WITH THE NEW constitution to be promulgated tomorrow, the government has yet to spell out exactly when Thailand will hold new elections.

What is clear is that the government will continue to tightly control political parties after the new constitution takes effect, as the next election is expected to take place more than a year from now, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday.

According to the time frame specified in the new charter, up to 570 days will be required to complete the required organic laws.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday suggested that political parties would need to wait. “The security authorities will consider that. We also need to maintain order until elections,” he said.

His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn is expected to sign the charter tomorrow and hand it to Prayut in a royal ceremony to be held at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok.

At his weekly press briefing yesterday, Prayut reaffirmed that the ceremony would proceed as was announced in the Royal Gazette on Monday.

The ceremony is scheduled to be held at 3pm but the charter will be go into effect at 12.01am on the same day, he said, making it retroactively effective.

“Everything is prepared,” the premier said. “Whether it will go fast or slow, everything will follow the road map. I’m not going to say anything else.”

Prayut will explain the promulgation publicly tomorrow after the royal ceremony via |a TV pool address, according to assistant |government spokesperson Colonel Atisith Chainuvati.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam has specified how long the junta’s main bodies will continue to function, Government Spokesperson Lt-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said. The National Reform Steering Assembly will be dissolved after draft bills on national reforms and strategy are enacted within 120 days after the charter’s promulgation, Wissanu said.

The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) will be dissolved 15 days before the election. The Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC), meanwhile, will function until 10 organic laws are drafted with 240 days after the promulgation.

Sansern added that the government would still enact orders under the interim charter’s Article 44 as permitted by the new charter’s Article 265. Current government officials that want to compete in the election need to resign within 90 days after the promulgation, he added.

CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan |yesterday affirmed that the commission |would finish writing the 10 organic laws |within the 240-day time frame.

But Meechai said he was unsure exactly when the next general election would be held, adding that it would depend on when the organic laws are promulgated.

The chief drafter said the first four organic laws necessary for holding the next election were the political party, the Election Commission, the MP election and the senator selection laws. He said it would take 150 days for the next election to be held after those laws were enacted.

Meechai said he would submit the first two laws on the Election Commission and political parties to the NLA for deliberation by April 18. The NLA will then have 60 days to deliberate and approve them.

The CDC will then submit the other two key organic laws possibly in September, which means they will use almost the entire eight-month period allowed to draft the required laws.

Senior figures in the private sector yesterday said local capital markets would benefit from the imminent promulgation of the new constitution.

Stock Exchange of Thailand president Kesara Manchusree said yesterday that she believed the promulgation of the new constitution would help restore foreign investors’ confidence in Thailand, as the country was moving closer to the next general election.

“More capital is going to flow into the Thai stock market. Promulgation of the new constitution will help boost foreign investors’ confidence. Also, the strong Thai economy will help draw investment,” she said.

Worawan Tharapoom, president of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations, said yesterday that the promulgation of a new constitution indicated that the post-coup government was following the timeline in its promised road map for a return to democracy.

“The next election should take place a little over a year after this. At this time the government will have some time left to reform the country. And they should be able to help attract investments from businesses that have no courage to invest,” Worawan said.

She also said she was optimistic that the new charter would have a positive effect on the Thai stock market.

Pol Maj-General Apichart Bunsrirote, commander of Surat Thani provincial police, said the investigation into the death of Private Yuthkinan Boonniam, who was beaten to death inside the military camp compound, was progressing well and nearly completed.

“Five suspects are confirmed to be involved in the death of Private Yuthkinan according to the clear evidence from witnesses and surveillance camera records, thanks to the enthusiastic assistance from the 45th Military Circle,” Apichart said. “We are sure that we can bring justice for Private Yuthkinan’s family soon.”

It was reported that the five privates on the arrest warrants will be taken to Surat Thani Police Station.

Apichart said determining the cause of death was still underway, as police were questioning doctors about the autopsy results.

A preliminary autopsy found that Yuthkinan died from acute kidney failure as the result of severe injuries.

According to a NEW TV report, images of Yuthkinan’s injuries before he died were shared on a soldiers’ Line group. A video clip showed that he was ordered to lie outdoors on a bed covered by a thick blanket under the hot sun.

A chat session among Line group members said Yuthkinan had told other soldiers that he felt unwell and needed a rest, so he was “treated” to regain his health.

