Category: The Bangkok Post

The Medical Council of Thailand (MCT) has launched an ethics investigation into the treatment of a 31-year-old man who died after an alleged misdiagnosis at a private hospital in Ratchaburi.

The hospital has apologised to the victim’s family and pledged full cooperation with the inquiry.

The case came to light after the wife of Phanupong Wongwai alleged that a doctor failed to perform an electrocardiogram (ECG) despite her husband complaining of chest pain, pain radiating to his arm and excessive sweating.

The woman, who is known on social media as Khru Sai, said the doctor failed to examine her husband properly or perform an ECG, instead attributing his symptoms to anxiety before discharging him.

Phanupong later collapsed and died. An autopsy found two blocked coronary arteries.

ACM Ittaporn Kanacharoen, the MCT’s secretary-general, said the council had accepted the complaint and assigned its legal team and assistant secretary-general for ethics to coordinate the investigation.

The council will review medical records, the autopsy findings, the doctor’s explanation and evidence from the family while coordinating with the hospital, the Social Security Office, the Department of Health Service Support and other relevant agencies.

The investigation will determine whether the doctor’s treatment complied with professional and ethical standards, ACM Ittaporn said, adding the process would be impartial and evidence-based.

Hospital director Father Piyasak Wongwai attended the victim’s funeral in Bangkok to apologise to the family in person.

He said San Camillo Hospital had set up a probe committee and suspended the doctor involved, a part-time internal medicine specialist in his 70s who had worked at the hospital for more than 10 years.

The hospital has been unable to contact the doctor since the incident.

Dr Piyasak said the hospital would fully cooperate with investigations by the MCT and the Ministry of Public Health while respecting any legal action taken by the family.

He said the case had affected the hospital’s nearly 300 staff and its patients, adding the tragedy should serve as a lesson for the institution and lead to improvements while legal proceedings run their course.

Workers renovating a 155-year-old hall at Wat That Thong in Bangkok have uncovered a rotting wooden coffin containing a woman’s skeleton, buried in the floor immediately before the main Buddha image.

The red coffin was actually unearthed by Jedsada, 21, a construction labourer, on July 18 when he was installing jacks in the Limpaporn prayer hall so that a third storey can be added. He immediately told temple officials who called police.

Pol Lt Col Chakrawut Donprajam, of Klong Tan police station, led a team to the temple, which is on Sukhumvit Road. (continues below)

Inside the coffin was a decayed female skeleton believed to have lain there for at least 50 years, along with a stainless steel tray and four 50-satang coins dated 1957.

Forensic police and doctors from Chulalongkorn Hospital examined the coffin, the body and the five objects, which were then all impounded as evidence.

Police said it was unlikely there was any foul play involved. It was most likely a donor who helped fund the temple hall’s construction and was later buried there by relatives, close to the Buddha image.

The police inquiry was continuing.

Japan ranked the lowest among six countries in a private-sector survey of companies about their use of generative intelligence, with only 9% saying they found the technology to have exceeded their expectations.

The survey released by PwC Japan Group, which has consulting firms under its wing, showed that Japan had the lowest rate compared with Britain, China, Germany, South Korea and the United States.

The results of the study came despite a trend among Japanese companies for the introduction of AI to streamline part of their operations, such as in summarising meeting minutes.

In contrast, the US had the highest figure, with 38% of respondents saying AI performance was “well above expectations,” followed by Britain at 32%. The corresponding figures stood at 18% for China, 17% for Germany and 11% for South Korea.

A total of around 3,000 people responded to the survey conducted between February and March. It covered employees from companies with sales of 50 billion yen (10 billion baht) or more, specifically those in managerial-level positions and including those empowered to consider or make decisions on introducing generative AI.

While 47% of respondents from Japan said the performance of AI was in line with expectations, the corresponding figure for other countries ranged between 43 and 58%.

In both the US and Britain, more than 70% of those promoting the use of AI said it had generated benefits that translated into returns to customers and employees, compared with 40% in Japan, the lowest among the six.

While AI was often used in Japan for purposes such as submitting reports and sending e-mails, it was less used to create videos, audio and program codes, according to the survey.

