As clandestine migrant labour is an enormous issue in Thailand, a key challenge is how to address the issue effectively and humanely.
Globalisation implies a greater integration of the international system from the angle of faster communications and information, and greater liberalisation of trade in goods, services, capital and investment flows.
However, a recurrent question is to what extent globalisation enables migration to take place in an orderly and balanced manner, with due regard to the rights of migrant workers, especially women who now constitute a large part of the work force?
Currently, the answer is somewhat ambiguous in that today's global system seems more ready to liberalise the flows of goods, services, capital and investment,rather than migration itself which is often seen as a challenge to national sovereignty and ethnic sensibility. The rules and agreements which have been evolved under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), an organisation closely linked with globalisation, have confirmed that trend.
In this context, it is necessary to see the migration issue from three angles:white collar workers (skilled labour), blue collar workers (unskilled labour) and "no collar workers," namely those who cross borders clandestinely and who often land up in exploitative situations.
White collar workers can cross borders to work in other countries quite easily,and under the WTO, this often takes place under the umbrella of opening up markets to services, thus enabling women executives and skilled workers to provide services in other countries.
With regard to blue collar workers,there are large numbers working outside their country of origin, such as maids.The arrangements are at times bilateral,at times regional. Multilaterally, while a comprehensive agreement is lacking on the liberalisation of migration flows, there are some international standards in the form of treaties which offer protection to those on the move by safeguarding their rights; these have been propelled particularly by the United Nations, in particular through the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as a specialised agency.
Yet the scenario facing women migrants is precarious for a number of reasons. First, increasingly it is evident there is a feminisation of thelabour flows,with women landing up in many jobs which exemplify the 3 D's of work dirty, dangerous and degrading. The Progress of the World's Women Report 2008-09 observes that over the last decade, more than 200 million women have joined the global labour force, and they often land up in labour-intensive and low-paying activities such as subsistence agriculture, domestic work and the clothing industry. Employers see women workers as free from the "fixed costs" of an organised labour force, such as basic minimum wages - particularly equal pay for equal work and social security guarantees. Women are thus more susceptible to discrimination and exploitation.
Second, many countries have shied away from becoming parties to international treaties for the protection of migrant labour, thus preferring to retain their discretion in dealing with migration issues without international scrutiny.In particular, there have been few accessions to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their families. This treaty guarantees the basic rights of all migrant workers whether they are documented or undocumented.While documented workers are guaranteed more rights than undocumented workers, the latter still enjoy key rights under the treaty such as the right to life and humane treatment and their right to seek redress, such as payment for their work even if they are part of the illegal migrant labour. The lack of accessions to this treaty testifies to the lack of political will globally to liberalise migration flows with safeguards for migrant welfare, even though many countries are short of workers and have to import foreign labour.
Third, in the debate concerning whether to open up to migration, the environment behind the migration should not be overlooked. Often it is the lack of choice in their homesteads lack of opportunities, lack of income,lack of access to jobs and other productive activities which push people to leave and to seek opportunities elsewhere.This is particularly poignant for women who, more often than not, trail behind men in the availability of choices and accessibility to livelihood.
Fourth, regionally many Free Trade Areas (FTAs) have come into existence,opening up markets to trade in goods,services and capital. While white collar workers have benefited from this, blue collar and no collar workers are in a more tenuous situation.
Several export processing zones (EPZ)have grown which offer the benefits of easier trade, but without concurrent guarantees of labour rights. This has meant the lowering of labour standards on minimum wages for work and respect for worker rights, particularly women. More-over, there has been little assessment of how FTAs impact on women in the localities in general and women migrant workers in particular. In one Caribbean country noted by the Progress of the World's Women Report, it has been shown that job losses outweighed the benefits from the FTA, with women losing out in the process.
Fifth, Thailand has faced the migration issue particularly by opting for the registration of foreign migrant labour and concluding bilateral a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with all of its immediate neighbours. These MOUs are based on the premise that migrants can enter Thailand to work if there is a labour shortage in relation to relevant sectors and there is an official channel for them to come into the country through official channels in neighbouring countries. If they enter legally and pay the relevant contributions, they have access to medical and other benefits as part of the social security programme offered by the destination country. However, as clandestine migrant labour is an enormous issue in the country, a key challenge is how to address the issue effectively and humanely.
In addition to the prescription of registration of migrant labour introduced by Thailand several years ago, there is now a new law on the employment of alien workers. In 2008, this new law came into effect, with the innovation that unlike previous national laws which listed various types of work in which foreign labour could not be engaged, the new law will list the types of activities open to foreign labour. Employers and foreign employees must also make contributions into a fund which will be used to assist foreign migrant workers to return to their country of origin. However, one anomaly is that law enforcers will be able to arrest foreign migrant workers without a court warrant.
On another front, it should be noted that the Labour Protection Act which was updated also in 2008, does not discriminate between Thais and foreigners in terms of labour rights protection. They all have a right to equal wages. Women and adolescent workers are protected from various types of harmful work. The minimum age of employment is set at 15, while there is protection of those under 18 years of age from certain kinds of dangerous work.
To counter the exploitation and abuse which may affect workers, there are also special laws and policies, such as the law against human trafficking which came into force last year, and the antiprostitution law. The country's new National Health Act also opens the door to covering migrant workers in relation to healthcare access. Yet, in spite of these legislative changes, implementation often leaves much to be desired and there is a considerable gap between law and practice, legislation and enforcement.
For the future, various orientations deserve to be highlighted with particular emphasis on the protection of women migrant workers. At the multilateral level,the WTO should be encouraged to promote a sense of responsiveness to labour standards. This can be done, in part, by requesting states which send in their reports under the Trade Policy Review mechanism to include information on labour rights.
Countries should also sign up to the 1990 Migrant Workers' Convention as well as ILO Conventions, while ensuring that EPZs do not lower labour standards.Various anti-crime treaties such as the Palermo Protocol against human trafficking also voice the need for more global cooperation against transnational crimes.
At the regional level, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) itself should underline more effectively the need to protect migrant labour. On a welcome front, recently Asean adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Migrant Workers. Next month, the Asean Intergovernmental Human Rights Commission will also be set up as the overarching body on human rights in Asean. A related issue is to ensure that the Asean FTA is assessed from the angle of its impact on the situation of local and migrant labourers, with relevant remedies.
Likewise, bilateral agreements on migrant labour in Asean need to abide by international labour standards. Various practices such as the caning of labourers and the expulsion of women migrant labourers who wish to marry the residents of the destination country, are unacceptable practices.
With regard to Thailand, the country should accede to the 1990 Migrant Workers' Convention and relevant ILO treaties and implement them well.Undocumented migrant labourers should be assisted to access the remuneration to which they are entitled as part of access to justice.
The new law on the employment of alien workers should also be applied to uphold human rights standards, such as the general principle that arrests should only by undertaken with court warrants. Legal and other measures in the anti-crime field, such as those against human trafficking, should abide by the need for gender sensibility and the protection of victims and witnesses from intimidation.
In effect, a key message from the phenomenon of women migrant workers is that "Justice based on Women's Rights"should be increasingly resonant both locally and globally.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor of Law at Chulalongkorn University. He has helped the UN in a variety of capacities, including as an expert, consultant and Special Rapporteur. This article is derived from his speech at the National Platform for Women,Bangkok, Sept 17,2009.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Death to the death penalty
Late last month, on a quiet Monday afternoon,warders locked down Bang Khwang prison and prepared for two executions. A pair of convicted drug dealers, Bundit Charoenwanich,45, and Jirawat Phumpruek,52, were given one hour to contact their families, eat a last meal and make their peace in this world. Then they were taken to the execution room and injected with a series of drugs, the last of which ended their lives.
It was the first time in six years that authorities had ordered an actual execution. They should be the last such prisoners to die by execution. It is time that Parliament and the government end all use of the death penalty.
There are several problems with judicial executions,and no acceptable advantage. Carrying out a death sentence always risks the chance of killing the wrong person. Police, prosecutors and courts are dedicated and efficient, but not infallible. There have been plenty of wrongful convictions over the decades of Thai justice.If even one death sentence is wrongfully carried out,the death would be on the conscience of the nation. A wrongful conviction already takes months or years from an innocent person's life. Nothing could be worse than taking his or her life.
The main reason to abolish the death penalty for terrible crimes is that it brings no true result. Justice and punishment, in the form of imprisonment, parole or work programmes, are meant to prevent further crime. To an extent, they work. While many criminals continue their ways after release, others "go straight"so that they can live freely, without worry about being imprisoned. Crimes are prevented daily by the presence of police and the courts, as would-be robbers, speeders,thieves and others stick to the law in order to avoid punishment.
Study after study over the past 50 years has proved that the death sentence is no deterrent to the terrible crimes it punishes, such as drug trafficking, premeditated murder, violent and sexual abuse of children. While proponents of the death penalty argue facetiously that execution will assure that such criminals do not carry out their acts again, there are many ways to assure that.Indeed, no rational person would accept the end of the death penalty without parallel assurances that such violent acts against society can be punished by true life imprisonment, without early release.
Abolishing the death penalty in Thailand will be an unpopular act by the government, without doubt. Even in advanced Western countries, the majority of citizens always have opposed the abolition of the ultimate penalty. Yet such abolition around the world, from Canada to Cambodia, and from Austria to Australia,has never caused an upsurge of any kind in capital crimes. If anything, the threat of lengthy, even lifetime incarceration seems to be a greater deterrent than the former death penalty. Indeed, in recent cases in the United States, federal prisoners in so-called Supermax prisons have sued the government against their lifetime sentences under harsh, maximum security rules.
The only remaining argument in favour - that it provides an emotional release of sorts for victims and a horrified public - is unacceptable. Justice is not a form of vengeance, like some feel-good ending to a movie. Law and punishment are serious matters.
Last year, a majority of the United Nations General Assembly voted for the first time to oppose the death penalty. For now, the government should order a true moratorium banning more executions, pending a rewrite of the criminal code to ban the death penalty altogether.
It was the first time in six years that authorities had ordered an actual execution. They should be the last such prisoners to die by execution. It is time that Parliament and the government end all use of the death penalty.
There are several problems with judicial executions,and no acceptable advantage. Carrying out a death sentence always risks the chance of killing the wrong person. Police, prosecutors and courts are dedicated and efficient, but not infallible. There have been plenty of wrongful convictions over the decades of Thai justice.If even one death sentence is wrongfully carried out,the death would be on the conscience of the nation. A wrongful conviction already takes months or years from an innocent person's life. Nothing could be worse than taking his or her life.
The main reason to abolish the death penalty for terrible crimes is that it brings no true result. Justice and punishment, in the form of imprisonment, parole or work programmes, are meant to prevent further crime. To an extent, they work. While many criminals continue their ways after release, others "go straight"so that they can live freely, without worry about being imprisoned. Crimes are prevented daily by the presence of police and the courts, as would-be robbers, speeders,thieves and others stick to the law in order to avoid punishment.
Study after study over the past 50 years has proved that the death sentence is no deterrent to the terrible crimes it punishes, such as drug trafficking, premeditated murder, violent and sexual abuse of children. While proponents of the death penalty argue facetiously that execution will assure that such criminals do not carry out their acts again, there are many ways to assure that.Indeed, no rational person would accept the end of the death penalty without parallel assurances that such violent acts against society can be punished by true life imprisonment, without early release.
