Thongbai Moonsan strikes a follower in
the back with a machete to prove the strength of his tattoos.

Patcharapol Panrak
More teenagers are relying on the power of tattoos for protection against the big bad world these days, according to a tattoo artist.
Thongbai Moonsan, 43, from Sattahip, is not an ordinary tattooist but a specialist in ritual tattooing known as Yantra that has been popular in Thailand for many years. On April 8, Thongbai held a ceremony to pay respects to his teacher.
It is believed that the Yantra bestows special powers on its host and for centuries Thai warriors were tattooed to protect themselves from the enemy. Even today many people are convinced that the Yantra will keep them safe, even stop a speeding bullet or the thrust of a knife.
With the upsurge in violent crime in Pattaya, specifically gun and knife related crimes amongst young teenagers, more and more young people are turning to the power of Yantra to protect themselves from harm.
Many of these teenagers find their way to the house of famous Thongbai, at Soi Nongnoo in the Plutaluang Sub-district of Sattahip, to join in a ceremony of respect and to receive holy water to make their tattoos more powerful.
Unexpectedly there, a few young men start growling like tigers and begin to act like animals.
Thongbai said that the tattoos were not superstitious nonsense. In fact they help people become better. This is because if they are good people doing only good things then the tattoos will help and protect them.
But if they behave badly, the protection of a tattoo can backfire on its host. Those who decide to have the tattoos must swear to use their power correctly and not use it to attack or injure others.
He said that many young people came with their parents to sign consent first. For most of the young teens, he uses oil instead of the traditional permanent colored ink which may prove an obstacle for them to pass examination for higher study. With an oil-based tattoo, the pattern is usually invisible.
A teenager from Pattaya said that currently Pattaya City has many problems stemming from teenagers. There are motorbike criminals and teenagers use weapons to injure and kill other groups.
They shoot at each other for no reason, only to show off their courage among their peers and to display their power. Therefore they make lettered tattoos for power, because according to their beliefs if they have good conduct, no weapon will be able to harm them.

Police report on drug crackdowns

Police show off some of the suspects with some of the contraband seized.

Boonlua Chatree
Police chiefs outlined the latest police crackdown on narcotics, entitled “Take away a wing,” to a meeting for community leaders, village chiefs and religious leaders at Pattaya Police Station.
Pol. Gen. Jumpol Manmai, deputy commissioner general of the Royal Thai Police, and Pol. Lt. Gen. Wut Lipatapallop, commander of the Drug Suppression Police, outlined the latest police strategy and summarized the achievements of the Combat Operations Center to overcome narcotics in Region 2.
The police chiefs reported that “Take away a wing I” operational plan from March 23-25 resulted in 19 arrest warrants issued, with 18 suspects held in 13 undercover purchasing cases.
Sixteen people were convicted: one import case resulted in one conviction, 10 distribution cases resulted in 13 convictions and two drug consumption cases resulted in two convictions.
Evidence included 24,000 ya ba pills, 14.56 grams of ya ice, one car, four motorcycles and seven cellphones.
“Take away a wing II” ran from April 1-3 resulting in arrests in 12 cases with nine men and three women convicted. Evidence confiscated included 30 ecstasy pills, a small packet of ecstasy powder, 207 ya ba pills, three small packets of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine) weighing 1.94 grams, a substance to affect mentality and anxiety (type 4), 30 fire pills, 26,160 baht and $250 in cash.
The police narcotics crackdown is continuing, community leaders were told.

Two motorcyclists die in collision

Boonlua Chatree
Two motorcyclists, one German and one Thai, died when their motorcycles collided on Thepprasit Road opposite Soi Thepprasit 15 in Nongprue on April 13.
At 2 p.m. Pol. Lt-Col. Anuchet Katsomboon from the Dongtan police station hurried to the accident site along with rescuers from the Sawang Boriboon Foundation.
At the scene they found the bodies of Jetsongpol Nomsiriprapa, 30, and Ralph Karl, 51, a German national, who sustained neck and head injuries. Neither man was wearing a helmet.
Nearby were a badly-damaged Honda Wave and a 1000 cc Yamaha motorcycle, equally damaged. A car was also damaged when the motorcycles crashed into it.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Thai rider had been waiting in the middle of the road to turn right into the soi when suddenly a foreigner riding a large motorcycle came from the direction of Sukhumvit to the Grand Condo junction at full speed and could not stop.
He rear-ended Jetsongpon’s motorbike and drove it to collide with the front portion of a Toyota.
Penkanyam Unchit, the owner of the car, said in fright that she had parked her car and left it when suddenly a large motorcycle approached and violently collided with the front portion of her vehicle.
Police took the two corpses to Banglamung Hospital and began to contact relatives.

