An exhausted Rohingya woman arrives with her children at Kutupalong refugee camp after crossing from Myanmmar to the Bangladesh side of the border in September in Ukhia. Photo: Bernat Armangue / Associated Press
PALONG KHALI, Bangladesh — The scene has played out with heartbreaking regularity as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled persecution in Myanmar and escaped to neighboring Bangladesh: terrified knots of men, women and children crossing the swollen Naf river and waiting along the border for permission to cross.
On Wednesday at least 2,000 exhausted and starving people waited in rice paddy fields at one border crossing for Bangladesh border guards to let them enter. Evening fell, with no permission granted.
So they waited, crouched in the muddy fields. The children carried younger siblings. The elderly were helped along by relatives.
All of them were hungry and exhausted as they waited. Some collapsed. Others wept as they clung to their children.
The exodus of Rohingya Muslims started Aug. 25 when insurgents attacked dozens of police posts in Myanmar.
The retribution from Myanmar’s authorities was swift and brutal.
Hundreds of Rohingya villages in Rakhine state have been set on fire. Fleeing Rohingya have told stories of arson and rape and shootings by Myanmar soldiers and Buddhist mobs.
The violence, which the U.N. describes as ethnic cleansing, has pushed more than 600,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.
Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha addresses a crowd in Khon Kaen on Tuesday
BANGKOK — Some parties may not have enough time to prepare for the next election if the junta delays lifting its ban on political activity, an election official said Wednesday.
Although the junta pledged to hold election in November 2018, it still prohibits political campaigns, protests and other activities, citing national security. Top government officials have rejected calls from politicians to rescind the ban in recent days.
Election Commissioner Somchai Srisutthiyakorn said political parties will have a lot to do once the ban is lifted: from surveying membership and setting up regional offices to collecting member fees.
“It may affect the election because some parties might not be able to do all this in time,” Somchai said in an interview.
While political parties can ask for extensions, they will miss the election if they cannot complete such preparations if a certain deadline passes, said Somchai, whose agency is tasked with organizing the next poll.
The ban on political activities, which includes rallies and party meetings, has been in place since May 2014, when then-army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha seized power from the elected government. Dissidents have been charged or even sent to jail for alleged violations of the ban.
There was expectation the junta would relax the prohibition after the royal cremation of King Bhumibol, but government leaders declined to even discuss the possibility.
Deputy prime minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told reporters Wednesday the junta has not yet discussed when the ban will be lifted. Somchai, the Election Commission official, also said he’s not been told when that would happen.
“The Election Commission has no power to interfere,” he said.
BANGKOK — More than 10,000 students, teachers, governmental officials and media members among others toured the Royal Crematorium for the late King Bhumibol as the site opened to specific members of the public on Wednesday.
During an hour-long tour, visitors could see for the first time the interior of the grand three-tiered golden royal crematorium, with sculptures, murals and exhibitions featuring the life and works of King Bhumibol. The site opens to the public Thursday.
The three major exhibitions included displays of prominent royal projects initiated throughout the country by King Bhumibol, such as grass fields, water aerators and Maha Chanok mangoes.
Replicas of the late King’s belongings are among those exhibited objects, along with architectural and sculptural works behind the grand crematorium, structures and funeral procession.
While there is a strict regulation forbidding architectural hallmarks and artwork from being touched, one section was established specifically for people with visual impairment to listen to audio commentary, touch sculpted works and read Braille signs next to them.
Visitors are not allowed to livestream via Facebook while on the premises, and “inappropriate” selfies are forbidden. A voice could occasionally be heard from a loudspeaker with admonishments such as, “Visitors cannot take selfies posing with two fingers.”
The site will open to the public at 8am on Thursday after Princess Sirindhorn holds an official ceremony. To get onto the royal crematorium campus, visitors must pass through five checkpoints. They’re required to dress modestly and show their ID to authorities.
Foreign nationals can gain entry but should bring their passport.
The royal crematorium will remain open through the end of the month. Officials have yet to decide whether it will remain open longer.
Junta chairman Prayuth Chan-ocha looks out of a car window Tuesday during a trip to Khon Kaen province
BANGKOK — Thailand’s military government has emerged from the year of official mourning for King Bhumibol Adulyadej with a firm grip on power and in no apparent rush to hold elections it has repeatedly delayed during the four years since its coup.
