No time to lose for Abhisit as reality bytes

By Sopon Onkgara

The Nation

Published on September 29, 2009

BACK from the limelight in New York, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva faces the painful reality of dealing with unresolved issues which, if mishandled, could escalate into a crisis of confidence in his leadership.

His speeches and responses to the media in the US reflected his comfort in speaking his mind without party hotshots looking over his shoulder. What he said about ideals and new democratic politics is suitable for a Western sensibility but it is difficult to end gutter politics at home.

The tough nut to crack is the appointment of the police chief, blocked time and again by antagonists in the National Police Committee. It is still unclear whether Abhisit will be successful in his choice, as other equations remain unchanged.This is a true test of his leadership. Failure on this will raise serious public doubt over his ability to control the national agenda amidst the prevailing economic problems. Already, there have been chuckles and taunts among political watchers who see the young prime minister as too soft towards his adversaries, even more so in his treatment of senior party members who disagree with his position. Weakness could embolden coalition partners to be more demanding in their push for approval of big projects promising large kickbacks.

There is ongoing haggling in the House over how the Constitution should be amended to accommodate MPs with self-serving interests. Six key points proposed so far have nothing to do with the public interest, but are mainly designed to open wider access for MPs to mess with bureaucrats and to pursue self-enrichment possibilities.

What Abhisit hopes to use as a delaying tactic is a public referendum for the amendment. He insisted on this condition during his talk to the press yesterday. If all parties agree, the amendment process could be completed within nine months, after which the House could be dissolved for a general election.

That's too long. The opposition, as well as the coalition partners, does not want to give the Democrats that luxury of time. The opposition and the red shirts have been demanding almost daily, and quite desperately, that Abhisit dissolve the House, resign and call a new election.

They do not want a referendum, being aware that their amendments could be voted down. A group of senators hostile to the opposition does not want such amendments. Pressure groups hiss that they will seek impeachment of MPs who push for changes in the Charter.

Then the hardest problem to solve is the occupation of 4.6 square kilometres of land surrounding the Preah Vihear temple by Cambodian soldiers, monks and villagers. This is an embarrassing issue now that Phnom Penh is handing out concessions to foreign oil companies to engage in surveys and exploratory drilling in disputed maritime areas.

The government and armed forces have been lukewarm on this issue, insisting that the dispute should be dealt with through negotiation. So far there has been no progress after rounds of talks. The encroachment by Cambodia is blatant and will not stop there. There are other areas susceptible to Cambodian occupation by force.

These are just a few hard issues to test Abhisit's leadership and courage to deal with potential crises. A Bangkok University Poll shows that 51.5 per cent of those surveyed still want him to stay on as premier, while 43.5 per cent said he is not decisive. Such opinions are not surprising. People want him on the job, but not as a wimp.

His weakness, perceived and tested, has made hotshots within the Democrat Party show disrespect to his leadership, much to the frustration of his supporters. That's why the public wants him to do what he said in the US, particularly the intention to uphold what is right and negate what is wrong, despite his earlier compromise over the acceptance of coalition partners with credibility and image problems.

The content of his speeches in New York must be translated into real action so that he will not be accused of just talking about grand plans and ideas. Friends and foes are waiting to see him show decisiveness and achieve things. The nine months he seeks for the Charter changes is too long for the country to endure; it would be another period without meaningful achievement.

What's more, Abhisit is not a politician with nine lives to survive endless adversity, unlike Newin Chidchob, the king-maker with increasing clout and influence who could step into his shoes after he is no longer banned from active politics. Such a scenario would be dreadful indeed.

