SEVERAL BOARD members of key health organisations have been giving up their posts reportedly to avoid the new asset-declaration rule.

At least four members of the National Health Security Office (NHSO) have already quit and many board members of the National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM), the Health Systems Research Institute (HSRI) and the Healthcare Accreditation Institute (HAI) have said they will follow suit.

Public Health Minister Dr Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn yesterday urged those who had not tendered their resignation yet to wait at least until the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) clarifies the rule.

“Let’s wait a bit. Things should get clearer before the end of this month,” he said. “Probably, after you declare your assets/liabilities to the NACC, the said information will be kept confidential”.

Promulgated in the Royal Gazette on November 1, the new rule will go into effect on January 31. Under this rule, it will no longer just be political-office holders who will be required to declare their assets/liabilities to the NACC.

Presidents of state universities and their council members, as well as top executives of public organisations and state funds, and the chiefs of Armed Forces including the police force, for instance, will also have to declare their assets.

Dr Jiruth Sriratanaban, Chulalongkorn University’s medical lecturer, said he had decided to quit the board of HAI because he did not want his finances becoming public knowledge.

It was reported that HAI board members Dr Surachet Satitniramai, a former deputy permanent secretary for Public Health, and Dr Boonruang Triruangworawat, a former director-general of the Mental Health Department, will also be stepping down.

HSRI director Dr Nopporn Cheanklin, meanwhile, revealed that two board members of his institute have also expressed their intention to quit. “But no official resignations have been submitted yet,” he said.

The NACC has postponed the start of the rule’s validity from December 2 to January 31 in response to stiff protests from members of state-run university councils.

Initially, it was believed that university council members were the strongest opponents against the new asset-declaration rule. But now, it appears that board members of several health organisations are not happy with the rule either.

A source said that three NIEM board members have said they will step down to avoid the asset-declaration requirement.

“One of them is a representative of non-profit organisations,” it added.

NHSO yesterday convened a meeting to select four new board members to replace the four specialist board members who have decided to leave.

“We have received resignations from two more board members. We don’t have to select their replacements because these two are representatives of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and the Pharmacy Council. Their organisations have already named their replacements,” Piyasakol, who chairs the NHSO board, said.

“We will set up the centre for Myanmar migrants at Talaythai market,” Labour Minister Pol General Adul Sangsingkeo said yesterday.

Due to the huge presence of Myanmar workers, Samut Sakhon is often dubbed Thailand’s “Little Myanmar”.

According to Adul, the centre will handle Myanmar workers who need to turn their identification paper into passports, or those who wish to apply for passports after being brought in under the memorandum of understanding between Thailand and Myanmar.

The identification paper can be turned into passports only after the worker’s nationality has been verified.

“After the workers submit all required documents, they will be able to get their passports from the Myanmar Embassy or from passport centres in border provinces,” Adul said.

He was speaking after attending a meeting with the policy committee that is involved with solving problems related to foreign labour and human trafficking.

Chaired by Deputy PM General Prawit Wongsuwon, the meeting brought together representatives from several relevant authorities.

Adul said the centre will not collect any service fees during its one-year operation and will be open from Monday to Saturday.

As for the continuing labour shortage in the fisheries sector, he said about 1,244 employers have expressed their intent to bring in 14,496 workers. “The Labour Ministry has already contacted relevant embassies for the hiring of nearly 10,000 workers,” Adul said.

The unnamed tourist, who was in shock and crying, was taken to file a rape complaint with police at Samranrat precinct at 3am on Saturday after she had fled the building and called for help from patrol police in the area of the nearby temple.

The victim’s friend, who later showed up to testify at the police station, said they had been at a drinking party in the Khaosan Road area before the 29-year-old left with a man at around 2.30am, and was lured into the building where he then attacked her.

Rights defenders Nan Win and Sutharee Wannasiri said 15 international, regional and national groups joined with Fortify Rights to issue a joint statement on Monday calling on Thammakaset Company Ltd to drop its “harassment” of the defenders.

If convicted, Nan Win faces up to four years in prison and Bt400,000 in fines, and Sutharee Wannasiri faces up to six years in prison and fines of up to Bt600,000.

The Bangkok Criminal Court is scheduled to hold preliminary hearings on the criminal complaints on Monday.