“It’s important to consider whether (introducing AI) aligns with a company’s goals and vision,” said Shimpei Miyoshi, an executive officer of PwC Consulting LLC.

The government’s proposal to encourage civil servants as young as 40 years old to leave the bureaucracy voluntarily could become one of the most ambitious efforts in years to reduce the size of the state workforce.

However, while ministers argue the plan will reduce ballooning personnel costs and modernise government, critics warn it risks draining the civil service of experienced talent without fixing the structural inefficiencies that have long burdened the state.

Deputy Prime Minister Pakorn Nilprapunt said the voluntary retirement scheme would target officials aged 40, as they still have enough time to acquire new skills, retrain and adapt to changing labour market demands. Officials aged 50 and above could face greater difficulty changing careers or developing new skills.

Based on statistics from the Office of the Civil Service Commission, there were 414,088 civil servants in 2024, with an average age of 42.14 years. The number of civil servants aged between 41 and 50 stood at 121,545, accounting for nearly 30% of the workforce.

Mr Pakorn said the programme would initially focus on civil servants in positions where technology can replace routine administrative work. If successful, it could be extended to other groups, with a detailed study expected to be completed in time for the 2027 fiscal year.

However, questions remain over whether voluntary early retirement can meaningfully reduce long-term government spending without affecting the state’s ability to deliver public services.

Who leaves and who stays

Nonarit Bisonyabut, a research fellow at Thailand Development Research Institute, said the programme should not be judged solely on its objectives but on its design.

He said the concept itself has merit, but only if it is supported by a detailed study before implementation. It must be designed properly, or it could create more problems than it solves.

Mr Nonarit said the first issue that must be considered is who is most likely to leave the civil service under a voluntary retirement scheme. He identified two broad groups.

The first comprises highly capable professionals whose skills are likely to be in demand in the private sector.

Companies would welcome the opportunity to recruit experienced officials, but the state could lose many of the people it relies on to formulate policy and deliver complex public services, leaving government agencies less capable and less efficient.

The second group consists of operational and administrative support staff whose routine work could be replaced by digital technology and artificial intelligence. While reducing these positions could lower long-term personnel costs, he warned that it could also shift the burden elsewhere.

Mr Nonarit said this group enters the civil service in search of stable, lifelong employment rather than opportunities for career advancement. If they retire early but struggle to find new jobs, they could face financial hardship and become dependent on state welfare programmes.

Will it truly save costs?

Mr Nonarit questioned whether the voluntary retirement scheme would deliver the budget savings the government expects.

Unlike compulsory redundancies, voluntary retirement depends on offering compensation packages attractive enough to persuade employees to give up secure careers.

If the compensation package is too modest, few are likely to participate. If it is too generous, compensation costs could substantially reduce the expected long-term savings.

“The government must offer enough to encourage people to leave, but if it pays too much, the expected savings may disappear. The proposal requires a thorough study,” he said.

Mr Nonarit also questioned a proposal to replace the existing healthcare benefits for civil servants with a private health insurance model.

He said the current system has three main weaknesses: fraudulent claims, excessive use of medical services and rising treatment costs associated with expensive medicines outside the national essential drugs list.

While using private insurance could improve oversight through stricter claims management and measures such as co-payments for frequent users, it has additional costs because insurers operate for profit.

He said premiums typically rise with age, meaning premiums for older civil servants would increase over time, adding it remains unclear whether switching to private insurance would ultimately cost less than the existing state-funded system.

Rethinking roles

Bureaucratic reform should begin not by reducing headcount but by reassessing the jobs of government agencies to determine which responsibilities remain necessary, Mr Nonarit said.

Only then should the government decide how many officials are needed to carry them out.

As technology and AI can assist public administration, certain jobs may no longer be necessary. Others could also be delivered more efficiently by the private sector with state subsidies instead of direct government involvement, he said.

“Such a study will show where excess personnel and spending actually exist,” he said. “Cutting people without examining the work they perform risks weakening the civil service and ultimately harming the broader economy.”