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Death toll from flooding in Philippines hits 240

Rescuers and police carry bodies that they recovered along the riverbanks in suburban Marikina city, east of Manila, Philippines on Monday Sept. 28, 2009. Many Filipinos tried to rebuild their lives Monday after saving little more than the clothes they wore in a tropical storm that prompted the capital's worst flooding in more than four decades.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents receive relief goods in suburban Marikina city, east of Manila, Philippines on Monday Sept. 28, 2009. Many Filipinos tried to rebuild their lives Monday after saving little more than the clothes they wore in a tropical storm that prompted the capital's worst flooding in more than four decades. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Residents scramble to receive relief goods in suburban Marikina city, east of Manila, Philippines on Monday Sept. 28, 2009. Many Filipinos tried to rebuild their lives Monday after saving little more than the clothes they wore in a tropical storm that prompted the capital's worst flooding in more than four decades.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A medical patient trapped during the flooding is evacuated by navy personnel after the floodwater subsides allowing big trucks to enter the area Monday, Sept. 28, 2009 in suburban Cainta, east of Manila, Philippines. Weary victims of a tropical storm that unleashed worst flooding in more than a decades begun cleaning up their damaged homes as rescue workers plucked more dead bodies from muddy floodwaters.(AP Photo/ Pat Roque)

Filipino pedestrians cling to a rope as they brave floodwater brought by Tropical Storm Ketsana in Quezon City. Overwhelmed Philippine authorities appealed for international aid Monday as the death toll from once-in-a-lifetime floods soared to 140 and weary survivors sheltered in squalid conditions.(AFP/File/Jay Directo)

An aerial picture shows residents caught in heavy flooding brought by tropical storm Ketsana in Marikina City, east of the Philippine capital Manila. The humanitarian crisis facing the government deepened significantly after it reported hundreds of thousands of people had poured into the centres, where food, medicine and other relief supplies were in dire shortage.(AFP/File/Noel Celis)

A young boy watches as a military truck with evacuees passes by after floodwater subsides allowing the entry of big trucks in the area Monday, Sept. 28, 2009 in suburban Cainta, east of Manila, Philippines. Weary victims of a tropical storm that unleashed worst flooding in more than a decades begun cleaning up their damaged homes as rescue workers plucked more dead bodies from muddy floodwaters. (AP Photo/ Pat Roque)

A military truck loaded with evacuees braves the flooded street after the water subsides allowing big trucks to enter the area Monday, Sept. 28, 2009 in suburban Cainta, east of Manila, Philippines. Weary victims of a tropical storm that unleashed worst flooding in more than a decades begun cleaning up their damaged homes as rescue workers plucked more dead bodies from muddy floodwaters.(AP Photo/ Pat Roque)

By TERESA CEROJANO, Associated Press Writer

(Post in CAAI News Media)

MANILA, Philippines – Rescuers pulled more bodies from swollen rivers Monday as residents started to dig out their homes from under carpets of mud after flooding left 240 people dead in the Philippine capital and surrounding towns.

Overwhelmed officials called for international help, warning they may not have sufficient resources to withstand another storm that forecasters said was brewing east of the island nation and could hit as early as Friday.

Authorities expected the death toll from Tropical Storm Ketsana, which scythed across the northern Philippines on Saturday, to rise as rescuers penetrate villages blocked off by floating cars and other debris. The storm dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours, fueling the worst flooding to hit the country in more than 40 years. At least 240 people died, and 37 are missing.

Troops, police and volunteers have already rescued more than 7,900 people, but unconfirmed reports of more deaths abound, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said.

He told a news conference that help from foreign governments will ensure that the Philippine government can continue its relief work.

"We are trying our level best to provide basic necessities, but the potential for a more serious situation is there," Teodoro told a news conference. "We cannot wait for that to happen."

The extent of devastation became clearer Monday as TV networks broadcast images of mud-covered communities, cars upended on city streets and reported huge numbers of villagers without drinking water, food and power.

In Manila's suburban Marikina city, a sofa hung from electric wires.

Since the storm struck, the government has declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

The homes of nearly half a million people were inundated. Some 115,000 of them were brought to about 200 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters, officials said.

Resident Jeff Aquino said floodwaters rose to his home's third floor at the height of the storm.

Aquino, his wife, three young children and two nephews spent that night on their roof without food and water, mixing infant formula for his 2-year-old twins with the falling rain.

"We thought it was the end for us," Aquino said.