“These complaints are an attempt to intimidate and harass human rights defenders, and the authorities should put a stop to it,” said Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights. “The company is taking aim at human rights defenders involved in exposing alleged labour rights violations.”

The complaints relate to a 107-second film produced by Fortify Rights about previous defamation complaints brought by Thammakaset against 14 of its former workers from Myanmar

In the film, released in October 2017, three former workers described how the company brought criminal defamation charges against them after the workers reported labour-rights violations to the Thai authorities, including unlawfully low wages, failure to pay overtime wages and confiscation of their identity documents, including passports.

The statement on Monday calls on the company – a Thai-owned firm operating in Lopburi Province – to “also withdraw all criminal complaints and unsubstantiated civil complaints against other migrant workers and human rights defenders for their involvement in peaceful activities protected by international human rights law”.

Thammakaset filed the most recent criminal and civil defamation complaints against Nan Win and Sutharee Wannasiri in October 2018. Thammakaset accuses Nan Win, a former worker from Myanmar, of spreading “untruthful” information about alleged labour rights violations by the company, pointing to the Fortify Rights film in which Nan Win is featured and a Facebook-live broadcast of a public event in Bangkok.

The complaints against Sutharee Wannasiri, a woman human-rights defender and a former human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, stem from three tweets posted on her twitter page in October 2017 that linked to the Fortify Rights film.

Thammakaset also brought civil defamation complaints against Sutharee Wannasiri, seeking Bt5 million in compensation for alleged damage to the company’s reputation.

“Human rights work is not a crime,” said Amy Smith. “Sutharee Wannasiri and Nan Win are the latest victims of the judicial harassment epidemic in Thailand, and they won’t be the last unless the Thai authorities take decisive action.”

Signatories to the statement include Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, Amnesty International, Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, FORUM-ASIA, Migrant Workers Rights Network, the Cross Cultural Foundation, the Community Resource Centre Foundation, and the Asia Pacific Forum for Women, Law and Development, among others.

The statement also calls on Thailand to make defamation “exclusively a civil and non-criminal legal infraction”.

Under international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which Thailand is a party, imprisonment for defamation is inherently disproportionate and therefore can never be an appropriate sanction.

The organisations further calls on the Thai authorities to enact legislation to prevent “specious legal complaints through Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPP) lawsuits”.

“Action to end SLAPP lawsuits is in line with promoting responsible, rights-respecting business practices,” the statement reads, noting that such legislation would be consistent with the Thai government’s current efforts to develop a national action plan on business and human rights.

The nine alternative spots comprise five locations in Watthana district – Rung Arun Market, Sud Khet Market, Ruam Sap Market, Srinakharinwirot University Market, and Liberty Building Market – and four in Khlong Toei district, at Art Narong Night Bazaar, Khlong Toei Market, Plawan Market, and Thanommit Market, he said.

The owners of all nine sites have been told to charge the vendors a fair space-rental fee.

Sakolthee added that the government and the BMA had agreed on a policy not to allow vendors to return to do business at the already-cancelled roadside spots, because doing so would only lead to a repeat of the traffic congestion and disorderly conditions previously experienced in those areas.

Since May 1, 2016, the BMA has cancelled 488 locations – previously designated for street vendors selling their merchandise – across all 50 Bangkok districts, affecting 11,805 vendors, the deputy governor said.

A further 195 locations are currently in the process of being barred from street-merchant activities, which will affect another 8,366 vendors, he said, adding that city officials would this month propose the cancellation of additional street-vending areas in Phra Khanong and Rat Burana districts.

Environment Day has been observed annually since 1991, but there is fresh impetus this year for introducing measures to wean consumers off plastic bags.

Stores are being urged to stop bagging purchases in plastic and instead to give away cloth bags or encourage customers to bring cloth bags with them.

Hospitals are also being asked to dispense medicine in cloth rather than plastic bags.

One survey found that Thais on average produce 1.14 kilograms of trash per day, totalling 74,000 tonnes across the nation.

The ministry’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion will on Tuesday host a commemorative event in Impact Arena Hall 9 with the theme “Doing good deeds with your hearts, minimising threats to the environment”.

The aim is to discourage use of plastic and Styrofoam, said department chief Suriyakul Na Ayutya.

People can also donate cloth bags at shopping malls and the department’s event on Tuesday, so that the cloth bags can be donate to hospitals nationwide to bag medicine packs for patients.