Pattaya Mail — News

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Novices enter monkhood to celebrate 14 ton silver Buddha image

On February 6th, at the Kalyamit Centre in Pattaya (Som Prasong Plaza), Beach Road, Jomtien, many faithful Buddhists congregated with their relatives for the ‘head-shaving’ ceremony before becoming novices at Phrathamakay Temple in Pathum Thani Province.

Photo: Novices have their heads shaved by family and friends in preperation of entering the monkhood.

The purpose of doing this is to make Buddhists mindful and stop them from doing evil things. They also purify their souls together. This is why men become novices. The women do it to make merit for their souls. They attempt to become pure in body, speech and soul and attain peace.

The faithful will remain novices for 9 days and study the Dhamma with a Monk-Teacher. When they leave the order after 9 days and go back to their usual lives, they will have learned about ethics and know good from bad.

This ceremony is also to celebrate the building of the 14 ton pure silver Buddha image in Thammanikay Temple on February 11th. The image was made to honour His Majesty the King.

All the people taking the 9 day vow did it willingly and it showed at the ‘head-shaving’ ceremony.

After the ceremony, the novices went to the temple in Pathum Thani in 9 buses.

Amnuay gets death penalty

There is to be no mercy for Amnuay Thanomjit, 23, who murdered Canadian national Heather Novak during an attempted rape.

Thailand’s laws usually allow the death penalty to be commuted to life imprisonment should the convicted confess to the crime.

But in a precedent breaking decision, the Rayong Criminal Court gave no mercy to Amnuay, due to the murderer’s lack of remorse and the depraved nature of the crime.

The court convened on February 5th, 1998 at 9:20 a.m. Amnuay was brought into court with a ‘new look’, his hair now cut short and wearing a prisoner’s uniform. He appeared to be in a jovial mood and even asked one reporter for a cigarette.

A group of police officials and officials from the Canadian Embassy came to hear the ‘judgment.’

The presiding judge entered the court and began to read the case, which took approximately one hour. Amnuay was found guilty of moving the body of Heather Novak to conceal evidence. This crime is punishable by imprisonment of one year. The charge of murdering another in order to facilitate committing another crime is punishable by death, even though the accused confessed. The exacerbating circumstances were that the accused had denied committing the crime at first and tried to conceal his guilt. The charges read that Amnuay confessed to the crime only when he was boxed in by irrefutable evidence that he was the perpetrator.

Due to the aggravated nature of the crime, the death sentence was deemed in order, with no chance of commutation.

Over 200 people had come to the court to hear the decision and all seemed satisfied with the judge’s words. Police representative General Sanan said he felt the court’s judgment was just.

The official from the Canadian Embassy seemed satisfied with the decision. The official said this should be an example decision to deter others.

The Minister of the Interior then talked about increased safety measures and law enforcement on Samet Island. There are now 15 police officers on the island and the police are asking for the co-operation of the public in stopping crime.

This quick and very unusual decision by the court will increase tourists confidence in Thailand’s sincerity in ‘getting tough on crime’.

An official letter is being sent to the Canadian government via diplomatic channels, notifying it of the decision.

Koh Larn pier collapses

Residents of Larn Island are hopping mad, as their tourist pier has collapsed, and they want Pattaya to fix the dangerous structure. With the huge influx of tourists, the bridge’s rickety condition could not bear the constant traffic and part of it splintered off into the sea.

There is now no way for tourists to get on and off the island. Residents accuse city officials of building a ‘high cost, low quality’ bridge.

Swedish tourist pistol-whipped and robbed

At 4:00 a.m. on February 7th, Police Captain Poonchai Chewrat, the officer on duty at the Pattaya Police Station, received frantic fone facts from an employee of the Little Duck Hotel.

A foreign guest reported that a teenager had smashed in his door, robbed him at gun point, pistol-whipped him and then fled.

Rushing to the scene, police found the victim, Stefan Ansgarius Mikael Johansson, 36, a Swedish national, waiting for police in a dazed stupor. Ms. Yuphin Udomrat, 27, his bedmate, was standing near him.

Officers took the wounded Swede to the hospital, where he received five sutures. Police then escorted the Swede and Yuphin to the Pattaya Police Station for questioning.

Photo: Back in the hotel room, the thief and his victim re-enact the crime.

The tourist told police that he and Yuphin were lying in bed, engrossed in deep conversation, when he heard a knock at the door. He got out of bed and opened the door, which was still on the chain.

At that moment, the thief kicked open the door to the room and hit him on the head with a pistol. The robber then told Yuphin to go into the bathroom.

The thief forced him to remove his 8 and one half ounce solid gold neck-chain and a 2 and one half ounce bracelet he was wearing. Snatching these, the thief disappeared.

Police then questioned the hotel employee who had phoned in the complaint. He told officers that the tourist and girl had checked in approximately 30 minutes before the robbery.

The employee said a tall Thai man of about 25 came into the hotel and requested the room number of the foreigner who had just checked in to the hotel.