There was also a video clip from the morning of March 27 that showed Yuthkinan walking to the front gate of the camp looking normal and healthy. He was punished later that day before being hospitalised on March 31.

Yuthkinan’s mother Renu Mhodrakee said that despite the grief at losing her son, she was happy with the rapid progress in identifying suspects in the case.

But she also said she had not scheduled her son’s cremation ceremony because the case had not been concluded and the culprits had not been punished. In regards to compensation, Maj-General Wichai Thassan-amontian, commander of the Military Circle 45, said Army commander-in-chief General Chalermchai Sitthisa-ard had contributed Bt100,000 and the Military Circle 45 Bt20,000 for Yuthkinan’s family.

The Rights and Liberties Protection Department also gave Bt110,000 as compensation for the loss as well.

Two soldiers have reportedly been transferred to inactive posts – Lieutenant Thitikan Wejjasit, the acting commander of the military camp’s prison, and Sergeant Surachet Phrommas, the officer on duty.

THE PRESIDENT of Mahidol University, Udom Kachintorn, yesterday said the resignation of all 13 deputy rectors, following a request by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for a declaration of their assets, was a personal decision by each individual.

The 13 vice presidents, whose resignations were accepted on March 31, had just over a year to serve until their administration terms expired and another committee would be selected to replace them, Udom said.

They had been asked to serve as acting deputy rectors of Mahidonl initially for six months, to keep the university administration unaffected, he said.

Udom said many viewed the resignations as a protest against the NACC request, but the anti-graft agency was within its rights and if anyone thought it was unfair or felt uncomfortable about the situation, they had the right to resign.

He explained that the position of vice president is an academic role, in which a selected staff member serves in the university administration along with his or her normal teaching. When the term is up, the deputy rector would return to normal lecturing duties, he said.

It was unlike the deputy director-general positions at government departments or ministries, which people often misunderstood to be equivalent, he added.

The Royal Gazette had earlier published the NACC announcement requiring state officials, including those serving as deputy presidents at public universities or autonomous public universities, to declare their assets from April 3 to May 2.

The declaration of assets and debts is part of the three guidelines to tackle corruption in the public sector. The aim is to reduce the monopolisation of power by creating a supervising mechanism (such as a university council) to balance and check the use of power, to reduce the use of discretion by issuing rules and regulations for clear practice on various matters, and to create transparency and develop a mechanism for accountability.

Meanwhile, Mongkolkit Suksintharanon, secretary-general of the National Anti-Corruption Network (NACN), said he would today submit a request for the NACC to investigate the 13 Mahidol vice presidents who resigned.

He also said deputy rectors at 200 universities might quit their positions because of the NACC requirement for asset declarations.

Mongkolkit said the NACC was right to ask for public transparency on the assets of university vice presidents, before and after holding the positions.

“Some lecturers had unusual wealth because the Revenue Code allowed the income from education to be tax-exempted. This is a matter that should be proposed for law amendment so tax can be collected from the income earned from tutoring classes,” he said.

“Some university’s deputy rectors earn 20 times more salary than a prime minister. While a PM earns Bt120,000 a month in salary, a deputy rector earns Bt500,000 to Bt1 million, excluding more income from special curriculum courses. So the NACC is doing the right thing.”

If all current university executives resigned, the universities could find other qualified persons to replace them or hire professional administrators to do the jobs in exchange for a properly taxed salary, he added.

Mongkolkit said the NACC should also require school directors, holding C8 or C9 state official ranks, to disclose their assets.

The Army signed an agreement with China to procure the VT-4 tanks, which were produced by China North Industries Corporation last year, after a deal with a Ukraine manufacturer fell through. The VT-4s are also known as MBT-3000s.

This is the second batch of VT-4 tanks to be bought from China. Under the previous commander-in-chief General Teerachai Nakwanich, the Army purchased 28 VT-4 tanks while the current Army chief General Chalermchai Sitthisart bought additional tanks to form a cavalry battalion.

Another 11 vehicles will be delivered at a later date, said Prawit, the deputy prime minister in charge of security affairs.

The Army has been looking to buy 49 tanks to replace the M-41s it bought from the US in 1957. The plan did not prove feasible over the past few years due to problems with the delivery of T-84 Oplot tanks from Ukraine.

