Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan of Thailand speaks during the 16th International Conference on The Future of Asia, organized by Nikkei Inc., a Japanese newspaper company in 2010 in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Shuji Kajiyama / Associated Press
BANGKOK — Former Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has died in Thailand. He was 68.
Thailand’s Democrat Party says Surin died Wednesday in Bangkok of a sudden heart attack.
Surin is a former lawmaker from the party who also served as Thailand’s foreign minister in the late 1990s under a Democrat-led government.
Surin is best known for his time at the head of the 10-member ASEAN from 2008 until 2012. His name was also mentioned as a possible candidate for United Nations secretary-general.
Surin remained active in regional diplomatic circles until his death.
NEW YORK — I happened to be at home watching live television when the towers I’d visited a decade earlier collapsed after being struck by two planes. It wasn’t until this month that I made it back to lower Manhattan, where the smoking wound has since been filled with a memorial and museum.
By virtue of the space it fills, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum speaks authentically through architecture and archaeology to the sensitivities of the 2,983 people killed. Taken as a whole, it does not disappoint, but its cautious approach fails to paint the full picture.
The site is very much part of modern New York and American – if not world – history. Almost everyone old enough remembers where they were on that day 16 years ago. The extremist attack on the Twin Towers may be familiar to all educated global citizens, but the museum elevates the act through multimedia exhibitions.
After queuing 20 minutes, I was allowed into the site where the South Tower once stood. Entering the museum one is led through exhibitions awaiting on the lower floors.
The first impression – after descending via an unusually long escalator to the concourse lobby – was the sight of remains: a pair of giant fork-like steel pillars, and parts of the familiar lower structure of the Word Trade Center buildings.
Memories of 3,000 Kept Alive
At the “In Memoriam” space, touch screen displays teach visitors about each of the 2,983 killed in New York, Washington DC and other cities affected by the coordinated extremist attacks on that fateful day.
Even if one has no relatives who died, the interactive features – full of faces of those killed allotted into each box – tempt one to learn more about the personal life of those killed. Many stories are accompanied by photos of victims’ marriages of childhoods.
This added approach beyond plain name listing, means people can spend more time at the museum than would be expected. Looking at the human side of those killed instead of an overwhelmingly long list of names prevents people from just moving on immediately.
A touch screen at the memorial site allows visitors to search for the names of specific victims.
Those who died carrying out heroic acts in the face of terror are recorded and honored. This includes 412 first responders (441, the museum says), of which 343 were firefighters.
A photo in the exhibition shows a group of dazed-looking young firefighters heading up the stairs – to near certain death – of a tower about to collapse, while office workers make their way down.
But it’s not just those who were committed to carry on with their life-saving duties that are honored at the museum.
The exhibit displays an ordinary red bandana belonging to Welles Crowther, 24, an equities trader who became known as “the man in red bandana.” Crowther saved at least 10 lives on the 78th floor of the South Tower at the cost of his own while wearing the apparel as protective gear. He owned many red bandanas, the one displayed was a gift from his parents to the museum.
The display includes moving pictures of victims jumping off the flaming towers. Not to be missed was a compilation of SMS messages and voice mail sent by those trapped in both towers, showing the raw humanity at the verge of near-certain death.
Archaeology of Extremism
The museum is not just realistic because of the exhibits, but because it is part of Ground Zero where many died.
The “Last Column” emulates a modern totem at Foundation Hall extending three levels down to the ground level. It is filled with graffiti and displayed in a video showing how it became the symbol of loss and resistance, accompanied out in a pomp ceremony, draped in the American flag at the site of the cleanup.
Then there’s the gigantic Slurry Wall, an engineering marvel that held despite the attack and prevented nearby rivers from flooding the city’s subway system, which ran beneath the towers. Standing and staring at the structure was a stark reminder of the scale of the buildings – and the attacks.
But one let down in trying to remember those killed, seems to be the absence of an accounting for why it happened: What were the motivations of those 19 hijackers and those who supported their cause?
It may be a politically fraught question for Americans, but taking a dodge on the motivations lets down the memories of those killed.
Omitted – almost on purpose – was any comprehensive accounting for the motives behind the attacks, apart from a small footnote on the end where they are neutrally identified.
A decade and a half on, it is perhaps still too painful to remember not just the tragedy but the factors that led the perpetrators to commit such atrocious acts.
The museum is more a place to honor and remember the victims, not to remember the extremists. This is reflected in a request by the museum asking visitors not to exhibit inappropriate behavior.
