Democrat Party nominates Jurin as its prime minister candidate
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2023
The Democrat Party voted unanimously on Tuesday to nominate its leader, Jurin Laksanawisit, as the party’s sole prime ministerial candidate.
Democrat spokesman Rames Ratanachaweng said on Wednesday that the executive board held a meeting on Tuesday to select the party’s PM candidate.
Rames said Democrat secretary-general Chalermchai Srion nominated Jurin and the executives unanimously endorsed his candidature.
The Democrat Party will later inform the Election Commission of its choice of PM candidate when the EC begins the registration process.
Rames said Jurin is qualified to be the prime minister because he has long years of political experience in both the administration and legislature and has held several key positions, and he has integrity.
The spokesman added that the party has now lined up candidates to contest in 400 constituencies nationwide.
Jurin has been elected a Democrat MP 11 times – six times from Phang Nga and five times as a party-list MP.
He was earlier a party spokesman and became deputy leader in 2003.
He was elected Democrat leader on May 15, 2019 and has held the top position since then.
Before he became a deputy prime minister and commerce minster in Prayut Chan-o-cha’s Cabinet, he had served in five Cabinet positions: as deputy commerce minister, deputy agriculture minister, a PM’s Office minister, education minister, and public health minister.
Seven Thai political parties lay out ideas to provide a fillip to tourism
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023
Nongluck Ajanapanya
The representatives of seven Thai political parties shared similar ideas on reviving and improving the country’s tourism industry, by simplifying regulations, integrating education, lowering costs, and promoting sustainability.
The discussion was part of the 19th joint meeting of the Association of Thai Travel Agents on Tuesday. The goal was to offer updates on the travel and hotel business situation, discuss some challenges, and look for solutions among members.
Woraphop Viriyaroj from Move Forward Party, Sampan Panpat from Chartthaipattana Party, Thames Kraitat from Chart Pattana Kla Party, Sorathep Rojpotjanaruch from Thai Sang Thai Party, Pimrapee Phanwichatikul from Democrat Party, Jakkapon Tangsuttitham from Pheu Thai Party and Khemapol Auitayakul from Bhumjaithai Party were the panellists.
They unanimously agreed that the tourism industry is one of the critical engines driving Thailand’s economy. However, there is still work to be done to make the country the best in the world in the long run.
Each party’s tourism policy has some similarities. They informed the audience, who were mostly hotel and travel business owners and entrepreneurs, that the country’s tourism regulations are outdated and overly bureaucratic.
These regulations must be amended in collaboration with the private sector. The laws must be simplified for ease of access and to save time, they said.
Meanwhile, Thailand must improve its infrastructure throughout the country in order to receive millions of tourists each year, as well as find or create new products that will keep tourists returning to the country.
Woraphop of the Move Forward Party wants the government to decentralise power to local governors who understand what their communities require and which solutions are best for them.
Thames from the Chart Pattana Kla Party agreed with Woraphop. He noted that some well-known tourist destinations, such as his hometown Phuket, require a certain level of independence in order to make the best decision for them.
He believed that if each local community had some level of autonomy, they could discover their own identity. This will aid in attracting tourists to less-visited secondary cities.
Sampan from the Chartthaipattana Party added that his party’s goal was to uncover secondary cities’ hidden potential. This movement will support the goal of making the country a year-round tourist destination.
He also emphasised the importance of entrepreneurs being self-sufficient by establishing some kind of fund, such as an emergency fund, to help their business with liquidity in times of crisis. The fund could be derived from the taxes paid by businesses to the government.
Sorathep from the Thai Sang Thai Party called for the creation of a proper crisis management plan so that the government and the private sector can respond quickly if something like the Covid-19 pandemic occurs in the future.
He also mentioned finding new potential markets, such as the ageing market, to generate more revenue.
Pimrapee of the Democrat Party insisted on reforming the country’s tax collection system as well as business registration so that the government has all necessary data to draft policy.