The military government last year decided to terminate the US$241-million (Bt8.3-billion) contract it signed with Ukraine’s state-owned Malyshev Factory for 49 T-84 ‘Oplot’ (Stronghold) MBTs in 2011, as the manufacturer failed to deliver on time.

Prawit said earlier that in the five years since the tank deal was signed, the Kharkiv-based Malyshev Factory provided the Army with about 20 T-84s, although the deadline was originally set for 2014.

The decision to purchase from China was due to price. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday said that price was one-third of that of military hardware from Western countries.

“If we buy from a Western country, we need to pay three times the price offered by a country in the East. So, from whom should we buy?” he said.

Prayut, himself a former Army chief, said that the quality of the |purchased weapons would have to meet the standards set by a military committee.

The Navy plan to buy submarines from China was not on the Cabinet agenda yesterday.

In January, the Cabinet approved Bt13.5 billion to buy a Chinese-made submarine and was considering the purchase of three more.

Although traditional water wars will be allowed along Silom Road, with traffic banned from noon to 10pm during the holiday, BMA governor Pol General Aswin Kwanmuang yesterday warned that too-loud music and dancing on the back of pickup trucks were prohibited.

The city will campaign for Songkran revellers to refrain from using high-pressure water guns, while urging people to save water.

Drinking alcohol, wearing too-revealing clothing and using powder to smear passers-by will also be discouraged, he said, following a meeting of city executives at City Hall in preparation for Songkran.

Aswin said the city, which has designated “Safety Songkran Zones” in all 50 districts including the famous Khao San Road site and Silom Road, would seek cooperation from event organisers and the public to refrain from certain activities.

He urged people to throw and spray water only within designated zones so as to not disturb others who did not want to join in the “water war”, including those coming to the Grand Palace to pay respects in front of the late HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s Royal Urn.

Aswin’s deputy Amnuay Nimmano and chief adviser Wanlop Suwandee would inspect various Songkran zones during the celebration period to ensure order, he said

Amnuay said he would today preside over a meeting at the Phra Nakhon District Office to bring all district offices hosting Songkran celebrations together to discuss their plans and related safety measures.

As the Songkran holiday period is notorious for increases in road accidents and casualties, the district offices will also be instructed to carry out alcohol and speed checks on transport van drivers.

The BMA will host the main traditional celebration at Khon Muang Plaza in front of City Hall from April 12 to 15.

The sacred Phra Buddha Sihing image will be brought from the National Museum on April 12 in a procession through the streets of old Bangkok to the plaza’s temporary shrine, so people can worship for good luck, before it is brought back to the museum on April 15.

Experts at a National Health Commission (NHC) seminar said on Monday that there might be an oversupply of doctors within the next 10 years, and called for a well-planned road map to solve problems. They also suggested that multidiscipline health promotion teams should be set up and measures taken to shift people’s attitudes to encourage them to proactively take care of their own health before seeking doctors’ attention.

NHC deputy secretary-general Dr Weerasak Putthasri said global changes would make the country’s healthcare human resources and service management more complicated and challenging in the next 20 years. He said a well-planned road map to support the ageing society should be in place and the inequity in health service access should be resolved.

Although Thailand exceeded the World Health Organisations recommended doctor ratio, the public perceived there was a shortage, which actually stemmed from the ineffectiveness in current management and staff distribution, Weerasak said. Despite the growth in numbers, doctors still were disproportionately based in big cities and large hospitals, leaving rural areas with not enough doctors, he said. “Policies and measures should be intensified to create equity between urban and rural communities. Healthcare personnel should understand the local context and speak the same language as the people there while being able to work in teams.

“The healthcare workforce isn’t just doctors and nurses, but also those working in health promotion and rehabilitation. They also have to work with local bodies in line with the Public Health Ministry’s Family Doctor Team and District Health Promotion policies,” he said.

Dr Thinnakorn Noree, a secretary of the National Health Workforce Committee’s sub-panel that is tasked with formulating labour planning recommendations for 2017-2026, said the sub-panel had set up 15 working teams to study human resources in nine professions: doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, medical technicians, physical therapists, public health professionals, Thai traditional healers and veterinarians.

“If the current manpower promotion continues, only a few professions will fall short in numbers, while some fields would be oversupplied in the next 10 years.

