Army Plan To Clean Up Public Transport Abuses

[Flashermac]

THE ARMY is targeting issues over public transport services - especially motorcycle taxis, vans and taxicabs. Meanwhile, First Army Area chief Lt-General Theerachai Nakawanich, who oversees the Central region, has ordered senior Army officers in the area to hold serious talks with operators.

 

The mission to bring order to the transport services stems from public complaints about overly expensive fares and vehicles blocking traffic flows. The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is responding as part of its "return happiness to Thai people" policy.

 

A source in the Army's operative team said operators of motorcycle taxis, van and taxi services had raised issues of their own too, including: demands on them for "protection fees", their requests for more relaxed traffic laws, and illegal motorcycle-taxi stands.

 

Besides urgently summoning transport operators to talk at length, the Army will join police in bringing order to traffic-law enforcement, the source said. A four-party committee comprising transport-service operators, Army personnel, police and the Land Transport Department will be set up to compile problem-solving recommendations to the NCPO-assigned working committee, the source said.

 

In a second phase, a to-be-established national legislative assembly, would amend transport-related laws, the source added.

 

The four-party committee would also discuss legal points and initially tackle fare rates, the traffic-law problems of taxi drivers, and the fee-demand practices of extortionists they called "influential figures". Army officers in respective areas would supervise the tackling of these issues, the source added.

 

Responsible Army units - especially in the problematic areas - have gathered much information already, according to Theerachai's instructions, the source said.

 

"Many units had reported details about who runs which taxi stands. The area commanders will invite the operators in question to talk at length."

 

Besides urging operators to observe traffic laws, the area commanders would look into why fares had been raised. Any new price rates should be according to law.

 

Taxi Motorcyclists' Association chairman Chalerm Changthongmadan said he had provided information on June 9 Monday to the Army about profit-involved parties and other related issues. He claimed only 150,000 of the 200,000 motorcycle-taxi stands were legal.

 

He said the so-called "influential figures" had survived previous crackdowns and ran these new ones to cheat customers. If their actions were disputed they would threaten or assault legitimate operators. He said taxi motorcyclists from these illegal stands usually overcharged passengers.

 

Chalerm asked the Army to act against illegal operators; to deal with taxi motorcyclists who made their vests without permission and split rent money with influential figures and crooked officials; and to reduce the time for background checks for public-transport licences to one month, instead of three.

 

The taxi motorcyclists wear the vests with a number to identify themselves and their stands. Each vest concession fee can range from Bt30,000 up to Bt100,000, depending on the location and number of passengers.

 

Besides the profitable taxi-motorcyclist vests, many stands also charged a motorcycle-rental fee worth hundreds to thousands of baht a month - some of which is reportedly paid as "protection fees" to officials.

 

The "fee" collecting was confirmed by a source at a state agency team working to counter extortionists, who said a small motorcycle-taxi stand paid Bt2,000-Bt3,000 a month - while a large one paid Bt5,000-Bt6,000. The operators formed an association to complain about such "fees" but were threatened with stricter law enforcement, intended to pressure them to continue paying the fees, the source said.

 

Public transport vans have their "fees", too. A small stand paid Bt15,000-Bt20,000 a month while a larger one Bt30,000-Bt100,000 - and operators had to pay an extra amount at both ends of the journey, the source said.

 

There were also along-the-way fees paid in thousands of baht.

 

Such payments were collected by uniformed figures, hence the operators had to collect the money from their van drivers.

 

These figures could control the number of vans using a route, too, he added.

 

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Army-scheme-to-clean-up-public-transport-abuses-30236030.html

[YimSiam]

 

A source in the Army's operative team said operators of motorcycle taxis, van and taxi services had raised issues of their own too, including: demands on them for "protection fees", their requests for more relaxed traffic laws, and illegal motorcycle-taxi stands.

 

Besides urgently summoning transport operators to talk at length, the Army will join police in bringing order to traffic-law enforcement, the source said. A four-party committee comprising transport-service operators, Army personnel, police and the Land Transport Department will be set up to compile problem-solving recommendations to the NCPO-assigned working committee, the source said.

