Re: "Ministry downplays need for southern power plants," (BP, Feb 23).
What a difference a day makes! For years, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the Energy Ministry have insisted that the southern coal-fired power plants were absolutely essential for the energy security of the country. They repeatedly warned of dire consequences for the economy should the power plants not be built.
Now that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has reluctantly agreed to put the southern power plants on hold, suddenly the story has changed and energy officials report that power needs can be met with biogas and other renewable energy. It really begs the question of what kind of energy expertise the country possesses and/or alternative motivations for building power plants when the political winds are so favoured.
Samanea Saman
All smoke and no fire
Both the axe lady and her sister have become international celebrities. It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword, and it seems the axe is mightier than the law.
I loved the statement from your metropolitan police chief that "Oh yes, they did complain a few times over the years". How vaguely quaint in avoiding the issues of responsibility. Perhaps he might have acknowledged uncounted complaints during the past 10 years with little to nothing ever done. Perhaps the boys in brown might take their complaints a bit more seriously now, while investigations into those illegal markets are long overdue.
Perhaps even Prime Minister Prayut, who made the famous statement "I will wipe out corruption everywhere" might care to look into how well the city inspectors and police have behaved by accepting tea money to overlook these illegal markets and many other complaints. Again, like the Premchai problem, the Red Bull problem, and a few more high profile problems, little to nothing punitive will be done. It is all smoke with no fire, form with no substance. Yeah, TIT, this is indeed typically Thailand.
David James Wong
Postponed indefinitely?
Another amusing breaking news story on Bangkok Post online: "As watch saga drags on, all eyes on NACC". One sentence in particular caught my attention: "'Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon was well within his rights to seek the postponements, even if they dragged out the inquiry,' the NACC chairman said". And, as everyone well knows, these postponements can go on for years, and years, and … you get the point.
Charcoal Ridgeback
Playing the waiting game
I would think that Gen Prawit would be fairly articulate to have gotten as far as he has in life, so I am guessing that the National Anti-Corruption Commission understands his explanation very well, but finds it as laughable as the rest of us and so are giving him more time to come up with another explanation. Or this is just the usual foot-dragging by Gen Prawit's cronies in the hope that everyone will get tired of waiting for some action and move on.
A Reader
Fuming over city haze
Anchalee Kongrut's Feb 23 article pointing out the BMA's inaction in tackling Bangkok's haze is worrying. On landing in Bangkok a few days ago, visibility was about 4km. On take off from Phuket it was maybe 30km. Perhaps the solution is to confine BMA's leaders maskless in a city bus station until they die of the fumes, or do something about them.
Andy Phillips
President Trump on track
Andrew Biggs and a PostBag contributor named JC blithely use phrases about the US President such as "buffoon" and "dummy-spitting imbecile" to describe Mr Trump. The US economy is finally on the rebound in a big way after eight years of no growth during the reign of a smooth talking do-nothing Barack Obama. I suppose I'm one of JC's buffoons because I voted for Mr Trump instead of Hillary Clinton, who would have given us four more years of a lethargic economy and continued treachery in the Department of Justice and State.
I'll paraphrase Harry Truman here: "Anyone who enters politics poor and comes out rich is probably a crook." Ring a bell? I think I prefer a person who comes in rich, doesn't take a salary and has the best interests of his or her country at heart.
In just one year the current US administration has rolled back taxes, made the United States energy-independent, put terrorists on notice, drastically reduced regulations, sown the seeds to fix a broken immigration system, put a strict constitutionalist on the Supreme Court and made a legion of other very important changes in our government.
Our military is finally being properly funded and the world should be thankful for that. All of this done democratically. This drivel spouted by the likes of Biggs and JC is just that -- drivel.
Richard Rees
Hua Hin
Don't arm teachers
Like many people, I read with dismay that President Trump thinks teachers should be armed, even suggesting if armed, they should be given bonuses. Perhaps he and the powerful, extremely verbal NRA should check statistics. Regular US police are inaccurate most of the time. A study of NYPD accuracy shows that when being fired at, their accuracy is 18% and even when not being fired at, it is only 30%.
Imagine the scenario with a basically trained teacher with students in front of them and the gunman on the other side of the students. Need I say more?
Motoguzzibob
The Brits are long gone
The Second Amendment clearly states the right to bear arms was for "organised militia", and not for individual Americans. It was also written for the protection of the US against the British during the war of independence. Somebody should tell them we have gone!
Paul Kelly
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