DOCSLIB.ORG

July 10, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News • the Gang of “4 Angels”---Comprising Finance Minister Uttama Savanayan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
July 10, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News • the Gang of “4 Angels”---Comprising Finance Minister Uttama Savanayan July 10, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News The gang of “4 angels”---comprising Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana, Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong, Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Minister Suvit Maesincee and deputy secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Office Kobsak Pootrakul--- announced surprising resignation from the Phalang Pracharat Party (PPRP). The announcement was made at Centara Grand at Central Plaza Ladprao Bangkok yesterday (July 9). Uttama who announced his resignation as the PPRP leader said this is the right time for him to resign after working with the party for 2 years and lead the party to form a coalition government successfully. He said their move is to allow the new executive committee to start its duties. Uttama said he has no plans to form a new political group or party for the time being. As all 4 members who resigned from PPRP are part of the economic team engineered by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, Uttama ensured the public that their resignation would have no effect on the performance of the executive branch. The former 4 Phalang Pracharat members said they would continue working in their cabinet portfolios. Uttama said a decision to reshuffle the cabinet is for the prime minister to make. Sontirat told reporters that they will continue in our roles in the administration the best we can. What happens next is for the prime minister to decide. The 4 men held ministerial posts in the former military government before helping to establish the PPRP to take part in last year’s general election. They announced resignation from the former Prayut cabinet on August 29, 2019 to lead the PPRP’s campaign in the general election, helping the party secure enough votes to form a new government. However, the 4 ministers were under pressure from leaders of various factions inside Phalang Pracharatto step down as the party’s executive committee members to pave the way for a revamp of its executive board that eventually led to the appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan as new leader on June 27, 2020. Reports are emerging that today the new economic team of Prayut would be at the Government House in order to hold a meeting and give advice to the Prime Minister. Today, Prayut said, there would be both insiders and outsiders would go to the Government House to discuss. Prayut came out to say that ‘he was the true leader of the economic team’ and that all have to listen to him This was the headline in Thailand’s leading Newspaper – Thai Rath In a related development, Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha reportedly ordered cancellation of a planned meeting of his economic team scheduled for today (July 10). The order came shortly after the gang of the “4 angels” announced their resignation from the Phalang Pracharat Party. The planned meeting was to be attended by executives from the Finance Ministry, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (Osmep), the Thai Bankers’ Association (TBA) and Specialised Financial Institutions (SFIs). The meeting is set to discuss the country’s economic outlook after easing of the lockdown and address ways to revitalise the economy battered by COVID-19 with measures to help more than 3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It will be interesting to see what will happen next as the next economic cabinet meeting has already been scheduled for July 24 to discuss measures to rehabilitate the tourism industry after the country lost about 40 million foreign tourists during the pandemic. Another report said after the resignation of the gang of the “4 angels”, Gen Prayut has called a meeting of his team of economic advisors instead. This team comprises academics and representatives from the private sector to present economic rehabilitation and recovery plans to him before he reschedules a meeting of the economic team again. Amid rampant speculation that the resignation of the 4 men will lead to a reshuffle of the economic cabinet, Gen Prayut confirmed that he is seeking the most skilled people to join his cabinet should he decide to reshuffle the cabinet. Today is the meeting of the Pheu Thai party that would select a new executive committee There are rumors going around that there would be a major change in the Pheu Thai party although this information could not be verified by anyone in the party. Earlier sources had told ‘Thai Enquirer’ that incumbent ‘strategist’ Sudarat Keyuraphan, is set to hand in her resignation from the party’s executive committee and plan her future as a possible candidate for the Bangkok Governor elections. This information could not be verified by other sources but if that happens it could be the turning point for Pheu Thai party where the displeasure with the leadership of Sudarat is an open secret in the party. More than 100 people from the People Go network, the June 24 Democracy Group and Internet Law Reform Dialogue (iLaw) marched from MRT Lat Phrao station to the Civil Court to ask the Civil Court on Ratchadaphisek Road to revoke the emergency decree yesterday (July 10). The rally-goers gathered in front of the court holding placards calling for the lifting of the state of emergency. Police from Phahonyothin police station and court security officers were deployed to maintain order. The People Go network said it planned to hold a gathering next Monday (July 13) in front of the United Nations building on Ratchadamnoen Nok Road to call on the prime minister to endorse a bill on national pensions. More than 10,000 people have signed a petition supporting