Greater Middle East

Bangkok Times | Murder Suspect Hops Border Amid Manhunt

Tai Border Policy Dealt an Awkward Failure | June 23 2022

The brutal murder of two Thai nationals outside a train station in the Chinese province of Taiwan, a young woman and her husband, has led to a large-scale manhunt for the two prime suspects, who were tracked down in Chiang Mai before presumably slipping across the border into Myanmar. The suspects are both known to be Tai nationals with no family connections to the victims. The motive and circumstance that lay behind the killings remain a matter of some speculation.

The manhunt began with the brother of the murdered woman presenting a petition to Chiang Mai Provincial Security Director Colonel Weerachon Boonthawee insisting that he had spotted a man he knew to be involved in the killings in Chiang Mai. The young man met with Colonel Boonthawee to present images and evidence of the suspects presence in Chiang Mai, which the local police forces corroborated shortly thereafter. The Director accepted the petition and agreed to proceed preparing to apprehend the suspect, though he was unwilling at the time to provide details to the public as to the nature of the planned operation. It appears that shortly prior to their apprehension, one or both of the accused fled the city. Three dwellings used by the killers were searched in detail, with very limited evidence of the men’s presence or intentions being uncovered.

One of the accused was later confirmed to have crossed the border into Myanmar, while the other was captured on the 21st of June hiding out in a village just across from the border. Proposals as to how the remaining suspect could be retrieved from Burmese territory have been raised, including negotiations with the nation’s ruling junta, with which the TSPR lacks an extradition treaty. It is entirely unknown if the man had any assistance crossing the border, or if he has any relations in neighbouring Shan State.

The TSPR’s relationship with the Shan State Army, the separatist rebels occupying the border region, are complex and often uneasy. The historical collusion between the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and the Tai Communist Party has been an open secret for several decades, with shipments of weapons clearly originating from TPLA stores often finding their way across the border throughout the 1980s and 90s. While Shan refugees fleeing crackdowns by the central Burmese government were in many cases allowed to cross the border at will provided they make themselves known at KKMR border posts. However the decline of the Communist Party of Burma and Tailand’s economic difficulties following the end of the Cold War has seen the links across the frontier zone become frayed and uncertain. The Shan rebels have since taken assistance from a wide range of sources, largely replacing Tai support, and the movement has dropped the Tai nationalist tones from its ideological rhetoric. Meanwhile, concerns regarding drug trafficking and illegal logging have seen KKMR border control become much harsher.

The disappearance of a major suspect in a case that has so deeply frustrated Tai authorities has thus sparked renewed discussions as to how the TSPR ought to approach its border policy with such an unusual and unpredictable neighbour. Several emerging border hawks in both the Central Committee and Federal Congress have suggested the TSPR further increase security, reducing the political significance of Tai fraternal connection in favour of enforcing absolute national integrity. Many technocrats and leading members of the TPLA establishment have also found themselves in this camp, pushing for closer ties with the ruling junta of Myanmar than allowing Tai interests to be dictated by unreliable separatists.

However, the very public expansion of refugee camps along the Tai-Myanmar border into sprawling shantytowns over the last two years has given a disreputable name to those calling for tighter restrictions. These settlements have become a new node in the heroin trade and are also known to act as staging points for illicit activities of various kinds.

The situation at the border was not wholly better in the days before these restrictions and the relatively free movement over the Shan State border allowed for persistent criminal activity. Despite this, several lower-ranking KKMR Border Troops have attested that their control over the traffic was far greater when cordial arrangements were the norm and it allowed the resources of the Border Troops to be concentrated where most vital, rather than stretched across entire regions or tied up administering refugee camps.

As it stands it appears to be highly likely that high-profile criminal activity will continue to grow at the Tai-Shan border, with consistent rule of law highly difficult to maintain. The KKMR has continually been reconfiguring itself to find the most efficient ways to combat the challenge, though it is unlikely to be able to fully address the problem without a thorough reassessment of these policies at both a local and national level.

