Representatives from major TV stations came together today to draft the “Andaman Declaration”, named after the coast of Thailand that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

The alliance aims to boost warnings and response efficiency and reduce the number of casualties if such a natural disaster hits Thailand in the future. The 2004 tsunami claimed as many as 5,395 lives in Thailand.

This is the first-ever such alliance in the world, said Surachai Pannoy, executive producer of Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS). Influential TV channels such as Thai PBS, Channel 3, Channel 7, Amarin TV and Thairath TV have demonstrated great interest, he said.

The cooperation pact will include sharing footage, reports, staff and facilities, he added. A declaration of the agreement will be officially announced on December 26, to commemorate the 2004 tsunami.

“Knowledge means a greater chance of survival,” said Maitree Jongkraijug, a community leader in Ban Namkem, Phang Nga province, which was hit hard by the 2004 tsunami.

His village suffered as many as 4,900 deaths, including that of Maitree’s father.

In addition to ensuring timely early warnings, Maitree urged the media to report on the difficult lives of survivors and to avoid hurtful interviews.

Orie Sugamoto, a correspondent for Japanese broadcaster NHK at the General Bureau of Asia, said one of her company’s guidelines is to refrain from showing footage of the tsunami itself on-screen unless necessary.

“To survivors, these pictures may remind them of the deaths of their friends and families,” she said.

Japanese media work tightly with the country’s meteorological agency and are able to instantly respond to earthquakes.

Timely warnings

The news agency receives warnings of earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis directly from the meteorological agency and can immediately broadcast an evacuation call.

In contrast, the information is first screened in Thailand by the National Disaster Warning Centre before being released to the media. According to Surachai, the Thai procedures must be rethought.

Supaporn Phokaew, a Chulalongkorn University communication arts lecturer, said the media must also inform people about the step-by-step evacuation guidelines. She is charged with writing the Andaman Declaration.

The alliance also aims to empower the local community to better respond to disasters. Starting from next year’s anniversary onwards, the Phang Nga-Phuket International Marathon will take place on Tsunami Remembrance Day on December 26, in honour of the lives lost.

Funds raised from the run would be used to purchase and maintain community radio, communication tools and related facilities to help locals and tourists evacuate to safety in the event of a future tsunami.

The international marathon will be organised by Thai PBS, Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission, the United Nations Development Programme and Thai Red Cross Society.

DCY director-general Somkid Somsri said yesterday that his department will also call on provincial child-protection committees to warn muay thai gyms not to allow children to fight in boxing rings. He warned that officials would file a police complaint against them under the Child Protection Act if they did.

As for the death of young fighter Anucha Tasako, all relevant agencies are conducting a fact-finding inquiry that should bring clarity by Friday, Somkid added.

He cited a forum held by involved agencies on Monday and said they unanimously agreed that young children’s job was to study, not earn money for themselves or their family.

Child boxing, which breaches the Child Protection Act 2003 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, could affect the kids’ health and development, Somkid said.

He added that the Social Development and Human Security and the Tourism and Sport ministries need to discuss whether child boxing should be deemed a sport, a competitive entertainment activity or a form of gambling.

If children practise muay thai as a sport, they need to wear protective gear, but if they fight to make a living, then it is against the law, he added.

If they were driven to fight due to their families’ financial hardship, state agencies must provide aid so families can take care of their kids without sending them off to fight.

This file photo taken on June 28, 2012 shows young Muay Thai boxers fighting in the ring at a boxing stadium in Buriram province. – Thousands of child boxers compete in Thailand’s traditional martial art with dreams of belts, glory and prize money — but the death of a 13-year-old on November 10 has lit up a sensitive debate over whether competitors start too young. // AFP PHOTO

Seeking amendments

Related agencies joined the Monday forum primarily to express their opinions about an amendment of the Child Protection Act and resolved to forward the bill to the Cabinetfor consideration soon, he added.