the bill but it has been on hold for almost 5 months, said Nimit Thian-udom, of the People Go network. Complainer-in-chief Srisuwan Janya, secretary-general of the Association for the Protection of the Constitution, yesterday (July 9) submitted a petition to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) asking it to take action against the Cabinet as he cast doubts upon the government’s sincerity over the progress of the implementation of national reform plans. Srisuwan’s move came after a lack of quorum of MPs in Parliament at the lower house meeting on national reform. Srisuwan also cited the opposition Pheu Thai Party’s suspicion that the Cabinet’s reform on the progress of reforms in accordance to the October-December 2019 blueprint is unconstitutional. Under Section 270 of the constitution, the cabinet is required to report on the progress of reforms to the parliament every 3 months. The lack of quorum in the lower house this week raised question on whether the Cabinet has violated Section 270 of the charter, the complainer-in-chief pointed. Srisuwan related the lack of quorum of MPs to the government’s lack of sincerity in pushing national reforms. Srisuwan questioned that the Cabinet should be charged with a negligence of duty charge over its role in pushing national reforms. If found guilty, cabinet ministers could be removed from the Cabinet. Economic News Latest upheavals in Phalang Pracharath Party (PPRP) believed to cause the gang of the 4 angels---comprising Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana, Energy Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong, Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Minister Suvit Maesincee and deputy secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Office Kobsak Pootrakul---to resign raised questions about the government’s ability to help Thailand recover from the COVID-19 and its recovery strategies. Most academics believed that the 4 men’s resignation will not affect government economic policies to drive economic recover. Independent academic in economics and politics Somchai Phagaphasvivat played down concerns that their resignation is unlikely to affect the government’s economic plans. He said anyone tipped to replace the 4 men will have the ability to carry out the current policies. He believed that the government has rolled out most of its economic stimulus policies. Whoever is tipped to take over as new Finance Minister will have to carry out economic stimulus policies, especially the Finance Ministry’s 400-billion-baht Covid-19 economic recovery spending plan and 600-billion-baht set aside for financial aid for those whose jobs and businesses have been affected. Somchai said these plans have been set in stone. “A change that might happen to the Finance Minister’s post should not have any impact on economic policies. The change might have some psychological impact because the business sector is keeping an eye on the person who is given the top job at the Finance portfolio would have the ability to build confidence among businesses,” Somchai said. Dr Viroj Na Ranong, a research director at the Thailand Development Research Institute, said it is important for Thailand to ready a fiscal response for a potential 2nd wave of infections. Should Mr Prayut decide to relieve the 4 men of their government positions, he would need to find other technocrats to fill their shoes, Dr Viroj said, adding that the party currently has no economists up to the task. As the application deadline for the next Bank of Thailand (BoT) governor is due to be closed today (July 10), there are reports that currently 5 candidates have applied to be the next governor of the Central Bank, according to Rangsan Sriworasart, chairman of the selection committee. The committee in charge of selecting the governor of the BoT is said to receive interests from outsiders during the extension period of the application, most of whom are executives of major commercial banks. Latest report said Asst Prof Anusorn Tamajai, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at Rangsit University, also applied for the job.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Economic Team to Turn Economy Around 19 Aug 2015 at 12:22
    New economic team to turn economy around 19 Aug 2015 at 12:22 Somkid Jatusripitak, deputy prime minister, finance minister & commerce minister in Thaksin Shinawatra's government, to head new economic team to turn economy around. Possible digital economy setbacks. ECONOMICS & POLITICS New economic team tipped for cabinet Ministers awaiting royal endorsement 19/08/2015 Post Reporters After Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday submitted a new cabinet list for royal endorsement, it was confirmed that six economic ministers in five ministries are being replaced by a new team led by Somkid Jatusripitak, who will replace MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, say people familiar with the new line-up. Until Gen Prayut declared his intentions last week, speculation had run rife for two months about the possibility of a cabinet reshuffle, ever since the prime minister expressed frustration about slow economic improvement. SOMKID AS DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER It has been widely expected that Mr Somkid, an adviser to the prime minister, would become the new deputy prime minister replacing MR Pridiyathorn. Mr Somkid served as deputy prime minister, finance minister and commerce minister in Thaksin Shinawatra's government. Speculation over Mr Somkid's appointment was strengthened when he resigned as chairman of Saha Pathana Inter- Holding Plc yesterday. The law prohibits ministers from holding positions in any company in order to prevent conflicts of interest. NEW COMMERCE MINISTER A source said Suvit Maesincee, who also resigned yesterday as a board member of Siam Food Products Plc, would replace Deputy Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, who is now tipped to head the Commerce Ministry.