Abolishing the death penalty in Thailand will be an unpopular act by the government, without doubt. Even in advanced Western countries, the majority of citizens always have opposed the abolition of the ultimate penalty. Yet such abolition around the world, from Canada to Cambodia, and from Austria to Australia,has never caused an upsurge of any kind in capital crimes. If anything, the threat of lengthy, even lifetime incarceration seems to be a greater deterrent than the former death penalty. Indeed, in recent cases in the United States, federal prisoners in so-called Supermax prisons have sued the government against their lifetime sentences under harsh, maximum security rules.
The only remaining argument in favour - that it provides an emotional release of sorts for victims and a horrified public - is unacceptable. Justice is not a form of vengeance, like some feel-good ending to a movie. Law and punishment are serious matters.
Last year, a majority of the United Nations General Assembly voted for the first time to oppose the death penalty. For now, the government should order a true moratorium banning more executions, pending a rewrite of the criminal code to ban the death penalty altogether.
Prasopsuk backs PM on charter
Senate Speaker Prasopsuk Boondej has voiced support for Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's suggestion for former constitution drafters and academics to be recruited to vet the proposed six-point rewrite of the charter.
Mr Prasopsuk said the participation of the former members of two constitution drafting assemblies would ensure public input in the charter rewrite process.
He said the charter amendments could be completed within a few months if the government was serious about it.
A special parliamentary meeting could then be convened to screen the amendments when the House goes into recess in November, he said.
However, the speaker said it would be time-consuming if the amended constitution was put up for a referendum.There is no law governing a referendum on a new charter.
He said legislation could be sped up and completed within two months if the public wanted a referendum.
On Sunday, Mr Abhisit floated the idea of forming a fresh constitution drafting assembly to handle changes to the charter and the holding of a referendum.
He said the assembly should be made up of members of parliament, those who drew up the 1997 and present 2007 constitutions, scholars and experts.
Government chief whip Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the government whips would discuss charter amendments with the opposition and the senate whips tomorrow to reach an agreement before Mr Abhisit's return from overseas.
He said the charter rewrite should not take more than six months.
But Puea Thai Party MP Surapong Towihcakchaikul yesterday shot down the prime minister's proposed new charter drafting assembly suggestion.
He said the party would support only the six points offered by the charter reform and national reconciliation committee.
Mr Prasopsuk said the participation of the former members of two constitution drafting assemblies would ensure public input in the charter rewrite process.
He said the charter amendments could be completed within a few months if the government was serious about it.
A special parliamentary meeting could then be convened to screen the amendments when the House goes into recess in November, he said.
However, the speaker said it would be time-consuming if the amended constitution was put up for a referendum.There is no law governing a referendum on a new charter.
He said legislation could be sped up and completed within two months if the public wanted a referendum.
On Sunday, Mr Abhisit floated the idea of forming a fresh constitution drafting assembly to handle changes to the charter and the holding of a referendum.
He said the assembly should be made up of members of parliament, those who drew up the 1997 and present 2007 constitutions, scholars and experts.
Government chief whip Chinnaworn Boonyakiat said the government whips would discuss charter amendments with the opposition and the senate whips tomorrow to reach an agreement before Mr Abhisit's return from overseas.
He said the charter rewrite should not take more than six months.
But Puea Thai Party MP Surapong Towihcakchaikul yesterday shot down the prime minister's proposed new charter drafting assembly suggestion.
He said the party would support only the six points offered by the charter reform and national reconciliation committee.
Suthep lifts imposition of security act
The imposition of the Internal Security Act in Bangkok's Dusit district will be lifted today after the weekend's red shirt rally passed without violence.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of national security, yesterday said it was fortunate there was no violence during the demonstration led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.
The Internal Security Act had been invoked in Dusit district where the rally was held. The act took effect on Friday.
More than 20,000 anti-government UDD supporters gathered at the Royal
Plaza on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the Sept 19,2006, military coup that toppled the Thaksin Shinawatra administration.Demonstrators dispersed at midnight and there Suthep: Relieved were no violent there was no violence incidents.
Mr Suthep said members of the security forces manning Government House were now pulling out of the compound.
He said the government would decide whether to invoke the Internal Security Act to ensure security for the Asean summits in Phetchaburi's Cha-am district and Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district in late October.
Mr Suthep denied suggestions the government had been locked in a political tug-of-war with red shirt protesters.
Metropolitan police chief Worapong Chiewpreecha has issued an order lowering a security alert at the Royal Plaza to "normal" level and cutting the number of security forces in the area.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, who is in charge of national security, yesterday said it was fortunate there was no violence during the demonstration led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.
The Internal Security Act had been invoked in Dusit district where the rally was held. The act took effect on Friday.
More than 20,000 anti-government UDD supporters gathered at the Royal
Plaza on Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the Sept 19,2006, military coup that toppled the Thaksin Shinawatra administration.Demonstrators dispersed at midnight and there Suthep: Relieved were no violent there was no violence incidents.
Mr Suthep said members of the security forces manning Government House were now pulling out of the compound.
He said the government would decide whether to invoke the Internal Security Act to ensure security for the Asean summits in Phetchaburi's Cha-am district and Prachuap Khiri Khan's Hua Hin district in late October.
Mr Suthep denied suggestions the government had been locked in a political tug-of-war with red shirt protesters.
Metropolitan police chief Worapong Chiewpreecha has issued an order lowering a security alert at the Royal Plaza to "normal" level and cutting the number of security forces in the area.
Govt at odds with Senate over loan bill
A legal battle is brewing between the two houses of parliament that could hold up the government's efforts to borrow 400 billion baht to pay for its economic stimulus schemes.
The Senate has demanded that it be allowed to scrutinise a bill on the loans,but the government insists the Senate only has to be informed about the bill.
A majority of senators yesterday voted to support a special committee's recommendation that the Senate be allowed to vet the bill.
The government wanted the Senate to be informed about the bill but did not ask for it to be vetted.
The Senate plans to ask the Constitution Court to rule on whether the bill would be constitutional if the government does not give it to the upper house for scrutiny or to change some details.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij yesterday said the government had consulted the Council of State as to whether the Senate could vet the bill and make changes. The council ruled the Senate could not do so because it would be a violation of Article 171 of the constitution.
If the Senate insisted on approaching the Constitution Court, the government would lodge its own complaint with the court against the authority of the Senate,Mr Korn said.
If the Constitution Court blocks parliament's approval of the bill, the government will be unable to access the 400 billion baht in loans that it needs to stimulate the economy.
Mr Korn said the government really needed the bill to be passed into law to provide funding for the "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" stimulus scheme and for investment in the private sector.
He insisted the government would spend the 400 billion baht with transparency and in the best interest of the public. He expected the funds to be disbursed early next year.
The Senate has demanded that it be allowed to scrutinise a bill on the loans,but the government insists the Senate only has to be informed about the bill.
A majority of senators yesterday voted to support a special committee's recommendation that the Senate be allowed to vet the bill.
The government wanted the Senate to be informed about the bill but did not ask for it to be vetted.
The Senate plans to ask the Constitution Court to rule on whether the bill would be constitutional if the government does not give it to the upper house for scrutiny or to change some details.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij yesterday said the government had consulted the Council of State as to whether the Senate could vet the bill and make changes. The council ruled the Senate could not do so because it would be a violation of Article 171 of the constitution.
If the Senate insisted on approaching the Constitution Court, the government would lodge its own complaint with the court against the authority of the Senate,Mr Korn said.
If the Constitution Court blocks parliament's approval of the bill, the government will be unable to access the 400 billion baht in loans that it needs to stimulate the economy.
Mr Korn said the government really needed the bill to be passed into law to provide funding for the "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" stimulus scheme and for investment in the private sector.
He insisted the government would spend the 400 billion baht with transparency and in the best interest of the public. He expected the funds to be disbursed early next year.
"STERN ACTION NEEDED AGAINST DRUG DEALLERS"
Authorities concerned with a growing trade in the mild stimulant drug dimethylamphetamine, are considering amending the laws to place dealership in this drug into a higher category, making punishment as severe as that faced by yaba dealers.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Pipat Yingseri said yesterday traffickers in dimethylamphetamine faced a 20year jail term, whereas yaba dealers could receive either a life sentence or death.
He said many yaba addicts, if unable to find the drug, bought dimethylamphetamine and took it in higher doses to achieve the same effect as yaba.
The drug's price of Bt150Bt200 per tablet was the same as yaba, but as people needed to buy more, many dealers were turning to trade in it due to the higher profit, Pipat explained.
If more severe punishment was not introduced, dealers would shift to sell it or mix it with their yaba formula. Police reported that dimethylamphetamine trafficking now accounts for 10 per cent of national drug busts.
The FDA and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) have agreed dimethylamphetamine dealers should face punishment as severe as those selling yaba by lifting this drug into category 1, Pipat said.
Pipat said Public Health Minister Wittaya Kaewparadai had signed the regulation for such a change in February and sent it on to the Cabinet's secretariat for publication in the Royal Gazette.
However, FDA was notified in June the regulation had a format problem and suggested 34 other drugs promoted earlier should also be included in the regulation. FDA was working on the new law before resubmitting it to Public Health Minister, he explained.
Following the ministry's legal advice, Pipat said yesterday he had sent a letter calling on the secretariat to announce the regulation for implementation urgently.
Format changing could delay the process, in which the regulation must be scrutinised by the Psychotropic Substance Committee and the Narcotics Control Board, he said.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Pipat Yingseri said yesterday traffickers in dimethylamphetamine faced a 20year jail term, whereas yaba dealers could receive either a life sentence or death.
He said many yaba addicts, if unable to find the drug, bought dimethylamphetamine and took it in higher doses to achieve the same effect as yaba.
The drug's price of Bt150Bt200 per tablet was the same as yaba, but as people needed to buy more, many dealers were turning to trade in it due to the higher profit, Pipat explained.
If more severe punishment was not introduced, dealers would shift to sell it or mix it with their yaba formula. Police reported that dimethylamphetamine trafficking now accounts for 10 per cent of national drug busts.
The FDA and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) have agreed dimethylamphetamine dealers should face punishment as severe as those selling yaba by lifting this drug into category 1, Pipat said.
Pipat said Public Health Minister Wittaya Kaewparadai had signed the regulation for such a change in February and sent it on to the Cabinet's secretariat for publication in the Royal Gazette.
However, FDA was notified in June the regulation had a format problem and suggested 34 other drugs promoted earlier should also be included in the regulation. FDA was working on the new law before resubmitting it to Public Health Minister, he explained.
Following the ministry's legal advice, Pipat said yesterday he had sent a letter calling on the secretariat to announce the regulation for implementation urgently.
Format changing could delay the process, in which the regulation must be scrutinised by the Psychotropic Substance Committee and the Narcotics Control Board, he said.
PM backs charter panel, referendum for changes
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajia is proposing that a constitution drafting assembly be set up to handle changes to the constitution.
A public referendum could then be held to approve them, he said yesterday.
The prime minister told his weekly radio and television audience before leaving for the UN General Assembly in New York last night all parties and senators should try to find common ground on the issue.
They should come up with a single charter amendment draft which they could agree upon, which could then be tabled in parliament for a vote.
Presenting different versions of the draft could only lead to further conflicts,Mr Abhisit said.
