The iconic Si Sao Thewes residence, a long-time home of General Prem Tinsulanonda, is now no more than a pile of debris.
It was returned to the Army and demolition began soon after General Prem’s funeral rites were completed. The Army had handed the property over to the Crown Property Bureau.
All that is remaining of the legendary structure are some trees and walls.
The house, located on Si Ayutthaya Road in Bangkok’s Dusit district, had hosted many dignitaries while Prem was alive. The late statesman also often had his associates join him for breakfast at his home.
Prem, a former premier and Privy Council president, died from heart failure at the age of 98 on May 26, 2019.
The Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) reported five new confirmed cases in state quarantine over a 24-hour period on Tuesday (September 22).
All five cases were asymptomatic.
The patients included a family of three – 7-month-old child, 30-year-old mother and 36-year-old father – who tested positive on Saturday. They had arrived from India on September 16 and gone into alternative state quarantine in Bangkok.
The fourth was a 62-year-old Indian businessman who arrived in Bangkok on September 16 and went into alternative state quarantine.
The fifth case was a 44-year-old returnee from Switzerland, who landed in Thailand on September 16 and is being quarantined in Chonburi.
Meanwhile, one person has fully recovered and discharged from hospital.
The total number of confirmed cases in Thailand has risen to 3,511 (573 in state quarantine), 109 of whom are in hospital and 3,343 have recovered. The death toll remains unchanged at 59.
According to CCSA, Thailand has conducted RT-PCR tests on 948,161 people, which works out to be 14,237 samples per one million people, of whom 0.37 per cent tested positive. Half of the tests were conducted by private hospitals and the other half by state hospitals and public health agencies.
According to Worldometer, as of 10am on Tuesday, the total number of confirmed cases worldwide had risen by 230,853 to 31.48 million. Of them, 23.1 million have fully recovered, 61,808 are in severe condition, 7.4 million are in hospital and 969,290 have died.
Thailand ranks 134th in terms of the number of cases in the world, while US leads the list with 7 million, followed by India 5.56 million, Brazil 4.56 million, Russia 1.1 million and Peru 772,896.
The baht on Tuesday morning opened at 31.27 per US dollar, weakening from 31.23 at close on Monday.
The baht this week will likely move between 31.20 and 31.40, said Poon Panichpibool, Krungthai’s markets strategist.
He said the baht had weakened from an increase in the dollar index, after the market was in risk-off state due to fears of a second wave of Covid-19 and the conflict between the US and China.
An important issue which the market is monitoring is revelations of suspicious transactions by several banks around the world, including four Thai banks.
The risk-off situation in the market prompted investors to sell off their risk assets, especially those related to EU banks, weakening both the pound and the euro.
The strategist expected that an investment on Tuesday would still cover those aforementioned concerns. However, the purchasing managers indexes of both the US and the EU announced on Wednesday will be a factor in changing the market’s atmosphere.
Pheu Thai Party’s chief strategist Sudarat Keyuraphan has urged the government to quickly solve the problem arising from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) cancelling service contracts with 64 clinics and hospitals in Bangkok for alleged overbilling.
The NHSO move affects more than 800,000 people who would no longer be able to use their gold cards to receive treatment at those health centres.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Sudarat said: “This campaign was initiated by the Thaksin Shinawatra administration when I was among the founding members of the Thai Rak Thai Party that won the 2001 national election. Dr Sanguan Nittayaramphong came up with the idea and he and Thaksin eventually came up with the ‘Bt30 Health Care’ scheme, which aimed to provide affordable medical treatment to all people.
“I still remember Thaksin’s words the day he appointed me to spearhead the Bt30 Health Care project 19 years ago. ‘This campaign is hard, but I want to make it a reality to ensure better health for all Thais through affordable healthcare that won’t push them into debt, ultimately reducing the economic disparity in Thai society’,” she added.
“For years this campaign has helped many Thais from fatal illnesses by providing equal access to quality medical services,” she said. “Unfortunately, later governments lacked an understanding of this project which led to failure in management. They have used centralised administration instead of disbursing the budget to local hospitals, resulting in poorer service quality and years of corruption by government officials.”
Sudarat added that the government must quickly eliminate corruption within the healthcare campaign, which had been renamed to gold card scheme, before it puts further burden on more than 800,000 people.
“The NHSO tried to solve the problem by urging affected patients to use services of state hospitals instead, which is irresponsible and shows that they have no contingency plan, as those state hospitals are mostly at full capacity and patients have to wait longer to receive treatment,” she said. “This also puts an extra burden on doctors and nurses who have to take care of more patients than they can handle. It is a problem that needs immediate fixing,” she added.
An Immigration Police officer has surrendered to police over the murder of a woman, who was shot dead in a temple in the Bang Khae district of Bangkok on Monday morning.
Four 9mm bullets were fired at the head of Linlada Phattanphan, 39, inside the temple. One of the witnesses reportedly said that a woman, who looked like a tomboy aged around 35-40 years, covering her face with a cap, came behind Linlada and shot her from close range.
CCTV footage showed the alleged shooter arriving at the temple in a black seven-seater car at 5.35am and fleeing the scene shortly after the shooting in the same vehicle.
Phasi Charoen station police said that later the same day a female police lance corporal, who was a unit commander of Immigration Police at Suvarnabhumi Airport, had turned herself in. Police are interrogating her.
A news source said that preliminary investigation revealed it was a crime of passion, as Linlada reportedly wanted to break up with the alleged shooter and start a relationship with another person.
The Thailand Meteorological Department forecast on Tuesday (September 22) that the monsoon trough lies across the North and the upper Northeast while the southwest monsoon across the Andaman Sea, Thailand and the Gulf is weakening, resulting in less rain all over the country.
