The accusation has gravely tainted his credibility and the forces under him, as well as the third party who is a “Phu Yai”, according to the source.

The department on Friday held a press conference, along with the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division commander and the Internal Security Operations Command 4 chief, who have been working with him in a number of forest crime suppression cases.

Athapol Charoenshunsa, the RFD’s deputy chief and director of the government’s Forest Protection Operating Centre – a new forest crime suppression command – denied the allegations published in some newspaper columns as “baseless and slanderous”. He said such accusations would create misunderstandings between him and his forces.

“The accusation that a bribe was taken from Mu Lan [a wanted Chinese national], which was used for my promotion as director-general is nothing but slander,” said Athapol.

Athapol was this week promoted as the new RFD director-general shortly before the accusation was spread.

The source said the letters were circulated widely in the department’s internal system as well as that of some other relevant agencies, inflicting grave damage to the reputation of the new chief and the agencies under his command.

The department would try to check past records to see who had entered the systems and released the letters. It was believed that more than one person had done it. The motives could not yet be established.

Athapol, along with his senior colleague, Cheewapap Cheewatham, was picked by their former chief to lead the RFD’s forest crime suppression taskforce, Phaya Prai, in 2014.

He was then picked as a director of the centre in 2016, while being promoted as RFD’s deputy chief. Under his directive, they went after a number of forest crime cases, including the high-profile logging gang believed to be among the country’s largest, led by Mu Lan, who escaped arrest this year and is absconding.

Another source working closely with the centre said bribery was unlikely, as Athapol did not work alone in suppressing the gang.

They needed to consult each other before making any moves.

However, after she lost her eyesight, she has been spending her art classes learning braille, while here classmates get their hands dirty learning about art.

Brightly coloured paintings and jars made of papier mache line the shelf at the back of the classroom.

“Most visually impaired students cannot fully participate in art classes,” Onanong Ritruechai, art lecturer at Khon Kaen University (KKU), said.

However, it’s not really the school’s fault, as it does not have the media to fully engage visually impaired students, she explained.

Onanong is part of a team of researchers who are working with high-school teachers to create media to teach visual art to blind students, as well as devise a teaching style that does not leave anyone behind.

Team leader Sanchai Santiwes, who is also a lecturer at KKU’s Architecture Faculty, explained that the researchers wanted to create 3-dimensional media and found that the 3D printer worked the best.

In front of him are small plastic statues of some world-famous pieces of art, like Michelangelo’s David, Rodin’s Thinker and a miniature of the monolithic Moai Statue on Easter Island.

Onanong said these tools would help visually challenged students better appreciate art, learn art history and the concepts of aesthetics.

Also, statues and bas relief can guide blind students to create their own works of art, Onanong said.

The idea is simple, but changing attitudes have proved to be difficult, especially with teachers basing their grades on how “beautiful” or realistic a piece of art is, the researchers said. If a blind student is to join students with eyesight, grades will have to be given based on creativity, not beauty, she said.

The researchers have just joined hands with art teachers in four schools in Khon Kaen, including Kanlayanawat School, to implement their initiatives and come up with the most effective way to teach art to all students.

Sakchai said he will submit his plan to the NHSO board for approval.

The plan is aimed at the Maniq or the “Sakai” tribe, one of the world’s last hunter-gatherer societies, who have lived for thousands of years in the forested areas of the Banthat Mountain Range in Yala, Narathiwat, Phatthalung, Trang and Satun provinces. The population of Thailand’s only Negrito ethnic group now stands at 500 people. Most cannot speak Thai or know only a few words.

Sakchai recently visited the Maniq communities in Songkhla and Satun to follow up on the work done so far to improve the minority group’s access to NHSO services. He said 312 Maniq people had obtained national ID cards and were registered with the NHSO healthcare scheme as of August 21.

The NHSO wants to implement the 4th National Health Security Strategy (2017-2021), which includes ensuring effective health coverage for vulnerable groups, such as the Maniq.

Normally, tribal people treat themselves using ancestral wisdom and familiar herbs, Sakchai said. However, the herbs they use are becoming tougher to find due to deforestation, resulting in tribes having to ask their acquaintances from the outside world to take the seriously ill to a hospital.