After returning from the US, the prime minister will meet whips from the government, the opposition and the Senate to discuss what steps should be taken.
A charter drafting assembly may be formed to study and amend the constitution, he said.
He proposed that the assembly be made up of members of parliament,those who drew up the 1997 charter and the present 2007 charter, scholars and experts.
Mr Abhisit said this approach would open up the charter amendment process to public participation.
He said it did not matter whether the assembly sought amendments to charter provisions considered controversial or a rewrite of the whole constitution.
A referendum could be needed on the individual articles of the charter that are amended, the prime minister said.
"I believe this should yield results and there should be a timeframe to proceed with the matter," Mr Abhisit said.
He was explaining his position on efforts to seek amendments to the constitution and his ideas on how to approach the matter.
A parliamentary committee set up to study reconciliation, political reform and a rewrite of the constitution has come up with six recommendations.
It proposed amending charter pro-visions dealing with the selection of MPs and senators, a requirement for parliament to approve international contracts, the dissolution of parties,and intervention by MPs in the administration and budgeting of government projects.
Nakharin Mektrairat, dean of political science at Thammasat University,said a charter drafting assembly would be needed only if proposed amendments would lead to major changes.
A referendum would not be necessary as long as amendments were only proposed to certain provisions which are not controversial and would not affect the whole structure of the charter.
Holding a referendum to decide on provisions of lesser importance would be a waste of money, as referendums cost 2 billion baht to hold, he said.
"There is no need to set up a new charter drafting assembly," Mr Nakharin said."Parliament, which represents the public, can deal with the task of amending only a few provisions that would not be central to the charter."
Puea Pandin Party MP for Udon Thani and party secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn said members of parliament should lead the effort to amend the charter.
Mr Chaiyos said he supported a change back to single-seat constituencies.
The electoral system is a point of contention between the Democrat Party and its coalition partners in the government.
Many key members of the Democrat Party want to keep the electoral system featuring multi-seat constituencies for MPs.
But member parties of the coalition want to revert to a single-seat system.They argue that if multi-member constituencies stay in place, the opposition Puea Thai Party will continue to dominate the crucial Northeast region.
They say the single-seat constituency system, in which each constituency becomes smaller with just one seat up for grabs, would give them a chance to win more seats and defeat Puea Thai in the region.
Government chief whip Chinnaworn Bunyakiat said the government would discuss how to proceed, then hold talks with whips of the opposition Puea Thai Party and the Senate about the next steps.
He said the government wanted to ensure a unified approach to amending the charter.
A public referendum could then be held to approve them, he said yesterday.
The prime minister told his weekly radio and television audience before leaving for the UN General Assembly in New York last night all parties and senators should try to find common ground on the issue.
They should come up with a single charter amendment draft which they could agree upon, which could then be tabled in parliament for a vote.
Presenting different versions of the draft could only lead to further conflicts,Mr Abhisit said.
After returning from the US, the prime minister will meet whips from the government, the opposition and the Senate to discuss what steps should be taken.
A charter drafting assembly may be formed to study and amend the constitution, he said.
He proposed that the assembly be made up of members of parliament,those who drew up the 1997 charter and the present 2007 charter, scholars and experts.
Mr Abhisit said this approach would open up the charter amendment process to public participation.
He said it did not matter whether the assembly sought amendments to charter provisions considered controversial or a rewrite of the whole constitution.
A referendum could be needed on the individual articles of the charter that are amended, the prime minister said.
"I believe this should yield results and there should be a timeframe to proceed with the matter," Mr Abhisit said.
He was explaining his position on efforts to seek amendments to the constitution and his ideas on how to approach the matter.
A parliamentary committee set up to study reconciliation, political reform and a rewrite of the constitution has come up with six recommendations.
It proposed amending charter pro-visions dealing with the selection of MPs and senators, a requirement for parliament to approve international contracts, the dissolution of parties,and intervention by MPs in the administration and budgeting of government projects.
Nakharin Mektrairat, dean of political science at Thammasat University,said a charter drafting assembly would be needed only if proposed amendments would lead to major changes.
A referendum would not be necessary as long as amendments were only proposed to certain provisions which are not controversial and would not affect the whole structure of the charter.
Holding a referendum to decide on provisions of lesser importance would be a waste of money, as referendums cost 2 billion baht to hold, he said.
"There is no need to set up a new charter drafting assembly," Mr Nakharin said."Parliament, which represents the public, can deal with the task of amending only a few provisions that would not be central to the charter."
Puea Pandin Party MP for Udon Thani and party secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn said members of parliament should lead the effort to amend the charter.
Mr Chaiyos said he supported a change back to single-seat constituencies.
The electoral system is a point of contention between the Democrat Party and its coalition partners in the government.
Many key members of the Democrat Party want to keep the electoral system featuring multi-seat constituencies for MPs.
But member parties of the coalition want to revert to a single-seat system.They argue that if multi-member constituencies stay in place, the opposition Puea Thai Party will continue to dominate the crucial Northeast region.
They say the single-seat constituency system, in which each constituency becomes smaller with just one seat up for grabs, would give them a chance to win more seats and defeat Puea Thai in the region.
Government chief whip Chinnaworn Bunyakiat said the government would discuss how to proceed, then hold talks with whips of the opposition Puea Thai Party and the Senate about the next steps.
He said the government wanted to ensure a unified approach to amending the charter.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Deliberation of two bills
Two pieces of draft legislation would be submitted to parliament for deliberation in the government's attempt to establish an independent agency to protect consumer rights, said PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey.
Mr Sathit said there are currently two draft bills being considered.
One draft was proposed by the Consumer Protection Board which has already been vetted by the Council of State, the government's legal arm.
It will be forwarded along with the one drawn up by advocacy groups for deliberation.
The CPB-proposed draft contains some chapters which consumer advocacy groups do not agree with.
To address the disagreement, the government and the groups agreed to present both for a debate.
Mr Sathit said the two drafts would be submitted together for deliberation.The CPB-proposed draft would be the principal draft and the other a subordinate draft.
Mr Sathit said forwarding the CPB version as the main draft will ensure a speedy deliberation and hopefully the enactment of the bill.
Mr Sathit said there are currently two draft bills being considered.
One draft was proposed by the Consumer Protection Board which has already been vetted by the Council of State, the government's legal arm.
It will be forwarded along with the one drawn up by advocacy groups for deliberation.
The CPB-proposed draft contains some chapters which consumer advocacy groups do not agree with.
To address the disagreement, the government and the groups agreed to present both for a debate.
Mr Sathit said the two drafts would be submitted together for deliberation.The CPB-proposed draft would be the principal draft and the other a subordinate draft.
Mr Sathit said forwarding the CPB version as the main draft will ensure a speedy deliberation and hopefully the enactment of the bill.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Major parties poles apart on charter amendments
The second day of a joint parliamentary debate on proposals for national reconciliation, political reform and changes to the Constitution turned into a battle of words yesterday.
While the Democrats opposed most changes or said a new charter drafting assembly and the public should take part in any changes, Pheu Thai MPs said they had sufferred injustice in society and wanted "problems" fixed. They also claimed the Democrats sought to draw out the charter amendment process.
Khon Kaen Senator Prasert Prakhumsuksapan, meanwhile, suggested that MPs forgive each other and stop quarrelling.
He said the debate over charter changes was like a battle between the Democrats and Pheu Thai MPs. The rifts in society would only lead to another coup.
"It is now a game between Mr Democrat and Mr Pheu Thai competing for power. It will not end. Please don't say politicians are bad or always corrupt, [as] that would cause rifts," he said.
Democrat MPs such as Pusadee Tamtai, Rangsima Rodrasami and Jehrrming Tohtayong said the proposed charter amendments would not resolve political problems unless the mindset of politicians changed and they began to think of public interest, rather than personal interests.
Phattalung MP Nipit Intarasonbat said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva never said there would be no changes to the charter, but Parliament needed to study the issue.
"Now we have the report. But this charter was passed through national referendum. When we want to change it, why wouldn't we ask the public?" he said.
"If we don't ask the public, there will be no reconciliation."
Opposition chief whip Wittaya Buranasiri said each of the proposed changes to the Constitution deserved support.Such changes would create justice and fix problems and rifts in society.
"Many have agreed the laws need to be changed. As part of the Legislative Branch, we [legislators] have legal power. If anyone sees a problem and does not fix it, that's a vicious person, a person without responsibility. I don't want to be that kind of person," he said.
While the Democrats opposed most changes or said a new charter drafting assembly and the public should take part in any changes, Pheu Thai MPs said they had sufferred injustice in society and wanted "problems" fixed. They also claimed the Democrats sought to draw out the charter amendment process.
Khon Kaen Senator Prasert Prakhumsuksapan, meanwhile, suggested that MPs forgive each other and stop quarrelling.
He said the debate over charter changes was like a battle between the Democrats and Pheu Thai MPs. The rifts in society would only lead to another coup.
"It is now a game between Mr Democrat and Mr Pheu Thai competing for power. It will not end. Please don't say politicians are bad or always corrupt, [as] that would cause rifts," he said.
Democrat MPs such as Pusadee Tamtai, Rangsima Rodrasami and Jehrrming Tohtayong said the proposed charter amendments would not resolve political problems unless the mindset of politicians changed and they began to think of public interest, rather than personal interests.
Phattalung MP Nipit Intarasonbat said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva never said there would be no changes to the charter, but Parliament needed to study the issue.
"Now we have the report. But this charter was passed through national referendum. When we want to change it, why wouldn't we ask the public?" he said.
"If we don't ask the public, there will be no reconciliation."
Opposition chief whip Wittaya Buranasiri said each of the proposed changes to the Constitution deserved support.Such changes would create justice and fix problems and rifts in society.
"Many have agreed the laws need to be changed. As part of the Legislative Branch, we [legislators] have legal power. If anyone sees a problem and does not fix it, that's a vicious person, a person without responsibility. I don't want to be that kind of person," he said.
Friday, September 18, 2009
PUBLIC HEARING, HOUSE DEBATE AWAIT NEW PENSION SCHEME
The National Pension Fund, the country's new savings vehicle for workers not covered by the Social Security Fund and Government Pension Fund, would need to overcome several challenges before it could be implemented as planned early next year, Kasikorn Research Centre said recently.
After the Finance Ministry approved the draft of the National Pension Fund bill last month, the bill would be discussed at a public hearing tomorrow before being submitted to Parliament for deliberation.
The NPF is designed to provide welfare support and retirement funds for workers who are ineligible to join the GPF and SSF. They number 24 million25 million, representing about 70 per cent of total labour force. The new fund would also support public savings.
According to KResearch, the NPF faces several hurdles. First, whether the membership would be large enough. Regarding the government's estimate, if these informal workers subscribe in the first year of the fund, the initial fund size would be Bt40 billionBt50 billion.
Participation would be voluntary with a minimum contribution of Bt100 a month plus optional contributions of Bt100-Bt1,000. The government also would have the obligation to support the NPF with about Bt20 billion per year.
However, if there are too few members due to a lack of interest or lack of understanding about the benefits they would get from the fund, the size and growth of the fund would be small.
They might not have regular income, so they might not contribute in some months. The authorities should prepare some clear guidelines about compromising on the contribution continuity of members, the research house said.