A gradual approach

Stithorn Thananithichot, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, echoed concerns that voluntary early retirement schemes tend to attract the civil servants the state can least afford to lose.

He said officials with strong skills and extensive experience are often well placed to move into the private sector or start their own businesses, while those with fewer opportunities outside government are more likely to remain.

“The result is that the state loses many of its strongest performers while retaining employees with limited productivity,” he said.

Although the scheme could reduce personnel costs in the short term, Mr Stithorn warned that it could gradually weaken the effectiveness of the civil service.

Rather than relying solely on voluntary departures, he said a more effective approach would be to remove underperforming officials with appropriate compensation.

However, he acknowledged such an approach would also carry social costs if those leaving the civil service are unable to find new employment.

In that case, the financial burden could simply shift to other state welfare programmes, reducing the expected long-term fiscal benefits.

Only after defining which responsibilities remain necessary should the government determine how many officials are required to carry them out, he said.

The size of the civil service could then be reduced gradually through normal retirements, with vacant positions abolished rather than refilled. That, he said, would allow workforce numbers to decline more sustainably.

Beyond costs

Mr Stithorn also questioned whether the government’s emphasis on reducing personnel expenditure might be misplaced.

Rather than focusing primarily on recurrent personnel costs, he said that the government could save more money by scrutinising development budgets and outsourced projects.

Many government agencies usually hire private organisers to stage events that civil servants are capable of managing themselves, resulting in unnecessary spending despite having sufficient personnel on the payroll already, he said.

He also warned that the proposal could carry high political costs.

With about 1.8 million civil servants nationwide, many entered public service in exchange for long-term job security, healthcare benefits and pension rights rather than high salaries.

Any proposal perceived as weakening those safeguards is likely to cause resentment within the civil service sector, he said.

Mr Stithorn also said uncertainty over career stability could make the civil service less attractive to new graduates who may instead pursue careers in the private sector or establish their own businesses.

“If that happens,” he said, “the bureaucracy could gradually lose its ability to attract the most capable people, leaving government agencies increasingly staffed by those with fewer opportunities elsewhere.”

It is the same old story. A man tries to find his way home on a decade-long journey after a decade-long war. But then, there is not just what happened but how it is told. Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ (2026) depiction of Homer’s nearly three thousand years old epic is faithful to the source while still full of surprises. It keeps the story grounded, its themes relevant, while elevating the tale with cinematic techniques that the auteur is known for.

The grounded realism of ‘The Odyssey’

If we talk about Christopher Nolan, many things that hype up his films are often ‘how things are done in real life’. Notoriously, he crashed a real plane into an airport for ‘Tenet’ (2020). People were joking, was he going to build a real atomic bomb for ‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)? He made a smaller recreation for the effect instead.

However, with his latest historical epic these hopes gave way to criticism; the historically inaccurate armour, the modern-day dialogue, the casting of actors who are not Greek.

It seems that Nolan was especially targeted for these historical inaccuracies due to his reputation for realism. But people seem to forget that many of his films also lean into more ‘fantastical’ elements. Take ‘Interstellar’ (2014) or ‘Inception’ (2010), for example; these films have fanciful concepts but were told in a grounded way. ‘The Odyssey’ also feels like that, a fantasy story adapted in a grounded way.

The monsters and magic, glad he includes those, are made to feel like a part of the film world. The Cyclops, Polyphemus, felt threatening with no ‘nobody’ pun, unlike the poem. (A memorable part of the story but unlikely to translate well within the whole picture of the film). The Laestrygonians, man-eating giants, are portrayed as being very tall and strong people who are still brutally strong warriors, instead of as an actual giant. Circe transforming men into animals feels less magical than terrifying.

A great storyteller story told by a great storyteller

‘The Odyssey’ is a more subtle type of Nolan film. It is not ‘Tenet’, where you have a timeline going forward and another going backwards. It is not ‘Inception’, where you have different stages of a dream that time flows at different paces. It is more like ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ (2005 – 2012) or ‘Oppenheimer’, where they focus on a hero’s journey without a high-concept element of time and space bending.

