PHUKET: A police raid on dive instructors on Phuket that coincided with a visit by officers from Bangkok investigating extortion claims has brought the prospect of diving shaking off corruption.
The amazing coincidence was revealed yesterday as dive industry representatives met with Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud to solve the work permit issue that causes the shakedowns and rip-offs.
On March 17, lawyer Pongsawan Sathatham, told the governor yesterday, police from Chalong went to the east coast dive centre's pier and arrested 17 dive instructors.
At the same time, in response to a request for help made by one dive company chief to her ambassador in Bangkok, police from the capital were waiting at a dive company office for the dive company chief to turn up.
When the Bangkok officers heard that the dive company chief was among the large number of arrests, they figured that what was going on was definitely worth investigating.
The Superintendent of Chalong Police Station has been transferred, an investigation by the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission is underway, and yesterday Governor Maitree promised he would visit Chalong pier at the weekend to see how the dive business works.
Although transferred superintendent Colonel Krittapas Detintharasorn claims his officers say they have done nothing wrong, people in the dive industry maintain men in casual clothes who say they are police have extorted amounts of up to 20,000 baht from expat workers.
''The problem is that once a dive industry operator lifts an air tank, he or she is strictly in breach of their work permit,'' the governor was told yesterday by Khun Pongsawan and representatives from Association of Thailand Underwater Sports (ATUS), the new body that has replaced the Thai Diving Association.
At the meeting at the governor's house, Governor Maitree was keen to pursue the issue and said he would have been involved earlier if he had been told what was happening.
The documents of all of Phuket's expat dive industry employees are to be checked in coming weeks as the industry moves to shake off illegality and corruption and clarify the role of expats.
A new, more appropriate work permit is now the aim. Since the Phuket dive insudtry people first met to express their problems in public, Phuketwan has heard of similar extortion in the neighboring province of Phang Nga, and of police and Tourist Police seeking declarations from dive industry staff that they have never been involved in extortion.
The move to clean up the diving industry could be an important step towards making other aspects of the tourism industry on Phuket and in Phang Nga and Krabi corruption free, too.
The amazing coincidence was revealed yesterday as dive industry representatives met with Phuket Governor Maitree Intrusud to solve the work permit issue that causes the shakedowns and rip-offs.
On March 17, lawyer Pongsawan Sathatham, told the governor yesterday, police from Chalong went to the east coast dive centre's pier and arrested 17 dive instructors.
At the same time, in response to a request for help made by one dive company chief to her ambassador in Bangkok, police from the capital were waiting at a dive company office for the dive company chief to turn up.
When the Bangkok officers heard that the dive company chief was among the large number of arrests, they figured that what was going on was definitely worth investigating.
The Superintendent of Chalong Police Station has been transferred, an investigation by the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission is underway, and yesterday Governor Maitree promised he would visit Chalong pier at the weekend to see how the dive business works.
Although transferred superintendent Colonel Krittapas Detintharasorn claims his officers say they have done nothing wrong, people in the dive industry maintain men in casual clothes who say they are police have extorted amounts of up to 20,000 baht from expat workers.
''The problem is that once a dive industry operator lifts an air tank, he or she is strictly in breach of their work permit,'' the governor was told yesterday by Khun Pongsawan and representatives from Association of Thailand Underwater Sports (ATUS), the new body that has replaced the Thai Diving Association.
At the meeting at the governor's house, Governor Maitree was keen to pursue the issue and said he would have been involved earlier if he had been told what was happening.
The documents of all of Phuket's expat dive industry employees are to be checked in coming weeks as the industry moves to shake off illegality and corruption and clarify the role of expats.
A new, more appropriate work permit is now the aim. Since the Phuket dive insudtry people first met to express their problems in public, Phuketwan has heard of similar extortion in the neighboring province of Phang Nga, and of police and Tourist Police seeking declarations from dive industry staff that they have never been involved in extortion.
The move to clean up the diving industry could be an important step towards making other aspects of the tourism industry on Phuket and in Phang Nga and Krabi corruption free, too.
Lets get rid of all foreign dive instructors, leave it to Thai's and then watch the carnage begin and another tourist industry die, as is there logic to ban double decker buses over driver training, no idea at all!
Posted by coxo on April 3, 2014 09:36
Editor Comment:
That's a strange request, coxo. There's no suggestion that anyone wants to get rid of expat dive instructors. But it would be great to have moreThai instructors trained up.