Meanwhile a bill to amend the 1999 Boxing Act to prevent minors below the age of 12 from taking part was not on the Cabinet’s agenda yesterday, a Government House source.

Tourism and Sports Minister Weerasak Kowsurat said the Sports Authority of Thailand’s Boxing Committee recently agreed that the bill amending the Boxing Act should be submitted to the Cabinet to clarify the definition of a non-sport muay thai match, and if it is acceptable for children under 15 to engage in bouts. The committee has not discussed a ban on children under 12.

The minister said the Sports Authority of Thailand agreed to check on muay thai gyms and ensure match organisers nationwide adhere to regulations.

The 1999 Boxing Act requires all muay thai boxers to be at least 15 years old, but it is widely known that many children begin fighting years earlier and fight in unauthorised bouts or events that take advantage of the current law’s loopholes.

Weerasak also said an initial inquiry into Anucha’s death found some illegal aspects, such as the absence of a licensed doctor in attendance, and not putting the young fighters through physical examinations beforehand.

The Thai Civil Rights and Investigative Journalism Centre cited a report last March that only 10,373 child boxers and 17,508 boxers over 15 had been registered from 2010 to 2017, despite a 2007 estimate there were as many as 100,000 child boxers in Thailand.

Meanwhile, five networks advocating on family, children and anti-gambling issues have expressed their support for the draft bill to amend the 1999 Boxing Act.

They are calling on lawmakers to ensure children under 15 do not engage in professional fighting and furthermore that children learning muay thai as a martial art must wear protective gears and must avoid inflicting direct blows to the head or any forms of violent fighting during practice.

They also want the government to help poor children access state aid and welfare that they are entitled to, so that they have other choices in life than risking their health in fighting or other dangerous activities.

As the source of most marine plastic pollution, Asia must also be the main focus for solutions, Escap told a Bangkok audience yesterday. Progress can be made by promoting bottom-up waste-management initiatives and informal waste segregation and recycling by scavengers, Escap noted on the Inaugural Asia-Pacific Day for the Ocean in the capital.

The coupling of fast-growing markets with underdeveloped waste-management systems in South and Southeast Asia is responsible for as much as 60 per cent of the world’s plastic waste leakage into the oceans, Natalie Harms, Escap’s associate sustainable development officer, said.

Aggravating the problem is the inability of related official agencies in these countries to manage the growing volume of waste, and to transform production and consumption patterns through progressing to circular economies.

However, there are ways to get out of this major problem, said Harms. Escap’s “Closing the Loop” initiative found that informal recycling activities by scavengers played a significant role in these countries, and can greatly contribute to the effort to tackle marine plastic waste pollution.

Under the “Closing the Loop” project, Escap is gathering evidence in the pilot cities of Bangkok and India’s Pune to identify opportunities to return plastic resources back into the production cycle. That would reduce plastic waste leakage into the environment and the oceans by linking informal and formal waste processes.

Biggest polluters

According to Escap, over 80 per cent of marine plastic wastes come from land-based sources, making plastic the most common type of marine litter. India and Thailand are among the top 15 of the world’s biggest plastic waste polluters.

The project has learned that formal waste-management systems of most Asian countries remain focused on collection and disposal, resulting in low recycling rates. However, informal contributions from waste pickers are helping reduce this gap.

“The example from Pune shows us that the city authorities rely almost entirely on informal recycling activities, which recover around 22 per cent of the total waste generated or up to 118,000 tonnes,” she said.

“It is estimated that the city of Pune can save around US$10 million [Bt330 million] annually from the contribution of informal recycling activities.

“As well, the recycled waste of around 2,000 tonnes per day by the city’s scavengers reduces the city’s greenhouse gas emission by up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per year, which is equal to the amount of CO2 emitted by 10,423 cars.”

The contribution of these scavengers is largely overlooked by authorities, leaving these poor helping hands unsupported and suffering health risks from their work environment, Harms said.