Nonetheless, ‘The Odyssey’ still has that fast pacing and editing. It still refuses to tell the story linearly. Like the poem, the story begins in the middle (in medias res). The current timelines are Odysseus (Matt Damon) trapped on Calypso’s island, and Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and Telemachus (Tom Holland) on Ithaca with the suitors. The Trojan War and Odysseus’s encounter with the monsters and magic are told of by our hero, as a recollection of past memories up to this point.

I think this framing of the story, although borrowed from the original poem, fits well with the tone of the film. This helps separate the more fanciful elements as flashbacks, while grounding the more realistic part of the story (the suitors and even Calypso) in the present. The effect of this is, it not only makes the adventure seem like a tale as the audience remembers, but also makes the suitors seem threatening and imminent.

This framing also links to the grounded fantasy tone previously mentioned. With the fantasy elements being a retelling, it is open to interpretation whether they actually exist.

This grounding of fantasy elements also extends to how the film portrays the Olympians. Throughout the film the gods are not physically portrayed, with the sole exception of Athena, the goddess of wisdom who is worshipped by Odysseus’s family. The gods are portrayed as in the real world, where we can not see their physical presence but someone who believes will see the gods in everything.

For example, Zeus, being the king of the gods, extends his influence to many things, like how people fear him when thunder strikes, or how many characters had to welcome strangers due to Zeus’s law (Xenia). Actually, many events or plot points in the story derive from Xenia. This belief in gods affects the way the character thinks and behaves, proving how the gods are real enough in the film’s world.

The portrayal of gods here also ties into the tagline of the film, ‘Defy the gods’. This helps drive the question that has been pondered by our hero – whether his bad luck is pure chance or the consequence of his actions, inflicted by the gods. Showing a god, or confirming one, would undermine the message.

I especially like how they portray Athena. The film treats her almost like a subconsciousness of Odysseus, suggesting she is either an inner wisdom of the character or an actual goddess that can come and go as she pleases. It is later revealed that Athena’s physical form (Zendaya) was shaped on Odysseus’ memory of an innocent priestess (I assume) who was decapitated at the same time as the head of the Athena statue was cut off, during their attack on Troy.

Throughout the film, we assume that is how the goddess looked. Odysseus is traumatised by the war, by being the one who came up with the plan to get into Troy. Thus, due to guilt, he conjures up Athena in his mind, and in the likeness of the priestess.

Still, regardless of whether she exists, Athena serves her function as godess of wisdom. Both ‘wake-up-call’ moments for Odysseus in this film are Athena-related. One is when he realises the brutality of war as the Athena statue’s head is cut off. Another is when he recalls Penelope’s name after seeing Athena’s pin. Again, this makes it feel as if although the gods do not physically appear, they still influence things from afar.

Another revelation occurs in the same scene as the revelation of Athena. Throughout the film, there are fears of ‘the men from the sea’ that shake Telemachus and Penelope in the absence of a ruler in Ithaca. They fear that these ‘men from the sea’, and we know nothing else about them, might come and take their home. It turns out, as our hero realises, that for the Trojans the Greeks were ‘the people from the sea’ all along.

Although the Trojan war was portrayed by the bards as a glorified legend, the film’s portrayal of the actual event is less than glorious. Structurally, I like how the film employs scattered flashbacks of the Trojan war. Each time the war is shown it shifts the mood and tone, from struggling to survive inside the horse to an adrenaline-rushing attempt to open the gates of Troy, both making us root for the Greeks. However, the last major flashback on the Trojan war is disillusioning, showing the brutal slaughter of the Trojans, both warriors and innocents.

Another thing I think elevates this theme well is the design of the Trojan horse. From the outside, it has been compared to the version of Petersen’s ‘Troy’ (2004), how sleek and clean it looks. It does not feel like something the Greek warriors put together on a battlefield; it suggests more craftsmanship. However, I think the design echoes how the war is portrayed. It might look glorious from the outside, but inside people are drowning and struggling to survive.

The film ends powerfully, as always for Nolan (it might sound biased here, but the director is renowned for sticking the landing), with an image of a burning Trojan horse. It is a powerful image of a hope for people to remember the Trojan horse not as an immortalised victory, but a symbol of brutality and destruction, burning away for good.

