Month: February 2012

Categories
Thailand

AP Quoting Thai Police: 2 Explosions; Unclear if Fatalities

Note: for the latest details on this story, see the Bangkok explosion tag.

Quick update to my previous post about the Bangkok explosion explosions today: The AP is reporting:

Police in Thailand say two explosions have occurred in a Bangkok neighborhood. But it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or whether there were any fatalities.

A picture posted on Twitter purportedly showed a wounded man laying on a sidewalk outside a Thai school, his legs apparently ripped off in one of the explosions.

Police Col. Sittiphab Baiprasert told The Associated Press the blasts Tuesday occurred about 100 yards (meters) apart on Sukhumvit 71, a busy multilane thoroughfare that is home to businesses and apartment blocks.

Update: A longer AP story says:

Two explosions boomed through a busy neighborhood in the Thai capital Tuesday, police said, but it was not immediately clear what caused the blasts or whether there were any fatalities.

A picture posted on Twitter purportedly showed a wounded man laying on a sidewalk strewn with broken glass outside a Thai school, his legs apparently ripped off in one of the explosions.

Several Thai television stations reported the wounded man was carrying explosives at the time. They said an identification card found in a satchel nearby indicated the man may have been of Iranian decent. It was not possible to independently confirm those reports, however.

(All emphasis mine.)

Categories
Thailand

Thai media: Bangkok Explosion Injures Foreign Man

Note: for the latest details on this story, see the Bangkok explosion tag.

Many details are still unclear, but Thai media is reporting than an explosion on Sukhumvit Soi 71 at about 2 p.m. Bangkok time has injured a foreign man.

The Bangkok Post reports:

A bomb exploded in front of a school on Sukhumvit road on Tuesday afternoon, wounding a foreigner and damaging a telephone booth.

Klongton Police said the explosion took place around 2pm outside Kasempithaya School. The injured foreigner lost both of his legs in the blast.

Witnesses told investigators that an unidentified man hurled a bomb into a phone booth and then fled.

Police were investigating and had temporarily closed down Klong Ton and Phra Khanong intersections.

The Nation says:

Three foreigners were injured in an explosion on Soi Sukhumvit 71 Tuesday afternoon.

The explosion occurred at 2 pm in front of the Kasem Pitthaya School.

One of the foreigners lost his legs.

MCOT says:

Bomb explodes in Bangkok’s Soi Preedeepanomyong 35, Lebanese man injured by self-inflicted wound; bomb squad unit defusing another bomb in nearby area

Richard Barrow has been been compiling reports and posting photos on Twitter: @RichardBarrow.

I’ll provide more info when it’s available.

Categories
Thai politics

Notes from Thongchai’s FCCT Talk on lèse-majesté

Last night Thongchai Winichakun gave a talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand about the increased application of the lèse-majesté law since 2006.

Thongchai is a professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the well known 1997 book Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation.

Here are my Tweets from the event, in reverse-chronological order. I thought it might be helpful to provide them all together here.

More soon on this topic, perhaps, but I wanted to post these snippets for now.

Categories
Thai politics Thailand

Update: Thammasat to Allow Nitirat Group to Meet, Nation Reports

The Nation has an update today on the Thammasat University-lèse-majesté issue:

The executive committee of Thammasat University Monday decided to allow campaigns for amendment of Article 112 of the Criminal Court to resume in its campus.

Previous posts on this topic are under the lèse-majesté tag.

(All emphasis mine.)

Categories
Sports Thailand

Off Topic: Watch Manchester United’s Michael Carrick and Javier Hernandez Speak Thai

Here’s a follow up to my December post about Man U players and Malaysian potato chips.

The Man U-Southeast Asian advertising synergy continues!

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, I’d really love to watch a debit card advertisement featuring the Red Devils’ midfielder Michael Carrick and fox-in-the-box striker Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez saying “hello” and “thank you” in Thai, today’s your lucky day.

The video is embedded above and on YouTube here.

Categories
Thailand

Thai Airways Says it’s Ending Nonstop Bangkok-LA Flights

2012 02 10 thai air

Bad news for folks — and I am one — who like to fly Thai Airways nonstop between Bangkok and Los Angeles.

The carrier recently said that as of May 1, TG 794 and 795 will connect in Seoul. And flights won’t be offered on Mon., Wed., and Fri. And the premium economy class is going the way of the dodo.

Here’s the announcement on the Thai Airways U.S. site. (I haven’t seen anything on the Thailand TG site.)

And here’s more from Examiner.com.

(Via @Anasuya.)

