Science and Technology Minister Suvit Maesincee expressed hope that the merger would be completed by the end of this government’s term but the Education Ministry suggested the process may take more time due to the need for more public hearings.

Suvit said the new Research and Higher Education Ministry would be responsible for the consolidation of all research universities and related institutes in order to better prepare human resources for the country’s future development programmes, while helping tech start-ups and small and medium enterprises to leverage the use of new technologies.

The new ministry would also be responsible for helping Thai farmers use new technologies so that they become “smart farmers”, he said, adding that the country was also promoting the new growth or S-Curve industries so manpower and technology were crucial factors of success.

Previously, there were rumours that the Science and Technology Ministry would be dissolved but Suvit said the ministry would instead be merged with the Higher Education Commission and other agencies such as the National Research Council of Thailand and Thailand Research Fund.

The restructuring of these agencies is part of the government’s bureaucratic reform agenda covering the next 20 years and its “Thailand 4.0” initiative.

In the meantime, the Education Ministry is preparing to split the Office of Higher Education Commission as a separate entity so that the country’s higher-educational institutes can deliver better results on facilitating the “Thailand 4.0” initiative.

Under the proposed Research and Higher Education Ministry, all budgets for social and natural scientific research will be integrated in connection with foreign countries’ cooperation, while a new model similar to that of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will be adopted to focus on research and development for satellites, astronomy, nuclear physics and other crucial fields.

The National Science and Technology Development Agency, the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand and; Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency will be under the new ministry’s umbrella.

In addition, research universities and other higher educational institutes will be supervised by the new ministry, which will also oversee nationwide campuses of Rajabhat University.

Suvit said he would discuss with PM’s Office Minister Kobsak Pootrakul to set up a working group on merging the Science and Technology Ministry with the Office of Higher Education Commission and related agencies.

Deputy Education Minister Udom Kachintorn said there had been discussions on the merger but it would likely take more time to create an understanding among all stakeholders concerned. As a result, it remained unclear if the merger could be completed within the next eight months before the election, which would take place early next year.

THE Education Ministry has defused a dress-code row at a school in Pattani province by giving the green light for Muslim students there to wear the hijab and long trousers in line with their religious rules.

Starting today, Muslim students at the Anuban Pattani School can wear hijab and long trousers.

“It’s just that they also must respect school rules by wearing only the colours allowed by the school. For example, hijab should be in white colour or the colour of their uniform skirt,” Deputy Education Minister Lt-General Surachet Chaiwong said yesterday.

During the past week, tension was rising at the Anuban Pattani School over what Muslim students should wear. About 20 teachers went on leave amid the standoff.

Although the school is located in the predominantly Muslim province, its students had never worn Islamic dress to class until last week. Some students, backed by their parents and the Muslim for Peace Foundation, reported to the new semester wearing hijab and long trousers.

The school initially expressed acceptance but later backtracked.

On May 16, the school’s director Prajak Chusri said the school would have no objection if students came to class in Muslim-style clothes. But two days later, the school’s committee convened a meeting and shot down the suggestion that Muslim students should be able to dress in accordance with religious rules.

Parents and human-rights activists, however, have refused to give up. They have vowed to take the case further to defend students’ rights.

Before the row could escalate further, the secretary-general of the Office of Basic Education Commission, Boonrux Yodpheth, met with the executives of Pattani’s Primary Educational Service Area 1 Office yesterday and concluded that students at the Anuban Pattani School would be able to dress in accordance with their religious beliefs.

Normally, the school’s dress code does not include a hijab and long trousers.

A source said the exclusion was very likely because the school was built on a plot of land belonging to a temple and thus had to comply with the temple’s rules.

A parent said if her daughters were not allowed to wear the hijab, she would fight further.

“This is because I know wearing a hijab does not violate the Education Ministry’s regulations or laws,” this mother said.

Another parent said the Anuban Pattani School was very good except for the dress code.

“My first child studied here and he could not wear Muslim clothes to school,” she said. “Now, my youngest child is in its Prathom 4 class. I hope there will be some changes so that he can dress based on his religious beliefs. I have never had the courage to speak up until now, or until I met some parents who are willing to stand up and defend the rights of their children.”

“We organise such activities in order to inculcate a love for nature in children,” department official Jiraporn Meewassana said, as she guided dozens of students to examine various plants and collect fallen seeds along the way.

The spot is near the controversial site where construction of court officials’ residences is still ongoing. The structures, however, will be left unused as it has already been agreed that the Court of Appeals Region 5 will get another location to construct residences for its officials.

The agreement was reached early this month following protests by environmentalists and local people.

They were unhappy that the structures, whose constructions are almost complete, have apparently eaten into green zones.

The Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest, which played a key role in the protests against the structures, joined Sunday’s activities.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which owns the building and the site, has indicated it will allow the non-profit BACC Foundation to run the centre until its current contract expires in 2021, but Aswin has offered no guarantees about what happens then.

And the foundation, for the first time, received no funding at all from the city this year, leaving it with only Bt20 million – insufficient to continue operations through next year should the city fail to provide support again.

Aswin has assigned the Office of Culture, Sport and Tourism to discuss further funding with the centre’s directors, but the budget has been a grave concern for the last three years, for both the foundation and the Artists Network for a Free BACC.

BACC director Pawit Mahasarinand, who is also The Nation’s theatre critic, suggests the budgeting crisis runs deeper than do worries about a city take-over.

“Now that people including Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who appointed the governor, have voiced their opposition online to the BMA’s proposal to immediately take over the BACC … isn’t it time to change the campaign hashtag from #freebacc to #savebacc?” he asked.

“The fact most people don’t know yet is that in this fiscal year ending on September 30, our budget is with the BMA’s Office of Culture, Sports and Tourism. We’re past mid-May now and we haven’t been able to get anything, except for covering electricity and water, invoices for which are being sent directly to the BMA.”

Pawit said the centre is currently operating on “savings” from the past 10 years, but that money is disappearing fast “because we want to keep all activities running as planned. We’d like everyone to feel that, notwithstanding this problem, it’s still #yourbacc.”

Since it opened in 2008, the Bt509-million culture centre has been a platform for sharing creative ideas. “It’s a public centre where people from all walks of life can enjoy freedom of expression,” said Artists Network leader Chumpol Apisuk. “The BMA doesn’t understand that its role is to support and fund the centre.”

His group – backed by more than 500 other artists and civil society activists – lobbied Prayut last week over the centre’s future. Many of those participating in the effort were the same people who had pushed previous Bangkok governors to get the long-promised, long-delayed facility finally built. Planning began in 1994, but political shifts spanning the terms of three governors meant it wasn’t finished until 2008.

Since it’s an art centre, people directly involved in the arts question the management skills of the BMA bureaucrats. The Artists Network has suggested the foundation press Aswin for long-term solutions regarding management.

The group also has three other requests, Chumpol said.

“We’ve asked the BMA to extend the foundation’s contract to manage the centre immediately without any conditions, to ensure sustainable management by resolving legal difficulties in funding, and to let us help the governor select members for the BACC board and committees.” Pawit noted that the Singapore Art Museum had total expenses last year equivalent to Bt466.9 million and the government covered Bt296.4 million (63 per cent) of that. The BACC spent Bt75.8 million last year and received Bt45 million from the city (59 per cent).

And yet more people visit the BACC every year than the Singapore museum, thanks in large part to its greater variety in programmes, ranging from dance, theatre and music to film and literature. “Last year 1.7 million people visited the art centre, of whom 35 per cent were students,” Pawit said.

He suggested a new model for its management. “It’s universally known that PPP – public-private partnership – is the way forward for cultural management, because it means more efficiency and transparency and more independence from political influence or even interference.”

Local artists, connoisseurs and private firms have contributed money to help keep the centre going. Among them are Natee Utarit, history professor Neungreudee Lohapon and B-Grimm Co. There’ll also be a 10th-anniversary “#yourbacc” campaign with fundraising events and discussions on the centre’s fate.

“The BACC belongs to the people of all of Thailand, so a keyword for the anniversary is ‘inclusiveness’, and #yourbacc reflects this,” Pawit said.

“We’ll address issues we haven’t. We’ll make sure that those who haven’t visited BACC do so and come back again soon. We’ll take risks, artistically, with more interdisciplinary works. We’ll make sure visitors step out of their comfort zones and experience arts in genres they’re not yet familiar with. We’ll prove that the foundation’s contract is worth extending.”

IT WAS AROUND 10 in the morning. There was peace and tranquility at Maya Bay and its beach with just a few speedboats docking in front of the bay. The crystal clear deep blue turquoise sea water filled the vision of Plianprasop Khaonual, a long-time park ranger and among the first who explored the bay’s potential after the Hollywood film, the Beach, was shot here, and rocketed the bay to worldwide fame since 2000.

Within another half an hour, the crystal clear waters were dotted with an increasing number of speedboats transporting tourists to the bay. Soon the place was crowded with tourists, mostly foreigners, jumping off the boats and roaming the 3-rai (0.48-hectare) beachfront.

“It has changed a lot and degraded extensively,” said Plianprasop.

Maya Bay is the tourist magnet of Had Nopparat Tara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park. Portrayed as a remote location, the hideaway of a young backpacker Richard, starring Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio, Maya Bay has been trampled on by tourists non-stop for nearly 20 years. Its ecosystem has become degraded, prompting a wake-up call for concerned authorities to take a serious look at the impact of tourism there.