Moderate wind waves are likely in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand with waves 1-2 metres high in the Andaman Sea and more than two metres high during thundershowers. Ships have been advised to exercise caution during thundershowers.
The weather forecast for the next 24 hours:
North: Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 60 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 22-25 degrees Celsius and maximum 30-33°C.
Northeast: Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 40 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 24-25°C and maximum 30-33°C.
Central: Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 40 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 23-25°C, maximum 32-34°C.
East: Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 40 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 24-26°C, maximum 31-34°C; waves 1-2 metres high and over two metres during thundershowers.
South (east coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 30 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 23-26°C, maximum 32-34°C; waves a metre high and 1-2 metres during thundershowers.
South (west coast): Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 30 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 23-26°C, maximum 32-34°C; waves 1-2 metres high and over two metres during thundershowers.
Bangkok and surrounding areas: Mostly cloudy with thundershowers in 30 per cent of the areas; minimum temperature 26-27°C, maximum 32-34°C.
Financial experts predict the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will decide to freeze Thailand’s key interest rate at 0.5 per cent when it meets on Wednesday (September 23).
The committee is also expected to announce an 8.1-per-cent contraction this year and a 5 per cent growth next year.
Naris Sathapholdeja, head of Thai Military Bank (TMB) analytics, said the MPC will decide to keep the interest frozen at 0.5 per cent, because the economy is in a worse state than expected.
He also said the MPC may consider reducing the fee banks have to pay to the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF).
“Commercial banks pay 0.23 per cent of their deposit base as fee to FIDF,” he added.
Naris added that MPC may, like other countries, also decide to implement the yield curve control measure.
Another expert who believes the MPC will freeze the interest rate at 0.5 per cent is Pipat Luengnaruemitchai, chief economist of Phatra Securities.
Pipat also believes that the MPC will call on those related to Thailand’s financial policies to take some concrete steps.
Amonthep Chawla, chief of CIMB Thai Bank’s research office, said the MPC should also consider the strengthening of the baht, which will have an effect on the economy.
However, he said, MPC’s estimates on the gross domestic product should not be too different from the market’s prediction, though he would be interested in learning how the committee sees the economy.
Amonthep said the interest rate should remain the same because the economy has not changed since the last MPC meeting.
Newly crowned Miss Grand Thailand faced vicious attacks on Monday after she expressed support for pro-democracy protests from the beauty pageant stage.
Pacharaporn “Nam” Chantarapadit was crowned winner on Sunday night in a contest broadcast live on national TV. During Saturday’s question-and-answer round, which coincided with a huge anti-government rally in Bangkok, she was asked what she would say to each side to prevent violence between the protesters and the government.
“With my heart, I choose the protesters,” answered Nam, who hails from Ranong.
“The people have the right to express their views on what is best for the country.”
Addressing the government in English, she said: If you call this country Thailand, we need a real democracy. And moreover, we need you to get out of the country.”
Government supporters wasted no time in hitting back on social media, many using racist insults like “negro” and “coal-black” in referring to Nam’s dark complexion. Such colour prejudice runs deep in Thailand and reflects the ethnic divide between the usually darker-skinned people of the Northeast and their lighter-skinned compatriots in the Central and other regions.
Supporters of Nam and the pro-democracy movement leapt to her defence online, condemning the attacks on her appearance as ignorant and primitive.
Pro-democracy netizens are currently calling for a boycott of Thai stars and idols who have backed the government or failed to show support for the protesters. The latest to be targeted are Thai K-pop stars, with the hashtags “Ban Thai idols famous to Korean people” (#แบนแทกุกไลน์) and “Ban Thai Idols in South Korea” (#แบนไอดอลคนไทยในเกาหลี) now trending on Twitter.
Many netizens said they have “unfollowed” their favourites because of their silence.
Also attracting the ire of pro-democracy netizens is Vorasit Issara, the owner of Sri Panwa resort in Phuket. “Ban Sri Panwa” has been trending after he posted on Instagram that pro-democracy leader Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul should be jailed for her activism.
The globally renowned Sri Panwa resort is under an unwelcome spotlight after its owner, Vorasit Issara, criticised pro-democracy protesters, who promptly hit back by calling for a boycott on his hotel.
Sri Panwa is a luxury resort of private pool villas and spa located in the southwest of Phuket. The stunning scenery around the resort marks it as one of Thailand’s leading hotels.
Beach Tomato UK named Sri Panwa as the most beautiful hotel in the world, while Anywhere magazine said it was the most charming, and CNN International tagged it for housing one of the world’s three best beach bars in 2011.
The hotel was registered to Sri Panwa Management Ltd on July 18, 2013 with capital of Bt100 million.
Despite all the praise, it made a net loss of Bt157.5 million in 2019, up on the previous year’s loss of Bt75.9 million.
Vorasit Issara is a scion of the family that owns real-estate giant Charn Issara Development.
The Department of Disease Control on Monday confirmed that a two-year-old Myanmar boy who tested positive for Covid-19 on September 13 did not contract the disease in Thailand.
The boy is thought to have caught the disease between September 4 and 10 after his migrant-worker parents quit their jobs in Ayutthaya and travelled to Myanmar.
The family took him over the border by a natural path at Mae Sot, reportedly seeking to evade disease control measures at the Mae Sot border checkpoint.
The department said the toddler was not suspected of having caught the disease in Thailand since all 146 people exposed to the boy at worker camps in two provinces had tested negative for Covid-19.
Seventy tested negative in Ayutthaya, 16 of whom lived in the same camp as the infected child. The remaining 76 tested negative in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The department said it would continue to monitor situation despite finding no infections among those exposed to the boy.
Pacharaporn Chantarapadit 