Though hospitals end up providing free services, as tribal people do not have money, they are unable to seek reimbursement from NHSO.

This has led to the Interior Ministry’s Provincial Administration Department and the NHSO Region 12 Office in Songkhla to jointly help the Maniq people to get Thai nationality, so they can have access to the universal healthcare system.

Sakchai said that using the normal healthcare system will be difficult, because the Maniq people are nomadic and move to follow the seasonal food chain.

This is why, he said, they should be allowed healthcare at any state health facility without requiring patient referral.

This proposal has already been approved by the NHSO Region 12 Office and will soon be submitted for the NHSO board’s consideration.

After running four regional contests in four provinces – Chiang Mai, Songkhla, Khon Kaen and Pathum Thani – in the second half of this year, 100 winners from these regions joined the grand national round held on Saturday at Rangsit University in Pathum Thani province.

The contestants not only prepared themselves with spellings that they expected to meet in this round, but they also kept their fingers crossed, as luck also played an important role.

The competition was tight in every round, until Temchon’s name was called out as the national winner.

He will receive his trophy from Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and will also get a scholarship to study the English language in the US, which is funded by Education USA and the US Embassy in Bangkok.

Temchon also takes home a Bt15,000 cash prize from Magnolia Plus Ginkgo, as well as a TOEFL Total course from Enconcept. His adviser, meanwhile, will get a Bt20,000 cash prize from NJ Digital.

The runners up will each get a trophy, a Bt10,000 scholarship and an Ultimate Vocab Plus Reading course. Five merit awards were also presented, each with a Bt5,000 scholarship and a pre-admission GAT and O-NET course.

For his part, Temchon attributed his success to the love of reading.

“Since I was young, I have loved reading English articles, novels and anything else I can find on the Internet. When I find words I don’t know the meaning of, I look them up in the dictionary.”

He also realised the importance of vocabulary.

“If we understand vocabulary, we can understand the entire sentence. For me, I think vocabulary is more important than grammar, because we don’t need perfect grammar in conversation.”

Katriya Burkdoll, an English-language teacher’s assistant at Fullbright Thailand who represented the US Embassy, said spelling bees in the US were more like game shows, unlike the NJ competition.

“I think that overall, for all the students who came and competed today, it’s quite a big achievement,” she said. “They should all be very proud of themselves.”

She also urged young Thais to work on polishing their English-language skills.

“Whether the object is to study abroad or just boost your communication skills, I think it [English language] provides a lot of opportunities for students to communicate with the world.”

The NJ Spelling Bee project began when the Nation Group, in collaboration with NJ Digital, saw the importance of young people knowing the English language, and encouraged them to learn more vocabulary.

The competition has over the past 21 years become more and more popular. This year’s event was sponsored by F&N Magnolia Plus Ginkgo and the US Embassy in cooperation with educational institutions, government agencies among others.

SUFFERING FROM chronic water problems, the administrative authority of the Phi Phi Islands has once again called for help from the central government and state |agencies.

It has called for a coordinated effort to tackle a range of problems before the world-famous island paradise finds it tourism lifeline severely damaged.

The drinking-water problem on Phi Phi Don Island in Krabi is not new but has been described as worsening and getting desperate. The problem has been studied by a research team from Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Engineering, which confirmed that the renowned Andaman Sea island is suffering a severe shortage of clean freshwater.

The team found that the freshwater sources on the small island are insufficient for the growing number of visitors. The tap water has become contaminated with wastewater originating from tourism businesses unable to cope with the large volume of arrivals.

Though most of the Phi Phi Islands is a protected marine reserve, part of Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, large areas of Phi Phi Don – the largest island in the archipelago – are outside the park in the jurisdiction of the Tambon Ao Nang Administrative Organisation.

Residents and regular visitors see the irony in the bustling tourism industry, which heavily touts the island’s beautiful natural setting, has been slowly degrading that same pristine environment. The large number of visitors pouring onto the island every high season has resulted in overpopulation, pollution and a shortage of freshwater.

Sitang Pilailar, the lead Kasetsart University researcher for the water study, said that despite its wet climate – more than 2,000 millimetres of precipitation annually – the island has only two significant water-storage facilities, leaving it at a high risk of freshwater shortages.