Governments and other stakeholders should provide them with knowledge, funding and policy support, so they can further their contributions to better waste management and solve marine plastic pollution at its root, she said.

Nina van Toulon from Indonesian Waste Platform also emphasised that the most effective approach to tackle plastic waste pollution in the sea was not top-down policies, but rather bottom-up initiatives started by the local people.

“The experience of waste management in Indonesia has taught us that top-down waste-management policies from the central government, and the lack of environmental education, are a bad combination that makes waste management efforts totally ineffective, especially in the remote rural areas of this vast country of islands,” Toulon said.

“We also learnt from our campaigns that by including environmental education in the local school curricula, and supporting local environmentalist groups with capacity building and funds, local communities have great potential to efficiently manage locally generated waste.”

From a construction site to classroom, 22-year-old Aung Chan says education has given him “another world”. Before enrolling in Wat Srisutaram School in Samut Sakhon Province, the then-13-year-old Myanmar migrant worked at a construction site with his parents. Now he hopes to get an engineering diploma at a Thai university and start a business in his homeland.

Aung Chan is one example of some 300 migrant and stateless students who get to study for free at Wat Srisutaram School each year. They are the fruit of the government-subsidised “Education for All” initiative, which is supported by the school board and the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN). The initiative ensures free education for everybody.

The government provides the funding, while the school and LPN provide special classes, where children get to learn basic Thai before they can enter Grade 1 and study with their Thai peers.

The school also gets financial support from companies in Samut Sakhon province such as big seafood chain Thai Union, Prasan Sarawong, former Wat Srisutaram School director, said at a seminar organised by LPN, Safe Child Thailand, Terre Des Hommes and Chulalongkorn University yesterday. Migrant workers account for almost half of the population in Samut Sakhon.

The school director said he considers himself the students’ “big father”, and does his best to ensure the teachers are fair with all students despite their nationality.

Schools offer more than a bright future, they also offer “safety”, Patima Tungpuchayakul, co-founder of LPN, said.

She set up the rights network with leading activist Songpong Srakaew.

She said that educating children reduces the chance of them being used as child labour at factories or put in dangerous working conditions.

Meanwhile, LPN deputy committee chairman Surapong Kongchantuk said the government should provide more support to make the Education for All policy accessible to more migrant and stateless children. He also called for concrete support for non-Thai speaking students, in terms of budget and personnel, so they can be given basic Thai knowledge and can join public schools.

THE HEALTH Service Support Department (HSSD) will sue Praram 2 Hospital over its handling of an acid-attack victim who passed away on November 9 shortly after seeking its services.

“Our fact-finding panel has concluded that there are grounds to believe Praram 2 Hospital might have violated laws or committed as many as five legal offences,” HSSD director-general Nattawuth Prasertsiripong said yesterday.

The 15-member panel has reviewed evidence and testimonies from various sides, including the victim’s family and the hospital’s representatives.

On November 9, 38-year-old Chorladda Tharawan came to Praram 2 Hospital in a taxi at dawn with acid injuries on her face. But she left soon after in another taxi to seek treatment at Bang Mod Hospital, where she was entitled to free treatment, and where she was pronounced dead.

Several questions emerged as to whether Praram 2 should be held responsible for Choladda’s death.

According to the fact-finding panel, the operator of Praram 2 Hospital allegedly failed to ensure that licensed medical workers provided services within their fields of expertise as only its nurses checked and diagnosed Chorladda’s condition without involving a doctor.

The panel also pointed out that the hospital might have failed to ensure medical workers complied with the laws, as no doctor saw the patient despite the seriousness of Chorladda’s condition.

In addition, the hospital apparently did not follow guidelines about how to categorise emergency patients and neither did it deliver proper medical help to an emergency patient.

The panel also said that Praram 2 Hospital did not ensure a proper transfer of the patient, as it did not issue a referral letter.

“We will lodge a complaint with police to bring the case to court,” Nattawuth said.

