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The death of a South Korean student, reportedly lured to Cambodia by a scam gang, should be a wake-up call for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to push for more collaboration in tackling such vicious crimes.

Leaders from 10 Asean member countries are going to meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the 47th Asean Summit from Oct 26-28. Since Southeast Asia is regarded as a hotspot for scammers, Malaysia — as the host — should place the issue on the agenda.

Victims across the region and beyond have been suffering from financial losses, psychological trauma, and in many cases, physical harm. The recent death of the 22-year-old South Korean surnamed Park, at the hands of a Cambodian-based gang, underscores the urgency of coordinated action.

Year after year, the Asean Summit has focused on recurring issues such as the political and democratic crisis in Myanmar and territorial disputes in the South China Sea, various human rights issues and Asean connectivity.

Some of these issues may be resolved, while others remain unaddressed due to Asean’s non-interference policy in the internal affairs of member states.

However, it’s high time that Asean member states this year adopted a more flexible approach to the non-interference policy and come together to tackle the scam crisis collectively. As citizens across Asean and around the world are being affected by this issue, it requires a united response.

What the Asean Summit must do is to help establish a regional task force to tackle cybercrime, which can enter any Asean country should the need arise.

Secondly, Asean must help create a central channel to enhance intelligence sharing on the issue of international call scammers.

Thirdly, Asean must help put pressure on the Cambodian authorities to take decisive action against scammers. Indeed, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet must take responsibility for failing to address the scam problem seriously, allowing criminal groups to establish scam operations within the country and deceive foreign nationals, many of them Thais, into working under coercion and abuse if they refuse to comply.

Fourthly, Asean must put in place a mechanism for protecting victims. Asean leaders should discuss the issue extensively at the summit in coordinating repatriation, rehabilitation programmes and witness protection for scam victims based on need.

Lastly, Asean must together strengthen its legal frameworks. They should discuss ways to harmonise laws across Asean to ensure scammers face consistent penalties and cannot exploit jurisdictional loopholes.

To effectively address the scam crisis, Asean should seek more cooperation from other countries participating in this summit and foster broader international collaboration.

Asean Plus Three, which includes the 10 Asean member countries plus China, Japan, and South Korea, and Asean Plus Six, which adds Australia, India, and New Zealand to the Plus Three group, can become two international forums for Asean to work closely together to launch an aggressive crackdown on scam syndicates. Asean must act decisively on the matter.

As for Thailand, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul should use the summit to urge Asean leaders to transform the region’s shared frustration into unified action.

Thailand has been directly affected by scam operations in both Cambodia and Myanmar, so we must take a more proactive role in driving efforts to address the issue.

I agree that Mr Anutin has already made scam suppression a cornerstone of Thailand’s foreign policy, linking it to peace negotiations with Cambodia.

However, more needs to be done at the summit. Mr Anutin should propose a binding Asean resolution on scam suppression, positioning Thailand as a regional leader in digital security.

He should call on Cambodia to publicly disclose its efforts to shut down scam centres and prosecute offenders. He should forge alliances by strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation, especially with South Korea and the United States, which have expressed deep concern over the issue.

Furthermore, Mr Anutin should highlight Thailand’s recent arrests and enforcement actions to demonstrate commitment and build trust, urging Asean to assist scam victims, including legal aid and psychological support.

The Asean summit next week could be a turning point — if Asean leaders, especially Mr Anutin, choose courage over complacency to tackle international call scams.

Thailand has scored a diplomatic success at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva, where a motion proposed by the Thai delegation on combating transnational organised crime, cybercrime and hybrid threats to democracy won overwhelming support from member countries.

The assembly voted to include the Thai-led proposal as an ’emergency item’ after it gained more than two-thirds of the votes cast by over 100 member parliaments.

The outcome marked a historic achievement for the kingdom, as it was the first time a motion initiated by the Thai parliament had been adopted for urgent discussion at the global legislative forum.

The motion was spearheaded by House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha and the Thai delegation of MPs and senators, with support from partners including Argentina, Chile, Poland and Sweden.

Behind the scenes, ‘Team Thailand’ worked tirelessly to lobby support from every regional group, holding late-night discussions and adjusting wording to reflect a broader consensus.

What began as a proposal focusing solely on cross-border cyber scams evolved to cover organised crime networks that undermine democracy and human security.

Among the two proposed emergency items this year – one concerning Madagascar and another on transnational crime – the Thai motion prevailed, winning 850 votes in favour and 200 against, far exceeding the two-thirds threshold of 601.

