Myanmar authorities are getting a little nervous these days about drones. Even holidaymakers who want to get aerial photographs of the attractive surroundings in Kengtung from Chiang Rai are in for a big disappointment.
The device has reportedly been added to a list of prohibited items by officials at Myanmar's Tachilek checkpoint, opposite Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.
According to a border source, Tachilek immigration and customs officials are closely examining visitors' luggage to make sure the aerial vehicles do not slip across the border.
Watcharapol: Defending the status quo
"It's not a good idea for tourists to carry drones equipped with cameras with them. Officials are strictly screening baggage for the device, especially those who intend to travel to Kengtung," said the source.
Aerial drone photography has been banned following a visit to Kengtung by a group of Thai tourists with affiliations to the Dhammakaya Foundation.
The tour group attended a merit-making ceremony at Wat Hua Khuang, or Maha Myat Muni Temple, in Kengtung on Nov 29.
Some of the tourists apparently took aerial photos and made videos of the religious ceremony using drones.
Based on a Facebook page run by Dhammakaya Foundation's international affairs section, there were about around 3,500 monks and novices from 320 temples participating in the event.
It was described as a "large congregation of four Buddhist communities from Kengtung and Thailand that filled everybody's hearts with delight". Some participants were seen to be weeping with joy.
When the Thai tourists returned home, their vehicles and belongings were searched thoroughly at a local checkpoint near Tachilek. The tourists were told to delete what they had filmed before they were allowed to cross the border back into Thailand.
Even though the real reason why Kengtung has become a no-drone zone may never be officially known, it is believed the tourist drones might have strayed into a restricted area, possibly a military base under the Triangle Region Command.
Following the incident, Thai tour operators in the northern region were asked to "strongly advise" their customers that it is not a good idea to carry drones into Myanmar if they do not want to fall foul of the no-drone policy.
It remains to be seen if such a ban can be effectively implemented. Many tourists get a thrill out of being amateur smugglers, defying travel bans and restrictions.
Mae Sai is one of the busiest checkpoints, bustling with trade and tourists and lines of goods vehicles stretching more than one kilometre. Daily trade volume is estimated at almost 100 million baht.
To accommodate the growing border trade, the operating hours of Mae Sai checkpoint will be extended for three hours, to 9pm from 6pm, starting in January.
According to the source, Myanmar officials had recently intensified inspection and examination of imports from Thailand, prior to the drone ban. That has resulted in a large amount of goods and commodities being scattered along the border as they do not have matching import documents.
It is reported that Thai authorities are working on the issue as border trade is among the government's priority issues in its efforts to stimulate economic growth.
Unwelcome shake-up
The police force is bracing for all-out reform which promises to make the agency less complicated to manage.
The Royal Thai Police Office (RTPO) risks being taken apart in a restructuring being mulled over by some members of the National Reform Council (NRC). To them, the office is too big and too reliant on the patronage system, where the lower rungs of command — and those higher up — are held together by an unholy desire to reciprocate "financial interests" between them that breeds graft and inefficiency.
NRC member Wanchai Sornsiri, whose specialty is law and justice, floated the idea, giving police across the board a reason to be very apprehensive. He said the RTPO should be disbanded and replaced by a National Council for Police Affairs, with much of the present powers of the police diluted.
The council would enable the police to function with less political interference, while opening the way for police work to be scrutinised by the public for the sake of accountability.
There is no way yet of knowing if Mr Wanchai's idea will be well-received by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA), the National Council for Peace and Order and the government.
Unpopular as it is among police officers, the idea is not the first to be raised that seeks to shake up the police force. Only this time, police reform, which has been nothing but hot air in the past, might actually materialise.
Many brand the police force as an instrument of politicians, which has dented the image of the country's most powerful law enforcement institution.
In past years, top-echelon supervision of the police has shifted from the Interior Ministry to the Prime Minister's Office. The change was prompted by a growing public perception that the police were aligning themselves too closely to Interior Ministry officials — the administrative officials — which was compromising checks and balances.
The force has been brought under the PM's Office so the prime minister can have direct and close supervision of police affairs.
Since 2004, the prime minister has delegated supervision of the police force to a deputy prime minister, usually the one in charge of national security. This, to a lot of the critics, has defeated the purpose of switching the force to the PM's Office, which was to allow the prime minister to run the police agency in a free and expedient manner.
One idea of devolving power over the police to local administration organisations has run into opposition from senior police officers, notably former acting police chief Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit.
Pol Gen Watcharapol said the core powers of the RTPO in crime suppression and investigation should be retained while the administration of police affairs may be distributed to the provinces. He is against making the police answer to local administration organisations or letting the organisations have the authority to promote or consider the pay scale of police officers.
He said the Police Commission, which is responsible for approving police promotions, should not be dissolved as suggested by some NLA members. Instead, the commission should ensure its criteria for selecting police officers are conducive to recruiting only the most capable.
They speak no evil
Rumours of a rift within the government spokesman team is nothing more than a slight difference in the way they handle things, not a conflict.
Maj Gen Sansern, left, and Dr Yongyuth: Rumours of a rift are being given little credence.
There is a perceived rift between spokesman Yongyuth Maiyalarp and his deputy, Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd.
The spokesmen team appears to be going through a rough patch as Dr Yongyuth is rumoured to have contemplated stepping down, something he has denied.
Dr Yongyuth was embroiled in a scandal in which he came under attack after it was alleged his company had been awarded event organising projects worth over 100 million baht.
Dr Yongyuth explained his company has done business with the government for many years. The revenue it earned, which was reported to be in excess of 100 million baht, was received over many years. The firm was not paid that large amount of money during the term of the military government.
He dismissed reports he planned to quit over the allegation. But he conceded he had confided in people close to him that he found the job of spokesman very exacting. But he never said the workload, or the allegation, had left him despondent to the point that he found the situation unbearable and would resign.
He said he did not think anyone was out to discredit him and take over his spokesman role. But the job was so demanding that he and Maj Gen Sansern were taking turns in holding press conferences explaining the government's position on various issues and to deflect criticism.
Dr Yongyuth confirmed he had approached Khomsan Panvichartkul, the former Bangkok councillor, to help design a media relations system and lay out strategies for explaining and countering news online and on social networks. However, there is nothing to suggest at this point that Mr Khomsan was being appointed a deputy spokesman.
A source at Government House said there could be moves by someone in inner government circles to fuel rumours about Dr Yongyuth planning to resign. The plan was to get rid of Dr Yongyuth as a number of people inside and outside of the government, had their eye on the spokesman's job.
The rumours surfaced at the time of a perceived split between Dr Yongyuth and Maj Gen Sansern. The two men have not worked together before in this role, which is giving some observers the impression they were competing with each other rather than collaborating on public relations tasks.
The source said the spokesman's office has set specific tasks for each staff member to prevent confusion. Dr Yongyuth is in charge of explaining the government's handling of general policies and economic issues, while Maj Gen Sansern clarifies matters close to his heart: national security, military affairs and politics.
Maj Gen Sansern was a familiar face on television during the political tension between the red-shirt protesters and the Abhisit Vejjajiva administration back in 2010. He was spokesman for the Centre of the Resolution of the Emergency Situation (CRES) formed to impose order during that time of political crisis.
The source said with Maj Gen Sansern back in the spokesman fold, watchers thought it might be interesting to see how he gets on with Dr Yongyuth.
The source downplayed any conflict between the men, saying it was natural that people who were never in the same "professional orbit" would find a gap between them.
"That's all it is, a gap. Never should it be taken as a conflict," the source said.