Iran, US Celebrate 'Rare' Chance at 'New Chapter' With Nuclear Deal

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18 January 2016, 11:03

Obama Speaks on Iran sanctions at White House in an undated picture. Photo: EPA / Jim Lo Scalzo

WASHINGTON — A whirlwind weekend of prisoner exchanges, reduced sanctions and confirmation that Tehran has degraded its nuclear program gives the US and Iran a "rare" chance to start a "new chapter", US and Iranian leaders said Sunday.

A vast array of Western sanctions targeting Iran were lifted on Saturday after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran had kept to its side of last year's landmark agreement with six major powers by significantly scaling down its nuclear programme.

Speaking separately on Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said they now see a path by which Iran could restore relations with the West.

"We have stretched our hands towards the world in a sign of friendship and begun a new chapter in our relations with the world after overcoming all the enmities, scepticism and schemes devised against us," Rowhani said in a statement.

Obama expressed similar sentiments later in a White House address.

"You have a rare chance to follow a new path. You have to take advantage of that," he said, addressing the young people of Iran. "We can make this world safer for our children and our grandchildren for generations to come."

On top of the confirmation about Iran's nuclear systems and the lifting of sanctions targeting that programme, the weekend also saw the United States lift a decades-old freeze that blocked Iranian access to funds held at U.S. institutions.

The freeze was implemented after the two countries broke off diplomatic ties in 1979 amid the Iranian Revolution, an event that saw militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold dozens of hostages for more than a year.

The deal, hammered out at a tribunal in the Hague, frees up USD$ 400 million (14.5 billion baht) and another USD$ 1.3 billion (47.2 billion baht) in interest, a figure that Obama referred to as a compromise that prevents Iran from seeking an even higher sum.

There is still more Iranian money locked up in U.S. accounts. Obama said negotiations on the additional sums would continue.

Rowhani said earlier Sunday that Iran had regained access to more than USD$ 100 billion (363.9 billion baht) in frozen assets.

Also Sunday, both sides confirmed the release Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who had been detained by Iran for more than a year on espionage charges, and several other prisoners.

"We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over," said Fred Ryan, the newspaper's publisher, in a statement.

Four US citizens were released from Iran and seven Iranians from the United States. Obama said none of the Iranians was being charged or investigated for terrorism. The U.S. confirmed that its citizens had left Iranian territory.

The weekend's swap came on the heels of Iran's quick release of 10 U.S. sailors who had been seized earlier in the week.

The U.S. president praised the steps taken over the weekend to ease tensions, which had been achieved with diplomacy while ensuring that Iran's nuclear programme is hobbled.

"Whereas Iran was steadily expanding its nuclear programme, we have now cut off every path it could have used to build them up," he said.

Prior to his election in 2013, Rowhani, the moderate leader of the Islamic republic, promised to negotiate away the sanctions, which included an embargo on economically vital oil and gas exports.

Predicting an economic boom in the coming years, Rowhani promised Iranian youth that new opportunities will be created as Iran enters the "world economy orbit."

In his statement, Rowhani said that Iran was ready to relegate years of acrimony with the West to the past.

"We do not pose any threat to nations and governments. We are fully ready to protect Iran but we are also the messenger of peace, stability and security in the region and the world," he said.

While praising the deal for putting restraints on any Iranian nuclear ambition, Obama also seemed ready to accept the hand of friendship.

"We've achieved this historic result through diplomacy, without resorting to another war in the Middle East," he noted.

Obama added that the United States would remain vigilant of Iranian ambitions in the region, where the country backs rebel forces in Yemen and the regime in Syria against an array of opponents, some of whom had called for greater democracy there.

"We remain steadfast in opposing Iran's effort to destabilize elsewhere," said Obama, noting that some U.S. sanctions will remain on Iran, particularly for its ballistic missile programme and the country's human rights violations.

Story: DPA / Farshid Motahari and Niels C Sorrells

Shinawatras Defy Junta With Publicity Drive

By

Reuters

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18 January 2016, 10:23

A New Year calendar showing a picture of former Prime Ministers Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra hangs Jan. 6 inside a Bangkok restaurant. Photo: Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Andrew R.C. Marshall
Reuters

BANGKOK — Former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck are cranking up their promotional machines to reconnect with supporters in apparent defiance of the military that toppled their governments.

The publicity drive, which includes a cooking display by Yingluck Shinawatra and the distribution of free books, could signal the family's intention to one day return to power, one expert said.

Yingluck, who was overthrown in 2014 by the junta that has ruled Thailand since then, gave thousands of photo books about herself to journalists and diplomats as a New Year gift.

