Re: "Drink-drivers wreak havoc" (BP, Dec 31).
Were it not so fatally sad, it would be merely boring to have to repeat well-known facts that Thailand's traditional New Year road carnage reminds us of.
One obvious fact is that alcohol maintains its traditional position as the most harmful recreational drug of addiction in popular use.
It is involved in 40.9% of the accidents over the current festive season as it continues to kill and maim the innocent, to tear families apart, and incite rape, fights and other violence, all those traditional elements of an alcohol-fuelled New Year.
The drug barons profiting so mightily from this carnage their drugs cause are doubtless crying all the way to the bank.
Meanwhile, resources that could otherwise be usefully spent reducing alcohol's massive harms to society are wasted on losing costly wars on less harmful recreational drugs, decades-long failures that serve only to worsen the harms they cause society by handing official monopolies to mafia scum eagerly supported by corrupt officials.
This is not a happy New Year or any other sort of happy, except of course to the corrupt and mafia, whose bank accounts are flourishing as happily as those of the legally blessed alcohol traffickers.
Perhaps they will make the requisite showy donations from their profits to bribe the karmic officials keeping track of merit to ensure that the traditional status quo continues in their happy New Year.
Felix Qui
Taxi system is broken
Refusals by cab drivers to drop customers at designated places and charge them appropriately is a serious issue in most towns and cities across Thailand.
Strict laws have been enforced but with little impact and customers continue to suffer across the nation.
This is a phenomenon that citizens have encountered for decades. However, I would also like to highlight that not all cab drivers are devoid of morality and ethics; and often have extended exemplary services to many customers in need of help and immediate support.
The government must take proper action to resolve this problem particularly for foreign tourists visiting every year. Almost all tourists coming to Thailand face this common problem. There needs to be a change in attitude and also a curbing of the negative role of city and town-based taxi unions that often encourage cab drivers to behave badly with customers.
The parties are also to blame for their alleged support to these unions' leadership as well as the failure of the administration to take proper action against faulty individuals.
The administration also needs to provide security to cab drivers as well as protect them from exploitation by the police and rude treatment by some aggressive customers. Both sides need to accommodate positive changes to receive improved cab services.
Saikat Kumar Basu
Canada
Democracy still far off
Re: "Millennial vote a key for Asian polls", (Opinion, Dec 31).
No matter how the Thai elections are conducted, Thai millennials will remain spectators. In a country where elected leaders keep getting unseated by the courts or the army, a durable democracy in Thailand will remain a pipe dream.
It is quite possible that in 2019, the typical Indonesian and Indian millennial may force drastic changes in their governments. Andy Mukherjee is right that it may be too much to expect from a Thai millennial in 2019. The majority has been sanitised to believe that stability and false pride are more important than jobs, human rights, justice, and freedom.
Kuldeep Nagi
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