The Finance Ministry has acknowledged discrepancies in government databases and urged applicants to update their information after the number of people qualifying for the 2026 state welfare card scheme fell sharply.

Only 9.5 million of the 18.8 million applicants qualified for the programme, down from 13.2 million beneficiaries under the previous scheme.

Of those who passed the screening, 7.2 million are existing cardholders who retained their eligibility, while 2.3 million are new applicants. About 5.99 million of the 13.2 million existing beneficiaries no longer meet the revised criteria.

Vinit Visessuvanapoom, ministry spokesman and director-general of the Fiscal Policy Office, said on Friday the revised registration process and screening criteria were intended to ensure assistance reaches those most in need.

He said the new criteria rely on information about applicants’ income, assets and other records held by government agencies to better identify low-income earners.

However, he acknowledged the effectiveness of the screening process depends on the accuracy of government databases, which may contain outdated or incorrect information.

“The review process gives people an opportunity to check their records with government agencies and update information,” Mr Vinit said.

Applicants who failed the screening will be informed of the criteria they did not meet and may request a review until July 31. Any updated information must be submitted by Aug 16.

Mr Vinit also clarified two revised eligibility criteria — vehicle ownership and student status — that can disqualify applicants.

Registration data from the 2022 programme showed that many welfare cardholders owned more than one vehicle or vehicles with relatively high market values. As a result, vehicle ownership was included as a screening criterion for the 2026 scheme.

Motorcycles, three-wheeled vehicles and certain vehicles used for earning a living are exempt, he said.

Applicants who no longer own vehicles registered in their names, or who sold them without formally transferring ownership, were advised to update their records.

Regarding student status, Mr Vinit said the criterion was introduced after authorities found many applicants registered as students were well beyond the normal age for school or university attendance.

He said the welfare card programme is intended to support low-income working-age people and vulnerable groups.

Thailand has secured more than 70 billion baht in investment commitments from leading Chinese corporations following a high-level roadshow in Chengdu, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas said on Sunday.

The Thai delegation to China engaged in direct, one-on-one negotiations with four of the country’s leading companies in the electric vehicle (EV) and advanced technology sectors, with the expected investment comprising 50 billion baht in expanded existing projects and more than 20 billion baht in new investments.

‘The investment drive exceeded expectations,’ Mr Ekniti, who doubles as deputy prime minister, said, attributing the strong response partly to shifting geopolitical conditions that are prompting Chinese manufacturers to diversify production beyond the mainland, with Thailand emerging as one of the preferred destinations in Southeast Asia.

Among the companies, EV manufacturer Changan Automobile reaffirmed its decision to use Thailand as its first right-hand-drive vehicle production base outside China. Its factory in Rayong province will serve as an export hub for countries covered by Thailand’s free trade agreements, while the company plans to double annual production capacity to 200,000 vehicles.

AI and optical communications equipment maker InnoLight Technology, the world’s largest producer of optical transceivers, also plans to expand its manufacturing base in Thailand. The investment is expected to create more than 20,000 jobs and include research partnerships with leading Thai universities involving about 1,500 Thai engineers.

Another major player in the industry, Eoptolink Technology, has already established its first factory in Rayong and is continuing construction of a second facility.

The government also held talks with Xiaomi Corporation, the Chinese technology giant, in an effort to encourage the company to establish Thailand as a manufacturing base for smart home and Internet of Things products by capitalising on the country’s established smart electronics supply chain.

The Board of Investment (BoI) on Sunday also organised a business matching event alongside the official opening of its Chengdu office, bringing together Thai and Chinese entrepreneurs to explore new partnerships that officials expect will generate further investment.

Mr Ekniti compared the latest wave of Chinese investment to the influx of Japanese manufacturers into Thailand’s Eastern Seaboard during the 1980s, which transformed the country into a regional manufacturing hub.

‘This is a new investment wave comparable to the Japanese investment boom of the 1980s,’ he said. ‘The difference is that this time the focus is on future industries, including artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and intelligent robotics.’