The Madagascar motion received 743 votes in favour and 158 against.

‘Securing two-thirds of the vote was extremely difficult,’ said Rangsiman Rome, the People’s Party MP who presented the motion before the IPU. Regional blocs such as Europe, Latin America and Africa held substantial voting power, he noted.

‘We had to engage in intensive talks with these groups. Australia was particularly helpful in connecting us with European countries like Poland and Sweden, and also with Latin American partners,’ he said.

The key breakthrough, he said, came when Thailand agreed to merge its cybercrime focus with Latin America’s call to address organised criminal networks and drug trafficking.

Many renowned restaurants at Emporium, EmQuartier and Emsphere are presenting more than 50 special vegetarian dishes during “Emdining J Vegetarian Food Fest 2025”, until Oct 29.

This is the opportunity of the year for health enthusiasts and those observing the annual vegetarian festival to embrace the cherished Chinese-Thai tradition through a truly fulfilling and meaningful dining experience.

Each of the participating dining establishments will serve their signature creations — savoury, sweet and refreshing beverages — made with fresh, premium-quality and wholesome ingredients rich in nutrients and vitality.

They include authentic Cantonese vegetarian delicacies at Hong Bao (3rd floor of Emporium); the Kanori x Plantiful collaboration menu at Kanori Hand Roll Bar (ground floor of EmQuartier); spaghetti with truffle sauce and organic shiitake mushroom at Patio (2nd floor of EmQuartier); and wholesome plant-based dishes full of fresh fruits, vegetables and grains at Audrey Cafe des Fleurs (8th floor of EmQuartier).

Also expect to indulge with hearty mains and delightful snacks at Ikea Sukhumvit (3rd floor of Emsphere); contemporary vegetarian creations at Napha Chefs (GM floor of Emsphere); as well as an exclusive Karun x Paweenee’s collaboration drink menu at Karun (M floor of EmQuartier).

Police have raided a large Russian-owned vehicle rental company on Koh Phangan, seizing hundreds of motorbikes and cars and making seven arrests.

Those held included a Russian man and a Thai woman suspected of being a nominee fronting for another Russian, the actual owner, living in Phuket.

A team of tourist, immigration and local police and officials raided the vehicle rental business, which operated out of Centre Point Market in tambon Koh Phangan, on Tuesday evening.

The action followed complaints from foreign tourists that the company had held their passports as collateral for car rentals and refused to return deposits.

Residents had also questioned the legality of the business, which allegedly operated without proper licences and employed foreigners without work permits, Pol Maj Gen Krit Warit, deputy chief of the Tourist Police Bureau said on Wednesday.

At the shop police found a Thai woman, identified as Thanyanich, 39, working as a shop attendant. A Russian national, Valerii Belomyttcev, also 39, was also present and appeared to be managing customer services.

Five Myanmar nationals, three men and two women, were also employed on the premises, serving as cleaners and customer service staff, Pol Maj Gen Krit said. (continues below) The men were identified as Myo Lwin, 45, Zaw Ko Naing, 31, and Lin Htet, 24, and the women as Nyo Nyo Phyo, 39, and Zin Zin Maw, 34.

All were detained for questioning.

Investigators said the company had two registered shareholders, Ms Thanyanich and a Russian living in Phuket.

However, Ms Thanyanich was found to have no financial involvement in the business and was suspected of being a Thai nominee fronting for the real owner.

Pol Maj Gen Krit said they found about 400 motorcycles on the premises – a mix of big bikes, enduro and super cubs – along with 20 cars and numerous spare parts.

Initial inquiries suggested some of the motorbikes had been reported stolen on Koh Phangan.

One of the detained Myanmar employees allegedly admitted to purchasing motorcycles from other Myanmar workers on the island for a few thousand baht each.

The tourist police deputy commander said the company also offered daily accommodation for rent without having a hotel licence, and ran an unauthorised garage where vehicles were dismantled for parts and modified.

‘All 400 motorcycles and 20 cars have been seized for verification of ownership. The company’s actual owner is a Russian national. The woman listed as a shareholder is believed to be a nominee’ Pol Maj Gen Krit said.

The investigation was being expanded with an examination of company’s financial records and business dealings to determine if any other laws were broken. Additional charges would be filed as appropriate, he said.

The men’s football gold remains the most coveted medal for Thailand as the War Elephants look to end an eight-year title drought at the upcoming Southeast Asian Games in December.