Her brother, deposed by the military 10 years ago, also sent a coffee table book called "Thaksin Shinawatra: Life and Times" to extol his achievements as prime minister.

Thailand's military has purged the bureaucracy of Shinawatra sympathizers and detained, monitored and restricted the movements of politicians loyal to the family.

Yingluck and Thaksin are despised by Thailand's military-backed royalist elite but they remain hugely popular in their traditional powerbase in the country's north and northeast.

Many analysts believe their Puea Thai Party would still easily win the next general election, which the junta has vowed to hold next year.

Their recent self-publicity is designed to reassure their base and needle their enemies, said Kan Yuenyong, an analyst with Siam Intelligence Unit, a Bangkok-based think tank.

"The Shinawatra family want to send a message to the elite and to their own followers: 'We're still here. We haven't disappeared'," he said.

The government has taken note. "Mr Thaksin's administration was leading Thailand into a political conflict," said a foreign affairs ministry statement about his book.

It noted Thaksin faced "serious allegations" of corruption and human rights abuses.

SALAD DRESSING

Yingluck welcomed reporters to her Bangkok home on Jan. 8 to show off her organic vegetable garden.

She then mixed up a salad dressing, throwing back her hair and smiling when a photographer called her prime minister.

She and her brother have also been active on social media.

Kan Yuenyong said the publicity drive was timed to coincide with what promises to be a testing year for the junta. It has struggled to energize Thailand's export-dependent economy and snuff out opposition to its rule.

The draft of a new constitution is due to be finished this month, paving the way for a 2017 election.

Neither Shinawatra can run but, with Yingluck's charm and Thaksin's money, they will likely fuel a Puea Thai Party campaign.

Thaksin, who remains one of Thailand's wealthiest people, fled into self-exile in 2008 to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.

Yingluck was impeached last year by a junta-appointed assembly and banned from politics for five years. She is currently on trial on criminal charges over corruption in a multi-billion-dollar rice subsidy scheme.

Authorities in northeast Thailand banned the distribution of thousands of 2016 calendars featuring Thaksin and Yingluck earlier this month.

"What's this calendar for?" Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief, asked reporters earlier this month.

"Can any criminal distribute a calendar with his face on it, then?"

Additional reporting by Patpicha Tanakasempipat

Related stories:

A Country Divided by a Calendar

Computer Crime Act Has Issues, Google Tells Censorship Committee

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Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

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18 January 2016, 09:00

BANGKOK — Internet search giant Google reportedly expressed concern that Thailand’s Computer Crime Act could interfere with its ability to operate in the kingdom.

Following a Friday meeting said to have been attended by representatives from Google Asia Pacific, committee spokesman Apichart Jongsakul said the company will send a letter outlining concerns about the vague use of the Computer Crime Act to the Media Reform Committee, which is tasked with gaining cooperation from companies such as Google to further internet censorship.

Despite expressing anxiety about the law’s ambiguity, the search engine company indicated it was willing to cooperate with Thai authorities and take down websites deemed illegal once a court order was issued, Apichart said.

Apichart said the Google reps, regional government affairs head Ann Lavin and lawyer Vivian Tan, said they’ve always responded to the requests from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and the Royal Thai Police.

The government committee said late last month that its Jan. 14 and Jan. 21 meetings with Google would be followed by ones with Facebook and messaging app Line at unspecified dates.

Soon after seizing power in the May 2014 coup, the junta dispatched officials including Maj. Gen. Pisit Pao-in, a former commander of the Technology Crimes Suppression Division, to Singapore and Japan in a failed bid to win the cooperation of all three companies in censoring and gaining access to users’ social media accounts.

The companies reportedly rejected their overtures, around the time the junta announced it would fence off Thailand’s internet by building its own “national gateway” through which it would route all traffic.

Pisit is now overseeing the committee’s renewed bid at winning cooperation from the internet multinationals. On Dec. 24, he said his committee would seek junta approval to use the absolute power it granted to itself under Article 44 to crack down on online media, especially that considered to affect national security and defame the monarchy.

In a number of cases, netizens and activists have been charged with sedition for criticizing the military government.

Media Reform Committee Weighs Article 44 for Crackdown on Online Media

Thai Net More ‘Not Free’ Due to Military Suppression: Freedom House

Navigating China’s New Silk Road

By

Project Syndicate

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17 January 2016, 18:25

By Liu MingKang and Wenzhi Lu
Project Syndicate

BEIJING – Since its introduction by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, the “one belt, one road” initiative – an ambitious plan to revitalize the ancient Silk Road overland and maritime trade routes linking East and West – has attracted considerable attention. And for good reason: The project, which involves more than 60 countries and quite a few international organizations, implies unprecedented opportunities – and challenges.