A touch screen monitor at the memorial site displays the name of a victim.
“Given the unique nature of the site, proper decorum, personal behavior, and conduct are required from all visitors at all times in order to provide the entire visiting public with respect and an equal opportunity to have an enriching and meaningful experience,” part of the information brochure read. “Visitors are not permitted to engage in expressive activity that has the effect, intent, or propensity to draw a crowd.”
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is located at 180 Greenwich Street, nearby the southeast of Freedom Tower in Manhattan, New York City. Tickets for adults are USD$24. More information can be found on the website.
Ed. note: Memorial spokeswoman Olivia Egger contacted Khaosod English to say a portion of the museum’s historical exhibition “focuses on the events leading up to 9/11, exploring the Rise of al-Qaeda and providing historical context for the attacks, including the motivations and ideology of the perpetrators.” She also indicated the number of first responders killed that day was 441, not 412.
Interior of the nearby World Trade Center transportation hub which opened in 2016, 15 years after an important transportation nexus was destroyed in the attack.
BANGKOK — On the day it had been expected to make public its explanation about what killed a teen military cadet, the Central Institute of Forensic Science said Thursday it could not complete the autopsy as it had run out of a preservative.
Institute director Somn Promaros, who previously vowed to have results today from the forensic examination of cadet Pakapong Tanyakan, indefinitely postponed because the lack of a formalin material used to preserve samples, his agency said in a statement.
“Genetic analysis and inspection is difficult to process. It requires a special genetic substance extraction chemical, the Formalin-fixed Paraffin-embedded (FFPE),” the statement said. “Therefore, cause of death cannot be concluded at this time.”
Formalin is a liquid mixture of water and formaldehyde, a common embalming fluid.
No explanation was given as to why a national forensics institute would run out of a routine chemical in a high-profile case. There was no immediate response from the family, which suspects foul play in Pakapong’s death and have accused the military of aiding in a cover-up.
The statement released to the media added that the institute would continue to transparently work on the case.
“Please give time for the doctor committee to work fully,” it said. “We will report the result of the autopsy to [police] investigators and relatives of the deceased in accordance with our protocol.”
The 19-year-old cadet died from what the military described as “sudden heart failure” in October.
The institute’s answer is likely Pakapong family’s only recourse for finding out what killed their son as the only investigation into his death is being carried out by the army itself.
Pakapong’s family requested the institute, which operates independently from police and the military, to perform an autopsy on Pakapong after they realized his body had been returned with several organs missing.
Following public outcry, the military returned the organs to Pakapong’s parents and said they had been kept for medical examination.
In this June 30, 2008 file photo, actress Yifei Liu arrives at the "Hancock" premiere in Los Angeles. Photo: AP / Matt Sayles
LOS ANGELES — It took a year of searching and nearly 1,000 candidates, but the Walt Disney Studios has found its Mulan.
The studio says Wednesday that Chinese actress Liu Yifei will play the warrior in the live-action epic from director Niki Caro.
The 30-year-old actress, who is also known as Crystal Liu, is well known in China as a model, actress and singer, but less so stateside. She has appeared in films like “The Forbidden Kingdom” with Jackie Chan and “Outcast” with Nicolas Cage.
Disney says the story will be inspired by the animated film from 1998 and The Ballad of Mulan. Bill Kong, who has produced films like “House of Flying Daggers” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” is executive producing the film.
To strengthen their balance sheets and look good to prospective investors, family-owned businesses with plans to IPO on the Stock Exchange of Thailand tend to first undergo restructuring.
To do so, they employ various mergers and acquisitions, or M&A, methods: transferring shares, swapping shares, acquiring assets, even transferring entire businesses.
The most effective? Mergers by way of amalgamation as described in the Civil and Commercial Code: Company A amalgamates with Company B to become a new Company C, with A and B ceasing to exist as legal entities and all their rights and liabilities transferring to C.
And that is about the extent businesspeople are generally aware of amalgamation – any more than this and they need to consult the investment bankers and financial advisor helping them file for the IPO.
Registering a merger with the Department of Business Development is quite straightforward. A and B must each pass a special resolution to amalgamate and obtain the approval of 75 percent of their shareholders. The special resolution must be registered within 14 days of the vote.