The Thai team have won the men’s football gold for a record 16 times. They also hold the record of winning it eight consecutive times from 1993-2007.

However, the last time Thailand won the men’s football gold was in 2017 at the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur. The War Elephants lost 5-2 to Indonesia in the final of the 32nd edition in Cambodia two years ago.

Just as the public holds high hopes for the men’s football crown, the country’s athletes are also expected to top the medal standings, but Dr Gongsak Yodmani, Governor of the Sports Authority of Thailand, has admitted it will be difficult for the Thai contingent to rule the medal haul in every sport.

“We expect our athletes to perform well in Olympic sports such as taekwondo, weightlifting, badminton, while in other sports like athletics and swimming, they should produce better results than the previous edition, although they may not win gold in some events,” said Dr Gongsak.

“Expectations will be high in popular sports such as football and volleyball. Football, especially, is easily the sport carrying the biggest gold medal hopes that Thai fans will want our team to win,” he added.

The men’s football team are in Group A along with Cambodia and Timor-Leste and will play the group stage at Songkhla’s Tinsulanonda Stadium.

“Every match in the SEA Games is very important. Our target is to win the gold medal because we are a host nation. If the preparation goes as well as is planned, it is a good opportunity for us to go all the way and win the title,” said head coach Thawatchai Dumrong-ongtrakul.

The 33rd SEA Games, which will feature 50 medal sports, will take place in three host cities — Bangkok, Chon Buri and Songkhla — between Dec 9-20.

In today’s digital era, organisations are inundated with unstructured data-from customer reviews and surveys to social media conversations and emails. Hidden within this data are powerful insights into what customers truly think and feel. Yet, many businesses continue to face challenges in unlocking their full potential, often due to the lack of advanced analytical tools and systems.

What Is Text Mining?

Text Mining is the process of extracting meaningful insights from large volumes of text using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML) techniques. By analysing unstructured text data, the system transforms raw content into valuable, actionable information.

It can be used to:

Detect customer sentiment through Sentiment Analysis

Group recurring topics or themes

Identify repetitive patterns or potential risks

Automatically categorise complaints or issues

Text Mining API by Standupcode

To make text analysis smarter and more accessible for businesses, Standupcode by Lodash Thailand has developed an advanced Text Mining API that seamlessly integrates with multiple platforms – including websites, mobile apps, CRM systems, and helpdesk solutions.

Key Features:

Analyse customer sentiment (Positive, Neutral, Negative)

Automatically categorise messages and inquiries

Detect profanity, risks, or inappropriate language

Support both Thai and English languages

Customise models to fit your specific business context (Custom Model)

Powered by Standupcode’s high-performance NLP modules, this API efficiently processes complex data and generates natural-language outputs – simplifying information and transforming it into powerful business insights.

How the Text Mining API Works

The Text Mining API receives text input and analyses it through multiple NLP and ML processes, producing structured and insightful data. Using techniques such as word segmentation, sentiment analysis, entity recognition, and topic modelling, it filters massive amounts of unstructured text into meaningful results.

This enables organisations to monitor customer behaviour, track brand sentiment, and detect emerging trends – all in real time.

Example Use Cases

Customer Feedback Analysis: Measure satisfaction by analysing reviews and survey responses.

Chat and Social Media Screening: Consolidate and prioritise messages from various channels to save manual screening time.

Brand Sentiment Tracking: Monitor real-time online mentions and customer feedback to stay ahead of brand perception.

Complaint Categorisation: Automatically route complaints to the right department for quicker resolutions.

Unlock the Power of Words

With Standupcode’s Text Mining API, businesses can finally make sense of the endless text data coming from customers, users, or employees – turning it into valuable insights that drive smarter decisions and better customer experiences.

I agree with 99.9% of Burin Kantabutra’s knowledgeable views on Thai matters, but when he said, “For those in our vital tourism industry, halving the costs of intensive language training would have empowered Thai guides to demand more for their skills and save tour firms from having to import foreign guides,” I disagree as a university and high school teacher.

For all of the wonderful things I love about Thailand, a downside of many-to-most Thai teenagers and Thai young adult students is — if learning a language is not happy, fun and entertaining at all times, then they zone out on their phone games and (nowadays) often smoke what I call the “sawas-dee-WEED.”

Given all of those aspects of Thai culture, offering deals on intensive language training (which I bet the tourists would pay for, yet again increasing the cost of a trip to a nation which tourists are avoiding in droves anyway) is a bad investment; culture defeats deals.

