Chalong Mayor Samran Jindapon with the general public made offerings of food to monks at Soi Ta-iad at about 7am. Since it was also official ‘Old age Day’ on Thursday, members of the elderly community did a short on-stage performance.

The program also included a segment to help foreigners understand the rites and importance of celebrating the holiday, followed by traditional dances and pouring of water on the hands of the elderly.

“We brought along replica statues of Luang Por Cham, Luang Por Chuang and Luang Por Gliuam from Chalong Temple to let the public pray here,” said Mayor Samran. “This event brought harmony within the community and also brought families closer,” added Mayor.

Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong at 5pm presided over Songkran festivities at Limelight Avenue.

“Following strict instructions of the government to control drugs and alcohol during the festival, it will be good to have fun without any legal concerns and road accidents,” said the governor. Powder, foam and high pressure water guns were also prohibited at the event.

Gov Norraphat added that the rules were implemented to maintain Thai traditions during Songkran and wished the attendees happiness and success.

On Friday, Phuket Old Town also celebrated the basic traditions of the festival by hosting a Baba dress-wearing ceremony.

It was discovered on Friday that “Mhud Khana Ratsadon”, or the People’s Party Memorial Peg, had been replaced by a new one with altered wording.

The commemorative plaque was fixed to a spot at the Royal Plaza where the group’s first statement was read to announce a revolution against absolute monarchy. The group was led by Western-educated military officers and bureaucrats.

A message on the peg read: “At dawn on June 24, 1932, the People’s Party on this spot gave birth to the constitution for national prosperity.”

Government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd yesterday denied any knowledge about the removal of the 1932 Siamese Revolution peg.

He also refused to comment about the issue during a telephone interview with The Sunday Nation yesterday.

Police in Dusit district, where the plaque was located, said they were not sure who had removed it and were investigating. Senior officials at the Fine Arts Department and the Dusit District Office, which has jurisdiction over the area, also pleaded ignorance.

The new plaque’s message reads: “It is good to worship the Buddhist trinity, the state, one’s own family, and to be faithful to one’s monarch and allow oneself to be the engine that brings prosperity to the state.”

A Facebook page called Mhud Khana Ratsadon alerted the public on Friday that the historic brass plaque had been replaced with a new one with different wording that says nothing about the 1932 revolution, which led to the country replacing absolute monarchy with constitutional monarchy.

The government’s main communication means with the press – the chat room Line application – was still active but there was no explanation about the incident.

Activists said the plaque’s removal was a bid by royalist conservatives to rewrite history. Certain groups of people had previously threatened to remove the peg.

Pro-democracy activist group New Democracy Movement (NDM) urged responsible agencies to investigate the mysterious removal of the historic peg.

NDM said yesterday that police as well as district office officials responsible in the area should check CCTV footage and use available resources to find the missing brass plaque.

It said the plaque, which marked the spot where the Khana Ratsadon or the People’s Party read its manifesto out more than 80 years ago as they successfully and bloodlessly achieved their goal of moving the country from absolute to constitutional monarchy, was public property and belonged to the people.

National Artist Theeraphap Lohitkul yesterday pointed out that the theft of the 1932 Siamese Revolution peg was an act of destroying historical evidence, which caused great damage to the country, and might have been aimed at wiping out memories of the Khana Ratsadon.

However, Theeraphap said the attempt would have the reverse effect and more people would seek and research the history of the origin of the peg and the 1932 revolution.

The national artist said it was a shame that the People’s Party peg had been replaced. It was an important historical evidence representing the political change in 1932.

Theeraphap said he did not think the plaque had been removed for safekeeping.

“Such an important national property should be kept in a museum and be replaced with a mock-up,” he said. But the plaque had been replaced with another with a completely different message, he added.

The national artist said all historical evidence that told stories about the country’s past – whether positive or negative – should be preserved so that people of later generations would know what the country had been through.

He said the plaque was one tangible evidence and was historically significant. It was worth conserving for the people of later generations, he said.

“Even sites where millions of people were massacred, such as the concentration camps in Germany, have been conserved. They are for the younger people to learn from and not repeat the history,” Theeraphap said.

Thepmontri Limpaphayorm, a historian suspected by many pro-democracy activists as being responsible for the peg’s disappearance, denied any knowledge about removal of the historical item, insisting he had only learned about the incident from news media.

Accusers referred to Thepmontri’s Facebook post in October, which featured a photograph of the plaque with a message that said it was looking for its owner, and told the owner to take it away by the end of the year if he or she wanted to keep it.

In the post, Thepmontri threatened that he and his friend would remove it or destroy it.

The spot was where coup leader Colonel Phraya Phahon Phonphayuhasena, who would later become Thailand’s second prime minister, read out the first statement by Khana Ratsadon (People’s Party) announcing the change of the country’s political system from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. The message on the plaque read: “At dawn on June 24, 1932, the People’s Party on this spot gave birth to the constitution for national prosperity.”

Between Tuesday and Friday, 226 people were killed in road accidents, compared to 259 during the same period last year.

However, the numbers of accidents and injuries were higher. There were 2,385 accidents during the first four days, with 2,457 people injured, the agency announced yesterday.

Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said that on Friday alone, 642 accidents claimed the lives of 57 people and saw 664 others injured.

After four days of the accident-monitoring period, there were 12 provinces without road deaths and four without injuries related to road accidents.

Chiang Mai became the province with the highest number of road accidents, with 114 over the first four days.

Nakhon Ratchasima had the highest death toll with 13 people during the four-day period, Arkhom said, adding that Chiang Mai had the highest number of injured people in road accidents, with 119 people casualties.

