Newin Chidchob has always been a controversial figure, whether in politics or in sports — in particular he has drawn controversy over the way he rose to glory.
His record in the political arena ranges from an election fraud scandal in the 1990s in which two of his campaigners in Buri Ram were convicted of vote-buying, to a “heroic” act when he helped engineer the rise of the Democrat Party in 2009 with its leader was elected prime minister.
Newin: Football club ‘above board’
After being slapped with a political ban, along with 110 other former Thai Rak Thai Party members, by the Constitutional Court, Mr Newin turned his attention to sport.
As in politics, Mr Newin ruffled feathers in the world of sport, particularly football, his main passion.
He is rumoured to have challenged football authorities and clashed with Thai FA chief, Worawi Makudi, on a number of issues. Buriram United FC, he club that he owns has accused Mr Worawi of forging the football association’s revised regulations before registering them with the government. The case is now in court.
Mr Newin’s investment in sport is bearing fruit: his home province of Buri Ram currently houses not only Thailand’s largest Fifa-certified football stadium, I-Mobile Stadium, but also the Chang International Circuit (CIC), the country’s first motor circuit.
CIC is certified by motorsport and motorcycling governing bodies — the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). That means the venue can host the two organisations’ top competitions, Formula One and MotoGP.
Mr Newin’s Buriram United “Thunder Castle” FC is a huge success, and is in the top tier of Thai football.
The club’s supporters are headed by none other than his wife Karuna Chidchob, who is also the chairwoman of the Buri Ram Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO). The club has a wide fan base with supporters spread beyond the northeastern province, and it also boasts a large number of fans who travel to away games.
But there are rumours about the way Mr Newin built his football team. Some supporters are said by critics to have been lured to football matches by the offer of free tickets, free food and free merchandise.
Whispers turned into scandal recently when Isara News Agency claimed Thunder Castle received financial support from the Buri Ram PAO to take their fans to away matches on 16 occasions.
Mr Newin has denied the accusation.
“We have never received money from the Buri Ram PAO or the provincial sports association," he said.
“We can stand on our own feet. Our main income is from gate receipts and sponsors. You can check our records at the Revenue Department.”
Thunder Castle is not the first football club to face accusations of misusing public funds.
Search the archives and one will see there is nothing new about this kind of activity.
Years ago the Interior Ministry warned against the misuse of local provincial organisation budgets to finance the activities of professional football clubs.
The move came after a Budget Bureau audit of spending by the Chai Nat PAO found that its money had been used to help stage football matches of Chainat FC, a professional football club.
Those familiar with the issue said spending funds to support a professional league club is quite clearly an abuse and authorities will have to keep a close eye on the issue, since more than a few football clubs are owned, advised or supported by politicians or ex-politicians.
A matter of diplomacy
It would appear that the further Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn gets into the job of directing the country’s foreign affairs, the more the list of people he needs to consult — a virtual who’s who of diplomacy and otherwise — grows.
Tanasak: Plenty of advisers
A few months after Gen Tanasak donned the hats of deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister last year, he ordered his office and work areas at the ministry to be refurbished and re-organised in order to welcome and accommodate more of his uniformed staff to the ministerial fold.
Internal communications between the minister and senior diplomatic staff are also more or less smoother than when he took office. Gen Tanasak has installed a team to screen most of the correspondence that goes through the ministry.
Gen Tanasak, a close friend of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and a former aide to Her Majesty the Queen, has adjusted his general modus operandi and leadership style in a way that leaves those disconcerted with his role in the ministry convinced it is futile to be uncooperative with him. The ministry is very much on the same page as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the government.
Gen Tanasak not only signed on military staff, he has also taken on experts and big names who are well-versed in foreign affairs as advisers.
Among them are former Democrat Party figure Supachai Panitchakdi, the former head of UNCTAD and the WTO and a former deputy PM; Surin Pitsuwan, the former Asean secretary-general and former foreign minister; and former Pheu Thai Party senior member Surakiart Sathirathai, who has served stints as deputy prime minister and foreign minister.
A bunch of retired diplomats, most of them former colleagues of Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai, have also been appointed, including Veerasak Futrakul and Kobsak Chutikul.
The work of the Tanasak-Don team has been in the spotlight for much of the past year as issues of the day played out in the news, such as the government’s missions to rescue and bring home distressed Thais overseas as well as the latest assistance provided to quake-ravaged Nepal.