    [Show full text]
  • Protest Law & Public Order Policing in Hybrid Regimes
    Protest Law & Public Order Policing in Hybrid Regimes Pat Niyomsilp Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Law University of East Anglia September 2019 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. i Abstract Hybrid regimes are those in which only the formalities of representative electoral politics are observed. Consequently, political legitimacy is determined on the basis of whether the incumbent political leaders have the backing of non-representative political ‘guardians’ (such as the monarchy and the military) rather than through the popular vote exclusively. The incumbents need to win elections. They stay in power by manipulating the political sphere to gain unfair advantages over their political competitors. Individuals in hybrid regimes do not enjoy freedom of assembly in the same way as individuals in consolidated democracies. This thesis highlights how hybrid regimes in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand) use legal mechanisms governing public assemblies to thwart the effective realisation of the freedom of assembly stipulated by international human rights law. Such legal factors are often overlooked by scholars in political science and social movement studies in seeking to explain both regime resilience and the repression of opposition protest movements. While hybrid regimes may appear to adopt international human rights standards on public assemblies, these are inconsistently implemented in practice.
    [Show full text]
  • GLOBAL REPORT 2021 • 3 Table of Contents
    GLOBAL REPORT ON MISSING PERSONS 2021 GLOBAL REPORT ON MISSING PERSONS 2021 Authors Noor Hamadeh Alicia Decker Charlotte McDonald-Gibson Arely Cruz Santiago Baik Tae-Ung Melanie Klinkner Publisher International Commission on Missing Persons For the Publisher Kathryne Bomberger Reviewers Eric Stover Nadim Houry (Middle East and North Africa) Melanie Klinkner (Middle East and North Africa, Americas) Sharon Nakandha (Africa) Paula Gaviria (Americas) LeAndra Nephin (Americas) Alessandra La Vaccara (Indicators) Sanji Monageng (Africa) Editor Andreas Kleiser Associate Editor Kevin Sullivan Citation Editor Kerri Lee Coleman Graphic Design and layout Maricarmen Rubí Baeza ISBN 9789083152417 This publication reflects the views of the author alone and not necessarily those of ICMP and the Global Report. Only contents not signed by authors may be attributed to the organization. Cover image by Jana Romanova, Building a Monument, Creative Court, The Hague 2020 – from the collective project Parts Unknown https://parts-unknown.co/ This publication has been made possible through the generous support of the United Kingdom. Foreword This year we are marking the 25th anniversary of the of the circumstances of the disappearance of the missing International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). person is an indispensable investment in peace, and in The organization was established at the initiative of US human development and societal well-being. President Bill Clinton during the 1996 G-7 Summit in Lyon, France, with a mandate to secure the cooperation of I am honored to introduce this first edition of the Global governments and assist them in locating missing persons, Report, which will now be published annually. It will enable originally following the wars in the former Yugoslavia.