Red shirt leader released on bail

Boonlua Chatree
Arisman Pongruangrong, the main leader of the red shirt anti-government protesters that attacked the ASEAN summit in Pattaya, was arrested then released on 500,000 baht bail. The bail was approved by a Pattaya provincial court judge.

Arisman Pongruangrong is led through Pattaya Remand Prison to his arraignment at Pattaya Provincial Court.

Asked by the court if he intended to continue his protest if released on bail, Arisman said he intended to continue to exercise his constitutional rights.
Arisman was flown by helicopter to Pattaya under tight security from the Naresuan Camp in Petchburi Province where he had been confined for 12 days since his arrest in Bangkok.
At 12:30 p.m. on April 14, Pol Lt-Gen Aswin Narongphan, commissioner of the Region 2 Provincial Police Bureau, and Pol Col Chanapat Nawalak, the deputy superintendent at Pattaya Police Station, plus 50 police commandos and border patrol officers were on hand to meet Arisman as he flew in. The armed police and commando units lined the football field where the helicopter landed. Arisman was escorted in a van under tighten security to the holding prison in Pattaya.
He was charged for a series of violations, such as grouping more than 10 people to cause unrest, gathering to obstruct traffic, making a speech that contravened the Constitution, disobeying legitimate orders of government officials and using force to destroy property.
Chaiya Pongruangrong, elder bother of Arisman, and lawyer Picha Vichitsilp accompanied Arisman to the court hearing.
Seni Rattanachaoren, the prison commander, prison staff and two companies of police, numbering 300 in total, were on standby fearing that the red shirts might attack the prison and attempt to free Arisman.
At 9 a.m. Arisman’s team of lawyers, led by Picha Vichitsilp and Phichit Chuenban, argued on his behalf for 500,000 baht bail.
At 12.30 p.m., the Pattaya Provincial Court judge granted bail, allowing Arisman to leave. He reportedly did not turn back to look at the prison gates out of superstition, instead excitedly rushed out to meet and embrace relatives, for the moment free from confinement.
Arisman thanked prison staff and prison commander Seni before traveling by van to Bangkok.

Bureaucrats seek more independence

Government permanent secretaries listen
to presentations at the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel.

Patcharapol Panrak
Government permanent secretaries for the Alliance’s Sub-district Administrative Organization throughout the country tried to respond to the call for more independence and to their “liberation” from the Ministry of Interior at a seminar on March 25.
Taweesak Srithongkittikul, president of the alliance, presented the seminar, titled “Strategic Management of Personnel for the Sub-district Administrative Organization corresponding to the 2009 Constitution.” The event took place at the Ambassador City Jomtien Hotel.
More than 2,500 permanent secretaries and deputy permanent secretaries from throughout the country attended the seminar. Assist. Prof. Wuttisarn Tanchai presented the featured lecture about the future direction of local officials and their duties.
Assist. Prof. Somkid Lertpaithun, Assist. Prof. Atsadang Panikabut, and Assist. Prof. Kowit Puangngam provided knowledge about the strategic management of local personnel.
The main point is the change in the status of local employees to local officials. This is to remove existing injustice which requires agreement from all parties, the Office for the Creation of the Civil Service Commission and amendments to laws that conflict with the Constitution of B.E. 2007.
Kowit Puangngam, Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Science of Thammasart University, said in the past some issues in local management procedures needed correcting, involving protection against political interference.
In the past the Department of Local Administration did not support the local officials as it should. Over the next four years a new dimension must be found and permanent secretaries throughout the country are being urged to fight for self-protection, he said.
Assist. Prof. Atsadang Panikabut said that the Constitution of B.E. 2540 was the first constitution to give almost full power to the local administration under the government’s control but the Constitution of B.E. 2550 emphasized decentralizing that power according to the law.
Currently, the local offices overlap and each bureau intends to manage itself according to their plans. This matter needs to be rectified and an agreement made that the local commission must be independent of the Ministry of Interior.
Assist. Prof. Atsadang said to decentralize power was the main focus of democracy - too much decentralization, however, also could be a problem.
He was a part of a corruption investigation at the Department of Local Administration which found that officials were involved. This was one of the defects of the current law, he said.

