THE WEEK AHEAD
MONDAY If you want some shiny objects, the second round of auctions of former Pol Lt Gen Pongpat Chaiyapan’s stuff runs from today until Thursday at — this is where it gets weird — at the 2nd Infantry Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, on Chaeng Watthana Road. Former rector and accused embezzler Thawil Puengma of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang and several friends will get their first hearing today at the Min Buri Criminal Court. They are charged with conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to forge and various counts of using false documents and malfeasance. The school now believes the gang stole 1.5 billion baht in a clumsy theft that virtually guaranteed being caught. Starting today, if you want service from the British embassy, you must first apply for an appointment online. The people who invented the polite queue will no longer use first-come, first-served as the basis of their operation.
TUESDAY The top 25 or so cueists in the world will break to start the five-day World Snooker Players Championship at the ballroom of the Montien Riverside Hotel. Several Thai hopefuls have been added to pad the field out to 32. Uighur migrants, who fled China and arrived at a Thailand dead end 11 months ago, will be in court today for an “urgent hearing” on their application to get out of jail and have some sort of useful life. There are 17 people involved, all from one family. Lawyers claim that the government has held the Teklimakan family at Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Centre illegally, because authorities have to ask the court every seven days for permission to continue to detain anyone. In Singapore, a Thai woman, Sukanya Praphuttha, 41, will appear in court over the death of Lee Yang Boo, 55, at a flat on March 7. Authorities provided a two-week psychiatric evaluation of Ms Sukanya, who probably will face a murder trial. When arrested, she had a severe bruise and contusions.
WEDNESDAY The 9th Asian Film Awards ceremony has looked at 42 movies from eight countries including Thailand, and will announce the “Oscars of Asia” tonight. The trial of Dutchman Willy Selten starts in Holland this morning. He’s the man who never said “neigh” to putting horse meat in sausages sold around the world including at Ikea Bang Na in 2013. The car company will allow you to see the MG3 hatchback today, at the 36th Bangkok International Motor Show. Isn’t that generous of them? Subaru will show its Outback crossover for the first time. The board of the Tourism Authority of Thailand will meet to try to devise a useful method of choosing a new governor. The last attempt collapsed on March 12 when only five obviously unqualified applicants showed up for interviews.
THURSDAY Phra Dhammachayo, the founder and self-appointed abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, will report today to the DSI. Sure he will. After all, he promised. Detectives want to know what he knows about embezzlers at Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative. He wanted to speak with investigators last week but was extremely ill and couldn’t make it. Thailand’s national football team face Singapore this evening at Nakhon Ratchasima. Nothing’s at stake; the game marks the 50th anniversary of the first Thailand-Singapore match — more than four months before Singapore became independent. South Korean activists will launch 10,000 balloons towards North Korea this afternoon (weather permitting, which it usually is). Each balloon will have a copy of the movie The Interview.
FRIDAY The cabinet is to meet today and tomorrow at Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan. The main item on the agenda at press time is a request by Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong, the minister of transport, to hire a pretty expensive consultancy firm to advise him on the China-Thailand rail deal he has gotten the country into. The Resistant Citizen — the four-man protest group — will return to military court today to hear if they are to be charged for their Valentine’s Day “election” stunt. Prosecutors will have to decode the court’s intention when it let the four men free last week without bail.
SATURDAY If we all turn off the lights from 8.309.30pm tonight, do you know what magical thing will occur? Neither does anyone else. But some people will do it anyhow, including the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, which is forcing CentralWorld to go dark at its Eden Zone. The International Kite Festival flies off this morning for two days of fun at Cha-am beach, Phetchaburi province. The TAT promises “more than 100 large, spectacular kites”, and of course, if you wish to fly your own kite, there will be nearly as much hot wind as the National Legislative Assembly to help.