    [Show full text]
  • June 29, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News • After the Weekend Changes at the Phalang Pracharat Party (PPRP) That
    June 29, 2020 Thai Enquirer Summary Political News After the weekend changes at the Phalang Pracharat Party (PPRP) that saw the expected appointment of Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan as the party’s new leader and the old guard being literally kicked out of the party’s executive committee, the latest report coming out is that one of the key members to kick out the old guard - Naruemon Pinyosinwat, the incumbent spokesperson for the government of Prayut Chan-o-cha, is set to be the leader of the economic team. The decision to possibly have Naruemon as the new head of the economic team has prompted a backlash among the public as the need of the moment is for an expert who can rescue the country’s fragile economy rather than try new hand such as Naruemon. Thanit Sorat, a shipping magnate and also the vice chairman of the Employers’ Confederation of Thai Trade and Industry, came out to say The problem is that we have time to try someone from scratch and what is needed is that the person should be a person with the experience and image. We do have time because we are in the operating room and operation needs to be undertaken by someone who is an expert, businessmen say. Former Supreme Court judge Chuchart Srisaeng took to his Facebook page to question the ability of the PPRP’s new economic team rumoured to be led by Naruemon, with a number of prominent figures and business leaders as new members whom have yet to be revealed.
    [Show full text]
  • Thailand: End Harassment and Prosecutions of Opposition Members
    www.amnesty.org AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 20 January 2020 ASA 39/1684/2020 THAILAND: END HARASSMENT AND PROSECUTIONS OF OPPOSITION MEMBERS Amnesty International calls on the Thai authorities to stop instrumentalizing the legal process to intimidate and harass the leaders and members of the Future Forward party, as the country’s Constitutional Court prepares to deliver a judgment on 21 January 2020 on a judicial case that could see the party banned and its leaders prosecuted. The spate of prosecutions targeting the party appear to be in clear retaliation for activities of the party that fall within the exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. The Future Forward Party faces disbandment on 21 January. The case was initiated on 18 June 2019 by a petition filed with the Constitutional Court by Natthaporn Toprayoon, former advisor to the Chief Ombudsman. The party’s leader, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, its secretary-general, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, and several party executives are alleged to have violated Section 49 of the 2017 Constitution through acts deemed to have the intention of overthrowing the constitutional monarchy. Natthaphon further accused the party of having links to the Illuminati, a name given to both real and fictitious groups, citing a vague resemblance between the logos. Despite the party’s request for a full inquiry, the Court concluded that there was sufficient evidence to issue a ruling in the case, and refused to summon witnesses or examine evidence. The party could face disbandment if the court upholds the complaint, which would violate Thailand’s human rights obligations, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association of the party’s members.
    [Show full text]
  • General Prayut Chan-O-Cha Voted in As the New Prime Minister (6/6/2019)
    General Prayut Chan-o-cha Voted in as the New Prime Minister (6/6/2019) Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha will continue to serve as Prime Minister of Thailand for a second term, as he was elected the new prime minister in Parliament late at night on 5 June 2019. The voting was conducted at the joint sitting of senators and members of the House of Representatives. The parliamentary session began at 11.00 hr at the TOT Public Company Headquarters on Chaeng Watthana Road. Two persons were proposed for the election of the prime minister. The Palang Pracharath Party proposed General Prayut Chan-o-cha, while the Future Forward Party proposed Mr. Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the party. General Prayut, Thailand 29th Prime Minister, received 500 votes, while Mr. Thanathorn got 244 votes, with three abstentions. After a long debate of 13 hours, the parliamentary session was closed at 23.55 hr. According to the Constitution, the person to be voted as the prime minister must win at least 376 votes, a majority of the combined membership of the 500-member House of Representatives and the 250-member Senate. The next step is that the new government, led by the Palang Pracharath Party, will be formed. It will be a coalition, comprising many parties. On the same day, before the parliamentary session began to vote for the prime minister, former leader of the Democrat Party and former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva announced his resignation as a member of parliament. The announcement came after the Democrat Party, during its meeting on 4 June 2019, decided to join the coalition, with General Prayut as the Prime Minister.