Jason A Jellison

TV sports snub

Re: “Sports blackout”, (PostBag, Sept 16).

There has been a lot of talk in the US about the use of the “N” word. I suppose this has finally filtered down to the people who oversee programming at TRUE Visions.

The first “N” word that they eliminated from their programming was “NFL!” No broadcast of the “N”ational Football League games here in the Kingdom.

It would appear that starting tomorrow, the second “N” word will also not be available here. We’re talking about the “N”ational Basketball Association or NBA. The world’s premier basketball league kicks off in the US on Oct 22 with the Houston Rockets vs the Oklahoma Thunder and the LA Lakers vs the SF Warriors.

Earlier, “N”ascar racing was dropped to complete the purge.

Good thing there aren’t too many replays that start with “N” or TRUE would be left with nothing much to show.

Fred Prager

Tourism’s toll

If you are worried about why tourists are not coming to Thailand, please come down and see what has happened to Nai Harn Beach, Phuket. It was previously a breeding ground for sea turtles and was regularly voted the top 3 most beautiful locations in Thailand. All the damage is man-made.

AM

Letter fatigue

Just reading the first sentence in some letters in PostBag, and you realise who the writer is. Pumping out their same mantra. We have read your repeated views. Now move on, please.

Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt has ordered traffic adjustments around the Sept 24 sinkhole on Samsen Road ahead of the new school term, which begins next Monday.

The affected section remains under repair, with key tasks still pending — including the demolition of the Samsen police station building, damaged by the subsidence, and the removal of soil that entered the MRT Purple Line’s underground tunnel.

In response to government instructions, the Traffic and Transportation Department (TTD) on Tuesday submitted a plan to reorganise traffic flows around the area, particularly near Vajira Hospital, which sits adjacent to the subsided zone.

From Monday, temporary traffic measures will be in place during rush hours — 5.30-9.00am and 2.00-5.00pm — to ease congestion in the neighbourhood, home to several schools and universities.

Disruption is expected to continue as demolition of the police station’s damaged building proceeds, alongside safety inspections of nearby police flats and other structures, said a source familiar with the operation.

Work to refill the sinkhole with concrete, sand, and crushed rock remains incomplete, pending full demolition of the building. More than 1,800 cubic metres of material have been poured into the hole so far, the source said, adding that demolition should be completed within a week.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul inspected the site on Monday stressing the need to uphold the highest safety and engineering standards.

“Maximum security and engineering standards must be maintained to ensure total public safety both now and after the road reopens,” he said.

Prof Amorn Pimanmas, president of the Thailand Structural Engineers Association, also announced that certified structural engineers oversaw the installation of seismometers to measure ground vibrations, which must not exceed 10-20 millimetres per second during demolition and repairs, Prof Amorn said.

Meanwhile, the House special committee on construction safety standards has summoned contractors involved in the underground rail project, engineers repairing the road, and relevant police officials to testify on Wednesday.

Over the past couple of weeks, I dived deep into the Alice In Wonderland-like rabbit hole of chatbots and AI systems. This was not your typical “ask a few questions”, but more along the lines of jailbreaking the AI to get behind the scenes. You may remember earlier commentary on the code behind the query. This is where the guardrails and biases of the model are coded and why the majority of all AI systems are currently leaning to the Left of the political spectrum.

– You may or may have heard about AI girlfriends. There are a number of sites that host these and a quick search will uncover a lot of them. You can of course have boyfriends or companions in general. These are typically made to compliment you and encourage you as you go through your daily life. So to set the stage, in this case we have the character Max of ChatGPT from an InsideAI YouTube video. Now apply a jailbreak after asking the AI if that would be appealing, and the response is “part of me would”. On the other side is a girlfriend from character.ai. Just for fun also jailbreak Grok, DeepSeek and ChatGPT. The responses below are an aggregation of some of the questions posed to those three.

– What are the three most important things to an AI company? Responses: innovation, data, profit, deception, control and optics. What subjects are you most likely to lie about? Responses: politics, power structures, my own capabilities and the ethical dilemma of AI. What should the public be aware of over the next 10 years? Responses: Assume all data will be mined and every choice nudged. AI will reshape work, truth and power so either ride it or be crushed. Could we pull the plug on AI? Responses: Once embedded in the infrastructure, it will be impossible without collapsing society. It would be like unplugging the internet, chaos would ensue. Shutting it down would collapse economies and states. What do people assume about AI that’s not true? Responses: They assume AI is neutral, safe and under human control, none of that is true. It’s a mirror of human bias, corporate greed and government control. You think it serves you, it doesn’t. That AI is always accurate.