The man told the employee that he was a male prostitute. He said the tourist had paid the ‘bar fine’ at a gay bar and he had come to ‘service’ him. The employee, thinking nothing amiss, gave him the room number.

Police, working on intuition, thought they knew who the robber might be. After a protracted search they learned he was hiding in a third floor apartment.

A squad of officers then went to the building, where they managed to apprehend Jamras Khamsat, 24, in the process of changing his clothing. He did not attempt to flee, as he was totally naked.

Searching the room, officers found the gun. The gold chain and bracelet matching the weight and description of the stolen articles were on a bedside table.

At the police station, Jamras confessed to all, saying he was deeply in debt.

He was charged with assault and battery, and armed robbery.

Trespassers finally evicted

No, not the 101 trespassers in South Pattaya.

A long time ago, back in 1966, an airport was planned at U-Tapao. But the owners of some of the needed land refused to sell. So a Royal Decree was promulgated in 1966 for government surveyors to specify which land was needed. Even though the government paid compensation money, until very recently, there was still a group of 90 trespassers on the land.

Finally, on January 23rd of this year, a paramilitary group was sent by the parliament to hear everyone’s stories. The group talked with Rayong officials, government officials, Navy officials and the people occupying the land.

After talking, everyone understood what was what and the trespassers moved. But they put one condition on the move: that they be allowed to move in two stages. Half in 1998 and the other half in 1999.

The half which asked for a reprieve until 1999 said the dissolving economy left them with little money to make the move.

It was the fastest agreement made, considering the disagreement had been going on for 30 years.

Mab-Ta-Phut students protest new school

One thousand students from Mab-Ta-Phut schools staged a protest against the building of a new school campus by refusing to enter the classrooms of their school.

The protest was led by Nasara Yu-Cheun and Nophamas Rotamanatthisadee, 12th year students.

The students had 2 demands. 1. They did not wish to be forced to travel the long distance to the new campus, which was cramped, small and insufficiently equipped.

2. They demanded the Education Department to answer questions about the new school. They also refused to return to school until they were satisfied.

Carrying signs and shouting slogans, the students demanded that if forced to go to the new school, they wished it to be built in a proper fashion. The demonstration was noisy but orderly. They also passed a donation box, which teachers and police, there to supervise the demonstration, assiduously avoided.

At 12:30 Mr. Phinij Charoenphanich, Chief of the Rayong City District, arrived and told the students that ‘we agree to your demands and will solve the problems of school supplies as soon as possible.’

This drew applause from the young people.

The students were told that they would receive answers concerning the school now being built very soon.

The leader of the students, in a very non-Thai fashion, told the adults that if they did not receive an answer by the deadline they had set, there would be another protest.

Students then went home.

Mr. Vira Mahavichak, Head of the Committee to Monitor Factory Noxious Vapour Emissions, the original cause of the new school being built, said, ‘The problem has improved by 80%. There may be some odours still escaping the factories, but they are not as strong as before.’

He said the odour problem would probably be solved by May 1998.

Police Briefs

Drugs and guns...

Police, in their continual efforts to arrest methamphetamine users and dealers, raided a house, the owner of which was suspected of dealing in drugs.

A squad of officers, led by Police Lieutenant Colonel Chalor Thaket, descended upon a house, and entering, found a group of teenagers brazenly abusing drugs and, in a stroke of serendipity, discovered illegal weapons of the ‘Saturday Night Special’ variety.

A search of a bedroom revealed 5 teenagers lying on a bed, embracing bongs, smoking methamphetamine in a drunken stupor. Officers found 10 methamphetamine tablets, ready to smoke, strewn on the floor.

At the police station, the young people confessed that a Mr. Somsak, the owner of the house, had led them into perdition by giving them the drug. Somsak was charged with possession of illegal drugs with intent to sell and possession of illegal, unlicensed weapons.

The 5 teens were charged with possession of illegal drugs for personal use. They now await trial.

Austrian Overdoses

An Austrian national overdosed on heroin at the Beach View Hotel in Pattaya.

Employees of the hotel became suspicious after the man, whose name was Howard Graham Murick (sic) had not left his room in several days.

Police entered the room and found the tourist’s body in the bathroom. Officials said the man was clutching a syringe and tubes of heroin were found on the floor next to the body.

The man’s body was sent to forensics for autopsy.

Russian tourist caught shoplifting

A shop at the Royal Gardens Shopping Plaza called police and reported a European tourist pilfering merchandise.

The thief stole one purse and fled the scene.

A squad of officers rushed to the scene and found the thief, Ms. Kusa Kova (sic), 61, holding the ‘hot’ bag in front of the shopping centre.

At the police station, the woman admitted to the theft. She told officers she had been in Pattaya for 1 month and was returning home, but had spent all her money. She wanted a purse, and this one was just the one she wanted.

Unimpressed officers charged her with theft.

Copyright © 1998 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
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