Marines release 999 baby sea turtles

Kajit Habanananda appointed World President of Lions International

Becomes first Thai citizen to be so honored

On August 23, 1998, the Lions Clubs in District 310 C held a reception at the Royal Cliff Beach Resort called "The Night of Lions Pride 310 C". The party was held to celebrate Capt. Kajit Habanananda’s appointment to his position as the new International President of Lions International. The party was also to congratulate all Presidents of all Lions Clubs in District 310 C, comprising of 58 Clubs. Capt. Kajit took up the position of the 81st President of Lions Club International for 1998-1999. This makes him the first Thai national to achieve such a great honour.

Capt. Kajit Habanananda, 81st President of Lions International.

The Lion’s Club is one of the largest service organizations in the world with more than 1.5 million members in 185 countries.

President Kajit said, "During my tenure, I think there will be a lot of changes for the better. I hope members both in Thailand and other countries will give significance to persons who are elected Presidents of the various clubs, and look for quality in selecting members into the Lion’s Clubs rather than quantity." He continued to say that "the ‘Amazing Thailand 1998-99’ is another important duty which we agreed to help promote with Seri Wangphaijit, Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. When I have the opportunity to travel I will urge foreigners to come to Thailand in large numbers and bring in a lot of foreign currency to spend in Thailand. We will help promote in various foreign markets especially Scandinavia and Russia who have the potential to help the economy in this time of great crisis in Thailand. But we must have good presentations and proper methods in achieving this goal."

Capt. Kajit spoke of his audience with His Majesty the King before he went to officially receive his title as President of the Lion’s Club.

He said His Majesty the King charged him to take an active involvement in the education for young people.

His Majesty said, "Don’t neglect this duty. We need your help."

"As this is the wish of His Majesty, it means that I must devote my whole time to it. This must take importance above all other things in the year of His Majesty’s 72nd birthday. The Lions Clubs has in the last 25 years given great significance to this project. We hope that all the Lion’s Clubs will be able to donate money from their charity projects and present it to His Majesty the King personally, to be put to use in his various royal charities," Capt. Kajit concluded.

Day Night Hotel closure provokes demonstration

Employees not paid in 4 months

The Day Night Hotel in Pattaya closed its doors last week due to substantial losses, leaving 80 employees out on the street with no jobs.

The 80 employees staged a demonstration in front of the hotel, protesting the hotel is not giving them fair treatment. The protest was led by two former administrative staff, Charavith Kijruamkan, 27, a supervisor and Sommart Phanomrat, 21, of personnel.

The protesters filed a complaint with the Labor Department of Chonburi, demanding fair treatment in regards to past salaries still not paid. For the past four months, they had been accepting only five hundred baht a month, as the wealthy owners of the hotel told them that they could not get money from anywhere to pay them.

Paisal Onchaiya, the Director of Labor and Social Welfare for Chonburi Province, met with the demonstrators and instructed them how to properly file a law suit and how to make an application with the provincial employment officer for new jobs.

Paisal also approached the owners of the hotel, but met with little results.

The two protest leaders said the owners of the hotel closed the establishment without any warning on August 13. They refused to meet with any of the employees and refused to pay their salaries.

Thewin Phiriya Kinphaiboon, Social Welfare Officer for the province, arrived on the scene to meet with the protesters and bring them dried food, canned food, rice, and an amount of money to which they were legally entitled by the Social Welfare laws. Each family was given 2,000 baht and the right to take out an interest-free 15,000 baht loan from the Social Welfare Department.

Thewin also had the lights reconnected in the staff dormitories. He then had everyone fill out employment applications so he could find them new jobs as quickly as possible. Thewin told the protesters he would take the whole matter before the court.

The owners, Thanongsak Sakdichayakul, the Head Administrator of the Hotel, Montri Boonlaphothi, the Vice Head of the Board of Directors and Seri Phromkhiri, the Personnel Manager, refused to show their faces or meet with the staff or the law.

The Department of Labor is devising a plan on how to get them to take responsibility. If the owners are stubborn, a court order may be issued.