The government’s job as a policymaker, however, is to make it easier for entrepreneurs to conduct business rather than to issue orders, she said.
Jakkapon from Pheu Thai Party said that in order to increase the overall capacity of the travel and hospitality industries, both the public and private sectors should adopt new innovations and technologies.
These technologies would help increase service capacity and security in addition to catering to the needs of today’s tourists, who are primarily tech-savvy.
Khemapol of the Bhumjaithai Party, whose party currently oversees the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, said that his party aims to step up cooperation between the public and private sectors to improve the tourism industry that would balance the needs of the nation, the business community, the people, and the environment.
Meanwhile, all parties agreed that looking for immigrants would only be a temporary solution given the current urgent need for workers in the industry.
They suggested working with universities and vocational schools to give students the chance to work as interns or while they are still in school in order to take long-term action.
They are also in favour of seriously implementing the Bio-Circular-Green economy model in the travel and tourism sector.
The tourism policy discussion comes in the run-up to the general election, tentatively scheduled for May, hoping that the new administration would help steer the nation clear of trouble.
British paper ‘FT’ lauds Prayut government over country’s economic performance
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023
The “Financial Times” has praised the Thai government for its effective economic management amid various crises, Facebook page “Lung Too Toon” said on Monday.
Citing an article published on Sunday in the British daily business newspaper, the FB page said the article praised the government’s expertise and responsibility in economic management, which had enabled Thailand to cope with various crises.
The article also called the baht the world’s most resilient currency, and Thailand as a country with low inflation, the FB page said.
“All thanks to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s management, focusing on mitigating the Covid-19 impact on the people and the economy as much as possible,” the page said.
The FB page said that Prayut had worked hard to help the Thai economy recover rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Many countries are facing difficulties in economic recovery, but Thailand has been praised by a world-class media outlet for economic management,” the FB page said, adding that it is an achievement for the Thai government.
The page also thanked Thai supporters for encouraging Prayut to overcome various crises.
Even though Thailand has been praised for effective economic management amid various crises since 1998 and the baht is the world’s most resilient currency, the “Financial Times” also pointed out the country’s defects.
“Thailand also has its flaws, including heavier household debt and a more rapidly ageing population than most of its peers,” the “Financial Times” said.
Including stateless ‘Thais’ in calculating electoral boundaries a new glitch for EC
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023
The Election Commission (EC) met on Monday to discuss the possibility of its new electoral boundaries being annulled by the Constitutional Court.
Concerns were sparked when the EC announced that it had based its electoral boundaries on the population census released by the Provincial Administration Department on December 31.
This census includes stateless people, who are considered “Thai” but do not have many legal rights and certainly not the right to vote.
The election watchdog was set to meet again on Tuesday, the day activist Srisuwan Janya plans to lodge a complaint with the Constitutional Court on the subject.
A source from the EC Office said many commissioners were worried that the election would hit technical problems if the court finds the drawing of new electoral boundaries unconstitutional.
The EC had announced earlier that it based the distribution of 400 House seats to 77 provinces on the population census as of December 31. The commission also insisted that the same method was used in previous elections as well.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, the government’s legal expert, had said earlier that stateless people cannot be included in the population census when distributing House seats. He pointed out that stateless people cannot vote after all.
Similar opinions were aired by Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, a former EC commissioner, who warned that the election watchdog would be held responsible if the court later rules that the counting of stateless people was unconstitutional.
The general election is tentatively scheduled to be held on May 7.
Ex-EC official ‘mishandled’ 2019 ballots cast by Thais in New Zealand
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2023
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) concluded that a former high-ranking Election Commission official had committed a severe disciplinary offence in his handling of election ballots from New Zealand in 2019.
The allegation against Nat Laosisawakul, former EC office deputy secretary-general who is now retired, was announced by NACC Office secretary-general Niwatchai Kasemmongkol on Monday.