The NPF is likely to set certain investment policies such as choosing lowrisk assets to ensure that members would get their benefits and also guarantee the contribution from the government.
This must also include a minimum return, which should be no less than oneyear deposit rates, or 0.651.0 per cent as of September 7, according to the average rates of four large banks.
Another concern is the criteria that the NPF would use to select the asset management companies to manage its investments. The NPF's investment policy committee would likely consider each fund manager's track record in operating results. Their management fees and charges for other services would also be considered.
Thus, the number of asset management firms working for the NPF would be fixed for competition and comparison among them as to which would benefit the members the most.
After the Finance Ministry approved the draft of the National Pension Fund bill last month, the bill would be discussed at a public hearing tomorrow before being submitted to Parliament for deliberation.
The NPF is designed to provide welfare support and retirement funds for workers who are ineligible to join the GPF and SSF. They number 24 million25 million, representing about 70 per cent of total labour force. The new fund would also support public savings.
According to KResearch, the NPF faces several hurdles. First, whether the membership would be large enough. Regarding the government's estimate, if these informal workers subscribe in the first year of the fund, the initial fund size would be Bt40 billionBt50 billion.
Participation would be voluntary with a minimum contribution of Bt100 a month plus optional contributions of Bt100-Bt1,000. The government also would have the obligation to support the NPF with about Bt20 billion per year.
However, if there are too few members due to a lack of interest or lack of understanding about the benefits they would get from the fund, the size and growth of the fund would be small.
They might not have regular income, so they might not contribute in some months. The authorities should prepare some clear guidelines about compromising on the contribution continuity of members, the research house said.
The NPF is likely to set certain investment policies such as choosing lowrisk assets to ensure that members would get their benefits and also guarantee the contribution from the government.
This must also include a minimum return, which should be no less than oneyear deposit rates, or 0.651.0 per cent as of September 7, according to the average rates of four large banks.
Another concern is the criteria that the NPF would use to select the asset management companies to manage its investments. The NPF's investment policy committee would likely consider each fund manager's track record in operating results. Their management fees and charges for other services would also be considered.
Thus, the number of asset management firms working for the NPF would be fixed for competition and comparison among them as to which would benefit the members the most.
CONCERTED MOVE AGAINST PIRACY, COPYING, ILLEGAL USE
Effective IP protection basis for creative economy - department
The Commerce Ministry has begun a large-scale crackdown on intellectual property violations in the software industry.
The Ministry has been directed to protect both local software companies and overseas companies whose products are sold here from piracy, illegal use and copying. It is moving to fully protect intellectual property (IP), legal software, copyright and software developers' authority of ownership.
It is also reviewing a draft of new copyright laws, developing an Asean Database on Patent Design and setting up a Patent Cooperation Treaty office for local businesses that want to apply for international patents.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the ministry had formed a National IP Policy Committee. Its function will be to protect IP of all kinds and promote this protection as a business benefit to companies operating in all fields, from traditional businesses to those operating on the Internet. Specifically, it will be fighting illegal operators who flout copyright laws.
The committee's responsibilities are divided into two main areas: promoting and protecting intellectual property.
In promoting IP, the committee will help individuals and businesses to develop products and services behind the shield of IP protection, so that these products and services can contribute to the government's creative-economy mission. It will work in 15 industrial sectors, including automotive, manufacturing and software.
It also plans to set up a subcommittee on the creative economy, to encourage local businesses to become involved in the Creative Thailand initiative and to support the government's Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) project.
Meanwhile, in its role of protecting IP, the national committee is in the process of submitting draft changes to copyright laws for Cabinet approval. The draft law sets out to extend IP protection to businesses operating on the Internet or conducting e-commerce.
The draft also proposes to punish Internet service providers involved in IP violations, landlords who provide locations and space to illegal Internet services and Internet Cafes that provide illegal services.
Alongkorn said the committee had also set up three subcommittees and working groups to investigate individuals and businesses believed to be operating in violation of IP laws. These included a subcommittee on prevention and suspicion of IP violation, a working group on investigation and suspicion and a working group on education and publications related to IP.
The deputy minister said his ministry was also planning to separate its IP Department and transform it into a service delivery unit, or intellectual property centre.
The IP Department has also developed various strategies to support the creative-economy mission. The protection of intellectual property is seen as a vital part of the foundation on which a creative economy will be built. In the next two years, the department plans not only to raise the country's competitiveness by encouraging the use of IP protection and enforcing the laws, but also to protect local wisdom as intellectual property and to provide funding to allow individuals and businesses to use IP to develop commercial products and services.
IP Department director-general Puangrat Asawaphisit said his department was also cooperating with authorities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to set up a prototype Asean Database on Patent Design so that participating countries will be able to search patent design in the region. The department plans to set up a trial of a local patent-design database early next year.
Puangrat said the department would also set up a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) office by the end of this month. The office will act as an agent, preparing the necessary translations and paying national fees for local people and businesses applying for international patent protection. It aims to encourage Thai inventors to seek international protection for their innovations. The services of the PCT office will be available early next year.
The department will also allow individuals and businesses to register and apply for local patents by Internet in the near future.
Meanwhile, the Business Software Alliance says illegal software and software piracy in Thailand has been reduced by 76 per cent, compared with levels three years ago, when 80 per cent of software was the product of piracy.
The Commerce Ministry has begun a large-scale crackdown on intellectual property violations in the software industry.
The Ministry has been directed to protect both local software companies and overseas companies whose products are sold here from piracy, illegal use and copying. It is moving to fully protect intellectual property (IP), legal software, copyright and software developers' authority of ownership.
It is also reviewing a draft of new copyright laws, developing an Asean Database on Patent Design and setting up a Patent Cooperation Treaty office for local businesses that want to apply for international patents.
Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said the ministry had formed a National IP Policy Committee. Its function will be to protect IP of all kinds and promote this protection as a business benefit to companies operating in all fields, from traditional businesses to those operating on the Internet. Specifically, it will be fighting illegal operators who flout copyright laws.
The committee's responsibilities are divided into two main areas: promoting and protecting intellectual property.
In promoting IP, the committee will help individuals and businesses to develop products and services behind the shield of IP protection, so that these products and services can contribute to the government's creative-economy mission. It will work in 15 industrial sectors, including automotive, manufacturing and software.
It also plans to set up a subcommittee on the creative economy, to encourage local businesses to become involved in the Creative Thailand initiative and to support the government's Thai Khemkhaeng (TKK) project.
Meanwhile, in its role of protecting IP, the national committee is in the process of submitting draft changes to copyright laws for Cabinet approval. The draft law sets out to extend IP protection to businesses operating on the Internet or conducting e-commerce.
The draft also proposes to punish Internet service providers involved in IP violations, landlords who provide locations and space to illegal Internet services and Internet Cafes that provide illegal services.
Alongkorn said the committee had also set up three subcommittees and working groups to investigate individuals and businesses believed to be operating in violation of IP laws. These included a subcommittee on prevention and suspicion of IP violation, a working group on investigation and suspicion and a working group on education and publications related to IP.
The deputy minister said his ministry was also planning to separate its IP Department and transform it into a service delivery unit, or intellectual property centre.
The IP Department has also developed various strategies to support the creative-economy mission. The protection of intellectual property is seen as a vital part of the foundation on which a creative economy will be built. In the next two years, the department plans not only to raise the country's competitiveness by encouraging the use of IP protection and enforcing the laws, but also to protect local wisdom as intellectual property and to provide funding to allow individuals and businesses to use IP to develop commercial products and services.
IP Department director-general Puangrat Asawaphisit said his department was also cooperating with authorities in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore to set up a prototype Asean Database on Patent Design so that participating countries will be able to search patent design in the region. The department plans to set up a trial of a local patent-design database early next year.
Puangrat said the department would also set up a Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) office by the end of this month. The office will act as an agent, preparing the necessary translations and paying national fees for local people and businesses applying for international patent protection. It aims to encourage Thai inventors to seek international protection for their innovations. The services of the PCT office will be available early next year.
The department will also allow individuals and businesses to register and apply for local patents by Internet in the near future.
Meanwhile, the Business Software Alliance says illegal software and software piracy in Thailand has been reduced by 76 per cent, compared with levels three years ago, when 80 per cent of software was the product of piracy.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Outrage as Aceh votes in "stoning" law
Rights activists yesterday condemned as "cruel and degrading" a new Islamic law calling for adulterers to be stoned to death in the country's staunchly conservative Aceh province.
The law, which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape,100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling, was passed unanimously on Monday by lawmakers in the region at the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
The law replaces parts of Indonesia's criminal code with sharia, or Islamic law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for married people and 100 lashes for unmarried people found guilty in cases of adultery.
"The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity," National Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim said.
The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia's law, Mr Kasim said, adding the rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the legislation.
"This will take Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like Aceh in the 14th or 15th centuries," Mr Kasim said, adding the law would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level.
The controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more moderate provincial assembly, dominated by the Aceh Party of ex-separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), is due to take power.
The administration of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, himself a former GAM fighter, is opposed to the strict sharia law, but has said it is powerless to stop the law, which will come into effect in 30 days with or without his signature.
"[The law] only deals with petty crimes, adulterers, but it doesn't deal with [significant crimes such as] corrupt officials," Human Rights Watch spokesman Andreas Harsono said.
"In our opinion it is against the principle of human rights," he said.
Human Rights Working Group head Rafendi Djamin said the punishments set out in the law were "humiliating and degrading" and a product of politicking among local leaders.
"They're more interested in private issues than issues of the wider public interest like corruption and measures to empower people who have been suffering in the wake of conflict," Mr Djamin said.
Arif Budimanta, a senior official of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, condemned the law despite its local members having supported it in the Aceh assembly."We are deeply concerned about this cruel law as it is against our national ideology and values of pluralism," he said.
Ma'ruf Amin, head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, Indonesia's top Islamic body, welcomed the new law.
"The Council supports sharia law in areas where it is allowed, like Aceh,which has special autonomy. It's not a matter of good or bad.
"For Muslims, sharia law is the best and can be implemented anytime, anywhere. As long as there is agreement from everyone, there's no problem,"Mr Amin said.
Aceh had previously adopted a milder form of sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at quelling local separatist sentiment. The sharia code enforced religious observation and offered lighter punishments, including caning, for gambling, drinking and association between unmarried members of the opposite sex.
Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, but it also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Confucian minorities.
The law, which also allows punishments of up to 400 lashes for child rape,100 lashes for homosexual acts and 60 lashes for gambling, was passed unanimously on Monday by lawmakers in the region at the northern tip of Sumatra Island.
The law replaces parts of Indonesia's criminal code with sharia, or Islamic law, for Muslims. It allows the death penalty for married people and 100 lashes for unmarried people found guilty in cases of adultery.
"The laws that have been approved in Aceh are cruel and degrading to humanity," National Commission on Human Rights head Ifdhal Kasim said.
The law undermines the secular basis of Indonesia's law, Mr Kasim said, adding the rights group was appealing to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to review the legislation.
"This will take Aceh back to the past. Throwing stones is like Aceh in the 14th or 15th centuries," Mr Kasim said, adding the law would likely embolden conservatives pushing for sharia on a national level.
The controversial legal change was passed in Aceh just weeks before a new, more moderate provincial assembly, dominated by the Aceh Party of ex-separatist fighters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), is due to take power.