A notice of the shareholders’ meeting also must also be dispatched to each shareholder by registered reply mail (snail mail with yellow card returned to you bearing the recipient’s signature) 14 days ahead of the meeting, doubled up by advertising the notice in a local newspaper. The notice must contain the specific wording of the special resolution to amalgamate A with B.
The longest interval the merger process takes is a wait period of 60 days, during which Company A and Company B must allow all its creditors to protest the merger. A written notice must be sent to each creditor, publicized by a local newspaper ad. A protest by a single creditor will stall the process. The merger can move ahead only when a bank guarantee for the debt amount has been provided to the creditor. Or else the debt must be settled before the amalgamation can proceed further.
The process at the DBD is relatively straightforward and convenient; companies just have to follow the required steps and the time it takes for each step until completion, about four months overall.
Complications start to take hold post-merger when Company C is required to notify the merger to the revenue area office within 15 days of the merger registration, which woefully often precedes a tax audit of Company A and Company B. Any back tax will be paid by Company C. A failure by C to so notify will empower the tax man to impose an extra tax of 100 percent of the basic tax liability.
The Revenue Code deems that A and B have been dissolved and the provisions of that law applicable to dissolution of companies and liquidation are borrowed to be used with an amalgamation, giving rise to confusion as the civil and commercial law administered by the DBD requires no such dissolution and liquidation.
The tax law is short of clarity on the borrowed use of the dissolution and liquidation provisions as well as the responsibility of directors of C as liquidators.
Thus, there is an interpretation that the dissolution and liquidation apply “as the case may be” only to the duty of C to notify of the merger likely resulting in a tax audit, the filing by C of tax returns and pay taxes for A and B. No further dissolution, nor liquidation per se: no sale of assets, no full settlement of all debt, and most notably no distribution of the remaining capital back to the shareholders.
All the balance sheet, operating account, profit and loss account, income and expense account and income before expense account of A and B for the last accounting period ending on the amalgamation registration date will be prepared by C, which will have them audited and certified by a licensed auditor and approved by the shareholders of A and B, even though A and B already lost its status as legal entities. Here the tax law deems that A and B still exist as necessary to approve their audited balance sheets and other accounts for tax purposes.
The filing of tax returns, together with the audited and approved balance sheets and other accounts, and the duty to pay taxes for the last accounting period for A and B actually falls on C. If C neglects to file the returns, a criminal penalty in the form of a 2,000 baht fine is slapped on it. A late payment of tax beyond the 150 days of the merger registration date will also attract interest or surcharge at the rate of 1.5 percent per month or 18 percent per annum, calculated on the amount of tax payable – all is under C’s liability. In the case, C completely is ignorant of its duty to notify of the merger to the area revenue office, the office can add 100 percent extra tax to its misery, based on the amount of corporate income tax payable.
Notwithstanding these short-term tax complications, family business and big-name conglomerates reorganizing shareholding structures within their group fully embrace the merger via amalgamation. Why? There are huge tax breaks to be enjoyed! And they far outweigh the 5 months of tax uncertainties. The tax code exempts corporate income tax for corporate shareholders of A, B, and C arising from the merger, as well as personal income tax for their individual shareholders. Other types of taxes are also exempt: 3.3% special business tax, 7 percent VAT, stamp duty, and even the 2 percent land transfer fee when transferring land from A and B to C.
Only the period of 150 days after the merger registration presents a hiccup. In promoting the mergers and amalgamation of companies even further, the tax law should be revamped to remove those uncertainties and undue liabilities on the new Company C. The current legal reform plan in the pipeline to allow either A or B to survive the amalgamation, as an alternative to the creation of C, is the wrong approach to promote the M&A tool, as the new Company C is already able to use the name A, B or C after the merger. Changes in the tax code will propel amalgamations to wide popularity among business in general beyond the rewarding use in the circles of family business and big-ticket business of the same affiliations.
Wirot Poonsuwan is a practicing attorney and can be reached at [email protected].
Defense spokesman Kongcheep Tantravanich receives a gesture of friendship from Nong Kiew Koy at Wednesday’s news conference. Image: Sutima_VoiceTV21 / Twitter
BANGKOK — A mascot designed by the defense ministry to promote national reconciliation has instead creeped out social media.
Unveiled Wednesday, Nong Kiew Koy, or “Pinky Finger Girl,” is a smiling girl in overalls with her pinky finger extended, a Thai gesture of mending friendship.
But if army brass were hoping for a cultural coup like that achieved by Japanese mascots, they were wrong. Most people on the internet think Nong Kiew Koy looks more disturbing than friendly.