The National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation Department, which oversees national parks nationwide, eventually decided to close the bay to pave the way for rehabilitation and to start a major face-lift for tourism there.

Courtesy of DNP

The agreement

For more than two years, Wutthisak Thongkerd, a business operator and a chairman of the two-year-old Phitak Phi Phi (Protecting Phi Phi) group, has felt the pinch of tourism’s impact on the bay and other tourist locations nearby.

The group, comprising business operators and community members of Phi Phi island, decided to discuss and gather views on the issue. In consultation with the park advisory committee, of which Wutthisak is also a member, the group decided to forward their consensus decision to close the bay to the park and the department for consideration.

In consultation with the marine resources and national parks advisory committee, the National Parks Department decided to issue an order to close the bay from June 1 to September 30 to make way for rehabilitation and a face-lift for tourism that is expected to serve as a model for other marine parks faced with a similar burden.

“The bay needs some rest,” said Wutthisak. “Tourism brings positive things, but also negative ones. If we don’t limit the activity, it would cause damage beyond repair. Our income would be affected a little bit, but we rather wish to have income generated in the long term, not ruined for ever.”

Tourism waves

Being probably Thailand’s most popular marine spot, Maya receives as many as 4,000 tourists and around 200 boats a day, and most ecologists agree those numbers are beyond the bay’s capacity to accommodate.

This year, it is expected that around 5 million tourists would visit Maya and the park, as well as the other two marine parks nearby – Similan and the Ao Phang-nga.

Still, tourism is a key driver of the country’s economic growth as seen in the latest 20-year national strategy, with income generated from the sector accounting for 20 per cent of the country’s GDP, according to Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine ecologist, and a member of the national strategy committee on sustainable growth, and of the national reform committee on the environment and natural resources.

This year, tourism is expected to bring in around Bt3.3 trillion and 40 million tourists, 80 per cent of whom would visit popular marine parks, Thon noted, suggesting the impacts that can be projected.

As the impacts on Maya have been felt, concerned parties have reached a consensus to curb tourism impacts on Thai marine parks. Maya is the first to undergo a radical facelift, an action Thon called a big bang.

Wounds

Plianprasop managed to make his way through the crowd and walked deeper into the island of 18 rai. There he saw the beach forest degraded, with the roots of several trees left exposed, due to excessive strolls over the sandy floor. The floor and the beach have become packed due to excessive access to the fragile ecosystems, but what is more worrying is the damage done to coral reefs under the water.

According to a recent survey by the department’s Marine National Parks Operation Centre 3, the reef flats extending over nearly 30 rai of the 59 rai of the bay have become seriously degraded, while the reef edge has been moderately degraded. Broken corals and fragments were found extensively on the sea floor.

Tourist boats passing in and out the bay were largely to blame for the damage as they gathered sand from the beaches and dropped them over the corals while moving, causing their destruction. The boat anchors were also responsible for damaged corals when they were dropped into the sea to help dock the boats.

“All the problems follow tourism activities here, which have been aggravated by the growing number of tourists. If we don’t stop and start rehabilitating the place, I’m afraid that its tourism potential |would collapse,” said Jongklai Worapongsathorn, the department’s deputy chief.

Healing

At the beach front, the Marine National Parks Operation Centre 3 head, Supaporn Prempree, is busy instructing her staff to replant corals expected to be returned to the sea off Maya once they become strong enough.

One after another, tips of branches of broken corals collected from the bay and nearby are cut off before being attached to rocks so that they would grow on them later.

Coral propagation is the first and foremost rehabilitation task taken up ahead of schedule. It’s expected that by the end of the bay closure in September, at least 2,000 coral tips would be replanted and regrown in Maya’s waters.

The department’s National Parks Office director, Songtham Suksawang, said other ecosystems of the bay including the beach forest would be studied to help address the impacts as well as find solutions.

Last but not least is a new tourism management approach for the bay. The department has currently hired some universities to help study the carrying capacity of the bay. It’s roughly calculated that 2,000 tourists and 100 boats a day is all that the bay can take.

To curb the impacts to tourism, access to the bay would be shifted to the back of the island, where a new aluminium and quality plastic-based pier and bridge would be built. Tourist numbers and transport boats will also be cut to half of the present figure if confirmed by the study, while an e-ticketing system will be introduced to help handle tourist demand.

Through the new approach, the place will have a greater chance to withstand the impacts, while pressure from tourism would be better managed by moving tourists to less-crowded spots, or second-tier destinations.

“Today, if we don’t close the bay and rehabilitate it, the damage would become irreparable in the future,” said Songtham.

As a marine ecologist and reformer, Thon has lauded the department’s action and said it marked a starting point for reform on marine resources management in the country.