98 hotels and other establishments have recently gone bankrupt in Chonburi and the Labor and Social Welfare Department has helped the staff.

Later, Seri Phromkhiri, the Personnel Manager of the hotel, met with Phaisal Onchai of the Labour and Social Welfare Department. Seri stated that "at this time, (the owners) are trying to collect tour fees from Chinese tour companies who have not paid them. They have had no success yet but if they do, they will pay the employees the money they are owed."

The company is also attempting to sell over 300 used air-conditioning units from the hotel. If all are sold, the owners will be able to pay employees 900,000 baht of the money owed them.

As for compensation, none has been paid at this time. The employees continue protesting in a peaceful manner.

The Pattaya Police have seen no reason to send officers in to see that the demonstrations are peaceful.

Australian bar owner arrested with cocaine

“Elvis” has left the building

Raymond Arthur Kelly from Fremantle Australia was remanded to custody last week, charged with possession of cocaine.

Australian Ray Kelly was remanded to custody last week, charged with possesion of cocaine.

Kelly and his live-in Thai girlfriend Kalya Phanthusak were arrested from their home on Soi Siam Country Club after police received a tip from an informant.

Pol. Lt. Col. Supatee Bunkrong, the officer in charge of the Pattaya Foreign Assistance Center, and a group of his subordinates took a search warrant to the Kelly home on 24 August. A subsequent search of the house allegedly turned up a small silver box containing 700 grams of cocaine.

Kelly is well-known in Pattaya and is reputedly the owner of two go-go bars on Soi Pattayaland 2.

Mr. Kelly is also allegedly a well-known figure among both the Interpol and the Thai police. Pol. Lt. Col. Supatee said, "I have watched the man for a long time, as I had been informed that both the Go Go Bars have so many different obscene shows. But why we could not touch the place before was because both the bars have guards who watch over the establishments making it almost impossible to get inside to witness the show."

Pol. Lt. Col. Supatee added that, "Mr. Kelly was considered a persona non grata in Thailand for quite some time and it is absolutely amazing to see that he has been living here without any problems or having been noticed by the authorities."

The couple has been charged for possession of cocaine. They were handed over to the Pattaya Police to keep under arrest and await trial.

Cabinet revises Thai business law

Formerly restricted businesses now open to foreigners

The cabinet approved a new Foreign Business Law, making 33 more businesses eligible for foreign investment.

Still forbidden, however, are professions which involve the security and safety of the country or have adverse effects on Thai culture, handicraft production, natural resources development and the environment.

The businesses now open to foreign investment were formerly listed under the 20 year old Alien Business Law, which contained 81 restricted professions.

The requirements for the opening up of these new businesses are that Thais must carry not less than 40% of the shares in a company, there must be no fewer than 2 directors on any board consisting of 5 directors, and no fewer than 80% of the employees may be Thai. Requests to go outside these guidelines will be examined on a case by case basis.

In the case of special skills in which no Thai may be found, a foreigner may be hired. But a Thai employee must be trained to do the job the foreigner is doing. This must be done in a period of no less than 5 years.

The foreigner must specify the amount of time they wish to do business in the country. They must receive their permit within 180 days. If the foreigner wishes to cease doing business, they must notify the registry department 30 days in advance.

The list of businesses that are now open to foreign investment includes:

Manufacturing of alcoholic and soft drinks and beverages, ice, matches, garments and footwear (not for export), textiles, finished silk products, glassware including light bulbs, stationary and printing paper, white and portland cement and finished products, crockery.

Hairdressing and beauty salons, cold storage, entertainment photography, processing and printing, laundering, dressmaking, auctioning, except in antiques, fine arts and handicrafts, animal husbandry, timber, fishing, sugar milling, retailing, limited ore trading, catering, wholesaling, and exporting.

Brokering, particularly for agricultural commodity forwards, financial instruments or securities. Initial capital of more than 50 million baht is needed. Construction, especially in basic services such as infrastructure or communications systems which need high technology, sophisticated machinery or special expertise. More than 50 million baht in initial foreign capital is needed.

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