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The victims are known to have moved to Taiwan at some point in the last two years, seeking to make use of connections to the local business community, where many wealthy emigre Tais have garnered significant holdings. The family, though modest, was known to be close with one of the major aristocratic clans which relocated to Taiwan in the midst of the Tai Revolution, reforming themselves as property magnates and market manipulators. A business deal gone wrong seems to be the likely motive behind these murders, but whether the killers were merely frustrated partners in these dealings or the hired hands of a third-party is unclear.

How the suspect managed to enter Tailand and travel from Bangkok to Chiang Mai without local authorities being notified or made aware remains somewhat unclear. The hard-nosed civilian border officials at Bangkok customs are unused to facing embarrassments of this kind, with the bulk of smuggling activity and illegal border crossings occuring at the Republic’s physical frontiers where these systems remain less sophisticated. The response from the Tai People’s Ministry for Internal Affairs (KKMR) has been an uncharacteristically open one. In a recent press conference Minister Patchara Anantasilp has admitted that the KKMR was not aware number of assailants, their nationality or their location until informed nearly a week after the murders by the Taiwanese police. Frustration among the police rank-and-file with the failure of Taiwanese authorities to apprehend the murderer within Taiwan, or at least to report the arrival of a wanted criminal into Tailand is widespread. Minister Anantasilp was quoted as saying:

“The Tai government is deeply disappointed with this total failure of communication between Taiwanese and Tai police and border forces. While we do not deny the flaws in our border protection institutions, these institutions are fundamentally reliant on honesty and clarity and can not be expected to perform their roles adequately without clear information to develop plans of action. The public nature of this rift presents a concerning development and opens the possibility for increases in smuggling, human trafficking and other forms of criminal activity that plague every nation in our region. If the trust and communication between our law enforcement are failing it is our people and their livelihoods who suffer. It is my absolute pledge that the KKMR will ensure that Tailand's borders are protected, that our region is secure from criminal activity and that our neighbours and partners understand how vital trust and honesty between nations will be in achieving that goal.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs has stated that the KKMR now has concrete short-term plans to increase funding to its international relations branch in hopes of improving relationships and communication with its South-East Asian and East Asian partners. An internal investigation has also begun into how the TSPR’s border security can be modernised and improved.

Brushtail Engineering
_{A new era for Comeng-Bombardier Transport Australia}
^{July 3rd}

In 1921, Smith and Waddington was founded in Camberdown, a southwestern inner-city suburb of Sydney. Originally building custom bodies for motorcars, the company went bankrupt during the depression. It reformed as Waddington Body Works and moved west to Granville, near Parramatta, after the original factory burnt down. The company saw financial difficulty again before being taken over by the Government of Australia in 1946. Waddington Body Works was renamed Australian Federal Engineering. In 1954, they started building rail carriages, and in only a matter of years they started building diesel and electric trains, carriages, buses, and light rail units.

On top of Granville, Australian Federal Engineering set up factories in Rocklea, QLD (1949 and an inner SW suburb of Brisbane), Bassendean, WA (1952 and an E suburb of Perth), and Dandenong, VIC (1954, and an outer SE suburb of Melbourne). The Government sold it's shares in 1957 and was taken over by Australian National Industries in 1982. Granville closed and was demolished in 1989, with the other three factories being sold off in 1990 (Rocklea to minor companies, Dandenong to ABB, and Bassendean to A Goninan & Co).

Dandenong was the last factory to sell. Australian Federal Engineering, who had since become better known by its accronym Ausfeng (AUStralian FEderal ENGineering), was taken over by ABB Transportation, and soon Bombardier Transportation. Bombardier Transportation ran the Dandenong Factory until 2021, when the company was taken over by Alstom. Bombardier Transportation Australia and what very little was left of Ausfeng (it was functionally dead from 1990-2021) was supported by the Australian Government in forming Bombardier Transportation Australia-Ausfeng last March.