“The action is like a big bang. This is a turning point. We are saying we will prioritise the health of our environment and natural resources ahead of income. This is reform,” said Thon.

BOX: Bringing corals back to life

AT THE BEACH front, the Marine National Parks Operation Centre 3’s head, Supaporn Prempree was busy instructing her staff on the technique of replanting corals to be returned to the sea off Maya Bay once they become strong enough.

It’s a coral propagation technique commonly applied to reintroduce damaged corals back to the sea.

Broken pieces of live coral were collected from the front of the bay and nearby, along with rocks that will provide the base for the replanted corals. The coral pieces are kept covered in seawater to keep them alive.

Tips are then cut off from branches of broken coral, and the tips attached by glue to the rocks, awaiting a spurt of growth. A few drops of catalyst are required to help solidify the attachment process and protect against disease.

One rock can carry two to three coral tips. The rocks are then tagged and sent to a nursery ground at the front of the bay. There they will be checked weekly for parasites and diseases, and isolated if found to be infected.

Only those free of any diseases will be returned to their grounds. “We plan to reintroduce at least 2,000 coral tips to Maya in the next four months,” said Supaporn. “We’re hopeful.”

Fisheries Department and Marine and Coastal Resources Department yesterday promised to take swift action against the captains of Saeng Samut 2 and Saeng Samut 3 trawlers, for their alleged violation of the Fisheries Decree and Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act by catching a whale shark.

A tourist dive boat on Friday found the trawler Saeng Samut 3 carried on-board a whale shark, which later was found to be pregnant. A video clip, which has been widely shared on social media, showed that after being pressured to release the shark, the fishermen used a crane to pick it up and push it over the vessel to dump it back to the sea.

The witnesses aboard the dive boat said the mother shark was badly injured and her unborn shark baby was seen falling out of the mother’s belly. It is unclear whether the sharks survived.

Fisheries Department director-general Adisorn Promthep said that based on the report of the event, officers had inspected the vessels after they tied up at the Phae Saeng Arun Phuket fishing pier and determined the identities of the trawler captains, Somsamai Meechom and Rattana Phromngam.

The officers have filed complaints with the police against Somsamai, Rattana and other suspects, asking that they be charged with catching a whale shark and bringing it on-board, which is a violation of Article 66 of Fisheries Decree, Adisorn said.

“The offenders under this charge are subject to punishment of a Bt300,000 to Bt3 million fine, while the fishing licences for these vessels would be revoked and they are also permanently banned from applying for a new fishing licence,” he said.

“Currently, the officers have already seized the trawlers and confiscated catches and fishing equipment, and if the vessels are found to have been used in a serious crime as per the Fisheries Decree, the court can order confiscation of the vessels as well.”

Marine and Coastal Resources Department director-general Jatuporn Buruphat said the vessels’ location data from Port In–Port Out (PIPO) Control Centres in Phuket showed that the pair of trawlers did not fish in a restricted area.

However, from the clear evidence of a whale shark having been caught, they not only violated the Fisheries Decree, but also the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act, since whale sharks are on the list of protected animal. The suspects are thus open to a four-year imprisonment and a Bt40,000 fine if convicted, Jatuporn said.

“Our agency has the power to file a complaint on the offence of killing a protected animal, and as of now I have ordered the officers to gather all evidence to sue this case with the police,” he said.

He also said that the team of officers from Marine and Coastal Resources Department was working with the navy to search for the whale shark, while he will go to Phuket to carry out an inspection on the issue himself.

Somsamai, the captain of Saeng Samut 3, said his trawler caught a very heavy marine animal, while fishing off the coast of Phuket on Friday afternoon, but they did not know that it was a whale shark, so the workers brought in aboard the vessel.

“After we found that it was actually a whale shark, we were trying to return it back to the sea. But it was too heavy to carry, so we had to use a crane to pick it up,” Somsamai said.

“We all know that catching a whale shark is a criminal offence, but we caught it by accident and did not intend to harm it.”

The whale shark is the world largest fish. It is harmless to humans, and consumes only plankton.

The status of whale sharks around the world has raised concern as their numbers rapidly dwindle. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List and it is internationally protected under CITES.

Banjong Nasae, Thai Sea Watch Association president, said it was not the first time trawlers had caught rare marine animals out at sea, and this incident clearly showed that trawlers are destructive to the marine ecosystem and need to be more tightly controlled.

Banjong said that if no one had noticed that this trawler carried a whale shark, there was the possibility that the crew would not have returned it to the sea but instead sold it in the market as many parts of a whale shark are valuable.

“It is clear that our regulations to monitor fishing activities of trawlers are still weak and allow these destructive fishing vessels to cause damage to the ocean’s ecosystem, so stricter control on trawlers is required to make sure that our fishing industry will be sustainable,” Banjong said.