Re: "Motorists slam police road safety crackdown", (BP, Aug 23).
The authorities should first rigorously implement our existing traffic laws before boosting fines and jail sentences for driving licence-related offences. We have very good laws for speeding, etc -- but they're not vigorously enforced, and hence ineffective. For example this week I posted a video clip of a speeding tour bus on the wrong side of the road, going around a curve against the double line dividing traffic flows. The cops fined the driver just 5,000 baht which is just a slap on the wrist; no action was taken against the driver's firm. Such easy-going treatment is little short of dereliction of duty by the police involved.
Contrast that with what I saw in Phuket a few months ago -- the streets were very orderly, because, the noodle shop I ate at told me, the police were going against illegal parking with a will. That's the way to go!
Yes, the licensing procedures need to be tightened up a lot, but they're only a secondary part of the problem. Do the most with what you've got first.
Burin Kantabutra
Queries but no answers
When was the last time chief of Land Transport Department Sanith Phromwong was on the streets of Thailand to see that the current laws and fines are not carried out by the police force? And how are the new ones going to improve the issue? And why are all police road checks always aimed at motorbikes etc and not all vehicles? And why is nothing done about double parking?
RK Parkin
Moral hypocrisy
The Thai government wants to enforce a code of morals for students (Editorial, Aug 17). Thailand is back to its "do as I say, not do as I do" policies again. Morally correct officials should be an example for students to follow. Instead, would-be enforcers like Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwon, alias Mr Rolex, are going to tell others to be moral while not having the slightest idea what the meaning of the word is.
Maybe the students need to tell the present government to enforce its own morality before foisting morality on others.
David James Wong
Broken rule of law
It is tragic that three-year-old girl, Nuran, died after being locked in a hot van! Yes, tragedies like these are avoidable and the driver should be held fully accountable for murdering the child. More rules or "new" rules though will not fix the problem, especially if you are depending on the government here to enforce them. Rules here seem to be treated like "suggestions" rather than mandates that must be followed.
When I see thousands of children riding on motorcycles without helmets, that is proof that common sense and safety is not really part of the cultural paradigm. Especially, when you see the parents wearing one and not the children.
Believing that a checklist would have saved the child is delusional. If the driver did not have the common sense to check his vehicle on his own, then a checklist probably would not be followed. Also, it does not take the government to mandate such a policy. The school officials should already have a policy regardless of government procedures. Again, this is common sense. Depending on the "government" though allows for people to deflect personal responsibility and blame others.
Forget waiting for the government to fix things, they cannot even get a handle on flooding after a 1,000 years. Do what most developed countries do and have the insurance companies be the enforcers of safety. Anything that results in a payout from an insurance company will cost a company big money because their rates will go up.
This financial incentive is what gets compliance with safety rules and regulations, not government monitoring. Nobody really cares about you, but they do care about their bank accounts!
Darius Hober
Something very rotten
A news report in the Aug 24 edition of Bangkok Post about the sexual assault by an army sergeant major on a seven-year-old boy is an utterly shocking account of moral bankruptcy and depravity.
The fact that the army sought to "buy off" the boy's mother, and the lack of interest in the case by the local police is scarcely believable in what is supposed to be a civilised society. Then, to make matters even worse, the army spokesman announces that the sergeant major has been jailed for a paltry 15 days and has been suspended without pay for what is described as a "disciplinary violation". Suspended for how long? What about medical and counselling support for the victim? Does anybody care?
The military are currently in charge of virtually everything, but if this is an example of how the organisation dispenses justice, or how much importance it attaches to the physical and emotional well-being of a little boy raped by one of its own, then surely something is rotten in the state of Thailand.
Robin Grant
Dodgy electric buses
In recent news reports, Shenzen-based, BYD Co which manufacture automobiles, forklifts, has been pushing its electric buses for use in Thailand. It might be wise for the Prayut Chan-o-cha government to check with other countries who have purchased their electric buses. There are reports that they have sold their buses to many transportation agencies throughout the US. I have read that none have met the required specifications of any of the agencies. Stories of stranded or stalled buses on routes. Oh, but doing research takes effort. Might be too difficult for hand-in-pocket politicians and bureaucrats.
Brian Springer
Don't count Trump out
Re: "The messy meaning of the Manafort and Cohen cases", (Opinion, Aug 24).
Peter Apps is very right to be cautious that president Trump is down and out. This guy will stop at nothing to retain power.