“Thailand in the past four decades has been trying to solve the doctor-nurse shortage by boosting quantity and this could lead to a new problem of having too many practitioners in some fields. For example, 69 universities are producing 14,000 to 15,000 graduates in the public health field per year,” he said. “The problem is manpower distribution, because there are more doctors in big hospitals than those in district-level facilities, while some provinces have too many doctors and some have not enough,” he said.

An efficient healthcare system in the next decade would boost people’s ability to care for themselves and strengthen primary health services, Thinnakorn said. Graduates should be taught to respond to people’s lifestyles, social context and health systems as well as be equipped with other necessary skills such as IT, he added.

Dr Krisada Sawaengdee, a senior researcher on healthcare labour policy, said people crowded big hospitals and sought medical attention even when it was not necessary, giving the impression of a shortage, although academic reports showed otherwise. The distribution of services in the form of near-home Family Doctor clinics for people to seek basic treatment would help solve the problem, he said.

As vice president of the Thailand Nursing Council, Krisada said the nursing shortage was due to the inability to keep nurses in the healthcare system, ineffective manpower distribution and the assignment of nurses to other tasks that affected their main duties.

According to Dr Prasitchai Mangchit, director of Saraburi’s Kaeng Khoi Hospital, people should proactively take care of their own health while communities, agencies and universities should provide accurate health information. He agreed that the issue of staff distribution must be solved.

The experts’ comments were made during an NHC-hosted seminar on the healthcare workforce on Monday at the NHC’s head office in Nonthaburi province.

The “Check Gorn Share” (Check before share) campaign is aimed at promoting analytical and critical thinking in the online community, as well as raising awareness of the societal damage caused by rash, irresponsible sharing of fake news.

The campaign is a collaboration between Rabbit’s Tale, Moonshot Digital and Creative Juice Bangkok, with support from private organisations including PTT, SCG, Siam Commercial Bank and the Thai Webmaster Association.

The move comes after the group realised that the spread of false or twisted information online could mislead the general public and cause them to incorrectly perceive a certain situation.

Recognising the impacts, members of the network – each an expert in its own field – joined forces to design an instrument, www.checkgornshare.com, to set some ethical standards pertaining to the sharing of information on social media and to improve the quality of the online community.

The website is simple to use. If anyone is not sure whether a piece of news they read is true or false, they can put a keyword or link in the search box, and the system will then verify the fact(s).

Sunard Thanasanaksorn, co-founder of Rabbit Digital Group, said the website had been created because they wanted it to be an instrument that elevates the quality of the Thai online community.

“It will encourage social-media users to utilise their technology in a more constructive and conscious way, while using their best judgment to fact-check the information they’re about to share. Eventually, they’ll help improve the whole online community,” he said.

Pongsuree Asanasen, chief executive officer of Creative Juice Bangkok, described “Check Gorn Share” as a cautionary tool for the Thai online community as well as a library, amassing and distributing many different fields of knowledge that will prove invaluable to society in the future.

Prasert Salinla-umpai, PTT executive vice president, Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility, said his company had developed a mobile application called PTT Insight to distribute reliable information pertaining to the energy sector.

“Our staff as well as the general public can always verify any information regarding the energy business there”, he added.

The team was alerted by owner of the kitten who lived in a housing estate in the district.

Sunee Parichart, 33, told the team that she had a mother cat who later delivered five kittens. About three days ago, a kitten went missing and she learned from a neighbour that he had seen the little cat being chased by a dog. On Tuesday, she heard meowing sounds in the drain and found the soaking-wet kitten there.

However, as they could not open the cement lid of the drain, they called in the rescue team, who eventually managed to save the kitten.

A neighbour asked Sunee if she could adopt the lucky cat but she turned down the offer, saying she would take care of it by herself.

Police received reports of the incident in front of the Great Glove factory on Si Sunthon road in Thalang at about 2am.

“We arrived at the scene to find a badly damaged pick-up truck. The 37-year-old driver, Maysa Tongjub, was still inside, with a bone sticking out from a wound on his right hand,” confirmed Capt Kraisorn Boonprasop of Thalang Police.

Mr Maysa had reportedly been celebrating his 37th birthday last night.

“We believe he was driving too fast and was unable to see the construction barriers on the road. We have sent him to Vachira Phuket Hospital for treatment and will administer a drug and alcohol test,” said the captain.

Mr Maysa was charged with reckless driving and causing property damage.