“During the driest period of the year – from November to April – the island is packed with tourists, causing water demand to rise sharply, and meanwhile there’s no rain to refill the two freshwater ponds that are the only sources for piped water on the island,” Sitang said.

Due to the limited freshwater, she said, piped water is priced high, so some business operators instead use groundwater from shallow wells. But pumping out too much groundwater to supply rising demand can have severe long-term side effects on the underground supply, she warned. Lowering the groundwater level could allow saltwater in, rendering the freshwater undrinkable.

More immediately, her study found that the groundwater is currently unsafe for consumption and a threat to health. Harmful pathogens and heavy metals originating from water pollution offshore have contaminated it.

“Even though the island has a relatively efficient wastewater-treatment facility, wastewater is being generated far beyond the system’s capacity. The excess wastewater is being flushed directly to the sea and then gets absorbed into the groundwater,” Sitang said.

Island budget just can’t cope

The findings do not surprise Phankam Kittithonkul, chief of administrative organisation. Phi Phi Don has been faced with major environmental issues for quite a long time, he said, and residents are unable to tackle them on their own.

“We’ve been trying our best to mitigate these problems by setting out projects to protect and clean the environment, but many issues are just too big for us to solve alone,” Phankam said.

For example, he said, in order to upgrade the wastewater-treatment facilities while also maintaining other infrastructure needed for tourism, the organisation would have to spend far more than the Bt170 million budget allocated to it each year.

“The allocation is calculated based on the resident population, but the reality is that a tourist zone like the Phi Phi Islands has very few officially documented citizens. The islands are overcrowded by visitors and workers from other areas, so we need a bigger budget from the central government and help from other agencies.”

Phankam said the administrative organisation also faced difficulties when dealing with state agencies, which he accused of either paying scant attention to the problems presented or providing insufficient assistance. Some agencies openly hampered local efforts, he said.

“We would like to again ask for the attention and help of the central government, and we also want the related agencies to work with us on improving the environment and quality of life for all people on Phi Phi Island,” said Phankam. “We need to be able to maintain our beloved islands as one of the world’s most beautiful island retreats.”

From her perspective as an academic researcher, Sitang recommended that business operators install their own water-storage facilities that collect rainwater and wastewater-treatment systems that reuse wastewater. Those would go a long way towards a sustainable solution, she said.

She also suggested that the number of visitors be capped at the “carrying capacity” of the area – 12,000 to 27,000 people per day – to solve the overcrowding issue.

Political campaigning is prohibited for now and is likely to be permitted mid-December.

Pheu Thai Party’s key member Sudarat Keyuraphan voiced support to decentralising power from the Education Ministry to schools.

She explained that the Education Ministry should be responsible for “overseeing standards”, while state-run schools should be given the freedom to “use their budgets to hire their own teachers”, and “include parents and communities” in making decisions related to their children’s education.

“Funds should also be provided for students before they enter university,” she added.

Sudarat was speaking at a panel discussion on education reform held by Thailand Education Partnership and Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) on Sunday.

Democrat Party’s former finance minister Korn Chatikavanij backed similar reforms where schools are run by a board comprised of school directors, teachers, communities, parents, and alumni. He also said that teachers should be chosen and hired by schools directly.

“These are my views concerning the decentralisation of power,” he said.

Korn also said the Democrat Party might extend free school lunch programmes to include not just primary school, but also secondary and high school.

Science and Technology Minister Suvit Maesincee, a deputy leader of the pro-junta Palang Pracharat Party, said he too supported the distribution of power from the Education Ministry, as well as spreading wealth from Bangkok to the provinces.

Educational academic-turned-politician Kulthida Rungruengkiat, meanwhile, said her Future Forward Party would focus on issues such as better teacher training, better equipment for vocational school, and “making the Education Ministry more efficient”.

According to TDRI president Somkiat Tangkitvanich, Thailand has never been short of initiatives on education, but it is the nature of these policies that are problematic.

He said most policies are so-called quick-win ones that aim for quick fixes. This is because in the past 20 years, the Education Ministry has seen 21 ministers and policies that change when the new minister takes office, he added.

“We want political parties to come together and vow to continue education reform from the very beginning of the new administration,” he said.