Supported heavily by Victorian and Australian governments, Brushtail consists of 5 former Bombardier Transport factories in Dandenong (VIC), Ballarat (VIC), Seaford (SA), Gold Coast (QLD), Wulkuraka (QLD). It has purchased the METRONET factory in Bellevue, WA, and is set to open a new facility in Emu Heights in 2027. Brushtail's main factory in Dandenong will expand it's current site including new offices at 20 South Gippsland Highway, Dandenong South, which will serve as the company's national headquaters. Office and open spaces at the former Bombardier Factory (which was also once an Ausfeng factory) will be redeveloped into manufacturing facilities, as well as purchasing neighbouring blocks of land at 1A Kirkham Road and future plans to buy out all blocks of land in the Dandenong Bypass/Frankston-Dandenong Road/Cranbourne Line block.

Brushtail, similar to Ausfeng, is an abbrevation; Building Rapid [rush] Transportation And rAIL. Brushtail also alludes to the famous Common Brushtail Possum, which is found throughout most of Australia Minor. The possum is often found in urban environments, and is unique to Australia, making it the perfect namesake for Ausfeng and Bombardier Transport Australia's successor.

Brushtail will inherit all Bombardier and Ausfeng projects (including maintanence, administration, and service). Current projects being undertaken by Brushtail are:

Victoria:
E-class trams
G-class trams (2025)
HCMT trains
VLocity trains

Queensland:
G-Link Flexity 2 trams
Shortlisted for Queensland Train Manufacturing Programme (along with Alstom, CAF and Downer Rail)

South Australia:
A-City 4000 class train

Western Australia:
C-class train

Revista Semana
The Supreme Court's decision to halt the Petro's campaign attempt to win through the electoral college, despite losing the popular vote sparks a national reckoning

The electoral college, officially known as the Federation Council is one of the last vestiges of the military dictatorship that ruled Gran Colombia from 1950 until the Midnight Revolution of 1977 prompted the peaceful handover of power from the miliwin tary junta of the dictatorship to a civilian government. At the time, the President of Gran Colombia would be chosen by a group of military officers from each constituent republic at the meeting of the Federation Council every 4 years. Following the implementation of the Federal Constitution of 1978, the electoral college would be transformed to function much like the electoral college of the United States and for decades the system worked. No president in the two-round electoral college system ever lost the popular vote but won the presidency through the Federation Council until in 2010, the then-New Democratic presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos defeated the Progressive Constitutionalist candidate Guillermo Lasso with 135 electoral votes to Lasso's 125 electoral votes despite Lasso's victory in the popular vote. Confidence in the electoral college system plummeted from 79% before 2010 to just 42% a year later.

Now, Gustavo Petro has tried and failed to win the presidency in an election where he lost the popular vote by over 600,000 votes through the electoral college through his attempt to flip a single department in Ecuador through 967 invalidated ballots that the National Electoral Institute refused to count. The refusal by the INE was backed up by the Supreme Court of the Federation. Confidence in the electoral college has continued to fall, now reaching just 39% in recent polls. As the Federation Council meets tomorrow to officially certify President Marta Lucía Ramírez's re-election victory, dozens of political leaders have begun calling from the end of the electoral college. The President herself addressed supporters earlier this week and called for "comprehensive electoral reform" that included scrapping the electoral college. The Progressive Constitutionalist parliamentary groups in both the House and Senate have announced electoral reform as their highest priorities. The center-left New Democratic Party, despite it's parliamentary alliance with Petro's People's Party, has announced an openness to collaborating with the Progressive Constitutionalists to pass the constitutional reforms to scrap the electoral college.

Журнал Дагистана
The Journal of Dağcistan
Upcoming Elections Report

The Federal Republic of Dağcistan is preparing for the upcoming elections that will take place on Saturday 9 July.
The citizens can vote from 09.00 am to 09.00 pm in every city hall.
The final candidates are three, but the last exit poll confirms the important advantage of the incumbent president Nikita Muradov, leader of the Dağci Republican Party (РПД), on his two rivals: Alexej Ataev, of the Democratic Party of Dağcistan (ДПД) and Igor Nazarov, of the Dağcistan Socialist Party (СПД).
In fact, the last exit poll states the РПД vastly in the lead with an approval rating of 45%, much higher than the 30% of ДПД and the 20% of СПД.
The results of the election will be shown on the next Monday on every newspaper and TV news of the Federal Republic of Dağcistan.