    [Show full text]
  • PM Prayut May Have His Way in Cabinet Reshuf E, but Bigger
    8/14/2020 PM Prayut may have his way in Cabinet reshuffle, but bigger challenge lies ahead – Thai PBS World PM Prayut may have his way in Cabinet reshufe, but bigger challenge lies ahead August 12, 2020 views 541 Share Post (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.thaipbsworld.com/pm-prayut-may-have-his-way-in-cabinet- reshufe-but-bigger-challenge-lies-ahead/) (http://twitter.com/share?url=https://www.thaipbsworld.com/pm-prayut-may-have-his-way-in-cabinet-reshufe-but-big ahead/&text=PM%20Prayut%20may%20have%20his%20way%20in%20Cabinet%20reshufe,%20but%20bigger%20chal Despite being coerced into reshufing his Cabinet by factions in the ruling Palang Pracharath Party, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has at least succeeded in resisting pressure from political veterans and stamping his authority on the ministerial selection. Observers, however, see his rst Cabinet shake-up as only a temporary end to the tug-of-war within the core party of the coalition, but are divided as to when the government’s stability will be shaken again. Most of them agree that Prayut has an advantage, since the current junta- sponsored charter was designed to allow the post-coup regime to retain power after the March 2019 general elections. Without charter https://www.thaipbsworld.com/pm-prayut-may-have-his-way-in-cabinet-reshuffle-but-bigger-challenge-lies-ahead/ 1/8 8/14/2020 PM Prayut may have his way in Cabinet reshuffle, but bigger challenge lies ahead – Thai PBS World amendment, Prayut is unlikely to be easily ousted from ofce.
    [Show full text]
  • Lèse-Majesté Charges
    Breaking the Silence Thailand’s renewed use of lèse-majesté charges March 2021 ARTICLE 19 Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3GA United Kingdom T: +44 20 7324 2500 F: +44 20 7490 0566 E: [email protected] W: www.article19.org Tw: @article19org Fb: facebook.com/article19org 2 © ARTICLE 19 2021 This work is provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 2.5 licence. You are free to copy, distribute and display this work and to make derivative works, provided you: 1) give credit to ARTICLE 19; 2) do not use this work for commercial purposes; 3) distribute any works derived from this publication under a licence identical to this one. To access the full legal text of this licence, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/legalcode. ARTICLE 19 would appreciate receiving a copy of any materials in which information from this report is used. 3 CONTENTS Preface 5 Introduction 6 International standards on freedom of expression 7 Section 112 – A history of silence 9 A new wave of lèse-majesté cases 11 Recommendations 14 4 PREFACE This ARTICLE 19 report about the renewed use of Thailand’s draconian lesè-majesté provision is exceptionally timely. Now, as before, Thai authorities are using lesè-majesté charges to stifle political speech and punish those calling for democratic reforms. ARTICLE 19’s analysis of the lesè-majesté law is essential, and this report makes clear that the law is fundamentally incompatible with the right to freedom of expression. In 2017, when I was the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, I issued a statement expressing my concern after the Thai authorities charged student activist Jatupat Boonpatararaksa with violating Section 112 of the Criminal Code — Thailand’s lesè-majesté provision.
    [Show full text]
  • Thailand: "They Are Always Watching": Restricting Freedom of Expression
    “THEY ARE ALWAYS WATCHING” RESTRICTING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ONLINE IN THAILAND Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 7 million people who campaign for a world where human rights are enjoyed by all. Our vision is for every person to enjoy all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. We are independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion and are funded mainly by our membership and public donations. © Amnesty International 2020 Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under a Creative Commons Cover photo: Unknown people uses mobile phone while travelling by subway in Bangkok (attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives, international 4.0) licence. © Settawat Udom/Shutterstock https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode For more information please visit the permissions page on our website: www.amnesty.org Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Amnesty International this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence. First published in 2020 by Amnesty International Ltd Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street London WC1X 0DW, UK Index: ASA 39/2157/2020 Original language: English amnesty.org CONTENTS 1. BACKGROUND 6 POLICING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ONLINE 7 THE MARCH 2019 ELECTIONS 9 2. VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ONLINE 11 TARGETING CRITICS 11 RESTRICTING EXPRESSION RELATED TO THE MONARCHY 15 HARASSING AND INTIMIDATING ONLINE USERS 18 PURSUING “FAKE NEWS” 19 3. LAWS USED TO RESTRICT ONLINE EXPRESSION 21 COMPUTER-RELATED CRIME ACT 21 SEDITION 21 CRIMINAL DEFAMATION 22 EMERGENCY DECREE ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN EMERGENCY SITUATION 22 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Market Talk Investment Strategy Research Division
