Re: "Cambodia: Asean's spoiler or saviour?" (BP, Jan 4).
Once again, Mr Kavi's forecast about Cambodia's role in Asean is like any horoscope. Yes, it is possible that the Cambodian PM could be a spoiler who might ignore the Asean process and go his way in engaging Myanmar. Based on his history, anyone could easily forecast that he could neither restore democracy in Myanmar nor force the release of the National League of Democracy (NLD) leaders or reinstate Ms Suu Kyi's government. The only thing you can expect from coup-makers is to hold a fresh election in the coming years, maybe in two years, instead of four.
Surprisingly, Mr Kavi calls the most ruthless man a "versatile" leader in Asean. Some people will call the Thai PM more "versatile" than any other Asean leader. Now we know why people lost their faith in Nostradamus.
KULDEEP NAGI
Stop the fanatics
Re: "Leaders in Delhi playing with fire", (Opinion, Jan 3).
When I was a boy, I was greatly attracted to the liberal wing of Hinduism exemplified by the great 19th-century saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. In the course of his wide-ranging religious endeavours, Sri Ramakrishna followed the practices of many of the sects of Hinduism, and even of Christianity and Islam. In the end he declared that all religions lead to God, for, in his experience, they all culminated in the same ecstatic and all-embracing mystical state.
Krishna had said the same thing in the Bhagavad Gita (9:23), written centuries earlier: "Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship me alone, though out of ignorance." The organisation that bears Sri Ramakrishna's name, the Ramakrishna Order, has always taught the harmony of religions -- the idea that every religion, practiced with faith and devotion, eventually leads to the Ultimate Reality.
Fast forward to 2022, and we find that Hinduism has degenerated from a universal acceptance of all religions into a narrow Hindu chauvinism, with Hindu fanatics screaming for the blood of Muslims and Christians. This is not what Sri Ramakrishna had in mind.
It is time for what is best in Hinduism to rise up and assert itself in the face of what is worst in Hinduism; for if the best does not assert itself, the worst will almost certainly prevail.
WILLIAM PAGE
Vaccine fatigue
PostBag's publication of vax vs anti-vax letters has now become so repetitive and yawning. We are all adults and can assess the arguments on both sides and make up our own minds whether we will be vaccinated or not. Unless someone writes in with some startling new information, it is time for PostBag to move on to more relevant issues.
DAVID BROWN
Medical tyrants
Re: ''Clarity lacking", (PostBag, Jan 4).
Apparently Mr Goddard has not noticed that public health efforts to lower infection rates have not lowered infection rates. Rates in highly vaccinated and controlled countries are the highest they have ever been.
In contrast, South Africa and India have among the lowest vaccination rates, the greatest freedom and by far the least hospitalisations and deaths. Yet the psychotic masses and their medical tyrants still insist on less freedom and more potentially lethal vaccines.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread?
MICHAEL SETTER
