Phuketwan Special Report
EXPAT GUIDES on Phuket are able to dodge laws to obtain work permits for jobs they shouldn't have, a committee investigating tourist-related corruption was told yesterday.
Leading Phuket authorities spoke frankly about Phuket's problems at the hearing, ordered by the Prime Minister and overseen by the Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior, Prania Suwanrath.
Khun Prania says he will deliver a progress report to the PM next week and continue his investigation until ''we fix Phuket.''
Because of the honesty of testimony at the Phuket City hearing, Phuket's media has been asked not to identify the people who spoke at yesterday's long session over almost four hours.
Phuket's Khun A said: ''Korea and Russia sell packages very cheaply. On Phuket, they set up nominee companies, and bring their own guides from Korea and Russia.
''There are between 40 and 50 Korean tour companies on Phuket now. Russia has about 20 or 30 companies. There's an area on Phuket they call 'Korea Town' where Koreans even sell noodles.
''This is supposed to be a job for Thais only, but then tour guides are also supposed to be all Thais. The Korean and Russian companies say that Thais can't speak Korean or Russian, but this covers the 'zero baht' nature of their tours.
''Korean and Russian operators sell cheap packages, and take their tour groups to buy souvenirs at their shops, and at their restaurants. Now some plan to buy land and buld resorts.''
Khun Prania ''If we pursue the law, will it cost Phuket many tourists?''
Phuket's Khun A ''Who cares! Phuket and Thailand get no benefit from these kinds of tour operators. All the money goes into the pockets of Koreans and Russians. They also rip off each other. They come to use Phuket, and leave us with their garbage and bad water.''
[Khun A went to Chalong temple in southern Phuket to arrest an illegal guide.]
''One of my staff had to go to the toilet at the temple. In the toilet he overheard a policeman talking to a guide saying: 'You have to go because I can't stop the officers from the [organisation deleted].'
''We arrested a few people that day and at Chalong police station, it took us seven hours before police would formally lodge a report. Officers found other things to do for all that time.
''When we start making arrests, even when the operation is supposed to be secret, somehow people get to hear what is about to happen. In Kata-Karon, we have found empty shops with the air-con still on, but nobody to be seen.
''How foreigners can get work permits as guides when it's illegal constantly surprises me. We need a good role model, good people who enforce the law, good people who do not think about lining their own pockets.''
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So Khun A's primary problem is maintaing jobs for Thais !!! Even if that costs Phuket tourists that's not important.
No mention of problems such as the police being complicit in stealing millions of EUR worth of property and in bed with the kind of people that throw children down a well !! Of the cartels, of the scams, its purely a protecting the revenue stream for Thais only subject ?!?
Posted by LivinLOS on May 20, 2011 07:32
Editor Comment:
The PM starts a probe at long last, and you quibble and nit-pick. This wide investigation is unlikely to pursue individual cases because systemic change is far more important.