The five days of solemn and choreographed spectacle for Bhumibol’s funeral last month was a mostly unblemished propaganda triumph for the junta that underlined its primacy and the sidelining of political parties.
After a reign of seven decades, Bhumibol’s death in October last year at age 88 was anticipated with trepidation by many Thais who feared greater instability without a traditional unifying figure.
In reality, Bhumibol’s power to sway events was more mythic than actual, particularly as his health faded in the last decade. Even so, the junta and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha have burnished their image and stocked up on public goodwill by presiding calmly over an anxious period, said Kevin Hewison, an emeritus professor of Asian studies at the University of North Carolina.
“There was talk of a succession crisis, violence and all sorts of things but none of it happened,” said Hewison.
“All the political parties look disorganized and not prepared for an election,” he said. “The military has got the whip hand.”
Thailand, the top tourist destination in Southeast Asia and a long-standing U.S. ally, has suffered more than a decade of upheaval, including two coups, as its conservative establishment struggled to stifle a grassroots political revolution fostered by the electoral success of billionaire businessman Thaksin Shinawatra.
His leadership was marred by corruption and human rights abuses and he now lives abroad in exile, but the political earthquake he unleashed with policies aimed at improving the lot of the country’s poor rural majority continues to reverberate.
Prayuth’s latest vague promise for elections is November 2018, but the junta’s ban on political activities remains in place and major parts of the legal and administrative groundwork for elections, required by Thailand’s new constitution, are still not completed.
The current military rulers are determined to avoid what they consider the mistakes made by the generals that ousted Thaksin in 2006 but didn’t eradicate his political machine.
Thaksin’s rural and working class “Red Shirt” supporters easily won every election held in the following decade, putting the military and other traditional arbiters of power in Thailand on the back foot. This time, the junta hopes to create a “very muffled democracy” that deprives the winning party or electoral coalition of a real ability to govern, said David Streckfuss, a scholar specializing in Thailand.
The constitution put in place under the junta government is likely to prevent any political party from gaining a majority and whatever coalition emerges is likely to have a prime minister imposed from outside, said Chaturon Chaisaeng, a former deputy prime minister and leading figure in the Thaksin-allied Pheu Thai party that was ousted in a 2014 coup.
“They are rules that are very undemocratic. Extremely undemocratic,” he said. “The elections that will take place will not mean as much as elections do in other countries.”
The latest chapter in the decade-long struggle between Thailand’s ruling classes and grassroots democrats unfolded in September when former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the younger sister of Thaksin, fled the country to evade prison.
Yingluck, ousted in the 2014 coup and derided by her many critics in Thailand as a bumbling proxy for her exiled brother, was accused of negligence in instituting a money-losing rice subsidy program and sentenced to five years in prison. A top minister in her government was sentenced to 42 years in prison and is appealing. Many influential Red Shirt activists and organizers have been cowed by government pressure.
In a sign Prayuth feels under no pressure to cede power, he is already threatening to prolong the ban on political activities by referring to his dissatisfaction with a lack of calm and order in society.
“The red heart is barely beating at the moment,” said Hewison.
Prayuth’s government does crave international respectability but that impulse to quickly hold elections has lessened with the administration of President Donald Trump apparently unwilling to lean too heavily on its Thai ally at a time of growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia.
Critics of the junta also currently seem willing to accept the diluted democracy it may eventually get around to offering.
Chaturon said the Pheu Thai party is likely to contest elections though it hasn’t made a formal decision yet.
Worawut Wichaidit, a spokesman for the anti-junta group United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, said having an election is better than even if the new government is hamstrung.
“This unelected government has been in power for almost four years now and we all see that the country’s economy is disastrous. The rich are extremely satiated and poverty is everywhere,” he said.
Streckfuss, who is based at Khon Kaen University in Thailand’s northeast, said an election next year would open the possibility for wider political debate than at present.
However, changes to the junta’s democracy-limiting constitution would be impossible without major upheaval, he said.
The military has “tamped down, talked down, stamped down” the democratic politics of the past decade but the long-standing tensions between the haves and have-nots of Thailand’s economic development will not go away, he said.
___
Story by Stephen Wright Kaweewit Kaewjinda contributed to this report.
Civil servants lay down symbolic funeral flowers Thursday at a replica funeral pyre dedicated to King Bhumibol in Chonburi
CHONBURI — An aide said Wednesday the governor of Chonburi province won’t resign as demanded by protesters angry at his handling of last week’s royal funeral ceremony.
