Thai Examiner - Thailand's news for foreigners

Public debt and the management of the economy will be the key battleground for this General Election as it is clear the alternative to the Pheu Thai Party and Paetongtarn Shinawatra or Ung Ing is the incumbent General Prayut Chan ocha. Just as the opposition party has surged in the polls with its promise of a ฿600 a day minimum wage and extended public sector borrowing, even beyond the current raised limit, the prime minister will aim to counter this by emphasising financial discipline and rectitude as provided for under the 2017 Constitution. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/27/prayut-paetongtarn-shinawatra-ung-ing-to-battle-in-2023-over-debt/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

Opposition threatening to bring Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha, who is also the Minister of Defence, before a House of Representatives committee to be grilled on the HTMS Sukhothai disaster at sea. It now looks increasingly likely that 29 lives have been lost in the incident with 10 still thought to be missing. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/26/heat-is-on-over-the-sukhothai-naval-tragedy/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Prachuap Khiri Khan and Bangkok.

The scale and depth of this corruption scandal keeps growing with Saturday’s arrest of the niece of a former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and last Monday’s resignation of the Secretary-general of the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) after damning revelations from whistleblower Chuwit Kamolvisit. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/25/police-officer-wife-of-drug-kingpin-du-hao-arrested/ James Morris reports from Bangkok.

Palang Pracharat has risen in the polls since September with the party setting forth no-nonsense policies despite an exodus of MPs. A political expert at the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) has predicted that we are likely to see a Pheu Thai-led government which could see the Palang Pracharat Party as a coalition partner. A return of the present coalition government and General Prayut to power is thought unlikely. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/24/pheu-thai-palang-pracharat-coalition-mooted-as-pm-moves/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

41-year-old man’s brother Mick Bassal was killed in a shooting in Sydney at a signage firm in a suburb of the city in 2016. Police in Ko Samui said on Wednesday that they did not think the gun was purchased to commit a crime in Thailand nor had the arrested man a criminal background. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/23/australian-held-on-gun-charges-in-ko-samui-mark-bassal/ Carla Boonkong reports from Ko Samui.

The 78-year-old thief and murderer profited handsomely and lived in luxury off his exploits since he was arrested in India in 1976 even while spending forty-one of the last forty-seven years in jail. In 2008, the then 64-year-old Sobhraj married the twenty-year-old daughter of his Nepalese lawyer while being incarcerated in Kathmandu’s main prison for the 1975 murder of 29-year-old American woman Connie Jo Bronzich for which he has never shown any remorse. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/22/the-serpent-serial-killer-charles-sobhraj-bangkok-pattaya-released-by-nepal/ James Morris reports from Bangkok and Kathmandu.

35-year-old, US-built vessel lying capsized at a depth of 40 metres. A submersible vehicle launched on Wednesday aimed to tell naval chiefs the extent of the damage done and the viability of key systems as a technical committee considers bringing in the private sector to help refloat and salvage the Sukhothai. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/21/22-now-missing-as-navy-plans-refloat-of-ship/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Prachuap Khiri Khan.

Irish Department of Foreign Affairs through the Irish Embassy in Bangkok seeking an official report on the Irishman’s death and helping to make arrangements for the repatriation of his body. The young tourist had only arrived in Thailand the week before staying just outside the capital. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/20/family-working-to-repatriate-young-irishman-odhran-o-neill/ James Morris reports from Surat Thani province.

The Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB) moved last Thursday to seize the entire business of a luxury hotel in Samut Prakan run by a company in which Mr Chaiyanat Kornchayanant or Du Hao, the alleged Chinese drug kingpin, is a shareholder. At the scene were officials from the state security agency and police led by General Surachate Hakparn who revealed that more prosecutions are to come in what is still an expanding case. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/19/chinese-gangs-buying-identity-transfers/ Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok and Samut Prakan.

Bizarre media coverage of Thailand’s political scene this week makes it look as if the chances of a possible alliance between the Bhumjaithai Party and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha is a path back to power for the PM. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/18/pm-clinging-on-as-he-seeks-a-path-to-power/ News Desk report from Bangkok and Nakhon Ratchasima.