The administration of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, himself a former GAM fighter, is opposed to the strict sharia law, but has said it is powerless to stop the law, which will come into effect in 30 days with or without his signature.
"[The law] only deals with petty crimes, adulterers, but it doesn't deal with [significant crimes such as] corrupt officials," Human Rights Watch spokesman Andreas Harsono said.
"In our opinion it is against the principle of human rights," he said.
Human Rights Working Group head Rafendi Djamin said the punishments set out in the law were "humiliating and degrading" and a product of politicking among local leaders.
"They're more interested in private issues than issues of the wider public interest like corruption and measures to empower people who have been suffering in the wake of conflict," Mr Djamin said.
Arif Budimanta, a senior official of the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, condemned the law despite its local members having supported it in the Aceh assembly."We are deeply concerned about this cruel law as it is against our national ideology and values of pluralism," he said.
Ma'ruf Amin, head of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, Indonesia's top Islamic body, welcomed the new law.
"The Council supports sharia law in areas where it is allowed, like Aceh,which has special autonomy. It's not a matter of good or bad.
"For Muslims, sharia law is the best and can be implemented anytime, anywhere. As long as there is agreement from everyone, there's no problem,"Mr Amin said.
Aceh had previously adopted a milder form of sharia law in 2001 as part of an autonomy package from Jakarta aimed at quelling local separatist sentiment. The sharia code enforced religious observation and offered lighter punishments, including caning, for gambling, drinking and association between unmarried members of the opposite sex.
Nearly 90% of Indonesia's 234 million people are Muslim, but it also has significant Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Confucian minorities.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Rule of law must prevail
For the second time in three weeks, the government faces the question of what to do about a planned rally by red shirt protesters.Unsurprisingly, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) has announced it intends to call on supporters to mark Saturday's third anniversary of the Sept 19,2006 military coup.
The rhetoric will be excited, the crowd will probably be large, and there is a chance the rally can get out of hand. This sort of problem has posed a question for successive governments because there is no law on crowd control. This government needs to address such a huge gap in the law.
When the red shirts gather on Saturday, there is a good chance that crowd control and surveillance will be handled once again by the military. The Internal Security Act, invoked needlessly three weeks ago, is likely to be brought into effect again this weekend. The ISA is a draconian action, putting all law enforcement in the hands of the Internal Security Operations Command - in effect, the army.
In fact, the ISA was advertised by its sponsors in 2007 as a measure that might never be used, but one which should be available to the government in case of massive civil disorder. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is likely to invoke the ISA this weekend for a second time even though there is no actual threat of violence.One may disagree with the premier's decision, but in the face of a large, hostile and unpredictable crowd,the government can argue it has little choice.
The root problem is that when a crowd goes wild,when a mob destroys property, when a speaker at a rally calls for an action that clearly violates public order, no law is broken. The police have no legal power to stop a rampaging mob from taking to the street and committing the sort of violence that Pattaya and then Bangkok witnessed during the Songkran holidays last April. Police absurdly have to try to prosecute such law-breakers under laws like the Traffic Management Act, or the Cleanliness Act, as if the worst act of violent mobs is to walk against a red light, or leave litter on the pathways.
When the ISA is invoked, authorities gain the power to decide when a mob is getting out of hand, and to deal with leaders who are inciting the group, or with violent members who are destroying property or attacking other people. The problem is that the actual rule of law is suspended. Soldiers replace police, military officers take the part of judges, and lawyers are not allowed to attend to the civil and legal rights of anyone who is detained.
Invoking the ISA brings heavy criticism, particularly from abroad. But pity the government, too, because it has the duty this coming weekend to protect the citizens of Bangkok from possible mob violence. The obvious answer is for the government to sponsor an actual crowd-control law, and for parliament to debate and pass it.
It should be an interesting debate, perhaps with public hearings, on how the right to free speech and public rallies can balance the right of the public to travel and not be inconvenienced by mob action.
Police then can assume their proper role of handling possible political turmoil under rule of law, and the ISA can be saved and used only, if ever, when violence is actually so far out of control that soldiers must be called in to quell large mobs.
If Mr Abhisit and his government do their jobs properly, this should be the last time the ISA has to be used.
The rhetoric will be excited, the crowd will probably be large, and there is a chance the rally can get out of hand. This sort of problem has posed a question for successive governments because there is no law on crowd control. This government needs to address such a huge gap in the law.
When the red shirts gather on Saturday, there is a good chance that crowd control and surveillance will be handled once again by the military. The Internal Security Act, invoked needlessly three weeks ago, is likely to be brought into effect again this weekend. The ISA is a draconian action, putting all law enforcement in the hands of the Internal Security Operations Command - in effect, the army.
In fact, the ISA was advertised by its sponsors in 2007 as a measure that might never be used, but one which should be available to the government in case of massive civil disorder. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is likely to invoke the ISA this weekend for a second time even though there is no actual threat of violence.One may disagree with the premier's decision, but in the face of a large, hostile and unpredictable crowd,the government can argue it has little choice.
The root problem is that when a crowd goes wild,when a mob destroys property, when a speaker at a rally calls for an action that clearly violates public order, no law is broken. The police have no legal power to stop a rampaging mob from taking to the street and committing the sort of violence that Pattaya and then Bangkok witnessed during the Songkran holidays last April. Police absurdly have to try to prosecute such law-breakers under laws like the Traffic Management Act, or the Cleanliness Act, as if the worst act of violent mobs is to walk against a red light, or leave litter on the pathways.
When the ISA is invoked, authorities gain the power to decide when a mob is getting out of hand, and to deal with leaders who are inciting the group, or with violent members who are destroying property or attacking other people. The problem is that the actual rule of law is suspended. Soldiers replace police, military officers take the part of judges, and lawyers are not allowed to attend to the civil and legal rights of anyone who is detained.
Invoking the ISA brings heavy criticism, particularly from abroad. But pity the government, too, because it has the duty this coming weekend to protect the citizens of Bangkok from possible mob violence. The obvious answer is for the government to sponsor an actual crowd-control law, and for parliament to debate and pass it.
It should be an interesting debate, perhaps with public hearings, on how the right to free speech and public rallies can balance the right of the public to travel and not be inconvenienced by mob action.
Police then can assume their proper role of handling possible political turmoil under rule of law, and the ISA can be saved and used only, if ever, when violence is actually so far out of control that soldiers must be called in to quell large mobs.
If Mr Abhisit and his government do their jobs properly, this should be the last time the ISA has to be used.
Friday, September 11, 2009
New sex-change regulations to come into effect on Nov 29
From November 29, the Medical Council of Thailand will strictly enforce new regulations allowing only those transgendered people aged over 18 to undergo a sexchange operation, secretarygeneral Dr Samphan Komrit said yesterday.
Transgendered people aged 1820 must have parental consent, while those over 20 can decide for themselves.
Transgendered people must also consult a psychiatrist, live as a woman for a year and receive hormone therapy before being allowed to undergo a sexchange operation.
Surgeons who provide such operations must be registered with the Medical Council and treat any complications that may occur following surgery.
Samphan said these regulations would raise the standard of sexchange operations.
He said surgeons violating the regulations would face warnings and even revocation of their medical licence.
Transgender Women of Thailand chairperson Yollada Suanyot expressed satisfaction with the new regulations but said relevant agencies, such as the Interior, Foreign and Justice ministries, should revise laws to allow transgendered people to change their gender title from Mr to Miss.
Yollada said changing their gender title after undergoing a sex change would help transgendered people live with dignity.
"It would be good if we could change from being a Mr to a Miss, because then we could proudly assert we're a women. We'd no longer have to explain we're a 'ladyboy' when anyone looks at our ID or passport," she said. "We want to live with dignity, the same as anyone else."
Office of the AttorneyGeneral investigator Sermkiat Woradit suggested transgendered people band together to request the independent National Human Rights Commission to help revise all laws involving them, be it civil, criminal or family law.
Samphan said he backed this idea and that relevant agencies should issue special laws for "third sex" citizens.
Transgendered people aged 1820 must have parental consent, while those over 20 can decide for themselves.
Transgendered people must also consult a psychiatrist, live as a woman for a year and receive hormone therapy before being allowed to undergo a sexchange operation.
Surgeons who provide such operations must be registered with the Medical Council and treat any complications that may occur following surgery.
Samphan said these regulations would raise the standard of sexchange operations.
He said surgeons violating the regulations would face warnings and even revocation of their medical licence.
Transgender Women of Thailand chairperson Yollada Suanyot expressed satisfaction with the new regulations but said relevant agencies, such as the Interior, Foreign and Justice ministries, should revise laws to allow transgendered people to change their gender title from Mr to Miss.
Yollada said changing their gender title after undergoing a sex change would help transgendered people live with dignity.
"It would be good if we could change from being a Mr to a Miss, because then we could proudly assert we're a women. We'd no longer have to explain we're a 'ladyboy' when anyone looks at our ID or passport," she said. "We want to live with dignity, the same as anyone else."
Office of the AttorneyGeneral investigator Sermkiat Woradit suggested transgendered people band together to request the independent National Human Rights Commission to help revise all laws involving them, be it civil, criminal or family law.
Samphan said he backed this idea and that relevant agencies should issue special laws for "third sex" citizens.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Government agencies back Syslog
Government agencies have gathered to push efforts to set the Syslog standard to counter the falsely claimed compliance solutions endorsed by them. The agencies also hope that the electronic evidence from the compliance that passes the standard will be fully used in court.
Dr Kamol Uahchinkul, researcher at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, said the agency finalised NTS 4003.1-2552 Computer Log Systems Part 1 Requirement and NTS 4003.2-2552 Computer Log Systems Part 2 Systems and Auditing Guidelines to promote quality in the Syslog Solution to comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
This standard can help reduce the problem of false claims because there are some selling compliance solutions of the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550 to overcome their solutions that get certified by Nectec and government agencies to mark-up prices and reduce unqualified solutions that do not comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
In the first part, the content covering minimum requirements for Syslog, such as secure solutions, automatic alert detection systems while for the second part more in-depth solution levels covering small, medium, large enterprise levels.
For testing or certification purposes,it should not take more than one week and a 10,000 baht fee for medium solution. If there are a lot of solutions to be certified, Nectec will be open for other companies who can certify the products as well.
"We experience lots of solutions out there after the law enforcement to keep files for at least 90 days for investigation and tracing back as well as to use as evidence in court, but some vendors sell software that can keep log files without secure access or change the log file which weakens the solution data which we cannot use as evidence in court,"said Dr Kamol.
After announcing the Nectec standard,this will be submitted to the Thai Industrial Standards Institute for approval as a National Standard which is expected to take between 2 to 4 months and is open to foreign vendors as well.
Meanwhile Ajin Jirapattana, Executive Director, ICT Industry Promotion Bureau,the Information and Communication Technology ministry, said the minister will use the Nectec standard as a guideline for all government agencies to bid for the solution to comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
Dr Kamol added that the announcement in Thai Industrial Standard or TIS under the Regulation of the Office of the Prime Minister on Procurement 1992 if there are more than three local companies that can get Thai standard, the government agencies have to specify only TIS in Terms of Reference and allow agencies to buy products from companies who certify TIS which has a price higher than others of around 5 percent.
SIPA, Open Source Department Manager, Paitoon Butri said open source companies who offer Syslog solution that comply with Nectec are IT Bakery,SGC Network and Softnix Technology.