Pakarathon Tienchai, who the junta appointed to his post a year ago, is under fire for making mourners wait in line for up to eight hours to pay their respect to King Bhumibol on Thursday, causing some elderly people to faint. Residents are planning a third day of protest today to call for his resignation.
“There is no plan to quit,” deputy governor Chaicharn Aiemjaroen said by phone. “He hasn’t done anything wrong.”
While an elaborate ceremony to mark King Bhumibol’s cremation took place in Bangkok, mourners in other provinces including Chonburi paid their respect by laying down funeral sandalwood flowers at replica crematoria across the country.
Complaints of queues as long as eight hours and people fainting in the heat soon flooded social media. An online petition also criticized the decision to let bureaucrats pay respect before the public and questioned whether a reported budget of 20 million baht was properly spent.
“You let the public stand under the sun without any shade,” read a petition submitted to Change.org website. “You prohibited the public from taking selfies, but why were the white-clothed bureaucrats taking selfies?”
After the royal cremation was over, more than 300 angry residents staged a protest Friday and Tuesday in front of the City Hall. Chaicharn said he’s been informed the protesters are planning to return Wednesday night.
Pakarathon could not be reached for comment Wednesday but acknowledged in media interviews that the delays were caused by mismanagement.
Nevertheless, he maintained that he let civil servants pay their respect first because it’s the protocol he received from Bangkok.
Pakarathon met with some of the protesters Tuesday night in an effort to mediate the issue. Speaking to the protesters, the governor said he requested 20 million baht from the government but only got 2 million to organize Thursday’s ceremony. He also reiterated his apology for the hours-long wait.
Many present at the protest were not satisfied.
“Get out! Get out!” some of the protesters were heard shouting.
Asked whether the provincial authority would take action against the demonstrators for violating the junta’s ban on protests, deputy governor Chaicharn said the decision was up to a local military unit.
“The 14th Army Circle is holding a situation meeting,” he said.
Chonburi isn’t the only province hit by controversy over alleged mismanagement of the royal funeral. The governor of Nonthaburi, the suburban city just north of Bangkok, was likewise criticized by residents for making mourners wait for hours on Thursday.
Responding to the torrent of complaints, governor Panu Yamsri wrote online that he apologized for the delay and pledged to “do better next time,” further inflaming the issue.
BANGKOK — The country’s storied click-clacking bus conductors moved closer to extinction Wednesday with installation of the first batch of electronic fare machines.
On Wednesday, 100 non-airconditioned buses in and around Bangkok are running with card-readers which will accept the junta’s new welfare cards, which come with 500 baht of transportation credit that is refilled monthly.
The new system also heralds the end – after nine years and four governments – of free bus and train services, a key plank in what had been the former People’s Power Party’s welfare policy.
The buses with the new systems have green signs in the front window. Conductors will remain on the buses for now before they are phased out.
The roll-out is a month behind schedule. Earlier this year, the Transport Ministry said it hoped to have them installed on at least 800 of Bangkok’s roughly 2,600 buses by year’s end.
BANGKOK — The former lead singer of Oasis and modern Brit rock legend Liam Gallagher is coming to town for a January concert, organizers announced Wednesday morning.
Liam Gallagher will play BITEC Bang Na Hall 106, promoter The Very Company announced.
Advance ticketsgo on sale Nov. 11 for 3,200 baht before increasing to 3,600. VIP tickets near the stage cost 4,600 baht.
Gallagher sang for Oasis from 1991 with Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan, Tony McCarroll and Liam’s older brother Noel Gallagher until the band’s dissolution in 2009. Liam Gallagher and his band, then called Beady Eye, performed until 2014 before disbanding. In October he released his solo album, “As You Were,” with the hit singles “Wall of Glass,” “Chinatown” and “For What It’s Worth.”
Artiwara ‘Toon’ Kongmalai takes a photo with fans at the outset of his charity run Wednesday morning in Yala province. Image: Kao Kon La Kao / Facebook
YALA — A rock star set out just after dawn Wednesday on a cross-country charity run that has fueled debate about the military government’s funding of public services.