Among those stranded by the floodwaters was young actress Christine Reyes, who was rescued by movie and TV heartthrob Richard Gutierrez from the rooftop of her home near Manila after she made a frantic call for help to a local TV network with her mobile phone.

"If the rains do not stop, the water will reach the roof. We do not know what to do. My mother doesn't know how to swim," she said, weeping.

Gutierrez, a close friend and Reyes' co-star in an upcoming movie, heard of her plight, borrowed an army speedboat and ferried Reyes, her mother and two young children to safety.

"I thought it was our ending but I did not lose hope," Reyes said, thanking Gutierrez. "Let us help those who have not yet been rescued."

Rescuers pulled a mud-splattered body of a woman from the swollen Marikina river Monday. About eight hours later, police found three more bodies from the brownish waters.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has said Ketsana and the flooding were "an extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us."

The United States has donated $100,000 and deployed a military helicopter and five rubber boats manned by about 20 American soldiers from the country's south, where they have been providing counterterrorism training. The United Nations Children's Fund and the World Food Program have also provided food and other aid.

Activists, meanwhile, pointed to the deadly flooding as an example of the dangers of global warming at U.N. climate negotiations in Bangkok.

"The Philippine floods should remind politicians and delegates negotiating the climate treaty that they are not just talking about paragraphs, amendments and dollars but about the lives of millions of people and the future of this planet," said Kim Carstensen, Leader of the WWF Global Climate Initiative.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez contributed to this report.

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Over 4 square km land near Preah Vihear temple not overlapping land: Cambodian PM

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday said with strong words that Cambodia and Thailand do not have overlapping land of 4.6 square km near 11th century Khmer Preah Vihear temple.

"That area is Cambodian soil," Hun Sen said at a opening ceremony of the new Tourism Ministry building in Phnom Penh downtown.

"Thailand is using their own map which was drawn unilaterally to take land from Cambodia such as 4.6 km square near Preah Vihear Temple," he said.

Hun Sen had said that Thai "yellow T-shirt" protesters rallied at the area near Preah Vihear temple to demand Cambodian troops and villagers to move out from the land of 4.6 square km near the temple. "They are extremists and have ambitions," he said.

Hun Sen warned that he has told his military commander that if the Thai "yellow T-shirt" protesters forced their way into the area, Cambodian troops could use force.

The Prime Minister also rejected the declaration by Thai leaders that the road Cambodia built to Preah Vihear temple is joint sharing for using. "This road was built on Cambodian soil and it did not have joint share with Thai side. I am so sorry for your comment," he said, adding "you have confused the matter of this street."

However, Hun Sen stressed that even though "we will not avoid to use force, our stance is still to deal with the issues with peaceful way, Cambodia does not need war."

Cambodian and Thai troops have confronted each other since July 15, 2008 at the areas near Khmer Preah Vihear temple after Cambodia registered the temple as the World Heritage Site in July 7, 2008.

Editor: Fang Yang

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Health & Education In Cambodia

VOA News

28 September 2009

This month, the United States and Cambodia signed amendments to 2 bilateral agreements that will provide $34.8 million in 2009 funding to support Cambodian priorities in health and education.

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia Carol Rodley presided over the September 8th signing ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Phnom Penh. Hor Namhong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Flynn Fuller, United States Agency for International Development [USAID] Mission Director, signed on behalf of their respective governments.

"I am pleased to be here to reaffirm the commitment of the American people to investing in the health and education of the Cambodian people," Ambassador Rodley said.

"By working side by side with our colleagues in the Cambodian government, we've helped stem the tide of HIV/AIDS, improve the quality of basic health services, and enhance the relevance and availability of education for thousands of youth."

The amendment to the first agreement consists of $31.6 million in grant funds to achieve health objectives. Funds will be used to promote a variety of activities to reduce the transmission and impact of HIV/AIDS; to prevent and control major infectious diseases such as tuberculosis; to fight avian influenza and other influenza-like illnesses; to improve maternal, reproductive, and children's health; and to strengthen Cambodian public-health systems.