    Market Talk Investment Strategy Research Division Wednesday, March 6, 2019 Investment Strategy Post-election situation is still an important factor and will determine if fund flow would SET Index 1,639.00 return or not. According to recent polls, the Pheu Thai Party still got the biggest supports, Change (pts) 3.70 far ahead of rivals. 2019 market earnings may be slashed to reflect actual cost due to Market Cap (Million B) 41,234 the new Labor Protection Law, but there could be some compensation from non-recurring items (stock gain). In the short term, SET Index would still be swinging around 1,630- 1,645 pts. Top picks are laggard plays with strong fundamentals like BJC(FV@B61) and BBL(FV@B227) and a defensive play BCH(FV@B21) which has 34% upside. Net Buy and Sell by Investor Type (Million B) SET Index supported by energy plays Foreign -1,737.88 SET Index was in a negative territory for most of the day but rebounded near the closing hour Proprietary 1,014.02 and finally closed at 1,639.00 pts, 3.70 pts (+0.23%) with trading value of only B41.1bn. Institutional 911.49 The market still lacked new positive sentiment aside from softening trade war tension, while Retail -187.62 political issues are still one of the most significant factor. The market was supported by big- cap stocks AMATA (+3.4%), PTTEP (+1.24%), BBL (+0.97%), AOT (+0.75%), SCC (+0.4%), and INTUCH (+0.45%) as well as medium- and small-cap stocks MCOT (+15.3%), BEC (+6.2%), JMART (+4.23%), ESSO (+3.64%); in contrast, some stocks went down, e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 Civil Society Organization Sustainability Index
    STRENGTHENING STRENGTHENING CIVIL SOCIETY CIVIL SOCIETY GLOBALLY GLOBALLY 2019 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR ASIA 6th EDITION – DECEMBER 2020 2019 CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION SUSTAINABILITY INDEX FOR ASIA 6TH EDITION – DECEMBER 2020 Developed by: United States Agency for International Development Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance Acknowledgment: This publication was made possible through support provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-LA-17-00003. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the panelists and other project researchers and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or FHI 360. Cover Photo: The Fourth Regional Disability Rights Dialogue, which was held in Yangon, Myanmar in January 2019, focused on opportunities to integrate disability rights into national policies to implement the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN’s) Enabling Masterplan 2025: Mainstreaming the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The dialogue was co-hosted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the General Election Network for Disability Access (AGENDA), and the Union Election Commission of Myanmar (UEC) and was supported by USAID, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights,
    [Show full text]
  • Qatar Concerned Over Spread of Islamophobia
    QATAR | Page 16 SPORT | Page 1 Derwael’s winning return to Over 30,000 attend world title A R Rahman’s concert venue published in QATAR since 1978 SATURDAY Vol. XXXX No. 11131 March 23, 2019 Rajab 16, 1440 AH GULF TIMES www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals Rwandan president meets FM In brief Qatar reiterates QATAR | Offi cial Amir condoles with Golan belongs Iraqi president His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held a telephone conversation with Iraqi President to Syria and is Dr Barham Salih, expressing condolences on the victims of a ferry that sank in the Tigris river in Mosul, wishing the injured a speedy recovery. Page 3 Israel-occupied QATAR | Offi cial QNA alike throughout the bloody civil war Doha that has ripped the country apart since Speaker in Christchurch 2011. to off er condolences The Syrian government said Trump’s HE the Advisory Council Speaker, atar stressed yesterday its po- comments disregarded international Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid sition that Golan Heights is law. al-Mahmoud, arrived yesterday Rwandan President Paul Kagame met in Kigali yesterday with HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Qan occupied Arab land, and “The American position towards in Christchurch, New Zealand, to Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who is paying an off icial visit to Rwanda. HE the Minister of Foreign Aff airs strongly rejected any attempts to un- Syria’s occupied Golan Heights clearly convey the condolences of His conveyed the greetings of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to President Kagame, and his wishes for dermine international resolutions refl ects the United States’ contempt Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin further progress and prosperity to the Rwandan people.
    [Show full text]