Even if he were to be impeached after the November 2018 midterms, or lost the 2020 election in spite of friendly Russian hacking and persistent claims of an establishment conspiracy, there remains the distinct possibility of Trump's base resorting to pitchforks and even civil war.
President Nixon retained a 25% approval poll rating even as he resigned in disgrace in 1974. Trump, at around 40%, is doing very nicely.
Barry Kenyo
Pattaya
Murky politicians
As Peter Apps stated correctly in his Aug 24 article that "there were clear signs of just how vulnerable those around the president are to financial charges around fraud and tax evasion", I really wonder how vulnerable those would be around other highest-ranking politicians, and not only in the US, if a probe similar to what Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is handling is launched against them?
Guena
Far from brainwashed
As a follow-up to Nigel Woodward's Aug 21 letter, "Myths of Narcissus", I want to respond to the claim that the reason so many of us detest Donald Trump is because we're brainwashed by such liberal media outlets as TheNew York Times or CNN. I don't even read the Times or watch CNN. I don't need them to tell me that Trump is an evil man.
All I have to do is listen to Trump himself and read his tweets. In other words, there is only one source I need to convince me Trump is horrible. And that one source is Donald Trump!
Eric Bahrt
Casinos key for Pattaya
One does not need to be over-bright to notice that Thailand's once most famous holiday destination is in serious decline. Some would even suggest terminal.
Most official actions over the past (four?) years have been an unmitigated disaster, and clearly now a new approach must be made. In my humble opinion, drastic action should be taken to avert the financial crisis threatening so very many in this resort city now, without a useable beach! One now rarely finds a visiting tourist, or indeed anyone else, who is happy with the present day situation and in today's world, news spreads very fast (and bad news even faster?).
So, just what can still be done? Well, I would suggest the following as a start:
Firstly, those involved must realise that there is, in fact, a problem to be addressed. Secondly, they have to make this area an "investment area " offering foreign investors full ownership rights.
Thirdly, they should make Pattaya "the entertainment centre of Asia". This could be achieved although I must say, not without difficulty.
And, finally, the state must allow casinos which would be "the cherry on the cake". Cambodia's Sihanoukville has now this year more than 70 casinos and counting and will be Pattaya's major competitor. Just Angkor Wat alone will attract more than enough future tourists than most countries could easily cope with) and this not including the clean beaches, vibrant nightlife and French culture that this new Asian Dragon now has to offer.
Andrew Linten
Missing rubber prices
Alas, each morning for the past year I have turned to your Business page to read of the latest rubber prices only to be rewarded with nil entry. Four precious lines with two columns of your commodities column are devoted to rubber but each morning the result is eight dashes.
Is no one buying or selling rubber any more or has your rubber correspondent simply dropped off the perch, pencil in hand, mid-penstroke and the sub-editors forgot to follow up?
Interested as I am in rubber prices, one line would suffice, sans dash, and perhaps we could have the daily price of sugar, rice, grapes or avocados and other agricultural products of interest to we regional readers.
Nam Phong Neville
Bridge of bad taste
One of the cartoons "Views Of The World" in the Aug 19 edition of Bangkok Post depicted a 2,000-year-old Roman Bridge and a 50-year-old Italian bridge. That is in appallingly bad taste. Forty-one people suffered a horrific death and that is humour? I still cannot believe I saw it. If it had been a bridge in Thailand and the same thing took 41 Thai lives, would you have done it?
A very disappointed reader
Obama was the worst
Nowhere in the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence does it say you can impeach an American president for spite or you simply don't like his hairstyle. Mr Trump is the best American president ever, but then again, how hard can that be following the worst who promised everything and gave nothing but misery. Think not, just visit any big American city on either coast and see people live on Obama's hope and change living on streets living like animals eating out of garbage cans.
T C Soderberg
Koh Tao cover up?
The Sun of the UK on Aug 23 reported a rape case on Koh Tao involving a 19-year-old Brit woman who complained that she was drugged and raped during a visit and that local police ignored her case in a bid to cover it up. Why didn't the Bangkok Post report this case? What are you afraid of?
Brian Corrigan
Heroes and villains
Re: "Thailand holding out for a hero", (Opinion, Aug 22).
We don't need heroes, we need achievers who speak out loud against crimes against humankind. A hero for a million people (Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte comes to my mind) could be a villain for millions of others.
Raimund
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