The amendment to the second agreement will provide $3.2 million in grant funds to support the Cambodian government's education objectives. These funds will support the launch of a new program that will build on USAID's ongoing education program, which is improving the quality and relevance of basic education and increasing access to schooling for all children, including minorities, people with disabilities, and the very poor.

Activities will also focus on reducing school dropout and repetition rates through improvements in teaching quality, school-management training, and measuring student academic achievement. The total amount of direct, bilateral assistance through all foreign assistance accounts is $65.1 million in fiscal year 2009; of which USAID assistance accounts for $59.9 million.

The United States is committed to working with the government of Cambodia to help provide better education and health care to the Cambodian people.

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Cambodia to end Bangkok Airways domestic flights

By THE NATION
Published on September 26, 2009


Bangkok Airways will discontinue its Phnom Penh-Siem Reap route when its aviation agreement expires on October 25, a company official said.

The official said it had been known for some time that the agreement would not be extended after it expired. Cambodia in July established its own airline, Cambodia Angkor Air, which has been servicing that route since its maiden flight on July 28.

Bangkok Airways had earlier set high hopes on establishing a presence in Cambodia.

Mao Havannal, secretary of state at the State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA), was quoted by The Phnom Penh Post as saying a decision was made to give a boost to the new national carrier.

"Now that we have our own domestic airline, Bangkok Airways will not be allowed to continue flights when the agreement finishes on October 25," he said.

Bangkok Airways has been |flying four flights daily between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat, since taking over the route last November, when its Siem Reap Airways subsidiary was grounded by the SSCA.

China's Xinhua News Agency quoted SSCA Cabinet Chief Long Chheng as saying on Thursday that a letter had been sent to Bangkok Airways last week informing it of the decision.

Tourism is one of the only sources of foreign exchange for impoverished Cambodia, which is recovering from nearly three decades of conflict, which ended in 1998.

The kingdom wants to receive 3 million tourists annually by next year.

Bangkok Airways public-relations director ML Nantika Worawan, insists the move will not affect the airline's revenue, because only a half-hour flight is involved. The company will remain focused on the Cambodian market, with four daily round-trip flights from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and five to six a day from Bangkok to Siem Reap.

Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways are among several other foreign airlines also operating direct flights to Cambodia.

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100,000 hectares of land concession to the Viets ... 10 times more than the Cambodian Constitution allows: Hun Xen pays Hanoi his debt of gratitude?

Hun Xen is all smile during his meeting with Cao Duc Phat (L) (Photo: DAP News)

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2009/09/100000-hectares-of-land-concession-to.html
Cambodia, Vietnam sign MOU of rubber investment cooperation

September 23, 2009
Xinhua

Cambodia and Vietnam on Tuesday signed a MOU of rubber investment cooperation to expand area of rubber plantation of Vietnamese companies in Cambodia.

The agreement was signed in Phnom Penh by Chan Sarun, Cambodian minister of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and Cao Duc Phat, visiting Vietnamese minister of rural development and agriculture.

According to this bilateral agreement, Vietnamese companies will plant rubber crops in 100,000 hectares of land in Cambodia, Chan Sarun told reporters after the signing ceremony.

The Vietnamese companies have already invested in rubber plantations in Cambodia, but through the agreement, they will be able to plant more rubber crops, he said.

According to the agreement, the Vietnamese side will also build a refinery factory of rubber products in Cambodia, he said.

"The agreement will also provide opportunity for local people to sell their rubber products to Vietnamese companies and it will offer more jobs for local poor people," he added.

"So far, our local people and local private companies have planted rubber crops on 100,000 hectares of land," he said, adding that Vietnamese companies already got the economic concession land for planting the rubber crops.

"Through the MOU we will also strengthen the bilateral cooperation on other fields like fighting against communicable diseases and other things including bird flu and swine flu, and encourage investing more on other agro-industrial crops."

This investment will help to push economic development and social affairs in the country, he said, adding that Vietnamese side also will help train human resources for Cambodia.