Well wishes have come from around the country as temples invite the public to pray and leading political figures come forward to pay their respects and express support for the princess. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/16/king-and-queen-visit-princess-bajrakitiyabha-in-hospital/ News Desk report from Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok.

The business sector, in recent months, is expressing higher confidence with the return of foreign tourism at critical levels but is expecting to be left reeling by a 21% hike in electricity tariffs due to kick in from January 2023 at the same time as interest rates are rising with supplies and other costs all on the up. It comes as energy officials juggle the books with a bill of ฿122 billion still owed to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) and which must be paired down. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/15/pheu-thai-to-cut-sky-high-electricity-bills/ Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok.

Last week, the chief whistleblower, in this case, veteran former politician Mr Chuwit Kamolvisit who Minister of Justice Somsak Thepsutin has highly praised, expressed unease at the narrow range of charges being pursued against Mr Chaiyanat Kornchayanant. As part of this week’s move by the National Police Commissioner General Damrongsak Kittiprapat, it is understood that a submission on the case will be made to the Office of the Attorney-General so that it can be pursued as a transnational crime case, giving police and prosecution agencies more power. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/14/chinese-mafia-case-taken-up-by-police-chief/ James Morris reports from Bangkok.

Barring an unforeseen political shock that dramatically alters the political landscape, it now looks like Thailand will elect a Pheu Thai Party government in next year’s General Election. It is also becoming increasingly probable that that government will be led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra ousted in the 2006 coup and the niece of Yingluck Shinawatra whose government was ousted in 2014 in another coup led by then army chief and current Prime Minister Prayut Chan ocha. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/13/3-out-4-think-pheu-thai-will-take-power-in-2023-general-election/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

Minister Somsak Thepsutin praises former massage parlour boss and politician Chuwit Kamolvisit for his work in pursuing corruption concerning this unfolding case. Mr Chuwit has promised not to keep the 5% of the billions seized that the minister says he’s entitled to but has expressed concern about the limited charges brought against Mr Du Hao or Mr Chaiyanat Kornchayanant and his most senior associates including the absence, as of yet, of money laundering charges. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/11/top-immigration-bureau-officers-investigated/ Carla Boonkong reports from Bangkok.

Police investigating a horrific attack on a 30-year-old Cambodian woman by two Polish men are looking at whether it may have been a revenge attack linked to her boyfriend’s ex-wife who threatened to kill her. An Interpol warrant is being sought for the criminal duo who departed Thailand two days later for the Philippines. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/09/cambodian-woman-attacked-by-polish-fiends-mateusz-piotr-krynicki-daniel-majewski/ News Desk report from Pattaya.

An academic with Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) welcomed the proposal in broad terms as beneficial to newly graduated students taking up employment but expressed his concern about the danger of stoking inflation and called for a policy also over the course of the next government, to control the cost of living. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/09/war-over-pheu-thais-600-baht-minimum-wage-plan/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

30-year-old Michael McLaughlin at first denied any knowledge of breaking the law but later changed his story by admitting he was hiding in Sisaket because he wanted to stay in Thailand and avoid returning to the United Kingdom. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/07/uk-man-arrested-in-sisaket-on-visa-overstay/ James Morris reports from Sisaket.

A former senior policeman working as an advisor to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) tenders his resignation. The move is thought to be linked to reports of an indirect association with the Chinese kingpin accused of being a large illegal drug distributor at the centre of a growing scandal linked with fake visas, property and extensive business holdings held by nominees. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/07/hotel-legit-says-woman-linked-with-kingpin-du-hao/ Joseph O' Connor reports from Bangkok.

Deadly disease reared up in 2018 due to a shortage of vaccines from 2016 and an explosion of the disease among the country’s population of wild dogs. The latest plan focuses on the vaccination of animals reaching into every locality of the kingdom with the help of sub-district volunteers. https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2022/12/05/volunteer-plan-to-clear-rabies-from-thailand/ James Morris reports from Bangkok.