Dr Kamol Uahchinkul, researcher at the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre, said the agency finalised NTS 4003.1-2552 Computer Log Systems Part 1 Requirement and NTS 4003.2-2552 Computer Log Systems Part 2 Systems and Auditing Guidelines to promote quality in the Syslog Solution to comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
This standard can help reduce the problem of false claims because there are some selling compliance solutions of the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550 to overcome their solutions that get certified by Nectec and government agencies to mark-up prices and reduce unqualified solutions that do not comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
In the first part, the content covering minimum requirements for Syslog, such as secure solutions, automatic alert detection systems while for the second part more in-depth solution levels covering small, medium, large enterprise levels.
For testing or certification purposes,it should not take more than one week and a 10,000 baht fee for medium solution. If there are a lot of solutions to be certified, Nectec will be open for other companies who can certify the products as well.
"We experience lots of solutions out there after the law enforcement to keep files for at least 90 days for investigation and tracing back as well as to use as evidence in court, but some vendors sell software that can keep log files without secure access or change the log file which weakens the solution data which we cannot use as evidence in court,"said Dr Kamol.
After announcing the Nectec standard,this will be submitted to the Thai Industrial Standards Institute for approval as a National Standard which is expected to take between 2 to 4 months and is open to foreign vendors as well.
Meanwhile Ajin Jirapattana, Executive Director, ICT Industry Promotion Bureau,the Information and Communication Technology ministry, said the minister will use the Nectec standard as a guideline for all government agencies to bid for the solution to comply with the Computer Crime Act B.E.2550.
Dr Kamol added that the announcement in Thai Industrial Standard or TIS under the Regulation of the Office of the Prime Minister on Procurement 1992 if there are more than three local companies that can get Thai standard, the government agencies have to specify only TIS in Terms of Reference and allow agencies to buy products from companies who certify TIS which has a price higher than others of around 5 percent.
SIPA, Open Source Department Manager, Paitoon Butri said open source companies who offer Syslog solution that comply with Nectec are IT Bakery,SGC Network and Softnix Technology.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Woman spared whipping for "indecency"
A Sudanese woman journalist was yesterday spared a whipping for wearing trousers, but a court instead fined Lubna Ahmed alHussein 500 Sudanese pounds (7,130 baht), eyewitnesses said.
"I won't pay. I'd rather go to prison,"Ms Hussein told reporters, though her lawyers said they would try to persuade her to pay up.
The eyewitnesses, speaking as they emerged from the hearing which was barred to the press, said the court had ruled that Ms Hussein be jailed for a month if she failed to pay the fine.
Under Sudanese law, she could have been sentenced to a maximum of 40 lashes for "indecency" after being arrested with 12 other women wearing trousers in a Khartoum restaurant in July.
Around 100 supporters chanted slogans and waved placards saying "No to whipping!" in support of Ms Hussein as she entered the hearing in the late morning, her hair covered in a traditional Sudanese scarf.
At least one woman was beaten by police and around 40 were arrested before police dispersed the protest amid strict security around the courtroom, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
"They arrested 48 of us.Some of us were hurt and one is bleeding," a demonstrator said.Lubna Hussein Ten of the women arrested in July, including Christians,were subsequently summoned by the police and each given 10 lashes.
Ms Hussein could have suffered similar punishment, but instead she challenged the charge and began a publicity campaign to try to get the law changed.
Article 152 of Sudan's 1991 penal code - which came into force two years after the coup that brought President Omar al-Beshir to power - stipulates a maximum of 40 lashes for people convicted
of wearing "indecent clothing".
Ms Hussein could have sought legal immunity because of her role as a United Nations press officer in Khartoum.
But she also works for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper, and said earlier she wanted a trial in order to challenge the law, and that she wished to waive her UN immunity.
"I'm ready for anything to happen.I'm absolutely not afraid of the verdict,"she said."If I'm sentenced to be whipped,or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary.
"And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I'm ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times."
Ms Hussein's case has triggered outrage at home and abroad.
"I won't pay. I'd rather go to prison,"Ms Hussein told reporters, though her lawyers said they would try to persuade her to pay up.
The eyewitnesses, speaking as they emerged from the hearing which was barred to the press, said the court had ruled that Ms Hussein be jailed for a month if she failed to pay the fine.
Under Sudanese law, she could have been sentenced to a maximum of 40 lashes for "indecency" after being arrested with 12 other women wearing trousers in a Khartoum restaurant in July.
Around 100 supporters chanted slogans and waved placards saying "No to whipping!" in support of Ms Hussein as she entered the hearing in the late morning, her hair covered in a traditional Sudanese scarf.
At least one woman was beaten by police and around 40 were arrested before police dispersed the protest amid strict security around the courtroom, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.
"They arrested 48 of us.Some of us were hurt and one is bleeding," a demonstrator said.Lubna Hussein Ten of the women arrested in July, including Christians,were subsequently summoned by the police and each given 10 lashes.
Ms Hussein could have suffered similar punishment, but instead she challenged the charge and began a publicity campaign to try to get the law changed.
Article 152 of Sudan's 1991 penal code - which came into force two years after the coup that brought President Omar al-Beshir to power - stipulates a maximum of 40 lashes for people convicted
of wearing "indecent clothing".
Ms Hussein could have sought legal immunity because of her role as a United Nations press officer in Khartoum.
But she also works for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper, and said earlier she wanted a trial in order to challenge the law, and that she wished to waive her UN immunity.
"I'm ready for anything to happen.I'm absolutely not afraid of the verdict,"she said."If I'm sentenced to be whipped,or to anything else, I will appeal. I will see it through to the end, to the constitutional court if necessary.
"And if the constitutional court says the law is constitutional, I'm ready to be whipped not 40 but 40,000 times."
Ms Hussein's case has triggered outrage at home and abroad.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Charter debate fires up
The ruling Democrat Party is in conflict with its coalition partners over the electoral system despite an agreement to only seek amendments to provisions to the constitution seen as "less controversial".
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said a meeting of the two houses of parliament had to be convened to debate the proposals.
He said the plan to amend the charter would be brought up for discussion at a cabinet meeting tomorrow.
"The debate on the proposals would give each party a chance to find common ground on how to proceed," Mr Abhisit said.
He said he had raised the matter with House Speaker Chai Chidchob and he had agreed it was possible to convene a joint session to discuss the proposed constitution amendments.
A highly placed source in the gov-ernment said many key members of the Democrat Party wanted to keep a key feature of the 2007 constitution,the electoral system featuring multiseat constituencies for MPs, intact.
But the other member parties of the coalition wanted to revert to a singleseat system. The parties argued that if the multi-member constituencies remained in place, the opposition Puea Thai Party would continue to dominate and make a clean sweep in the Northeast.
They said the single-seat constituencies system, in which a constituency becomes smaller with just one MP seat contested, would give them a chance to win more seats and defeat Puea Thai in the region.
The key figures pushing for change are from the Bhumjaithai Party which has high hopes at the next election in the Northeast.
The source said DeputyPrime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban had convinced Mr Abhisit to agree with the coalition parties on the issue. Mr Suthep reportedly met twice with influential politicians who are de facto leaders of coalition parties such as Banharn Silpa-archa, Newin Chidchob and Somsak Thepsuthin to discuss the proposed amendments.
The source said coalition parties wanted the electoral system changed as quickly as possible because they were not confident of the political situation in the months ahead. There might be too many political problems and the prime minister might opt to dissolve the House.
Coalition parties have also agreed to amend Article 190 which requires parliamentary approval for international agreements. The article has been criticised by some politicians for stalling trade contracts.
But they would stay away from some problematic provisions for the time being.
One of the most controversial provisions is Article 273, which deals with the dissolution of parties and withdrawal of the election rights of party executives.
Mr Abhisit said now was the time to continue the work of the parliamentary committee on reconciliation, political reform and constitutional amendment.
The panel, chaired by Nonthaburi senator Direk Thungfang, came up with proposals after spending 45 days studying amendments.
He said amendments to the consti-tution were possible as long as the changes would benefit the country and not just serve some vested interests.
Somsak Prissananantakul, a banned member of the dissolved Chart Thai Party, has confirmed that coalition government parties had agreed with the plan to amend Article 190 and to switch back to the single-seat constituency system.
Mr Somsak is among de facto leaders of the coalition parties who met at the home of Suwat Liptapanlop, a key leader of the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana Party, to discuss the charter amendments. Mr Suwat is known to be the de facto leader of a faction inside the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana.
Mr Somsak said the leaders had agreed the two provisions were less controversial.
Puea Pandin secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn said the party supported the plan to amend Article 190 and the electoral system.
He said Puea Pandin believed Article 237 was highly controversial and should be put to a referendum.
Puea Thai deputy leader Plodprasop Suraswadi said it would be better to rewrite the whole constitution.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday said a meeting of the two houses of parliament had to be convened to debate the proposals.
He said the plan to amend the charter would be brought up for discussion at a cabinet meeting tomorrow.
"The debate on the proposals would give each party a chance to find common ground on how to proceed," Mr Abhisit said.
He said he had raised the matter with House Speaker Chai Chidchob and he had agreed it was possible to convene a joint session to discuss the proposed constitution amendments.
A highly placed source in the gov-ernment said many key members of the Democrat Party wanted to keep a key feature of the 2007 constitution,the electoral system featuring multiseat constituencies for MPs, intact.
But the other member parties of the coalition wanted to revert to a singleseat system. The parties argued that if the multi-member constituencies remained in place, the opposition Puea Thai Party would continue to dominate and make a clean sweep in the Northeast.
They said the single-seat constituencies system, in which a constituency becomes smaller with just one MP seat contested, would give them a chance to win more seats and defeat Puea Thai in the region.
The key figures pushing for change are from the Bhumjaithai Party which has high hopes at the next election in the Northeast.
The source said DeputyPrime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban had convinced Mr Abhisit to agree with the coalition parties on the issue. Mr Suthep reportedly met twice with influential politicians who are de facto leaders of coalition parties such as Banharn Silpa-archa, Newin Chidchob and Somsak Thepsuthin to discuss the proposed amendments.
The source said coalition parties wanted the electoral system changed as quickly as possible because they were not confident of the political situation in the months ahead. There might be too many political problems and the prime minister might opt to dissolve the House.
Coalition parties have also agreed to amend Article 190 which requires parliamentary approval for international agreements. The article has been criticised by some politicians for stalling trade contracts.
But they would stay away from some problematic provisions for the time being.
One of the most controversial provisions is Article 273, which deals with the dissolution of parties and withdrawal of the election rights of party executives.
Mr Abhisit said now was the time to continue the work of the parliamentary committee on reconciliation, political reform and constitutional amendment.
The panel, chaired by Nonthaburi senator Direk Thungfang, came up with proposals after spending 45 days studying amendments.
He said amendments to the consti-tution were possible as long as the changes would benefit the country and not just serve some vested interests.
Somsak Prissananantakul, a banned member of the dissolved Chart Thai Party, has confirmed that coalition government parties had agreed with the plan to amend Article 190 and to switch back to the single-seat constituency system.
Mr Somsak is among de facto leaders of the coalition parties who met at the home of Suwat Liptapanlop, a key leader of the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana Party, to discuss the charter amendments. Mr Suwat is known to be the de facto leader of a faction inside the Ruamjaithai Chart Pattana.