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Belgian paedophile [Philippe Dessart] expelled from Cambodia

Wed, 23 Sep 2009
By Jean Gerrard
DPA

Phnom Penh - A Belgian man convicted twice for child sex offences was expelled from Cambodia seven weeks after a coalition of child protection organizations petitioned authorities to expel him, a media report said Wednesday. Philippe Dessart, 49, was put on a plane to Thailand last week, the Cambodia Daily newspaper reported.

"We had enough legal grounds," the national police spokesman told the newspaper. "We didn't decide to deport him to Belgium; we just decided that he should be out of our country. Wherever he went to, it was his right."

Dessart was released from a Cambodian jail in April having spent three years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy. On his release, he sparked outrage from child protection organizations by marrying the boy's mother after moving into her home in western Cambodia.

Dessart was previously convicted of child sex offences in his native Belgium, serving time there in the 1990s for child rape and torture.

Dessart's lawyer said his client's deportation was an abuse of his rights.

"He was with his wife; police came to invite him to a commune police station telling him that the national commissioner orders you to be expelled," Dun Vibol told the newspaper. "[On arrival in Thailand Dessart] called me saying he's got nothing with him and said they don't respect the law in Cambodia."

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Telecom service in Cambodia cannibalized by the Vietcong army

Viettel becomes largest telecom service provider in Cambodia

09/23/2009
VOV News

Vietnam’s Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel) has become the largest telecommunication service provider in Cambodia after launching the Metfone mobile service network in the Kingdom six months ago.

Metfone currently accounts for 60 percent of the ADSL service and 50 percent of fixed phone markets. It has two million mobile subscribers, ranking second among nine mobile service providers in Cambodia.

To facilitate the Cambodian people’s access to fundamental telecommunication services, Metfone has reduced its mobile service charge from 11 cent per minute to 9 cent per minute and expects to adjust it down in the near future.

Additionally, Metfone is the sole provider of all telecommunication services in Cambodia with its product distribution network covering even remote and isolated communes. It is also the sole provider of wireless fixed phone service with nearly 20,000 subscribers in the country.

Along with business development in Cambodia, Viettel has invested US$5 million in carrying out a three-year programme to introduce the internet in schools, subsidized 50 percent of wireless fixed and mobile phone charges for poor people and sponsored an online television system, connecting the government management to localities.

Metfone is expected to earn a revenue of US$50 million this year and provide 3G services in Cambodia early next year.

Metfone is also expected to have 2.55 million mobile subscribers, 3,000 transceiver stations covering all 24 provinces and cities of Cambodia, and provide affordable, high-quality services for customers by 2010.

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We can help build a better world

September 23, 2009
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News (Guam)

Across national boundaries and cultures, humans appear nowadays to be entrenched on a destructive course of intolerance, characterized by a lack of civility. People of strong viewpoints, particularly political/ideological ones, come into conflict. The level of insult and the tendency to demonize opponents has increased.

Three years ago I wrote in this space about Emory University researchers, who found political discourse to be nasty because, during such debates, the unconscious emotional part of the brain takes over the rational part. In other words, a discussion deteriorates from hearing and understanding this "other guy" to personal attacks as the rational brain shuts down and the non-thinking part takes over.

Humility -- to be considerate and respectful of others and their viewpoints, their dignity and their worth -- a virtue preached by the world's major religions, is lacking in many individual persons.

Some 2,500 years ago, Chinese thinker K'ung-fu-tzu (Confucius), whose teachings have influenced the thought and the life of Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and many others, advised: "To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; To put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; To put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; And to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right."

World peace and world order begin with individual persons. Religious teachings, high values and strong beliefs are meaningless unless humans practice them in their life journeys. It's worth reminding, ad infinitum, that humans are capable of learning (Lord Buddha's teachings), unlearning (the harmful), and relearning (channeling the energy of hope in the building of a better future), and that what stands in their way is a lack of belief that they can, and a lack of will to take the first step.

Some people know a lot but have no will to apply their knowledge -- creatures of habit, they talk rather than walk the talk, and they imprison themselves in patterns and blame karma.