The original Silk Road, established more than 2,000 years ago, was a critical network of trade routes that promoted economic, political, and cultural exchange among Asia, Africa, and Europe. China’s new “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “Twenty-First Century Maritime Silk Road” will do the same, with newly built or upgraded infrastructure facilitating the flow of trade, investment, culture, and ideas – and thus supporting shared economic growth.

From China’s perspective, the logic behind the strategy is clear. With its sources of GDP growth coming under increasing strain, China must continue to make progress in opening up the economy. That means building mutually beneficial relationships with neighboring countries, which can benefit by taking over some of China’s lower-value-added activities. That promises to boost their own growth while creating space for the Chinese economy to move up the value chain, where productivity and wages – important determinants of consumption – are higher.

China has already laid the groundwork for these relationships, strengthening economic cooperation and trade with countries along the “belt and road.” It has also spearheaded the creation of multilateral institutions – notably, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank – to support the investment projects.

China’s comparative advantages, including a global financial center in Hong Kong and a regional financial center in Shanghai, reinforce its leadership role. Add to that the recent surge in fast-growing, innovative companies – such as Huawei, Alibaba, and Wanda – and China is well placed to implement Xi’s ambitious vision.

But it will not be smooth sailing. Like any cross-border initiative, the “one belt, one road” initiative will require wise diplomacy to manage relationships with diverse countries and careful planning to scale up effectively.

Each country along the “belt and road” faces a unique combination of risks and challenges. Many face macroeconomic risks, owing to exchange-rate volatility, large debt burdens, and non-diversified, unsustainable economic structures. On the microeconomic level, risks include, for example, weak banking sectors.

Governance failures, ranging from corruption to inefficient implementation of reforms, also pose a serious challenge, as do social and political tensions (and, in some areas, the threat of terrorism). And one must not forget the ever-present risk of natural disasters, exacerbated by climate change.

Then there are the complex and varied laws, rules, and regulations shaping the business environment in each country. Of course, it is virtually impossible for Chinese enterprises to understand fully each environment before entering it. But any violation could put a company’s entire operation and investment at risk.

The challenges may be complex, but the formula for navigating them is simple. First and foremost, there can be no corruption, which would not only hurt the “one belt, one road” initiative, but would also undermine China’s ability to pursue other cross-border initiatives in the future. Second, no infrastructure project should be pursued without careful consideration of both its financial costs and benefits and its ecological impact, such as air pollution and destruction of ecosystems. Finally, all projects must be transparent and include effective checks and balances.

To reinforce this approach, the provision of financing for “belt and road” projects must adhere strictly to market rules. Given the scale of most investments, project finance – which is based on projected cash flows, rather than its sponsors’ balance sheets – will prove highly useful, as will effective risk-sharing mechanisms.

Furthermore, sponsors should look beyond a project’s construction to the achievement of its long-term objectives, such as ensuring profitability and managing its lasting impact on the local community and the environment. Consultants, lawyers, auditors, NGOs, and other entities with international experience can play a vital role in all of these efforts.

There are also practical steps that can be taken to mitigate specific risks. For example, to minimize the risks associated with operating in an unfamiliar regulatory and legislative environment, businesses should establish links in advance with a local entity to guide their activities.

China, as the leading promoter of the “one belt, one road” initiative, must take steps to ensure that businesses act responsibly. The central government will have to regulate and coordinate sub-national governments effectively, while working to ensure that competition is fair and constructive. At the same time, China should implement a well-designed training program that provides officials at all levels of government and entrepreneurs with basic information about operating abroad. And it should do more to spur the involvement of Hong Kong – which possesses major advantages in finance and logistics, information accessibility, talent recruitment, and implementation of the rule of law – in the initiative. Last but not the least, the central government needs to strengthen the guidance of crisis management and exit strategies.

Realizing the “one belt, one road” initiative will not be easy. But China has all of the tools it needs to succeed. As long as it uses them in a way that is clean, green, and transparent, China and its neighbors will reap vast rewards.

Liu Mingkang, a former chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, is BCT Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Global Economics and Finance at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Distinguished Fellow for the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong.

In Reversal, Tourists Accused of Running Scam

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Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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17 January 2016, 17:57

Pattaya beach in a December 2014 file photo.