Mr Somsak said the leaders had agreed the two provisions were less controversial.
Puea Pandin secretary-general Chaiyos Jiramethakorn said the party supported the plan to amend Article 190 and the electoral system.
He said Puea Pandin believed Article 237 was highly controversial and should be put to a referendum.
Puea Thai deputy leader Plodprasop Suraswadi said it would be better to rewrite the whole constitution.
HOW JESSICA"S LAW TURNED ANTIOCH INTO A PAEDOPHILE GHETTO
They have called it scruffy, cheap and unloved. They have sneered at the wire mesh fences and unmowed lawns and the rusting trucks in almost every driveway.And in time, when the media writes the final chapters of the appalling story of Jaycee Lee Dugard, they may very well conclude that in Antioch, her story was simply an accident waiting to happen.
A staggering 122 registered sex offenders live there, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm.More than 100 of them -102, to be precise - live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee's alleged kidnapper,Phillip Craig Garrido, called home.
Two convicted rapists reside on Vine Lane,the street next to Walnut Avenue where Jaycee Lee's imprisonment and sexual abuse went unnoticed for almost two decades. On Viera Avenue, less than 200 metres away, is the home of Henry Lee Mickens, a 46-year-old man who recently served time for "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years".
Dozens of other paedophiles can be found within walking distance. A mile and a half from Garrido's front door is Gragnelli Avenue,where the occupant of No 420, one Shayne Patrick Gaxiola, was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl and impregnating her in 1994,when he was aged 20.
Gaxiola was also found guilty of giving marijuana to a string of pubescent girls. He then took indecent pictures of them. In 2000, three months after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating parole after being caught with cannabis and a stash of pornographic magazines.
In a town full of such men, the activities of Phillip Garrido seemed simply to slip below the radar - despite the awful track record that has emerged since he and his wife, Nancy,were arrested and charged with 29 counts related to Jaycee Lee Dugard's abduction, imprisonment, and serial sexual abuse over 18 years (to which, it must be stressed, they have so far pleaded not guilty).
Court papers released from Garrido's 1977 trial for the kidnap and rape of a young woman in Nevada portray him as a dangerous sexual predator. During a psychiatric evaluation, he admitted to using LSD and cocaine as sexual stimulants and said that he would often masturbate in public, by the "side of schools,grammar schools and high schools, and in my own car while I was watching young females".
There is, however, no shortage of similar stories in Antioch. That is perhaps why, after Garrido was released in 1988,10 years into a 50- year sentence, he and his wife were able to slip virtually unnoticed into the fabric of this community, which stretches for roughly four miles along the Sacramento River.
At first glance, Antioch may look like any other small American city. Its 100,000 residents are largely white and working class. Some work in industrial plants. Others are commuters, unable to afford the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area. In keeping with most of California, about 10% are unemployed.
Yet as police continue to investigate Garrido's past and look into potential links to 10 murdered prostitutes and three missing girls, the city is being forced to confront a grisly truth - for reasons largely beyond its control, it has become a paedophiles' ghetto.
At fault are laws governing America's treatment of sex offenders, which control where they are allowed to live and how much information the public should be given regarding their whereabouts. These laws were passed with the laudable intention of protecting children. But their actual effect is open to debate.
The most prominent is Megan's Law, which requires the public to be given access, usually via an internet site, to the names, addresses and "previous" of every man and woman convicted of a sexual offence. It is a wellintentioned exercise in open government. But in practice, critics say, it was introduced in such a way as to be of little help to anyone but the voyeuristic.
"Thanks to political pressure, they made the criteria for including someone on the registry so wide that it has become totally ineffective," says Michael Risher, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union."It doesn't just carry details of violent rapists but also people who, say, lost their temper during a road rage incident and flashed at someone, or an 18-year-old boy convicted of statutory rape for sleeping with his 17-year-old girlfriend."
In California, the Megan's Law website contains 90,000 entries. Given this extraordinary statistic, it isn't hard to see why the residents of Walnut Avenue - who had 121 other convicted sex offenders in their city to worry about - might have allowed a man with Garrido's dubious profile to pass largely ignored.
The second group of laws that make Antioch a magnet for paedophiles governs where they are allowed to live. In California, as in many states, voters have in recent years endorsed Jessica's Law, which bans paedophiles from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children regularly play.
This has driven sex offenders out of major cities and conurbations, where they have access to rehabilitation and treatment facilities, and into suburbs and secluded rural areas, where they don't. In some smaller cities, they have now become concentrated in such large numbers that parole and law enforcement officers are unable to properly vet them.
This may explain why local authorities never noticed that Garrido was apparently keeping the kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two small children concealed in the elaborate series of sheds and tents in his back garden.Thanks to the influx of offenders to Antioch frommajor cities, they were simply too overstretched to do their job properly.
It may also explain - but not necessarily excuse - the fact that a police officer dispatched to investigate claims of children living in Garrido's garden in 2006 seemingly did not have either the time or the wherewithal to thoroughly research his suspect's background.
"If you look at maps that show where offenders are actually able to live under Jessica's Law, there's almost nowhere in the whole of Los Angeles and San Francisco where they can now legally settle," Mr Risher adds."Everywhere is within 2,000 feet of a park or school.So they all end up in places like Antioch."
Even police admit that this leaves them struggling to cope. Daniel Terry, from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department,which oversees Antioch, has about 1,700 registered sex offenders in his jurisdiction. His station is responsible for about 350 of them,or "349 more than the number of detectives I have dedicated to monitoring these people".
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week,he said that the region's concentration of sex offenders was "significantly higher" than other areas in California and the rest of the United States."This is the reality. These people are walking amongst us everywhere." Adding to his woes are wider problems in the cheap parts of Antioch where Garrido and many other convicted sex offenders live. In the ramshackle area around Walnut Avenue, petty theft is rampant, drug abuse endemic - the favourite local tipples are crystal meth and crack cocaine - and lawns are littered with junk.
The city, which grew prosperous on the proceeds of the 1849 gold rush and then the steel mills and concrete factories that allowed it to ship the building blocks of San Francisco down-river during the early 20th century, is now among those caught in the storm of America's economic downturn.
Nearly 2,500 homes, roughly 5% of the city's stock, are in foreclosure, with 699 new homes entering arrears last month.
Property values have dropped 40% in the past year and unemployment is soaring. Garrido's bungalow, a four-bedroom home built on a large plot of land between the wars, is worth only $100,000.
Against this background, and helped by laws that encourage ghetto-isation of sex offenders, it now seems that a man known as "Creepy Phil" by neighbours was able to take a little girl hostage, hold her for 18 years, father her two children, and even take them to community events, while barely raising an eyebrow.
In January, Zion Dutro, a convicted child rapist who lived on Alpha Way, not two miles from Walnut Avenue, appeared in court to plead not guilty to performing rape, sodomy and "lewd acts" on at least eight small girls. He faced 21 counts; his wife, a co-defendant, faced four.
In any other town, this kind of case would have sparked a mixture of shock and outrage that would be heard across the world. In Antioch, it merited no more than a few paragraphs in the local newspaper - a reaction which suggests that Jaycee Lee Dugard may not be the last grisly secret that the city reveals.The Independent
SEX OFFENDERS' R REGISTER: MEGAN'S AND JESSICA'S LAWS
MEGAN'S LAW requires the public to be given details sregarding the identity,whereabouts and crimin al record of convicted sex offenders living in their midst. It was named afte er the New Jersey schoolgi irl Megan Kanka, who was kidnapped, raped and kil lled by a serial sex-offender i in 1994. Today, it's being enacted to varying degre ees in every US state.Like any law passed in response to a public trag gedy,the law has been dubbed dknee-jerk by opponents,who say it encourages vigilantism and is an infringement on the civil liberties of ex-offenders.. A study last year conclude dthat the law achieved no odemonstrable reduction in child sex offences.
JESSICA'S LAW prevents convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools,parks and other areas where children gather. It was first adopted in Florida in 2005 after nineyear-old Jessica Lunsford was snatched from her home, before being raped and murdered by a convicted paedophile. Today, a version is in force in 42 US states. Critics say it has made major cities off-limits to offenders, forcing some to declare themselves homeless, and ghettoising others. There is little evidence that it works. Many police forces say it has the opposite effect stretching resources and doing nothing to prevent paedophiles travelling to commit crimes.
A staggering 122 registered sex offenders live there, in a small, blue-collar city in northern California that has suddenly found itself at the centre of an international media storm.More than 100 of them -102, to be precise - live in the compact zip-code area containing the suburb that Jaycee Lee's alleged kidnapper,Phillip Craig Garrido, called home.
Two convicted rapists reside on Vine Lane,the street next to Walnut Avenue where Jaycee Lee's imprisonment and sexual abuse went unnoticed for almost two decades. On Viera Avenue, less than 200 metres away, is the home of Henry Lee Mickens, a 46-year-old man who recently served time for "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years".
Dozens of other paedophiles can be found within walking distance. A mile and a half from Garrido's front door is Gragnelli Avenue,where the occupant of No 420, one Shayne Patrick Gaxiola, was convicted of molesting a 12-year-old girl and impregnating her in 1994,when he was aged 20.
Gaxiola was also found guilty of giving marijuana to a string of pubescent girls. He then took indecent pictures of them. In 2000, three months after his release, he was sent back to prison for violating parole after being caught with cannabis and a stash of pornographic magazines.
In a town full of such men, the activities of Phillip Garrido seemed simply to slip below the radar - despite the awful track record that has emerged since he and his wife, Nancy,were arrested and charged with 29 counts related to Jaycee Lee Dugard's abduction, imprisonment, and serial sexual abuse over 18 years (to which, it must be stressed, they have so far pleaded not guilty).
Court papers released from Garrido's 1977 trial for the kidnap and rape of a young woman in Nevada portray him as a dangerous sexual predator. During a psychiatric evaluation, he admitted to using LSD and cocaine as sexual stimulants and said that he would often masturbate in public, by the "side of schools,grammar schools and high schools, and in my own car while I was watching young females".
There is, however, no shortage of similar stories in Antioch. That is perhaps why, after Garrido was released in 1988,10 years into a 50- year sentence, he and his wife were able to slip virtually unnoticed into the fabric of this community, which stretches for roughly four miles along the Sacramento River.
At first glance, Antioch may look like any other small American city. Its 100,000 residents are largely white and working class. Some work in industrial plants. Others are commuters, unable to afford the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area. In keeping with most of California, about 10% are unemployed.
Yet as police continue to investigate Garrido's past and look into potential links to 10 murdered prostitutes and three missing girls, the city is being forced to confront a grisly truth - for reasons largely beyond its control, it has become a paedophiles' ghetto.
At fault are laws governing America's treatment of sex offenders, which control where they are allowed to live and how much information the public should be given regarding their whereabouts. These laws were passed with the laudable intention of protecting children. But their actual effect is open to debate.
The most prominent is Megan's Law, which requires the public to be given access, usually via an internet site, to the names, addresses and "previous" of every man and woman convicted of a sexual offence. It is a wellintentioned exercise in open government. But in practice, critics say, it was introduced in such a way as to be of little help to anyone but the voyeuristic.