Psychology professor Jonathan Haidt, acclaimed as "one of the world's foremost authorities" on positive psychology and moral psychology, says in his book, "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom," that each of us must find "ways to overcome our natural self-righteousness." The chapter begins with two quotes from Jesus and Buddha about human eyes that see failings in others when looking outward, but see not the same when looking inward.

Matthew 7:3-5: "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? ... You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye."

Buddha: "It is easy to see the faults of others, but difficult to see one's own faults. One shows the faults of others like chaff winnowed in the wind, but one conceals one's own faults as a cunning gambler conceals his dice."

And Haidt quoted a Japanese proverb: "Though you see the seven defects of others, we do not see our own 10 defects."

Thus, in 2007, Haidt organized an interdisciplinary workshop, sponsored by the Princeton University Center for Human Values. As a summary of "goals" of the workshop, Haidt referenced the eighth-century Zen master Sent-Ts'an's poem: "The Perfect Way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. ... The struggle between 'for' and 'against' is the mind's worst disease."

As Haidt sees the poem, humans in all cultures possess this "excessive and self-righteous tendency to see the world in terms of good versus evil," or "moralism," which "blinds people to the truth," making agreement and compromise difficult.

On his own home page, Haidt says his research focuses on "the moral foundations of politics, and on ways to transcend the 'culture wars' by using recent discoveries in moral psychology to foster more civil forms of politics." Advances in moral psychology and other fields, says Haidt," provide "new hope for understanding moralism and for finding ways to overcome it."

"We must respect and even learn from those whose morality differs from our own," says Haidt who, on his Web site CivilPolitics.org, writes how political leaders, political parties and media outlets have become, over the last 20 years, "more polarized, strident and moralistic (i.e., excessively concerned with morality, and certain about their own virtue)."

"When political opponents are demonized rather than debated, compromise and cooperation become moral failings and people begin to believe that their righteous ends justify the use of any means," the Web site reads. Haidt says the "goal is to promote 'civil politics,' by which we mean politics in which power and ideas are hotly contested but opponents are respected as fellow citizens who are assumed to be sincere in their beliefs."

Haidt's efforts are the more admirable in today's world in which, among many things, recent polls say, people are generally ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago, and one poll says nearly one in five speaks "rudely to someone" if he or she wasn't served effectively; and a study shows "road rage" by "angry, horn-blasting tailgaters" to be evidence of what doctors called "intermittent explosive disorder," or IED, which affects up to 16 million drivers in the United States.

Confucius's advice "to cultivate our personal life, ... set our hearts right" needs to be followed so we can build a better world.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam, where he taught political science for 13 years. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

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Preah Vihear case [in Thailand] to run till Tuesday: Klanarong

Klanarong

September 23, 2009
The Nation

The National Anti Corruption Commission is expected to complete its deliberation on the Preah Vihear impeachment case involving the Samak Sundaravej government by next Tuesday, NACC member Klanarong Chintik said yesterday.

The NACC had already started hearing the case but it would take a week to complete since the proceedings had to cover the individual involvement of each accused, Klanarong said.

"Today's deliberation has covered 12 of 44 accused ministers and officials and the NACC should be able to rule on the case by September 29," he said.

At the heart of the legal wrangling is whether the then prime minister Samak and his ministers intentionally bypassed Parliament when drafting the Cambodian-Thai memorandum of understanding related to Preah Vihear Temple dispute.

Under Article 190 of the Constitution, the government is obligated to seek approval from parliament on the framework to negotiate an international agreement when it has ramifications in regard to borders.

Based on the Constitution Court ruling last year, the government failed to comply with Article 190.

Klanarong said the NACC had to determine the involvement of each accused in order to apportion the wrongdoing involved by each of the accused.

After reviewing the wrongdoing committed by each, the next step was for the NACC to name those targetted for impeachment and those who will face criminal prosecution.

He denied speculation that the NACC might target former foreign minister Noppadon Patama to shoulder the blame alone, saying the deliberation had not even reach halfway to form any conclusion.

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