Nat oversaw the March 23, 2019, general election. Niwatchai said the NACC reviewed the investigation report and decided that Nat failed to act within his responsibility and power to ensure that ballots cast by Thai expatriates in New Zealand reached the EC in time for counting.
Niwatchai said Nat knew since March 22 that the mailbag containing ballots from the Thai Embassy in Wellington may not be delivered in time for counting on the following night.
The NACC noted that Nat had been informed of the delay by his subordinates and other agencies, but did nothing to deal with the issue. He did not provide any advice or instructions to his subordinates either.
The NACC also noted that Nat had failed to hold an urgent meeting to address the issue and did not report the problem to his superior to come up with a solution in time.
The commission also noted that the mailbag arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport by 8.50pm, and though Nat knew this, he did not order any of his officials to rush to the airport to pick up the bag.
He also failed to inform his superior of the bag’s arrival and votes cast by Thais in New Zealand did not get included in the final count, NACC concluded.
The NACC pointed out that an election gives each Thai both inside and outside the country their constitutional right to vote. It also said that a very large budget is required to hold an election.
Hence, all officials overseeing the election should pay utmost attention to the task, the NACC said.
However, it said, Nat did not carry out his duty to solve or mitigate the impact of the damage caused by the delayed delivery.
As a result, the NACC concluded that Nat had committed a severe disciplinary offence by failing to observe the law and electoral regulations, resulting in severe damage to the EC Office.
Niwatchai said the NACC also concluded that the two Foreign Ministry officials investigated along with Nat were innocent because they had done everything within their power to have the diplomatic mailbag delivered to Thailand on time.
The NACC will next ask the EC Office to launch a disciplinary probe against Nat retroactively.
After the ballots were delayed, the then-EC secretary-general transferred Nat to the post of director of the Political and Election Development Institute on March 24, 2019.
On Monday, Nat said he had heard about the NACC’s decision against him from news reports, but was perplexed.
He said he had explained to the NACC that the issue was “force majeure” because the delay was caused by a logistics problem in New Zealand that he could do nothing about. He added that all sides had tried their best to have the diplomatic mailbag delivered in time but failed.
Democrat Party never took money from shady businesses, insists Jurin
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
Democrat Party leader Jurin Laksanawisit insisted on Sunday that his party never received funding from an online gambling website even though a suspected founder of the site was a party candidate in 2019.
Jurin, who is also commerce minister, was referring to the macau888 website, which was shut down by police after an actress exposed its illegal activities.
A suspected founder of the site, Ekachai Khajonboonthavorn, was No 48 in the Democrat Party’s list of 150 party-list candidates for the 2019 general election. He was never elected.
On Saturday, Democrat spokesman Ramate Rattanachaweng said Ekachai has quit the party “for some time already”.
“The Democrat Party does not promote or support any illegal activities because it adheres to the rule of the law. If anyone violates the law, the party will support legal action against him or her to the fullest extent,” Jurin said.
Jurin was speaking to reporters when he announced the party’s election campaign policies at the party’s head office.
He said the Democrat Party would field candidates in all 400 constituencies across the country and would announce its candidates for Bangkok within this month. Jurin added that the party will hold its first rally in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district later this month.
Coalition whips ask MPs to attend final showdown in Parliament
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
A deputy chief whip of the coalition on Sunday urged all parties in the ruling coalition to ensure their MPs attend this week’s general debate in Parliament in full force, and do not exit the debate before ministers in the ruling coalition can respond in full to the viscous attacks expected.
Coalition partners should not try to force the debate scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday to collapse by encouraging their MPs not to attend the full debate so that a quorum remains for the government to respond, said Democrat Party MP Chinnaworn Boonyakiat, a deputy chief of the government coordinating committee on parliamentary affairs.
Chinnaworn was commenting on speculation that the Bhumjaithai Party, a key coalition partner, would allow the opposition to grill the government and then have its MPs exit the debate to prevent the government from responding to all allegations against it.