On Friday, drunk driving remained the biggest cause of accidents, Arkhom said. Drunkenness was attributed to 315 accidents, or 44 per cent of all road mishaps.

Meanwhile, authorities impounded 3,460 vehicles and took legal action against some 200,000 people for drunk driving during the first three days of the “seven dangerous” days, a spokeswoman of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said yesterday.

NCPO spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Ngathong told a press conference that 2,633 motorcycles and 827 four-wheel vehicles were impounded between Wednesday and Friday.

She said 110,826 motorcyclists and pillion riders and 91,697 motorists faced legal action during the three-day period.

On Friday alone, authorities seized 1,219 motorcycles and took action against 39,759 motorcyclists. They also seized 401 four-wheel vehicles and took action against 30,854 motorists.

Yesterday also saw heavy traffic in certain roads as Songkran celebrants returned early to the capital.

Roads in Nakhon Sawan leading to Bangkok became jammed with vehicles as people headed back from the North.

As congested intersections in Nakhon Sawan, traffic police controlled traffic lights to enable longer green-light intervals for traffic headed to Bangkok.

Meanwhile, Bangkok-bound traffic on Phetchkasem Road through Phetchaburi, known as the “gate to the South”, was also heavier yesterday with holidaymakers returning home.

The traffic was still flowing but slow at certain spots. Police also temporarily closed U-turn points on Phetchakasem from Khao Yoi district to Cha-am to avoid accidents. Local |officials teamed up with the Army to erect tents for motorists to stop, rest |and receive urgent car services along the way from Khao Yoi to Cha-am.

The CDC has maintained the controversial point concerning the replacement of provincial EC authorities with five to eight “electoral inspectors” who would perform duties during the election period, CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan said.

The central EC would retain its authority in dispersing investigators into areas where electoral fraud has been reported, he added.

Regarding the disqualification of the current commissioners in the independent agencies, Meechai said that the NLA would have to look into the matter. However, he said the CDC insisted that only those qualified by the recently promulgated Constitution could maintain their positions.

Meechai admitted he was worried about the removal of disqualified commissioners from office. He said questions could arise if the commissioners were treated unequally.

“The National Human Rights Commission are willing to leave office if the charter disqualifies them. And if the NLA agrees with that, people could question whether other agencies should be reset to square one, too,” Meechai said.

He added that the EC would set an example for the rest of the independent agencies, its members being the first to face determination over whether they could remain in office or note.

The new charter set out new qualifications for commissioners of independent agencies. However, controversy arose as to whether the new rules should be imposed on the current commissioners or not.

Meanwhile, Jate Siratharanont, president of the NLA committee charged with considering the organic law, admitted that the committee members had not seen eye to eye regarding the election inspectors who would replace the current provincial EC offices.

The decision to maintain or remove the clauses concerning the inspectors and the provincial EC, however, had not yet been made, Jate said, adding the committee had to see the draft law to be submitted by the CDC first.

He said the NLA had the authority to revise the draft law so long as it did not violate the new charter.

Jate also backed the CDC’s draft bill for its inclusion of poll fraud-curbing mechanisms. He said that the measures should centre on the poll booths. If it could be controlled, fraud could be reduced, he said.

Article 5 previously had been written to authorise the Constitutional Court to convene the heads of key state agencies such as the government, opposition party, and Army chiefs to find a solution in the event of a stalemate.

In the latest change earlier this year, it was revised back to the previous Article 7. Article 5 now states that in cases where no laws apply, an operation to resolve the issue should follow the traditional rule.

Abhisit said at a press briefing before Songkran that the convention of the Constitutional Court forming an ad-hoc committee could be too inflexible and could only decide on legal issues.

Such a committee was rigid and impractical and could not possibly solve any conflict. He said the stipulation to |follow the traditional rule was more open and could help better to resolve conflicts.

The resolving of a crisis depended more on the conflicting parties’ consensus, the Democrat leader said, adding the mechanism should be something flexible.

Apart from that, Abhisit said in the past Article 7 did not work because the powers-that-be would not give up power to pave the way for conflict resolution.

The openings for elderly workers were the result of a joint effort by the Department of Employment (DOE) and the Department of Skill Development (DSD).

DOE director-general Waranon Pitiwan said an employment centre for the elderly was set up at each DOE provincial office, plus Bangkok’s DOE Area Office 1-10, and at the Labour Ministry’s Smart Job Centre, as well as online via http://www.doe.go.th/elderly.

Some 2,570 seniors had registered for the job-seeking service from last August until March, he said, and 215 had so far landed positions. Most of the successful applicants have become production labourers, followed by maids, drivers and security guards. All these jobs generated Bt2.6 million per month or Bt31 million per year, he said.

As of March, employers confirmed 774 positions were available, with production labourers, general clerks, office staff, fishing workers and sales workers most in demand.

“Many elderly people are still healthy and strong to do jobs and they want independence, so the Labour Ministry has a plan for their vocational development while also promoting the private sector’s continuous employment of seniors. The ministry will match jobs to the applicants’ age range, work experience and |physical condition,” Waranon said.

The DOE has also hired 20 seniors at various DOE provincial offices and the Bangkok’s DOE Area Office 1-10, hoping other state agencies will follow its example. Elderly employees at the DOE provide vocational consultation services to job seekers and the general public.

The DSD head office also hired nine seniors as skill development experts, he said.

If more seniors were able to work, this could help lessen the labour shortage, Waranon said. He urged any business establishments or employers wishing to hire elderly people to contact any DOE centre or area office, or to the call the hotline 1694.