by Hun Sen so he could help his pal Thaksin and Puea Thai.

Hun Sen might have been so quick to ask for a royal pardon because Thaksin's flight schedule that Sivarak passed on to Kamrob Palawatwichai, Thailand's first secretary at its embassy in Phnom Penh, was not a state secret, something even the Cambodian prosecutors admitted. Sivarak's action could not have caused any harm to Thaksin in any case as the information was relayed to Mr Kamrob after Thaksin had landed in Cambodia and the Cambodian media were on hand to greet him at the airport. So Thaksin's arrival was not really a secret at all.

Another reason Hun Sen was ready to free Sivarak, Nongnuch wrote, was that if he was jailed for a lengthy period, it would harm the investment climate in the country as it would look to the global community as if the Cambodian leader could arbitrarily jail anyone doing business in Cambodia as long as it served his political purposes.

Nongnuch did not believe the incident generated any goodwill for Hun Sen in the eyes of international observers as it was obvious he had staged the whole drama to help Thaksin.

Nongnuch also called on Puea Thai to refrain from attacking the Foreign Ministry and demanding the name of those who ordered Mr Kamrob to seek Thaksin's flight information because Mr Kamrob only did his duty as Thaksin is a fugitive from justice in Thailand.

The Cambodian court also jailed Sivarak citing the reason that Thaksin had been accorded special status by the Cambodian government and his safety was its concern. However, Hun Sen conveniently ignored the fact that Thailand has a duty to bring a criminal back to serve his prison term. Why did not Cambodia send Thaksin back to Thailand if it really wanted good relations with Thailand?

Nongnuch also wanted Cambodia to clarify why Puea Thai MP and leader of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) Jatuporn Prompan claimed Cambodia possessed a taped conversation of Mr Kasit ordering Mr Kamrob to seek Thaksin's flight information. If that were the case, it would mean Cambodian authorities tapped the telephone conversation at the Thai embassy, which would have broken international law as the Thai embassy compound is under Thai sovereign jurisdiction.

No wonder a Cambodian minister immediately refuted Mr Jatuporn's allegation fearing it would have caused an international incident.

Nongnuch also chided Mr Jatuporn for being naive in not knowing that if a secret is to be conveyed, the Foreign Ministry would use a coded telegram which needed to be deciphered, not a telephone conversation which could easily be listened into.

Nongnuch concluded her article by reminding Puea Thai not to ask who ordered Mr Kamrob to seek Thaksin's flight details. Rather, the Thai people wanted to know who influenced Hun Sen to stage the drama in the first place by arresting Sivarak.

Leo calendar controversy

Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodee had warned Boon Rawd Brewery Co Ltd not to distribute the R-rated Leo calendars made by supermodel Methinee (Luk Ked) Kingpayome.

But Chitpas Bhirombhakdi (the Bhirombhakdi family owns Boon Rawd Brewery) who works at the Office of the PM's Secretariat, on Wednesday morning defied the warning by distributing the controversial Leo calendars with nude pictures on them to government officials, reporters and politicians, including two deputy government spokesmen, Supachai Jaisamut and Phumin Leetheeraprasert, Thai Rath said.

In an earlier report, Ms Methinee, who had been hired by Boon Rawd Brewery to produce "nude" calendars for the past six years, defended the calendar saying it was legal.

She said the Leo calendar was no more offensive than other R-rated publications and the Public Health Ministry had no grounds to lay charges against her or her employer.

However, Mr Manit did not buy Boon Rawd Brewery's news conference argument that the Leo calendar had been produced for sale, not for free distribution as in previous years. Boon Rawd argued that even though it was the sponsor, it had assigned another company to sell the calendar and let Ms Methinee sell it herself. Thus, Boon Rawd was not directly involved in its distribution.

On this point, Mr Manit said the people would not be fooled. They knew full well that Ms Methinee would not dare to produce and sell the calendar herself as she could easily have made a big loss.

"Whether sold or distributed free, it is illegal because the calendar clearly features the Leo beer logo and the public knows full well what kind of calendar it is," said Mr Manit.

Producing and distributing the Leo calendar was not only illegal, it was also inappropriate and not constructive as it could arouse sexual tensions which could lead to violence against women and minors, said Mr Manit, adding that the Public Health Ministry would soon consult with the Culture Ministry and Social Development and Human Security Ministry to come up with strategies to protect Thai youth from falling victim to vice and social decadence.

Samarn Futrakul, director of the Office of Alcohol Control, said the Leo calendar was clearly illegal as it featured a beer logo and people could easily identify the calendar as belonging to a beer brand.

Production, whether for sale or free distribution, is illegal according to Section 32 of the Alcohol Beverage Control Act 2007, which forbids all kinds of advertising and promotion of alcohol beverages. For this reason, Boon Rawd Brewery, which hired Ms Methinee to produce the calendar, could not avoid its responsibility as this could be deemed as being a marketing activity for a beer brand, he said.

Dr Samarn also warned that any shop that receives the free calendars and puts them up in public or sells them to consumers would also break the law. To enforce the law, the Public Health Ministry would file a case with the police who would investigate, find the culprits and submit the case to the public prosecutor for action in the criminal court.

Parichart Sathapitanont of the mass communications faculty at Chulalongkorn University said all of Thai society knew the calendar was a Leo one. Nobody called it a "Luk Ked" (Methinee) calendar or just a plain nude calendar. There was no need to try and interpret the motive of Boon Rawd Brewery in hiring Ms Methinee to produce it. Hiring someone to do a beer promotion job was akin to doing it oneself as everyone knew that it was done to promote a certain beer.

She chided Boon Rawd for failing to heed dharma even though its corporate slogan is "Giving is never exhausting" and deciding to use nude models to promote its product.

New risk seen

For several years now, most pundits have pointed out that the biggest problem facing Thailand is the continuing political strife between people of different colour affiliations.

Now some bankers say the problem of stalled industrial projects in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate is even bigger and it could have a worse impact on Thailand than the global financial crisis, a Thai Rath editorial noted.

After the Supreme Administrative Court affirmed the Administrative Court's ruling to temporarily halt 76 industrial projects except for 11 that were deemed to cause no pollution, it was reported that the 65 stalled projects were worth more than 400 billion baht in investment and their suspension could result in about 40,000 workers being laid off.

Some bankers fear the repercussions of the Map Ta Phut case will affect even larger investments in the country.

If that is the case, then the Map Ta Phut crisis could leapfrog political strife as Thailand's No.1 problem as the country has adjusted quite well to the continuing political conflicts.

The Map Ta Phut crisis is seen as having wider repercussions as it might affect industrial projects throughout the country if the government does not rush to solve the problems by passing a law to comply with Section 67 of the constitution which requires the government to issue guidelines for environmental and health impact studies, organise public hearings and set up an independent organisation to enforce the law.

If Puea Thai MPs threaten to impeach Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for his failure to comply with Section 67 of the charter, it should also be noted that the two former non-Democrat prime ministers also failed to pass such a law.

Successive governments had not managed to pass the law because of political turmoil and state officials and politicians being more interested in dreaming up big projects on which to spend money.

The lesson from the court's ruling is that industrial development must take into account adverse impacts on the environment and people's health and, in the future, global warming. Government officials and politicians must try to solve the Map Ta Phut crisis to avoid future problems with investment and the environment, Thai Rath concluded.