The Bhumjaithai Party is known for its habit of switching to the winning side and is expected to become a member of a Pheu Thai Party-led coalition after the next election, tentatively scheduled for May 7.
Pheu Thai will win the election in a landslide, polls indicate.
The opposition requested and was granted a general debate against the government.
It says it wants to “unmask” Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Prayut is described by his followers as a good man.
On Saturday, the opposition announced it has prepared 12 issues to expose Prayut and his ministers, and to batter and bloody the government ahead of the election.
If the debate collapses due to a lack of quorum, the opposition will use this as powerful ammunition to attack the government during its election campaign, Chinnaworn said.
“The government will suffer more. We know what the opposition’s goal is, so all [coalition] parties should cooperate,” Chinnaworn said.
When asked to comment on the speculation that the Bhumjaithai would prevent government ministers from responding to criticism by ensuring not enough MPs are present to meet quorum, Chinnaworn said he had been assured by the Bhumjaithai and Palang Pracharath parties that their MPs would attend the debate in full.
He was assured by Bhumjaithai spokesman Paradorn Prissanananthakul that its MPs would be present to allow ministers, including the prime minister, to respond to what are expected to be vicious attacks.
Prayut beats Paetongtarn for PM in poll of Nakhon Si Thammarat voters
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2023
Most voters in the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat prefer Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha as the next premier, the latest poll by the National Institute of Development Administration found.
Prayut was preferred by 29.08% of the 1,310 eligible voters in the province the institute surveyed by telephone from February 3 to 8.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, however, was not far behind. The likely prime minister candidate for the Phue Thai party came second with support from 21.07% of the respondents.
The poll released on Sunday listed the top 10 picks by eligible voters in the province for the next premier. After Prayut and Paetongtarn respondents said:
– 10.53%: Still undecided
– 8.93%: Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat
– 7.33%: Democrat Party leader Jurin Laksanawisit
– 5.27%: Seri Ruam Thai Party leader Pol General Seri Temeeyaves
– 4.66%: Chart Pattanakla Party leader Korn Chatikavanij
– 3.44%: Bhumjaithai Party leader and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul
– 3.36%: Thai Sang Thai Party leader Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan
– 1.15%: Pheu Thai Party leader Cholnan Srikaew.
This poll was only the second conducted by the institute this year and last year in which Prayut, who will become the prime ministerial candidate of the United Thai Nation Party, beat Paetongtarn, the youngest daughter of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Surveys by the institute last year found Paetongtarn was the most popular choice for premier nationwide. Most regional surveys also put her on top. However, Prayut was more popular than her in a survey of voters in the South, while Pita was the top choice in a survey of Bangkok voters.
When asked which party they would select in constituency-based voting, those surveyed in Nakhon Si Thammarat replied:
– 22.29%: Democrat
– 21.68%: Pheu Thai
– 21.22%: United Thai Nation
– 9.16%: Move Forward
– 6.41%: Undecided
– 4.50%: Bhumjaithai
– 3.82%: Seri Ruam Thai
– 3.36%: Chart Pattanakla
– 3.13%: Palang Pracharath
– 1.45%: Thai Sang Thai
For party-list voting, Pheu Thai became the most popular choice, followed by the Democrats:
Thais warned of tsunami of fake news as election approaches
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2023
Farida Waller
Preventing online manipulation and the tsunami of fake news in the run-up to an election is urgent and necessary to protect democracy and peace, speakers at a conference on Friday agreed.
“Disinformation is one of the biggest challenges in democracy. It is a right-now problem, and we need to reform the media system to defend democracy,” said political scientist Cleve Arguelles.
Disinformation manipulates public opinion especially during elections, said Arguelles, who lectures at De La Salle University Manila.
He called for a systematic strategy to make society resilient to misinformation.
Fellow academic Yvonne Chua agreed, saying: “We can’t dismantle [misinformation] overnight, but it’s important not to give up.”