Thailand was ranked 54th in the 2015 PISA test for overall maths, reading and science competency –far behind many other Asian countries, like Vietnam, which was ranked 8.

Its mystery has inspired the indigenous Lahu hilltribe people to call it Archi, or God’s vehicle, as it cannot be anything but a creature of God that can roam over those rocky cliffs, said ML Prinyakorn Voravan, a veteran wildlife photographer.

Prinyakorn has just published a pictorial book about the goral, titled  the Living Soul of the Mountain, Archi, the same as the Lahu name.

For years, Prinyakorn and other wildlife photographers have travelled up the mountains in the North, roaming over the rocky cliffs and keeping very still for hours, just like the goral, to take photos of the mysterious animal. They later tell the tragic story of one of the country’s 15 preserved species.

As revealed by their photography, the animal has been under severe threat from growing tourism and, more critically, from fragmentation of their habitat following human settlements and development.

“Beyond anything is the fact that it has no place to go anymore. It’s stuck in what we call an island, as its habitats have become fragmented. It is sharing a fate similar to other wild animals in this world that have gone extinct,” said Prinyakorn.

Photo credit: ML Prinyakorn Voravan.

The goral’s existence became known after a stunning picture of it standing in isolation on a rock was taken by Prinyakorn and published in famed magazines around 30 years ago.

Prinyakorn was inspired by his long-time colleague and friend, Seub Nakhasathien, a chief of the Huai Kha Khaeng wildlife sanctuary who committed suicide in 1990 due to pressure from his conservation work. Seub had gone to Doi Mon Chong in the Omkoi Wildlife Sanctuary to conduct a study on the goral.

Prinyakorn went there and the Inthanon National Park nearby, spending years taking photos of the animal to as much reveal its mysterious beauty as to tell its tragic story.

“It’s because of him, Brother Seub, who inspired me to go there and see what lived there, and why people like him dedicated themselves to it,” said Prinyakorn, as he shared the story on the 29th anniversary of Seub’s death this year. He recalled finding some traces of the tragic incident on the rock on Doi Mon Chong, where Seub’s research team fell off a cliff after trying to track the animal but encountered a wildfire that engulfed him and took his life.

After Seub’s study and Prinyakorn’s work, people in society learned more about the goral and its isolation.

A young generation of wildlife photographers then followed their work. After photos focusing only on the beauty of the animal, the photographers, including Baramee Temboonkiat who worked on the other sanctuary of Chiang Dao, have taken the work further, with photos of the animal and its environment, and stark revelations of its shrinking habitat in the face of growing threats, including poaching.

Their work has significantly contributed to the research in the area about the animal.

Photo credit: ML Prinyakorn Voravan.

According to Doi Chiang Dao Wildlife Research Station chief Mongkol Safoowong, researchers from the station have conducted a survey on the animal’s population in the mid-2000s to recent years. They have learned that there were 288 gorals roaming the mountains in 10 protected areas in the North.

This animal, he said, is very range-specific, preferring to roam on rocky cliffs and feed on grassland on the high mountains, prompting them to be isolated by their regular behavior.

The isolation and pressure from the shrinking space has led to another critical problem that the researchers have been trying to tackle: inbreeding.

To try to help the animal, the station, under the directive of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, has been working with some breeding stations to raise the animal’s population in the wild and diversify its genetics.

Adisorn Kongphermpool, Omkoi Wildlife Breeding Station’s chief, said his station has been attempting to raise the animal’s population via captive breeding from those earlier caught in the wild.

Over the past 25 years, it has worked and the station has been able to breed around 246 goral, but only 56 animals have been successfully reintroduced to the wild as releasing the animals into the wild requires tremendous preparation so that the released animals can adjust themselves to their natural settings. It sometimes takes as long as two years before the animals can be released, he said.

Just a few years ago, new technology on artificial reproduction was introduced to advance the work.

Mongkol said in the future there would be more in-depth studies on the animal so that they could help guide area management to control and curb various threats in the animal’s habitats.

Poaching, as reported and experienced by the photographers, is still rampant.

“Our job is to tell this kind of the story to the people. Hopefully, they will act or pass on the inspiration to others, like Brother Seub did,” said Prinyakorn.