By Teeranai Charuvastra
Staff Reporter

PATTAYA — Two men from China were enjoying a seaside holiday near Pattaya last week when a local vendor selling leather bags approached them. The man made them a simple offer: buy his bags or get punched, so fearing for their lives – as they would later tell police – they paid 12,000 baht to buy the bags.

It’s a scam familiar to those who know Pattaya. But in this case, police said it could be the Chinese tourists who played the scam.

According to the vendor, he never forced the tourists – 43-year-old Chen Lei and 45-year-old Xu Guangming – to buy his goods as the pair alleged. Police now believe the tourists made a false complaint to file an insurance claim – another practice that police say has become widespread in Pattaya.

“We believe it’s a case of a false complaint,” said Sukthat Pumpanmuang, commander of Pattaya City Police Station.

If true, it would be another type of racket to become somewhat common in a place with a reputation for scams. But instead of the usual complaints involving tourists getting shafted over jet skis, gems or taxi rides, it’s the tourists running the scam.

The two tourists from China initially told police Tuesday night they fell victim to the extortion while visiting Koh Larn, a nearby island. They said the vendor forced them to buy four leather bags.

Col. Sukthat said police searched the island for the perpetrator, and on Thursday arrested a merchant who fit the victims’ description. That man, 45-year-old Apicha Yenphukao, denied the accusation.

“He said he sold the bags to the tourists as normal. There was no intimidation,” Sukthat said Friday by telephone. “And now we couldn’t find the victims … We went to their hotel, but they already checked out. They’re probably back in China by now.”

Sukthat said his main reason for believing Apicha’s version of events is because the tourists did not seek help until 10pm that night, 10 hours after they said the incident took place.

Claim Game

Travel insurance service bought by foreign tourists generally covers events of theft, but claimants need to supply a full police report as evidence.

There have been occasional cases of insurance fraud in Pattaya, a popular tourist destination well-known for its seedy nightlife and high rate of crimes against foreigners.

On Feb. 5, an Australian tourist said he was robbed there but later confessed to inventing the story to file an insurance claim, according to police reports. Four months later, a Filipino was arrested under the same circumstances.

“We have a lot of those cases. It’s frequent,” Sukthat said. “Sometimes we catch them red-handed. CCTV footage didn’t show the crimes they claimed, so they confessed, and we arrested them right away and sent them to court.”

Asked whether the number of false complaints makes police skeptical of foreigners who report robberies, commander Sukthat said their judgment isn’t colored.

“No, we don’t treat them all as suspicious,” he said. “We investigate every complaint per normal procedure. We don’t have any preconceptions.”

Even more recently, on Wednesday, Pattaya police took in a Danish man who first claimed to have been robbed before admitting to making it up.

Police Col. Pramote Ngampradit said the Dane has been sent to stand trial for filing a false police report. It’s difficult to find out what happens to such cases after charges have been filed: Pramote said he’s unaware of the case’s disposition, a staff member at the Pattaya Circuit Court said they could not divulge any information per regulations, and the Danish Embassy in Bangkok did not respond to a request for comment.

“But I think he would just enter a guilty plea and let the court case end, because it would be easy for him that way,” Pramote said.

In at least one case, a British national who was initially charged with false complaint was later acquitted by the court. According to an interview with blogger Andrew Drummond, the Briton never made any false complaint, and police charged him with the crime out of language misunderstanding.

Academics to Expand Opposition to Junta

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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17 January 2016, 15:49

Anusorn Unno (speaking), dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, on Dec. 4 at Thammasat University. Photo: New Democracy Movement / Facebook

By Pravit Rojanaphruk
Senior Staff Writer

BANGKOK — Pro-democracy academics want to shift to a proactive stance in an attempt to restore some political rights amid concerns the junta may attempt to remain in power much longer.

Some 30 academics and NGO activists organized as “Thai Academics for Civil Rights” will meet Thursday through Saturday to review their role and come up with strategies and measures to push back against repression by the military junta against students and scholars.

“In the past we have always been in a state of reaction,” said Anusorn Unno, dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology.

Such measures could involve the setting up of people’s assembly to scrutinize the regime and engage in monthly deliberations of problems and potential solutions.

“What can we do to steal the agenda from the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)?” Anusorn said, referring to the formal name of the military junta which seized power in May 2014.

Anusorn said his group of academics, comprising about 400 lecturers both inside and outside Thailand, are best suited to support pro-democracy groups because they are accepted by society in general as having altruistic motives.

Anusorn said his group is counting on the growing disillusionment of groups which used to support the coup-makers, including medical doctors, NGO workers, rubber farmers and some members of the movement created to oust the former civilian government, the People’s Committee for Absolute Democracy with the King as Head of State, or PCAD.