Chua, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of the Philippines, said it is up to citizens to ask themselves what they can do “to face the enemy of misinformation”.
The conference’s goal was to inform Thai citizens about the impact online manipulation had on the last election in the Philippines, which researchers say was swayed by social media accounts, many of which were fake.
It was organised by CoFact, The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, ChangeFusion, and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
“Manipulation systematically deploys a strategy, and for a large portion [of the population] it has become acceptable,” said Moritz Kleine-Brockhoff, head of The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Southeast and East Asia.
Kleine-Brockhoff said the multitude of communication channels that exist now, and the tsunami of fake news, make it more difficult to decide what to believe.
CoFact co-founder Supinya Klangnarong urged everyone to investigate and verify information.
Chua noted that extensive studies globally found that 70% of people are aware that they are being exposed to misinformation. The number rises to 90% in the Philippines and the most common fake news there is political, she said.
She and Arguelles agreed that education is vital to prevent people from falling victim to disinformation. Social media and video-based platforms like TikTok make it harder to fact-check information, they added.
Chua co-created the first fact-checking project in the Philippines (Tsek.ph). It has weekly fake news updates and quizzes for the public.
Jason Gonzales, director of the Liberal Party of the Philippines, said Facebook remains the main platform for misinformation. It generated 67 million interactions during last year’s elections in the Philippines, Gonzales said.
“Visual formats are the hardest to track down,” he added.
Stithorn Thananithichot, director of the Office of Innovation for Democracy at King Prajadhipok’s Institute, said: “It is our duty to take precautions and alert others [to disinformation].”
Michael Vatikiotis, senior advisor at The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue explained the need for context and education to facilitate dialogue. “More active teaching of the recent past to the public, young voters, and younger politicians is needed,” he said.
Narrative is more important than facts because it conveys context and meaning, several speakers agreed. “If people have a story and narrative, they can make their minds up,” Vatikiotis said.
Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, who leads Thailand’s Monitoring Centre on Organised Violence Events, cast some doubt on the conference’s validity, saying: “It is near impossible to compare Thailand to the Philippines.”
However, she added, information warfare is common during elections and it targets specific groups.
“Peace needs to be the campaign that everyone respects,” Janjira said.
Every Thai party has financiers with shady businesses: ex-EC member
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2023
Former election commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said on Saturday that it was “natural” for Thai political parties to be financed by owners of “shady” businesses.
He said many of these people became election candidates of parties to which they made donations, mostly contesting for party-list MP seats.
Somchai, now a key member of the opposition Seree Ruam Thai Party, said that party-list candidates often come from three groups of people in the political party – senior party executives, technocrats and experts, and financiers.
“If these financiers donate a lot of money, they have a good chance of being among the top party-list candidates. They hope to get political protection,” he said.
Somchai served as a member of the Election Commission (EC) between December 2013 and March 2018.
He also noted that the law does not clearly prohibit donations from party financiers, who may have shady businesses. Though it is against the law for political parties to accept donations from illegal sources, these people can exploit loopholes, he added.
“It is natural for every political party – not just the Democrat Party – to have financiers like this,” said Somchai, who was a member of the coalition party before branching out on his own.
On Friday, the Democrat Party insisted that its former election candidate Ekachai Khajonboonthavorn, suspected of being involved in an illegal online gambling business, has left the party.
Democrat spokesman Ramate Rattanachaweng said Ekachai contested the 2019 general election as a party-list candidate but has quit the party “for some time already”.
The spokesman also said that nothing out of the ordinary popped up when Ekachai’s background and qualifications were being checked ahead of the elections.
“There were no legal problems that would prohibit the person in question from contesting in the election. The party took the usual steps prescribed by law,” the spokesman said.
He added that the Democrat Party has a clear policy of not supporting any illegal activities like online gambling, and maintained that the party does not accept financial support from those involved in underground businesses.
He was earlier a party spokesman and became deputy leader in 2003.
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