Categories
Thailand

Self-promotion: New WSJ Southeast Asia Real Time Story on Thailand Flood Prevention Measures

I have a new story today at The Wall Street Journal’s Southeast Asia Real Time blog.

The headline is “As Rainy Season Approaches, Thailand Focuses on Floods,” and the story begins:

The Thai government says it is taking steps to prevent a repeat of last year’s massive flooding. But experts warn that some of the government’s big ideas – such as large-scale new dikes – probably won’t be completed before seasonal rains arrive in just a few months.

Give it a read.

Categories
Thai politics

Bloomberg on Pheu Thai’s Proposal to Rewrite Constitution

Bloomberg reports today:

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s party will propose overhauling a constitution written after a 2006 coup that ousted her brother, a move that threatens to reignite political discord.

The Pheu Thai party will present a plan to parliament tomorrow to create a Constitution Drafting Assembly comprising 99 people that has 180 days to draw up a new constitution, spokesman Prompong Nopparit said by phone today. A nationwide referendum will be held after it’s completed, he said by phone.

“The Pheu Thai party sees that the 2007 constitution is not democratic,” Prompong said. “It weakens political parties, weakens politicians and limits the freedom of people. The constitution should be drafted by people for people.”

Moving to rewrite the constitution is Yingluck’s biggest challenge to a military establishment that six years ago overthrew former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra since she took power in August. Moves by Thaksin’s allies in 2008 to change the constitution sparked violent street protests by his yellow-shirted opponents that shut down parts of Bangkok and culminated in the seizure of the city’s airports.

“The government thinks it is confident enough to make a move that will certainly upset the military and anti-Thaksin forces,” said Michael Montesano, a visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “I’d be very surprised if the Yellow Shirts can bring out the numbers they were able to bring out several years ago.”

Worth a read.

(All emphasis mine.)

Categories
Links

5 Links

A few links that have caught my eye of late:

  1. Why French Parents Are Superior — The Wall Street Journal
  2. If correlation doesn’t imply causation, then what does? — DDI
  3. IAMA author of a new book about Barack and Michelle Obama’s behind-the-scenes adjustment to the White House. Interview with author Jodi Kantor at reddit.
  4. What did people do: in a Medieval City? — www.svincent.com
  5. Embedded above and available on Vimeo: Beautiful Day at the Dog Park, a video made using a dog-mounted camera.

(Previous link round-ups can be found by clicking the links tag.)

Categories
Thai politics

Thammasat Univ. Rector Says He’ll Ask for Rethink on Ban

2012 02 06 tu lm

Yet more on Thammasat, lèse-majesté, and the Nitirat Group:

Today’s Bangkok Post reports:

Thammasat University’s executive committee will reconsider its decision to prohibit the use of the campus for activities related to the lese majeste law.

Thammasat rector Somkit Lertpaithoon said he will ask executives to reconsider the decision to prohibit such activities on the grounds as the issue has widened divisions at the university.

Mr Somkit said he will propose a rethink on the ban at a meeting of the university executives on Feb 13.

The ban resulted from a campaign by the Nitirat group, a gathering of academics seeking an amendment to Article 112 of the Criminal Code, better known as the lese majeste law.

This movement has drawn significant opposition, leading the university to ban all campaigning relating to Article 112, by Nitirat or others, on its grounds, for fear violence could erupt between those opposed to the law and those seeking to keep it.

But critics of the ban say it is violating freedom of expression.

Nearly 200 protesters, including students, turned up at Thammasat University yesterday in opposition to the ban.

Meanwhile, the Post says Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha weighed in on the Nitirat group today:

The group of seven Thammasat law professors, known as the Nitirat (enlightened jurists), should stop calling for a change in the lese majeste law, national army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said Monday.

“I don’t understand their objective, because when a law is violated officials have to take legal action, without any exceptions, and the process is all in line with legal procedure,” Gen Prayuth said.

He called on Nitirat not to put the monarchy in the middle of “the conflict” because the monarchy is above it.

“The monarchy is not the person who will accuse anyone. If a person made a mistake, His Majesty the King can still grant a royal pardon,” said the army chief.

He said offenders could not make the excuse that they did not know the law, or had no bad intentions.

“I want to ask the Nitirat academics this – if someone curses at their guardians, parents or relatives, would they accept it?

“Thai society cannot continue to exist if we let people violate the defamation law, and as a Thai person I don’t want to see more damage to the country.

“I ask the Nitirat to stop their movement and stop linking the army with everything,” Gen Prayuth said.

You can find previous posts on the Thammasat issue under the lèse-majesté tag.

(All emphasis mine.)

(Image: Bangkok Post.)