“These people increasingly recognize that paving way for the military to seize power didn’t enable [the country] to progress,” he said. “It wasn’t that clear in the first year since the coup, but the dust has now settled.”

Ghosts of the Past

Anusorn is well aware that due to the past role of academics and students in overthrowing military dictators in 1970s and 1990s, the current military regime is wary of overreacting or using tactics that are overly repressive.

He believes the junta is concerned harsh repression of anti-coup students and academics could lead to a widespread uprising and their eventual demise, as has occurred in the past, and this has informed how they currently behave vis-a-vis toward students and academics.

Anusorn admitted however that the number of anti-coup student activists have dwindled so much compared to the past that they’re now been relegated to serving as just one of the groups opposing the junta.

“Students are just one of the voices now,” he said.

What’s more, said Anusorn, unlike during the Cold War, it’s no longer possible to expect anything like a mass revolution. Nevertheless, the United States and European Union are expected to continue piling pressure on the junta. Due to these factors, Anusorn rules out mass murder by the junta.

He said the goal for the anti-coup academics is to thus “continually raise the ceiling of society’s level of rejection of the junta.”

Anusorn said he’s aware that there’s a limit to the supposed absolute power of the military, and the group looks forward to mounting an offensive in the coming months.

“We must lift the ceiling of fear and keep moving,” he said, adding that this year might even mark the end of the junta.

“The support base of the regime is eroding and simmering conflicts which have been suppressed await to be reignited,” he said, adding that there has been no progress in national reconciliation, national reform, and now the junta itself is embroiled in corruption allegations over the construction of Rajabhakti Park.

“The NCPO can’t move forward. It can’t step back,” he said. “They are simply seeking to keep themselves afloat.”

The junta insists they are asking for more time in power and “request” those who disapprove wait until a general election, currently promised by mid-2017, which Anusorn said makes no sense.

“The regime lacks legitimacy from the very start,” he said, adding that even those who entertained such an excuse are increasingly realizing the junta is not really solving any problems as it clings to power.

“You don’t have legitimacy to ask people to wait from the beginning,” he said. “What you did is to put a halt to [political] mayhem, but the same hatred is still simmering and waiting to resurface.”

Uncertain Outcome

Not all are convinced the plan will work out so easily.

“Some academics feel that it’s difficult to find ways to mount effective [moves],” said Pongkwan Sawasdipakd, a Thammasat University political scientist, sounding frustrated. “I don’t know what we can do more than just issuing statements only to find they are ineffectual. … There should be a better strategy than just issuing statements.”

Pongkwan, who is publicly against the junta but not a member of the network, said there’s also disagreement between older and younger generations of anti-coup academics on how to move forward, and many members are just too individualist.

Himself participating in an anti-junta video clip last year, Pongkwan said it’s unrealistic to expect the junta will be ousted by revolt.

“I personally think it’s difficult if we want to oust [the junta],” she said. “They’re clearly in power. Ousting [the junta] requires conflict within the ruling class.”

Taking a realistic yet optimistic approach is Barame Chairat, a member of the network and coordinator of Assembly of the Poor, an NGO which seeks to engage historically marginalized communities in development processes affecting them.

“I agree that we need to launch an offensive because we have been on the receiving end so far,” Barame said. “If we don’t do this, more will suffer.”

Baramee acknowledge that kicking the junta out can’t be done by academics, and the task is up to the masses. Academics and NGO workers like himself can provide the public with information that could convince people to act, however. At the same time he played down the disagreement among pro-democracy academics, saying it’s a normal thing.

“If we do something, move forward, we can build legitimacy, and other academics who are less vocal will eventually join,” he said.

There is a big caveat, however.

“I think [the junta] will try to stay in power as long as they can. And I don’t think until the middle of next year but eight to 10 more years,” he said. “So it’s our duty [to do something].”

To reach us about this article or another matter, please contact us by e-mail at: [email protected].

Follow Khaosod English on and Twitter for news, politics and more from Thailand.

Academics to Expand Opposition to Junta

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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17 January 2016, 15:49

Rangsiman Rome, a student member of the New Democracy Movement at right, presents a prop bullet- and possibly zombie-proof vest to Anusorn Unno, dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology on Dec. 4 at Thammasat University. Photo: New Democracy Movement / Facebook<br /> — Rangsiman Rome, a student member of the New Democracy Movement at right, presents a prop bullet- and possibly zombie-proof vest to Anusorn Unno, dean of Thammasat University’s Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology on Dec. 4 at Thammasat University. Photo: New Democracy Movement / Facebook