One Twitter user compares her to a Hollywood haunted doll.
A popular cartoonist suggests she will probably end up being shunned by all of the factions she is meant to appeal to.
A keen-eyed netizen found an uncanny resemblance between Nong Kiew Koy and Pongpan Chan-ocha, a sister-in-law of junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha whose extravagant treatment became national news last year.
Surin net idol Supawadee Lailani Bouteleux and her French husband, Dimitri Bouteleux. Photo: Jessica Difford / Facebook
Sure, there’s a Robert and a Gerhardt living down that dusty Khon Kaen road with their Phim and Tukta. But how does the local Somchai – possibly Tukta’s ex – feel about their union?
While men in Isaan assume women there marry foreigners for their money, the women say they are motivated by how farang men care for their families. Either way, while there are relatively few such marriages, they are challenging assumptions about masculinity in the Thai northeast and diminishing men’s marital prospects.
That’s according to a sociologist who has conducted a census and multiple studies in two Isaan communities to examine how men there are challenged by women marrying foreigners.
While most academic studies of such marriages have focused on the spouses and their cultural or linguistic differences, Patcharin Lapanun of Khon Kaen University looked at the effects such relationships had on other men in in the communities, including ex-husbands, fathers and neighbors.
For Isaan men, cultural notions of what is masculine, Patcharin found, may inherently affect what they provide their families, not to mention faithfulness to their wives, and can contribute to them becoming gik mia farang – or casual sex partner to women with foreign husbands.
She presented her findings from studies conducted in 2016 and 2009 earlier this month at Thammasat University, the details of which were reported by Matichon’s Wajana Wanlayangkoon.
Patcharin’s findings are far from conclusive or airtight. In an interview Thursday, she acknowledged that her studies were anecdotal and based on interviews with 100 women and men in an Udon Thani town and another 20 in a Khon Kaen town with multiple interracial couples.
Luk thung singer Sunaree Ratchasima marries her Dutch husband Wouter de Rave, 21 years her junior, at a ceremony in December 2016. Photo: Sunareelam / Instagram
‘We’re Done With Thai Men’
In her studies, Patcharin found that two of three women married to farangs, known colloquially as mia farang, had been previously married to Thai men. In most cases, Patcharin said, the single mom provided for their child on her own.
But the women and families interviewed by Patcharin said the decision to leave Thai men for farang partners wasn’t purely economical, but also because they tended to provide for their extended families and not cheat on their spouses.
“We’re done with Thai men,” Patcharin said she was told by one of the Thai wife’s mothers, who had encouraged her daughter to divorce her Thai husband and marry a foreigner. “It’s not just about money, but they’re unfaithful and always cheating on women. They don’t take responsibility for their family, and never have enough money to take care of their wife and kids.”
A 2004 government survey found just shy of 20,000 Isaan women married to foreigners, 87 percent of which were to Westerners from Europe, North America, Australia or New Zealand. Half of the women were in Udon Thani, Khon Kaen and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces. Those marriages seem to involve most of the foreigners living in Isaan – the 2010 census found 90 percent of the slightly more than 27,000 foreigners living in the northeastern region were married to women from there.
Photo: Tony in Thailand
‘What Makes a Man’
Isaan men, however, were not likely to abandon their undesirable habits of drinking and partying away family funds while cheating on their spouses – because those displays were essential to their idea of manliness, Patcharin said.
“Although Thai women then cite these reasons for not marrying them, Thai men, especially the younger ones in the village, would say that their actions were ‘normal,” Patcharin said. “They continued to insist that Thai women married farangs only for money, not because of Thai men’s masculine culture,” Patcharin said.
Although this continued insistence risks Thai men being passed over for farang men, few Isaan men expressed a willingness to change their habits, the researcher said.
A negative self image doesn’t help.
“Isaan men see themselves as bad options for Thai women. They think their unstable work and poverty makes Thai women not want to marry them,” Patcharin said.
Surin net idol Supawadee Lailani Bouteleux and her French husband, Dimitri Bouteleux. Photo: Jessica Difford / Facebook
‘The Gik Mia Farang’
Still, infidelity can cut both ways. Marrying a farang man doesn’t make women off-limits to Thai men.
Enter the gik mia farang – or the casual sex partner of a woman married or dating a foreign man.