If convicted of all these alleged offences, the operator of Praram 2 Hospital will face both a fine and a jail term. Most of these offences are punishable by a jail term of up to two years, and a maximum fine of Bt40,000.

Nattawuth said nurses involved in the case were also found to have failed to comply with standard practices and ethical rules, because they did not consult doctors in handling Chorladda’s case.

“We will complain to the Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council,” he said.

He added that the HSSD had already ordered a temporary closure of the outpatient building of Praram 2 Hospital, pending its compliance with laws.

“It has operated the outpatient building at a modified structure without seeking a proper permit,” Nattawuth said.

He said the hospital had 15 days to seek a proper permit.

“If it does not come forward, we may consider revoking its operating licence,” he said.

Asked whether Praram 2 Hospital had any doctor on duty at the time of Chorladda’s arrival, Nattawuth said documents showed there was a doctor in service but no one brought Chorladda’s case to his attention.

Chorladda’s husband is currently under detention for pouring acid on her face while she was sleeping.

“If the authorities go ahead with signing construction contracts, things will become complicated,” Sor Rattanamanee Polkla said yesterday in her capacity as a legal representative of the River Assembly, the People’s Art and Culture Foundation, the Civil Society Planning Network, and the Riverside Community Network.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is coming close to selecting a bidder for the first phase of the project to build a 7-kilometre-long promenade on either side of the Chao Phraya River in the capital. The first phase, from Rama VII Bridge to the Somdet Phra Pinklao Bridge, will cost about Bt8.36 billion.

 “We will seek an injunction to stop any progress, as we wait for its cancellation,” Sor Rattanamanee said, adding the project should be abandoned because it failed to consider the voice of the people.

“Chao Phraya River is a public area and any use of it is subject to the Civil and Commercial Code and land laws,” she said, adding the promenade would make the river narrower.

“The flow of the current will become stronger and ferries will face a bigger risk,” she explained. She also pointed out that the promenade’s designer, the King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, was not qualified as per the country’s architect laws.

“Will the move pave the way for monopolies?” Panthep Phuaphongphan, dean of Rangsit University’s Institute of Integrative Medicine and Anti-Ageing, asked yesterday.

According to him, Thais are still not allowed to conduct research on marijuana-based medicines, but some foreigners have already filed applications seeking patents.

However, the number of applications submitted varies as different sources base their estimates on the number of applications they believe have been rejected.

So far, the number of total applications submitted lies between 11 and 13, and some of them have already been rejected.

“If the Intellectual Property Department does not throw out all these applications now, we will consider taking legal action against it,” Panthep said.

Allow cannabis in traditional medicine 

Meanwhile, BIOTHAI Foundation’s director Witoon Lianchamroon also claimed to have received reports that the department was planning to approve two applications.

“This might go against the law. According to law, a patent can only be granted to a new invention. It should be noted that traditional Thai medicine has long recognised marijuana’s medicinal properties,” he said.

Panthep emphasised that if the draft law legalising the medical use of marijuana sails through, then relevant authorities should ensure that cannabis can also be used in Thai traditional medicine.

In recent months, several authorities have been pushing hard for the legalisation of medical marijuana. At one point, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister ACM Prajin Juntong even considered the possibility of Article 44 being invoked as a means to allow the medical use of cannabis.

With much lobbying, the bill to legalise medical marijuana has already gone to the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) now.

“We will start deliberating the bill on Friday,” NLA member Somchai Swangkarn said, adding that he expected the deliberation to take 60 days.

However, the NLA is not ignoring concerns over cannabis-related patents, and summoned an IPD representative to testify yesterday.

Direk Boontae, IPD’s deputy director-general, said patent applications could be revoked if the requests are deemed as illegitimate.

“Some applications were submitted to us since 2004, but we never approved any cannabis-related patents,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, Somchai said the department has already rejected several applications.

“There are just seven cannabis-related applications pending as of now,” he said.

Marijuana is believed to have medical benefits for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, seizures, alleviating pain and promoting appetite.