"Thanks to political pressure, they made the criteria for including someone on the registry so wide that it has become totally ineffective," says Michael Risher, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union."It doesn't just carry details of violent rapists but also people who, say, lost their temper during a road rage incident and flashed at someone, or an 18-year-old boy convicted of statutory rape for sleeping with his 17-year-old girlfriend."
In California, the Megan's Law website contains 90,000 entries. Given this extraordinary statistic, it isn't hard to see why the residents of Walnut Avenue - who had 121 other convicted sex offenders in their city to worry about - might have allowed a man with Garrido's dubious profile to pass largely ignored.
The second group of laws that make Antioch a magnet for paedophiles governs where they are allowed to live. In California, as in many states, voters have in recent years endorsed Jessica's Law, which bans paedophiles from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or a park where children regularly play.
This has driven sex offenders out of major cities and conurbations, where they have access to rehabilitation and treatment facilities, and into suburbs and secluded rural areas, where they don't. In some smaller cities, they have now become concentrated in such large numbers that parole and law enforcement officers are unable to properly vet them.
This may explain why local authorities never noticed that Garrido was apparently keeping the kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two small children concealed in the elaborate series of sheds and tents in his back garden.Thanks to the influx of offenders to Antioch frommajor cities, they were simply too overstretched to do their job properly.
It may also explain - but not necessarily excuse - the fact that a police officer dispatched to investigate claims of children living in Garrido's garden in 2006 seemingly did not have either the time or the wherewithal to thoroughly research his suspect's background.
"If you look at maps that show where offenders are actually able to live under Jessica's Law, there's almost nowhere in the whole of Los Angeles and San Francisco where they can now legally settle," Mr Risher adds."Everywhere is within 2,000 feet of a park or school.So they all end up in places like Antioch."
Even police admit that this leaves them struggling to cope. Daniel Terry, from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department,which oversees Antioch, has about 1,700 registered sex offenders in his jurisdiction. His station is responsible for about 350 of them,or "349 more than the number of detectives I have dedicated to monitoring these people".
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times last week,he said that the region's concentration of sex offenders was "significantly higher" than other areas in California and the rest of the United States."This is the reality. These people are walking amongst us everywhere." Adding to his woes are wider problems in the cheap parts of Antioch where Garrido and many other convicted sex offenders live. In the ramshackle area around Walnut Avenue, petty theft is rampant, drug abuse endemic - the favourite local tipples are crystal meth and crack cocaine - and lawns are littered with junk.
The city, which grew prosperous on the proceeds of the 1849 gold rush and then the steel mills and concrete factories that allowed it to ship the building blocks of San Francisco down-river during the early 20th century, is now among those caught in the storm of America's economic downturn.
Nearly 2,500 homes, roughly 5% of the city's stock, are in foreclosure, with 699 new homes entering arrears last month.
Property values have dropped 40% in the past year and unemployment is soaring. Garrido's bungalow, a four-bedroom home built on a large plot of land between the wars, is worth only $100,000.
Against this background, and helped by laws that encourage ghetto-isation of sex offenders, it now seems that a man known as "Creepy Phil" by neighbours was able to take a little girl hostage, hold her for 18 years, father her two children, and even take them to community events, while barely raising an eyebrow.
In January, Zion Dutro, a convicted child rapist who lived on Alpha Way, not two miles from Walnut Avenue, appeared in court to plead not guilty to performing rape, sodomy and "lewd acts" on at least eight small girls. He faced 21 counts; his wife, a co-defendant, faced four.
In any other town, this kind of case would have sparked a mixture of shock and outrage that would be heard across the world. In Antioch, it merited no more than a few paragraphs in the local newspaper - a reaction which suggests that Jaycee Lee Dugard may not be the last grisly secret that the city reveals.The Independent
SEX OFFENDERS' R REGISTER: MEGAN'S AND JESSICA'S LAWS
MEGAN'S LAW requires the public to be given details sregarding the identity,whereabouts and crimin al record of convicted sex offenders living in their midst. It was named afte er the New Jersey schoolgi irl Megan Kanka, who was kidnapped, raped and kil lled by a serial sex-offender i in 1994. Today, it's being enacted to varying degre ees in every US state.Like any law passed in response to a public trag gedy,the law has been dubbed dknee-jerk by opponents,who say it encourages vigilantism and is an infringement on the civil liberties of ex-offenders.. A study last year conclude dthat the law achieved no odemonstrable reduction in child sex offences.
JESSICA'S LAW prevents convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools,parks and other areas where children gather. It was first adopted in Florida in 2005 after nineyear-old Jessica Lunsford was snatched from her home, before being raped and murdered by a convicted paedophile. Today, a version is in force in 42 US states. Critics say it has made major cities off-limits to offenders, forcing some to declare themselves homeless, and ghettoising others. There is little evidence that it works. Many police forces say it has the opposite effect stretching resources and doing nothing to prevent paedophiles travelling to commit crimes.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Blasphemy law causes fear
Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan live in fear of persecution and even execution or murder on false charges of blasphemy against Islam, the World Council of Churches (WCC) says.
The WCC, a global body linking Protestant and Orthodox churches in 110 countries, has called on the Pakistani government to change a law that allows for the death penalty for blaspheming Islam. Since the law was adopted in 1986 religious minorities in the country have been "living in a state of fear and terror and many innocent people have lost their lives", the WCC said.
Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim country where religious minorities account for roughly 4%- three quarters of whom are Christians - of its 170 million people.
In early August, the WCC head, Kenyan Methodist Samuel Kobia, protested to the Pakistani government over violence in Punjab province when Muslims torched Christian homes and eight people were killed, seven of them burned to death.
Reports at the time said the attacks in Gojra town were sparked by allegations,denied by church leaders as well as Pakistani government officials, that Christians had desecrated the Koran.
Pakistani government officials said the violence, which also brought protests from Pope Benedict, was the work of Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the country's Taliban movement.
The WCC, which works with the Vatican on many religious issues, said it felt the blasphemy law, and the way it was abused, was the main problem.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani minister for minorities, said the law had been abused by "extremists" against minorities and the government wanted to review it.
"We are receiving demands from different sections of society, especially from the minority communities, to review this law," Mr Bhatti said.
Convictions for blasphemy are fairly common with most cases involving members of religious minorities, but death sentences have never been carried out, usually because convictions are thrown out on a lack of evidence.
The WCC, a global body linking Protestant and Orthodox churches in 110 countries, has called on the Pakistani government to change a law that allows for the death penalty for blaspheming Islam. Since the law was adopted in 1986 religious minorities in the country have been "living in a state of fear and terror and many innocent people have lost their lives", the WCC said.
Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim country where religious minorities account for roughly 4%- three quarters of whom are Christians - of its 170 million people.
In early August, the WCC head, Kenyan Methodist Samuel Kobia, protested to the Pakistani government over violence in Punjab province when Muslims torched Christian homes and eight people were killed, seven of them burned to death.
Reports at the time said the attacks in Gojra town were sparked by allegations,denied by church leaders as well as Pakistani government officials, that Christians had desecrated the Koran.
Pakistani government officials said the violence, which also brought protests from Pope Benedict, was the work of Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the country's Taliban movement.
The WCC, which works with the Vatican on many religious issues, said it felt the blasphemy law, and the way it was abused, was the main problem.
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistani minister for minorities, said the law had been abused by "extremists" against minorities and the government wanted to review it.
"We are receiving demands from different sections of society, especially from the minority communities, to review this law," Mr Bhatti said.
Convictions for blasphemy are fairly common with most cases involving members of religious minorities, but death sentences have never been carried out, usually because convictions are thrown out on a lack of evidence.
Court dismisses Budget Bill complaint
The Constitution Court has thrown out an opposition complaint that the 2010 Budget Bill is unconstitutional.
Chavana Traimas, secretary-general of the Office of the Constitution Court,yesterday said the Puea Thai Party had asked the court to adjudicate on whether the 2010 Budget Bill had been changed during its scrutiny process to benefit any House members, senators or scrutiny committee members either directly or indirectly in violation of Article 168 of the charter.
The opposition insisted the bill had been altered and suspected it was no longer constitutionally valid.
It asked the charter court to interpret the constitutionality of the crucial bill which was passed by the parliament last week.
Constitution Court judges considered the complaint for about an hour yesterday and voted 8 to 1 to dismiss it.
The court said it found no evidence the Budget Bill had been changed for the direct or indirect advantage of any MP, senator or committee member.
Chavana Traimas, secretary-general of the Office of the Constitution Court,yesterday said the Puea Thai Party had asked the court to adjudicate on whether the 2010 Budget Bill had been changed during its scrutiny process to benefit any House members, senators or scrutiny committee members either directly or indirectly in violation of Article 168 of the charter.
The opposition insisted the bill had been altered and suspected it was no longer constitutionally valid.
It asked the charter court to interpret the constitutionality of the crucial bill which was passed by the parliament last week.
Constitution Court judges considered the complaint for about an hour yesterday and voted 8 to 1 to dismiss it.
The court said it found no evidence the Budget Bill had been changed for the direct or indirect advantage of any MP, senator or committee member.
Puea Thai seeks court ruling on Budget Act
The Puea Thai Party has asked the Constitution Court to rule if the 2010 Budget Act is unconstitutional.
The party alleged the government had changed its spending plans without giving any details.
Puea Thai MP for Chiang Mai Surapong Towijakchaikul yesterday filed the request with Chavana Traimas, the secretary-general to the Office of the Constitution Court.
Mr Surapong claimed the government changed the spending plans without providing any details after the House committee scrutinising the budget bill had finished its second and third readings of the bill.
His party asked the court to rule if the changes violated Article 167 of the constitution. The article requires details of all spending plans.
Mr Chavana said the Office of the Constitution Court would consider if the request deserved deliberation by the court and then report its comments to the court.
The timing of the trial would depend on the judges, he said.
Parliament President Chai Chidchob yesterday said the Budget Act was con-stitutional because spending plans were changed in line with proper procedures and the House had voted for the act.
Puea Thai's move was a political ploy and the party should stop it, he said.The Budget Act would be forwarded to the Senate for consideration and later promulgated.
Mr Chai denied passage of the Budget Act would lead to a House dissolution.
Recently, the parliament president said the House might be dissolved after the passage of the budget bill. But yesterday he said he had spoken only from the point of view of the opposition.
The party alleged the government had changed its spending plans without giving any details.
Puea Thai MP for Chiang Mai Surapong Towijakchaikul yesterday filed the request with Chavana Traimas, the secretary-general to the Office of the Constitution Court.
Mr Surapong claimed the government changed the spending plans without providing any details after the House committee scrutinising the budget bill had finished its second and third readings of the bill.
His party asked the court to rule if the changes violated Article 167 of the constitution. The article requires details of all spending plans.
Mr Chavana said the Office of the Constitution Court would consider if the request deserved deliberation by the court and then report its comments to the court.
The timing of the trial would depend on the judges, he said.
Parliament President Chai Chidchob yesterday said the Budget Act was con-stitutional because spending plans were changed in line with proper procedures and the House had voted for the act.
Puea Thai's move was a political ploy and the party should stop it, he said.The Budget Act would be forwarded to the Senate for consideration and later promulgated.
Mr Chai denied passage of the Budget Act would lead to a House dissolution.
Recently, the parliament president said the House might be dissolved after the passage of the budget bill. But yesterday he said he had spoken only from the point of view of the opposition.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)