Flanked by supporters handing him donations, Artiwara “Toon” Kongmalai, lead singer of rock band Bodyslam, started off on his “Step by Step for 11 Hospitals Across the Country” run Wednesday morning at the southern tip of Thailand in Betong, Yala. The 55-day run will end in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
“I don’t care if I die. Everyone has to go eventually, but if I did for this cause then it would be okay. I’ve put my mind to it,” Artiwara said in an interview Tuesday.
Artiwara’s efforts have largely been praised by Thais.
“In American superhero movies, there’s a hero who saves the country, so the people don’t have to beg and plead with the government. But here in Thailand, it’s a reality,” wrote user Ranning Tuay on Wednesday morning on Facebook. “You are the hero that saves Thailand…su su su su su!”
Some criticized the junta for allocating billions of baht toward weapons systems, spending which dwarfed the 2.7 billion baht budgeted for staffing, equipment and infrastructure at the nation’s hospital, according to Panpimol Wipulakorn, Health Ministry deputy director.
In April, it emerged that 18 state hospitals were bankrupt with debts in the hundreds of millions of baht.
Some even criticized Artiwara for stepping in to bail out the hospitals rather than leaving it to the military government.
“How long will you keep being stupid? Your run is an effort to erase the problems of the junta, and catering to the salims [derogatory word for junta supporters] who live their lives in a lavender field. This is a short-term solution, not a long-term one,” Sujane Kanparit, a magazine columnist, wrote online last month.
The military government has been on a shopping spree for the armed forces, spending nearly 50 billion baht on several big-ticket items.
This year alone, it ponied up 2.3 billion baht for APCs, 2 billion baht for 38 tanks and 36 billion baht for three submarines – all from China. In July, it announced it would spend 8.8 billion baht on South Korean combat aircraft.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan last month defended the junta’s spending, saying that funds for public services and military procurement were unrelated.
On the same day, Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said Artiwara was “not only exercising for his own health but doing good for the whole.”
“Why doesn’t [Prawit] do what P’Toon does? Roll around and ask for donations to buy weapons. Let’s see if anyone gives you anything,” Wachinon Jitsawat wrote on Facebook.
The charity run will span 2,191 kilometers and terminate at Chiang Rai’s northernmost point, the Mae Sae subdistrict, on Christmas Day.
The run, which began at 6am, had raised 40 million baht by noon. One of the top trending Twitter hashtags Wednesday morning was #StepByStep, the name of the run, as the social media platform flooded with messages of support for Artiwara.
Donations will go toward 11 public hospitals nationwide: Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, Nakornping Hospital in Chiang Mai, Chao Phraya Abhaibhubate Hospital in Prachinburi, Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, Chaophraya Yommarat Hospital in Suphan Buri, Ratchaburi Hospital, Yala Hospital, Surat Thani Hospital, Saraburi Hospital, Khon Kaen Hospital and Nan Hospital.
Artiwara will become the first person to make a charity run from the southernmost tip of Thailand to the northernmost. Other celebrities, such as actress Khemanit “Pancake” Jamikorn and Methee Arun of the band Labanoon, joined Artiwara in starting out this morning.
Artiwara asked each Thai person to donate 10 baht so that the total would be 700 million baht through a videoreleased by the charity’s Facebook page in October. In August, hefell down a drain while training for the run.
Artiwara first raised money in December 2016 for Bang Saphan Hospital in Prachuap Khiri Khan, where he used to live. He said he was inspired by its lack of equipment and facilities. He raised 85 million baht then in a 400-kilometer run.
Donations for Artiwara’s run can be made by messaging “T” to 4545099, transferring money to the charity’s account 111-393-5263, via PromptPay to 0994000005261 or at any 7-Eleven store.
His progress can be followed through charity Facebook page Kao Kon La Kao.
Charity runners in Yala’s Betong tambon Wednesday morning accompany Artiwara at the outset of his charity run.
Artiwara begins on his run Wednesday morning in Yala province.
Chris Hemsworth, left, and the Hulk in a scene from, "Thor: Ragnarok." Image: Associated Press
In the stand-alone films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor always seemed to get the short end of the stick. The Thor films were never as popular as Iron Man, and didn’t gain steam like Captain America. They were perhaps a little too serious and a little too dull – none of which was the fault of star Chris Hemsworth, whose performances in the role have been so seamless and charming that he almost doesn’t get enough credit.
But “Thor: Ragnarok” has been touted as a different take on the God of Thunder. Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Co. signed up a voice-y director in New Zealand’s Taika Waititi, whose riotous vampire mockumentary “What We Do In The Shadows” displayed a unique comedic sensibility. They took away Thor’s hammer, gave him a haircut, added some Led Zeppelin and told the set designer the more neon rainbows the better.
