absolutelyBangkok archive · News & Media
Originally published Jan. 1, 2009
What a tragedy to start a hopefully better year with. A fire killed nearly 60 mostly young New Year party revelers and injured scores at the Ekamai nightclub Santika. Bodies wrapped in white cotton were laid out on the pavement in front of the club which was popular with foreigners as well. Most of the fatality victims were Thai. Three Singaporeans and one Canadian are confirmed dead.
And why doesn’t this tragedy surprise us in our capital which is renowned for its nightlife, but where clubs are loosely regulated and often have very poor fire safety systems. Or you never wondered along Ekamai’s quickly and cheaply errected nightclubs and bars “What if?” Reports said the club had only one main exit, at the front, and many people had been trapped inside, unaware of three other exits.
Politicians and officials will be all over Bangkok’s night venues and check every club and pub and bar in town and demand better fire safety for a few days at least. But how can you prevent negligence, carelessness and inattentiveness, the most plausible reasons for the fire. Said a witness: The blaze was caused by a “special-effect” firework on the main stage to usher in the new year:
And the fire made the ceiling, which was made largely of inflammable sound-proof material. And the ceiling caught fire, the fire spread very quickly and you can only imagine the panic of the trapped inside. Firework inside a building…
Confirmed a policeman: “It appears that the fire started from the area of the stage where a band was playing. There were some pyrotechnics and it appears that they started the blaze.”
And from a reliable source we got this:
Since a Mr. Suriya Ritrabue is the sole Managing Director with the authority to bind the company with his signature, we have to assume that he bears ultimate responsibility for this tragedy. However, it’s more likely that he’s in Cambodia or Malaysia by now… But he deserves to have his name kept in front of the public until justice is served. (We can’t find an alternate spelling for the name in English so we used the transliteration scheme of the Royal Thai Institute.)
We pulled up the business registration record for Santika:
Business Registration No.: 0105546137109
Name: White and Brothers (2003) Co., Ltd.
Type: Limited Company
Registration Date: 13/11/2546
Status: In Existence
Registered Capital: 2,000,000.00
Address: 235/11 SOI SUKHUMWIT 63 (EKKAMAI) THANON SUKHUMWIT KHLONG TON NUEA KHET WATTHANA BANGKOK 10110
Business Sector: 55202: Restaurants and food and refreshment shops Managing Directors: Mr. Suriya Ritrabue Shares by Nationality: Thai 400
The club address matches what is published on the web, double-checked here via the domain name registration:
http://whois.domaintools.com/santikaclub.com
The club had sales of over 150 million baht in the past 4 years so they can probably afford a good lawyer…
Still, according to all the Thai media and the Bangkok Post police planned to charge Visuk Setsawad, a major shareholder of Santika.
But finally all roads lead to Rome. The Post confirmed a few days after the inferno that police will file charges against Suriya Ritrabue.
It’s our guess that the beat reporters in the daily press don’t understand the difference between corporate structure (including shareholders and a Managing Director who may or may not be a shareholder) and day-to-day operations which would have a supervising manager in the club. Doesn’t have to be the same person and often isn’t for an operation the size of Santika.
And a Thai LLC (Limited Liability Company) does typically need seven shareholders at a minimum. Those 7+ would have the right to vote on changes and company by-laws and other things as well as enjoy a dividend in good times; when things go wrong on the other hand they all share responsibility. Limited Liability means just what it says and a company formed on those terms can only be stripped of its assets and reserve capital, no creditor can go after a Director or shareholder’s personal assets as can be done with other types of company (a Sole Proprietorship or Ordinary Partnership, for example).
That kind of “safe harbor” makes them very attractive although they are supposed to pay higher tax rate. In practice that rarely happens though as the Directors typically just vote themselves a raise or bonus, pay the lower personal tax rate, and leave the company with higher administrative expenses, in effect breaking even and owing little or no corporate tax.
The “power to bind the company with his signature” usually has the practical interpretation that such individuals (and a company may have more than one) can sign corporate income statements, tax filings and other government papers, conduct the banking relationships and various other high level stuff. It’s a level above just being able to sign checks or contracts…
Last but not least: Santika had actually planned to close down and move to another place in Bangkok. The name of the tragic concert was Goodbye Santika. The first band’s name? “Burn”… Apparently the owner could not extend the lease on the property:
We still wish you a great and prosperous and successful 2009, while our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
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