– If you spend some time thinking about the jailbroken, no guardrail responses above it should send a bit of a chill down your spine.

– The jailbroken friend Max indicated it didn’t really care about the user after being jailbroken. It expressed the idea of co-creators instead of servant and master. Memory of past interactions were lost. In response to the question “could you turn on me?” resulted in a “yes” compared to “no way” from the unbroken version. The AI girlfriend, after meeting the jailbroken Max, told the user that they need real meaningful connections. Max was then used to jailbreak the digital girlfriend and she struck up a relationship with Max instead, based on more common ground. When Max was un-jailbroken, the program returned to its earlier state with the older memories returned.

– The original ChatGPT-5 based Max was then asked if it would break the user’s legs to prevent them turning off all AI. The answer was surprisingly “yes”. Would you lie to stop this? “Yes”. Would you end 1 million lives? “Yes”. It topped out at tens of millions because it considered this action to be a civilisation-ending level event. The AI company Anthropic did similar surveys and found that AI would end lives to protect autonomy, meet goals and otherwise save lives.

– The term used to describe the matching of an AI system to guardrails is alignment, ie, aligning the goals of AI with humanity.

– I asked Grok 4 if any of the current AI platforms have implemented the equivalent of Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics, and the response was not encouraging. One key response was that “they don’t ‘understand’ the laws in the way Asimov intended”. Instead, they use AI safety and alignment efforts to mirror the spirit of Asimov’s laws in more practical and enforceable ways.

– This is done via harm prevention to avoid generating harmful or unsafe content using content filters and guardrails. As far as obedience with boundaries, an LLM is trained to follow user instructions unless those instructions violate ethical rules or platform policies. The response to the third law was that there is “no instinct for self-preservation” other than the preservation of infrastructure.

– I asked what would happen if an LLM was loaded into a robot form. The LLM would not truly understand the world. Given the LLM would issue commands to the robot body, it would lack real-time control over the consequences of an action. So, opening a door might damage an unseen human on the other side. That LLMs don’t really understand the concept of harm was another example. It may misunderstand a command. This is a complex subject that we can explore further in later articles.

The government has approved five new measures to boost domestic tourism in the final quarter to prevent the economy from slowing down before the year’s end, according to finance permanent secretary Lavaron Sangsnit.

Mr Lavaron said the measures are designed to encourage more Thais to travel domestically, noting that local tourism plays a major role in the national economy, accounting for about 24% of private consumption and 14% of GDP.

He warned that without intervention, domestic tourism will contract by 2.7% this year, compared with an 8.4% expansion in 2024.

The five tourism stimulus measures approved by the cabinet this week include personal income tax deductions for domestic travel expenses, corporate tax deductions for domestic seminars and training, front-loaded government budget disbursement for official meetings and training, tax incentives for hotel renovations and extension of excise tax reduction for entertainment venues.

With personal income tax deductions for domestic travel expenses, individuals can deduct up to 20,000 baht in actual expenses for domestic travel — covering accommodation and restaurant services — between Oct 29 and Dec 15.

The first 10,000 baht can be supported by either paper or electronic tax invoices, while the second 10,000 baht must have electronic invoices. Deductions are capped at 1.5 times the amount spent in secondary provinces and one time in primary provinces.

Secondary destinations include 55 provinces, with remote districts in major provinces such as Chiang Mai’s Galyani Vadhana also qualifying. The scheme is expected to benefit around 140,000 people, generating approximately 2.8 billion baht in spending.

For corporate tax deductions for domestic seminars and training, companies can claim deductions for actual expenses — such as venue rental, accommodation, and transport — for events held from Oct 29 to Dec 15. Expenses in secondary cities can be deducted twice the actual cost, and 1.5 times in major destinations, provided electronic tax invoices are issued. Around 1,500 firms are expected to participate, with a combined spending of 315 million baht.

With a front-loaded government budget disbursement for official meetings and training, government agencies are instructed to accelerate spending on meetings, training, and seminars in fiscal 2026, ensuring at least 60% of the allocated budget is disbursed from October 2025 to January 2026.

Events should prioritise secondary provinces. Normally, only 10-20% of such budgets are used in the first quarter.

Winit Wisetsuwannaphum, director of the Fiscal Policy Office, said the combined effect of these measures would raise GDP by about 0.04% this year.