The results are pretty decent, though perhaps not the total departure that had been hyped.
The bones of the story are preposterous as ever. It turns out Thor has a long lost older sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett), who his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins, who appears to have shot for about two hours) locked away because she was so dangerous. An event happens that releases Hela to the world. She’s really strong, like stronger than Thor strong, and really angry and basically punches Thor into another dimension and she heads off to Asgard to take the throne.
The movie literally splits in two at this point. Poor Blanchett, who has gone full vamp as Hela, is good as always but how lame it must be to be in the “fun” Thor movie and have to play one of the most blandly written villains ever. While she’s off waging her deathly serious takeover, Thor gets to join an irreverent comedy sideshow on the planet Sakaar – a sort of wasteland at the end of the universe run by a Grade-A weirdo who calls himself Grandmaster, played, fittingly, by Jeff Goldblum.
It’s this section that is pretty amusing and where Waititi’s irreverence really gets to shine with pratfalls and witty writing. It’s no surprise that this is right up Goldblum’s alley, but the real delight is Hemsworth who knows just how to subvert the Thor character without turning him into a total mockery. He’s a real comedic talent, which audiences got a taste of in “Ghostbusters.” And Tessa Thompson is fantastic as Valkyrie, a hard drinkin’ fighter with a secret past she’d rather forget.
I imagine “Thor: Ragnarok” is one that might improve on subsequent viewings, when you have a chance to relax with the jokes divorced from the pressure of juggling the silly/serious plot. But it’s a fairly flawed movie on the whole with egregious tonal shifts. Some of the gags go on too long with the Hulk with too little payoff and sometimes it seems as though there’s a mandate that every 25 minutes there will be a big fight no matter what. One particular army of the dead sequence seemed like it could have been lifted from a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie – which is not the most flattering comparison.
While Waititi’s energy and wit is apparent in the film, it still feels as though he had to operate from the same Marvel “base flavor” and was allowed on occasion to sprinkle a few of his own original toppings on.
“Thor: Ragnarok” is the most fun of the Thor movies by a long shot, but it is still very much a Thor movie for better or worse.
“Thor,” a Walt Disney Studios release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and brief suggestive material.” Running time: 130 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Britain's Prince Charles inspects honor guards during a welcome ceremony at the Istana or Presidential Palace on Tuesday in Singapore. Photo: Yong Teck Lim / Associated Press
SINGAPORE — Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, were welcomed to Singapore on Tuesday, the first stop of an 11-day trip to strengthen ties between Britain and Asian countries.
They received a ceremonial welcome on their arrival to the Southeast Asian island nation, a former British colony where they were to have an orchid named after them and attend several community events. Charles, the heir to the British throne, last visited Singapore in 1979.
“It is a matter of great pride that as Singapore has flourished over the decades, so has her friendship with the United Kingdom,” Charles said at a state banquet hosted by Singapore President Halimah Yacob.
Charles also met Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and laid a wreath at the Cenotaph, which honors soldiers who died during World Wars I and II.
A handwritten card left by the prince read: “In grateful remembrance of your service and sacrifice – Charles.”
Singapore was a valuable trading port still under British rule when Japanese troops moved swiftly down the Malay Peninsula in early 1942. Thousands of soldiers from countries such as Britain, Australia and New Zealand were killed in the fighting and on Feb. 15, 1942, British Lt.-Gen. Arthur Ernest Percival surrendered Singapore and hostilities ceased.
Though the British returned after the war, locals pushed for self-rule and Singapore gained independence in 1965.
“We have prospered together,” Charles said at the state banquet. “We have suffered together too.”
He added: “Today, ours is a close partnership of equals, underpinned by our shared history.”
Singapore’s president noted that the 40,000-strong British community is the largest in Southeast Asia.
“They have become an integral part of the Singapore story with their many contributions. Our two countries enjoy a natural affinity due to our common history,” she said.
The royal couple leaves for Malaysia on Thursday. They’ll cap off their Asia tour with visits to Brunei and India.
British media reported that Myanmar was considered for the trip but was excluded from the itinerary. The mass exodus of hundreds of thousands of minority Muslim Rohingya amid violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has become a major humanitarian crisis, with Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi facing heavy international criticism.