Efforts and investment are also going into fighting human trafficking rings with the annual Trafficking In Persons (TIP) report due to be issued by Washington in the middle of next month.
Mr Don has just returned from the US where he spoke to the US Congress, the media, and pressure groups about Thailand’s anti-human trafficking endeavours.
As Gen Tanasak navigates his way through the maze of foreign affairs, calls are resounding from the Buakeaw Dissidents group who demand that reform of the ministry come from within and not be imposed upon it.
The message — emailed to Thai and foreign members of the media during a recent meeting of ambassadors and consuls-general — stated that foreign affairs be left to diplomats.
That meeting of ambassadors and consuls-general several days ago hosted the premier and other ministers and saw a positive development — Gen Tanasak sounding out diplomatic opinion about the choice of the next foreign affairs permanent secretary to replace the retiring Norachit Sinhaseni.
The ministry source said several names have been floated, but it seems the race could boil down to two senior officials believed to have caught the eye of the minister: Pisan Manawapat, the ambassador to Washington DC, and Nongnuch Petcharat, the ambassador to Berlin.
Mr Pisan is only a year or so away from retirement, while Ms Nongnuch has nearly three years of civil service left.
The source said it was possible the minister might extend Mr Norachit’s term in the civil service for another year and let the new government, to be formed after a general election expected early next year, decide the position.
No lottery in this promotion
It was no great surprise when Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha appointed 1st Army Region deputy chief Aphiratch Kongsompong as chairman of the Government Lottery Office (GLO) to lead efforts to end the problem of overpriced lottery tickets.
Aphiratch: Taking on the ticket mafia
For Gen Prayut, Maj Gen Aphiratch has what it takes to do the job. Besides, the two men have been on close terms since Gen Prayut was army chief.
During his four-year stint at the helm of the army, Gen Prayut promoted Maj Gen Aphiratch from commander of the 11th Infantry Regiment to deputy commander of the army’s 1st Division, King’s Guard.
Following the May 22 coup last year, Maj Gen Aphiratch was made commander of the 1st Division before his promotion to 1st Army deputy chief.
Maj Gen Aphiratch has the trust of Gen Prayut and has been given major assignments before and since the coup due to his fearless and combative character.
Following the coup, he was put in charge of regulating motorcycle taxi drivers as part of the NCPO’s efforts to solve the problem of mafia-style extortion gangs.
A well-connected serviceman, Maj Gen Aphiratch — the son of late military strongman Gen Sunthorn Kongsompong who engineered the coup that seized power from the government of Gen Chatichai Choonhavan in 1991 — has also been assigned to quell anti-monarchy elements, as well as monitor the movement of red shirts.
Gen Prayut used his powers under Section 44 of the interim charter to appoint the new GLO board, as he seeks to overhaul the office and end overpriced retail lottery tickets.
The move is also aimed at ending the monopoly of influential people who receive a majority of lottery distribution quotas from the GLO and who have controlled the distribution of government lottery tickets to vendors nationwide for many years.
Gen Prayut expects to rely on Maj Gen Apiratch’s military decisiveness to deal with those influential people, regulate the distribution of lottery tickets, oversee the plan to introduce the online lottery system, and manage the GLO fund, a vast amount of which does not need to be sent to state coffers.
Unlike a military man, a civilian might not be up to the job, Gen Prayut said previously.
Maj Gen Aphiratch also chose Pol Maj Gen Suwat Chaengyodsuk, the deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, to sit on the GLO board.
Pol Maj Gen Suwat has a team of IT experts to support the mission. Pol Maj Gen Suwat and Maj Gen Aphiratch are also friends from Class 20 of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School.
Moreover, Maj Gen Aphiratch also has the full backing of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Gen Dapong Ratanasuwan, and Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Koomchaya.
The three enjoy brotherly ties as each served at the 11th Infantry Regiment and rose through the ranks to become commander of his respective unit at different periods.
The GLO job will present Maj Gen Aphiratch with a new challenge.
Expectation is high that lottery tickets can be sold at the correct retail price of 80 baht by June 16 as promised by the government.
Maj Gen Aphiratch has five years of service left before his retirement in 2020.
He is regarded as a leading candidate to become 1st Army commander and possibly army chief.