City prepares data on street kids

Vimolrat Singnikorn
Pattaya City’s Children Office is collecting data on homeless children to submit to the Government’s Children and Youth Sub-Committee on April 27.
On April 1 at city hall, Deputy Mayor Wutisak Rermkitkarn chaired a meeting of local officials helping street children in preparation for the fact-finding visit by the sub-committee working for the Social Development Commission and Children, Youth and Women’s Affairs Commission.

Pannee Limcharoen, director of the Social Welfare Office in Pattaya.

Senators will come to Pattaya to listen to problems in the local community in an attempt to find tactics and solutions for homeless children.
Pannee Limcharoen, director of the Social Welfare Office in Pattaya, said that this discussion was the first step in gathering information regarding the problems of children and youngsters in the city.
The sub-committee will try to help coordinate activities of various welfare offices to monitor the plight of our street children and how we can most effectively help them, she said.
Supachai Satheerasilapin, a representative from the Redemptorist Children’s Home in Pattaya, proposed in the meeting that we could first understand the children’s problems by dividing them into two categories: What can we do for children who have been expelled from school and what can we do children who refuse any schooling or occupational training in the first place?
Supachai recommended that aid workers should enter the slums as quick as possible to support the children with all available means to help families convince children not to run away to become street kids.
Deputy Mayor Wutisak asked officers associated with this to thoroughly collect data and submit it to the Social Welfare Office before the second preparatory meeting on Wednesday April 22 to be reviewed before submitting it to sub-committee.

King cobra powers pick-up

Patcharapol Panrak
Owner of an “Everything 20 baht” store had to run after finding a two-meter-long king cobra under the hood of his pickup truck. It was apparently driven there to hide when someone had earlier sprayed mosquito repellent on it.

A large white cobra is tucked away inside the engine compartment of this pick-up.

On April 4 at around 12.10 a.m., Rueang Nopsiri, 38, the owner of the store phoned Sawangrojanathammasthan Sattahip Foundation Rescue for help to get rid of a big snake found in the engine of his vehicle parked in front of his house.
After receiving the call, Pichit Kliakkuthan, rescue chief and a volunteer rushed to the Sahachai Market to find that many people had gathered to take a look at the white king cobra. It was about 2 meters long and hiding under the hood of a Toyota Hilux Vigo.
Earlier, other rescuers tried to use their snake-capturing tools but they proved useless due to the length of the snake, so they sprayed it with mosquito repellent which caused the cobra to slither away. Rescuers searched for two hours but could not find it.
Rueang said that earlier in the night he had come out to check if he had locked his car to find a huge king cobra beside the vehicle so he ran to safety. He got his neighbors to try to help but the snake had already crawled under the hood and would not budge.

Storm flattens som tam shop

Patcharapol Panrak
It was as if the weather was playing a nasty prank when freak wind blew down only the Pa Mol som tam shop, leaving others around it relatively unscathed. Signs fell, plates and spoons flew and customers ran for cover.

The restaurant’s roof begins to collapse in the freak storm.

On April 4 at around 4 p.m., Neuang Thapkhan, 65, owner the popular “Pamol Som Tam Rod-ded” restaurant on Sukhumvit Road close to Ambassador City Hotel, reported that a sudden storm destroyed the roof at his shop, causing chaos for about an hour.
Owner and employees had to clean up the mess caused by the storm, bemoaning the loss of the daily profit of thousands of baht.
Neuang said the malicious storm came with no warning.

Stray dogs love Sattahip park

Patcharapol Panrak
Nongtakien Public Park near the Sattahip market has become a favorite place for some 40 stray dogs that are causing concern to park users.
Residents have asked government officials to organize vaccinations and sterilization of the dogs, to reduce the fear of rabies during the hot summer months.
Nongtakien residents are complaining that there are too many stray dogs gathered at Suan Krom Luang Chumporn. Some residents have been feeding the dogs their leftovers, good for karma but bad for local residents as the dogs return in growing numbers expecting to be fed.
Meanwhile, many dogs have starved to death and others have been run over by cars.
Muay is a goodhearted lady who feeds her leftover food to the dogs. She said the number of stray dogs in the area had reached as high as 60 dogs, but currently there are “only” about 40.
She said that as summer moved in, residents were concerned that these dogs may become rabid if officials did not step in to take care of the situation.
Narong Boonbanjerdsri, Sattahip municipal chief, said that some of the dogs gathering around the northern curve at Sattahip market may have owners.
Talks are being made with the naval base to organize vaccination and sterilization for these dogs, he said.
The public has asked the government to not put any of these dogs down, preferring to leave them to nature, while also hoping that their number would not increase.

Stray dogs have taken a liking to Nongtakien Public Park in Sattahip.