 

 

 

Brilliant strategic move - hits the police in the pocketbook, as the military steps onto their traffic income turf. Bribes won't go down, they'll just get redirected from the cops to the military in charge...

[BelgianBoy]

very cynical YimSiam

 

[dean]

I heard that next on the junta's list were jet ski operators in Phuket and Pattaya.

[cavanami]

So a bit obvious that the Thai gov and/or police/military well know of the scams

and corruption going on in Thailand and only now they will put an end to it

[YimSiam]

I'd say they - police and/or military - won't put an end to any of it - police run many of these rackets, or collaborate in some form of cooperation/protection with mafia types. What they - the coup military - will do now is try to break the hold of any red shirt support people, Thaksin's buddies, on government positions, sources of revenue, access to press and expression, but they will cloak it in language of reducing corruption, serving Thai people, ensuring order, etc. (What, exactly, was the disorder they are solving , again?). Thaksin's a cop, that's where he made his money, and where he has ensured that he would have many friends - until now. The army and the cops are opposed and associated with opposite color groups, which slows the cops from being able to, say, break up those ridiculous protest camps that dotted bangkok for so long - any reasonable city force would have resolved that issue much sooner, but the cops were hobbled because they compete with the military for power. Now the military will try to gut any police power, as well as the police incomes gained through control of various rackets, to try to weaken Thaksin's support base. They're removing his people from the powerful posts they have in government and law enforcement, and will take them over for themselves and their associates. Fix traffic problems or reduce scams and protection rackets? That would only come as an incidental side effect of trying to weaken Thaksin's base, I think.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"which slows the cops from being able to, say, break up those ridiculous protest camps that dotted bangkok for so long - any reasonable city force would have resolved that issue much sooner"

 

You mean like when the red shirts had their camps in the city for several months?

 

Sanuk!

[Flashermac]

Hun Sen would have taken care of those protesters quickly enough.

[YimSiam]

Works both ways, I think - there's a stalemate on law enforcement at least in part due to that internal tension between police and military, with the police forced to show unreasonable restraint in the shadow of the military, and the military having to tolerate - for a while - the rules of an ostensibly democratic system.

 

I agree about Hun Sen - or many other governments in the region and beyond - they would have wiped those camps off the map.in no time, using methods that I would hardly support. But the degree to which a protest movement of dwindling participation (and of dubious origins and essence, I personally feel - but leave that aside for now!) was allowed to monopolize so many public spaces, for so long, costing so much, with so little effort to mitigate the effects of the exercise of the right of expression - that's strictly because they are supported by and in concert with the elites and the palace, therefore the army, and any effort by the police to remove the camps would have resulted in immediate army intervention and an instant coup.

 

As it was, the army got their coup anyway, despite what seems to be an apparent and reasonable desire for some months by the army not to be seen as implementing just another military coup under the direction of antidemocratic conservative institutions. But in the end, that's what happened anyway - probably would have been better off just calling a coup in late 2013, the end result is the same. Again.

 

This twilight period will go on for a year or whatever while the 'road map' is followed - we've seen it before, it will not be very interesting. What I do look forward to is seeing how creative - and they will have to be madly creative! - the powers-that-be are in finding a way to ensure that some variation on T and populist parties do not win the election that should eventually be held. It may be fear-mongering, labeling more insistent populist factions 'terrorist', and working up Red Gaur/Krating Daeng-style support groups in the villages. Or just some disenfranchisement that limits the vote enough that the Dems-yellows win. Or, what the heck, they may say, this on-again, off-again approach to democracy has worked for nearly a century, kind of, it's a lot of hassle but they could just keep rotating prime ministers and parties, using the courts and the army, and ensuring things just kind of muddle on as they have been... Anyway, it will be interesting and depressing, watching these desperate but probably efforts in the 21st century, an age of information when democracy has been generally accepted - if not exactly honored - as the least worst of a bad set of options for government...

 

YimSiam

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"that's strictly because they are supported by and in concert with the elites and the palace,"

 

And how is that any different than the police totally ignoring the red shirts camps a few years earlier?

 

Sanuk!