FOCUS: Bangkok gets out the cosmetics to impress APEC leaders

Asian Political News, Oct 6, 2003

BANGKOK, Oct. 1 Kyodo

As the series of meetings related to the annual summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Oct. 14-21 looms, the Thai authorities are busy getting Bangkok metropolitan ''ready'' to host the talks.

While senior officials have met over the year to bring substantive matters to the discussion table, other Thai officials have worked hard to tidy up Bangkok, in hopes of impressing the delegates.

The government has made great efforts to get the capital, also known as Krungthep or the City of Angels, looking good in the eyes of foreign leaders.

Not only are they cleaning public buildings and facilities, decorating the city with greenery, flowers and sculptures, they have also come up tactics hoped to make the metropolis free from traffic congestion, messy environs, stray dogs, homeless people, beggars, hawkers and street prostitutes.

''We do not want our guests to see unpleasant scenes,'' said Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) Permanent Secretary Nathanon Thavisin in reference to ''untidy activities'' in many streets of the capital.

For the sake of ''orderliness and prestige of the country,'' hundreds of stray dogs have been removed from the inner city where APEC leaders' motorcades may pass, city authorities explained as they rounded up the canines throughout September.

Animal activists accused the authorities of torturing the dogs because they are being relocated to an animal holding shelter in eastern border province Sa Kaeo, some 240 kilometers northeast of Bangkok.

Most Thais sympathize with strays and they feed the strays with leftovers. But at the same time, they don't want to keep them in their houses

nor assert ownership, according to the animal activists.

Therefore, it is common in Bangkok to see laid-back dogs lolling in the streets, the sidewalks and the curbsides.

Again citing ''orderliness,'' the city also announced no drifters would be allowed to stay overnight in most public grounds.

''Such a policy to remove homeless people can only be interpreted as sweeping social problems under the carpet to avoid embarrassment. The authorities feel ashamed and they want to hide it from foreigners. It is neither goodwill nor any lasting solution for the problem,'' said Suwit Watnoo, a founding member of the Human Settlement Foundation, a nongovernmental organization working on issues related to homeless in Bangkok.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told reporters last week it was the BMA duty to orderly manage vagrants.

''Those vagabonds that are sick should be given medical treatment and the others should be given vocational training so that they could turn to be productive members of society,'' he said in support of the BMA plan to remove the homeless from Bangkok streets ahead of the APEC talks.

But the homeless argue the state initiative will solve no problems in long run. Even with vocational training, employers refuse to hire the homeless because most of them are aging, many of them said.

It is estimated by the Human Settlement Foundation there are about 2,000 homeless people in Bangkok, but the BMA puts the number closer to 10,000.

''I don't know why the government has to be shy about us sleeping on the ground of Sanam Luang. I think no delegates will come to this area to look at us in the mid of the night,'' said Saran Chumthong, 35, who has spent nights on the royal ground near the Grand Palace for nearly 18 years.

Saran said he never wanted to go for vocational training offered by the government because he was afraid to lose his ''liberty and security.'' He said he and his friends plan to go away for a monthlong tour in October to avoid being caught by the authorities.

''We will go to Nakhon Pathom Province where there will be a temple fair. We can stay at the temple ground, we can sell our silver paper mat, and we can get food from monks. We don't want to 'disturb' the APEC meetings,'' Saran said humbly, intimating the homeless are ''worthless'' in the eyes of the government.

Every night city officials scout public spaces where homeless people often spend the night to make sure nobody sleeps there, and even sometimes wet down the grass when there is no rain predicted for the night.

City authorities will plan to wipe out the sight of beggars, hawkers selling flowers or newspapers at intersections and street prostitutes.

The premier even said the government would send ''alien beggars'' back to their homelands by military transport.

Bangkok has been a heaven for poor people from neighboring countries to seek better luck and many of the beggars are from Cambodia and Bangladesh.

The government has allocated about 1 billion baht (about $25 million) for Thailand to host APEC talks this year, with about half the budget allocated for the BMA to develop the city's geographical image.

The other half will be spent on renovating the Navy's riverside auditorium where APEC leaders will enjoy an authentic Thai dinner and watch a spectacular night procession of 50 royal barges along Chao Phraya River.