In rural communities, a gik mia farang can be admired for accessing the wealth and comfort of a woman married to a foreigner – without working for it. On the other hand, such giks can be looked down upon as emasculated after-thoughts who are irresponsible drains on the women and hurt their own marriage prospects.
Still, the double-standards of gender inequality in Isaan communities most often leave the woman at the disadvantage.
“Women in this situation are seen as lacking virtue and being sexually insatiable for having two men, while the Thai men are seen as cool, macho playboys like Khun Phaen,” she said, referencing a womanizer hero from Thai epic “Khun Chang Khun Phaen.”
Surin net idol Supawadee Lailani Bouteleux and her French husband, Dimitri Bouteleux. Photo: Jessica Difford / Facebook
The Sino-Thai Alternative
Ultimately, Patcharin said Isaan men are being edged out competitively due to falling short as as sons-in-law, especially when compared to ethnic Chinese alternatives in Bangkok and farang men.
While in matrilineal Isaan culture, sons-in-law are expected to support their wives’ families without earning the mantle of household leadership, the patrilineal Chinese culture more present in the capital conflates the men’s financial power with masculinity.
“A woman married to a Chinese man will always be seen as the secondary provider, no matter how much she earns financially. Therefore, Chinese men see themselves as having the right to have extramarital affairs because they have responsibly provided for their main household,” Patcharin said. “Their cheating behavior is different from Thai men, who neither stay faithful to their wives nor provide for their families.”
Farang son-in-laws, on the other hand, are expected neither to cheat nor shy from financial responsibility for their Thai wives – even if they first arrived in Thailand as sex tourists.
“While farang men have shown themselves willing to change how they displayed their masculinity, changing from sex tourists to good son-in-laws, Isaan men have not, making them less desirable as marriage partners to local women,” Patcharin concluded.
A policeman questions Peerapol Yodcharoen, at left, Thursday at Bang Sue Police Station in Bangkok.
BANGKOK — Police arrested Thursday morning a serial groper accused of fondling women’s breasts on Bangkok’s public buses.
The arrest came less than a week after video of an assault went viral on social media. Police identified the suspect as Peerapol Yodcharoen, 24, and said he confessed to the crime. They also accused him of multiple assaults on six different bus routes.
“We have him under arrest,” said Col. Seksit Supha Uan, chief of Bang Sue Police Station. “The suspect confessed.”
The video posted to a popular Facebook group on Sunday shows a man reaching his hand toward a female passenger’s breast as she sat on the No. 8 Bus. After the video went viral, a university student stepped forward to say she was assaulted in a similar manner by the same man. She filed complaints with Bang Sue police on Thursday.
Police said they tracked down Peerapol and arrested him at his residence this morning. He reportedly works as a tour assistant at Don Mueang International Airport.
Investigators also said Peerapol confessed to groping women on bus Nos. 24, 29, 28, 97 and 510.
Peerapol, who’s been charged with indecent public assault, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Mount Agung volcano erupts Tuesday in Karangasem, Bali, Indonesia. Photo: Firdia Lisnawati / Associated Press
KARANGASEM, Indonesia — Bali’s airport is operating at far from its usual capacity of more than 400 flights a day after reopening while ash from the Mount Agung volcano was moving southward away from the airport.
Figures from the airport show 23 flights, mostly domestic, that carried about 1,600 passengers left after the reopening Wednesday afternoon. Inbound flights included a Singapore Airlines jet with only 2 passengers and another with 17 passengers. Many domestic flights are scheduled for Thursday but only four international flights are shown as scheduled for departure so far for Thursday morning.
Tens of thousands of travelers have been stranded since the airport was closed Monday due to volcanic ash.
South Korean flag carriers are sending two charter flights to Indonesia to bring 500-700 stranded citizens home. A Korean Air A330 is expected to land in Bali and an Asiana Airlines A330 is heading to Surabaya on neighboring Java island.
Some travelers have left Bali by ferry and made their way to airports on densely populated Java.
Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha speaks to reporters in September 2017 at Government House.
BANGKOK — The military government says it is fighting a new threat to public health: distorted news reports.
The health ministry announced Tuesday that it is launching a new smartphone application that will allow users to flag media content they find “inappropriate” so it can be forwarded to government authorities.
While the ministry says the “Media Watch” app is an important tool to protect society from “unsafe” media, it comes as the junta maintains broad restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly, seeking to stifle all criticism under the guise of maintaining order and protecting national security.
The app is to go through a three-month trial period before launching nationwide.
chaeology of Extremism