A 26-year-old woman with an intellectual disability is missing from Baan Thep Nimit in Khon Buri district, tambon Tabaek Ban, and her family believes she was lured away and is appealing for public help to find her.

The young woman is Sunisa Kumram, known as “Mai”, and she has been missing since the early hours of July 8. Her family believes she may be the victim of a romance scam.

Mai had asked to stay overnight with cousins at her aunt’s house, as she often did. The aunt’s family locked up and went to bed by midnight. Around 4am, they found the back door ajar and no sign of Mai, according to members of the famly.

Someone had rifled through one of the cabinets, but only Mai’s disability ID card was missing.

After a fruitless search they called police. Mai’s phone had been at a repair shop. Police examined it and found LINE chat messages with a man saved as “Darling Husband”. The messages included romantic exchanges and encouragement to run away from home, dating back to early July. Police and her family believe she was lured away.

Mai’s mother, Boonnatchada Phakdee, 47, said her daughter had delayed development and suffered from several conditions requiring daily medication, including an overactive thyroid gland. In another nine days a relapse could be life-threatening.

She said Mai had never gone anywhere unsupervised and had little contact with people other than a few cousins. It was unlikely she left on her own.

The village headman said Mai’s disability likely made her easy to manipulate and urged anyone with information to come forward urgently, given her medical needs.

Anyone with information on her possible whereabouts should quickly advise their nearest police station.

Corrupt government officials were viewed as the main factor allowing foreigners to illegally operate businesses in Thailand, a Nida poll showed on Sunday.

The pollsters said 67.10% of people blamed corrupt state officials for all illegal businesses directly run by foreigners or by using Thais as nominees.

Lenient penalties came second with 59.31%, followed by legal loopholes, 52.21%, and corrupt politicians, 50.46%.

Money-hungry Thais working with or helping foreigners shared the blame according to 48.70% of responders, followed by officials turning a blind eye to offences committed by foreigners, which was checked by 44.35% of responders.

The National Institute of Development Administration surveyed 1,310 people aged 18 or more across the country from Monday to Wednesday. Each person could give more than one answer to a question.

The poll was conducted as the country was shaken once again by the problem of Chinese babies receiving Thai citizenship with help from allegedly corrupt officials, hospital staff and Thai men wrongfully claiming to be the biological fathers.

Law enforcement officials have recently busted several businesses, big and small, belonging to foreigners but illegally fronted by Thai nominees and operating in major cities and at popular tourist destinations.

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (DES) is pushing ahead with the government’s digital platform economy bill, which aims to regulate digital service providers, strengthen consumer protection and promote fair competition in online markets.

DES Deputy Minister Nan Boonthida Somchai said the bill is being finalised and will be submitted to the Council of State, the government’s legal adviser, for legal review before being forwarded to the cabinet.

She said the bill is expected to be considered by the House of Representatives in September.

Ms Nan was speaking after chairing a meeting with Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) executive director Chaichana Mitrpant to review the bill and a separate bill on artificial intelligence.

She said the digital platform economy legislation is important to the development of the digital economy.

Under the bill, digital service providers must comply with regulatory standards, establish self-regulatory mechanisms and operate in accordance with good governance principles.

Service providers would be required to register their businesses, while operators with annual revenue exceeding 1.8 million baht would have to disclose the source of their income, particularly revenue generated in Thailand. Those who fail to comply would face penalties.

Service providers would also be required to inform users of potential risks, ensure online sellers offer only legal products, process complaints within 24 hours, clearly identify paid advertisements and disclose the identity of advertisers.

Ms Nan said they would also be required to take action against illegal goods and services. The bill may include an annex specifying categories of controlled goods and services.

Platforms would be required to verify sellers, drivers and other service providers and keep their information up to date. They would also have to clearly disclose service fees and commissions.

Ms Nan said social media and ride-sharing platforms would share responsibility for fraud committed by service providers using their platforms if they fail to carry out adequate verification.

The bill would also empower regulators to oversee service fees, commissions and other charges, including the rules, procedures and conditions governing platform services, she said.

ETDA will work with the Revenue Department to study tax issues involving digital platforms, she added.