Thai media speak out on relations

The Straits Times, January 23, 2007


BANGKOK - IT IS time for Singapore and Thailand to move on to improve their relationship, the Bangkok Post said yesterday.

The English daily was one of a few conciliatory voices beginning to surface about a week after the diplomatic spat that has soured relations.

Yesterday, more than 50 Thais protested outside the Singapore Embassy in Bangkok. They held up a banner reading 'Stop Raiding Thailand' and some burned SIM cards in protest against Advanced Info Service (AIS), a Shin Corp company that dominates Thailand's mobile phone sector.

Last week, the ruling junta had speculated that the military's phone calls were being monitored in Singapore.

Most Thai media still remain distinctly anti-Singapore in tone. An analyst who has been tracking Thai media, said the 'English papers have been quite mild, but the Thai papers are much stronger'.

Among them, the local Manager group, whose publisher Sondhi Limthongkul last year campaigned for Mr Thaksin Shinawatra's removal, has been one of the most vocal. It was the first to call for a suspension of military cooperation between Thailand and Singapore.

A columnist in the Thai Rath daily yesterday wrote that allegations that phone lines were being monitored in Singapore through Temasek Holdings' control of AIS made sense because it was in Singapore's interest to spy on an economic rival.

Refuting the allegation, AIS spokesman Wilai Keangpradoo said: 'We cannot spy on customers' calls and pass on to another person.

'We use the international networks of Nokia and Ericsson, and both of them can confirm for us that we cannot do that.'

Another daily, Matichon, said a poll of its readers asking them whether they agreed with Thailand's reaction to Mr Thaksin's Singapore visit showed 54 per cent agreed and 46 per cent did not.

Last week, Thailand cancelled an invitation to Foreign Minister George Yeo to visit Bangkok after Mr Thaksin met Deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar in the Republic.

Columnist Kit Tam Kwang of the Kom Chad Luek wrote yesterday that 'Singapore chooses to stand with Thaksin because of the business benefits it had with Thaksin'.

The Post Today said in an editorial yesterday: 'By welcoming Mr Thaksin, who is considered a security threat by the Thai government, Singapore violated international etiquette.'

However, Bangkok Post deputy editor-in-chief Veera Prateepchaikul said the junta may not be happy about Mr Thaksin's visit, but going after Shin Corp or Singapore for suspected phone tapping may be a bit too much.

'What the two countries should do is to bury the hatchet, mend fences and move on to improve their relationship,' he wrote.


NIRMAL GHOSH