Re: "Cyber bill outcry puts PM on defensive", (BP, Oct 18).
I fully agree with Dean Anusorn Tamajai of the Faculty of Economics at Rangsit University that the draft cybersecurity law should be fully debated by the to-be-elected House of Representatives, so the final bill addresses the concerns of all major stakeholders, thus fostering a buy-in.
In particular, we need to clearly and specifically define the bill's scope and require court warrants in application so that it doesn't impinge on the citizenry's freedom of expression with accountability, as guaranteed by our constitution. For example, if a journalist probes the General Watchman scandal and publishes inconvenient truths, would she be in violation of the law? If she posts her article on Facebook and citizens "like" it, would they too be in violation?
As Lord Acton noted, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely". Courts are a citizenry's main defence against the unbridled power of the state. Thus, our elected representatives need full opportunity to thoroughly vet the draft before it's put into effect.
Burin Kantabutra
Data access the key
Re: "Cyber bill outcry puts PM on defensive", (BP, Oct 18).
A data access standard could resolve the cyber bill's security and privacy concerns.
If all databases are limited to three commands -- "Load, Store, and Delete" (perhaps LoadList) -- access can be controlled and monitored. Law enforcement can have its own connection to any database, with sufficient traceability to know who accessed what. Proofs of concept have been in use for over 15 years (any language and any database), so the problem isn't technical, it is simply a decision to make it a standard.
Andrew B Brown
Set Uighurs free
Re: "Malaysia right over Uighurs", (Opinion, Oct 15).
I applaud your editorial on the plight of the Uighurs. Recent credible reports back up your reference to China having "locked up at least one million Muslims, while seizing their children and placing them in state-run orphanages". Hundreds of families have missing family members with no knowledge of where they are. Controlling Xinjiang province, a largely Muslim state, or it was prior to an onslaught of Han immigrants (much like Tibet), is central to the Chinese One Road One Belt Initiative. As your editorial notes, the Thai "military government forced more than 100 resisting, hobbled and blindfolded Uighurs onto a flight to China in 2015". And the news that you highlight is that Malaysia has sent 11 Chinese Uighur refugees to Turkey, despite the protests of China and Thailand. Turkey has welcomed the 11 Uighurs, as it would have done for the 100 deported by Thailand to a living hell back in China.
Thailand still holds around 50 Uighurs. The question is whether the country wants to, or can, take a brave step like PM Mahathir and free these people to a welcoming Turkey.
Watson
Oust the elite
Re: "Debunking two myths of the 2014 coup", (Opinion, Oct 19).
Thitinan Pongsudhirak summarised with complete accuracy the inextricable links between the generals, power and democracy, the first two items proven, coup after coup, completely incompatible with the third.
What he had to leave aside, for fear of retribution either through the usage of the draconian lèse majesté law, or some other shoddy applications of the cruel defamatory laws that have been implemented, most recently by the generals and before that by the establishment in control of the political scene, was the linkage between the "elites", a vague term that should be read as encompassing many levels of hidden but very powerful individuals, families, organisations, etc, that do not want to entertain any changes to the status quo within Thai society -- a situation which has favoured them for so many decades.
Since the country moved from absolute monarchy to the current constitutional monarchy in 1932, these everlasting "hidden forces" have impaired the capability of the country to really attain a complete and free democratic status. Sadly, this will remain as it is now for as long as such "elites" remain in control.
So do not hold your breath too much with hope associated with the coming February elections, as one general recently commented with great fanfare: "If there needs to be another coup, so be it..."
Michel Barre
Tricolour-ing down
Since some members of Thai society seem to believe they have a "droit de regard" or the right to decide who can use blue, white, and red colours anywhere in the world, it is fitting to recall how and when the first tricolour flag was created.
The French national flag of blue, white and red was invented at the very beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 (BE 2332), three days after the storming of the Bastille fortress on July 14, 1789. The occasion was the visit to Paris of the King of France who left his Versailles chateau on July 17, 1789 to symbolise reconciliation between the King and Parisian revolutionists. He was greeted at Paris City Hall by the newly elected mayor of Paris who offered him the first French tricolour flag, while telling King Louis XVI about the choice of blue, white and red.
White being the traditional colour of the French monarchy since the early Middle Ages, was to be sandwiched between the red and blue colours of the coat of arms of the city of Paris.
That is why a blue, white and red flag was so appropriate for a reconciliation that, unfortunately, lasted only a few weeks before the fury of the French Revolution struck all customs and traditions of the French Kingdom at that time.
Michel Muscadier
Tourists can wait
Re: "New entry limit causes ticketing chaos", (BP, Oct 18).
Chaos will calm down within a short time. I agree with the new rules and thus call for the authorities not to give in or compromise for whatever reasons raised by tourism operators.
RH Suga
Dogs must die
More dogs and rabies stories, but this time it was the deranged owner, with 80 dogs, who died. It is clear to any normal person that dogs are not viable pets!
What will it take to rid the country of these worthless animals? We don't need a dog control programme. We need a dog extermination programme -- including the so-called pets.
Enough of dogs
A no-coal goal
By announcing it would not support a 500MW coal-fired power plant in Kosovo as recently reported by EcoWatch, the World Bank has essentially ended its support for this obsolete technology.
Let's hope Thailand, which is a coal importer, can learn from the World Bank's major shift in policy, abandon all its coal-fired initiatives, and begin in earnest to focus on alternative, environmentally responsible, sources of energy.
Michael Setter
Venting at Vietjet
During a recent journey from Danang to Bangkok with Vietjet, I was forced to buy a return or onward ticket after being harassed at the check-in area for an hour. Not even given the chance to board the plane by signing a paper that I would pay all expenditures if refused at Bangkok airport.
The freedom you expect to enjoy, especially when you finally are retired, is taken away from you by airlines like Vietjet, acting as self-proclaimed immigration officers at the check-in desk (in hopes of selling more tickets). I normally enjoy travelling around in Southeast Asia, but as a retiree I expect to be the one who decides when, where and how I want to travel within the visa time I have accessible, not an airline staffer.
I leave Europe for Thailand every year in October and go back again when I feel like it the following year in April, sometimes May, sometimes in June. Have airlines, like the non-flexible Vietjet, the right to force me in October to make a decision when to go back to Europe up to nine months later? Life on this planet seems to be more and more about reduced freedom.
I really miss the student days when we flew into Asia for long Christmas holidays with Aeroflot, with an open return ticket, valid for one year. I miss the freedom good old communist Aeroflot gave us, which young communist Vietjet is taking away from us now, when we have the money through secure state pensions and all our time to be managed by ourselves.
A Johnsen
US Embassy on song
Some weeks ago there were two letters that characterised the US Citizen Services section of the Bangkok US Embassy as a "prison", and whose writers lambasted the bureaucracy involved in obtaining a new passport.
I visited the embassy this week to apply for a new passport, and the process was smooth as butter. Orderly, efficient, uncrowded, and far from mysterious or chaotic. In at 7.15am for my 7.30am appointment, and finished and out at 8.15am. Nor was my experience a one-off, as I've used US Citizen Services at least once every year for more than a decade and have never been disappointed.
I think problems or delays occur when a visitor shows up unprepared, but all that any US citizen has to do is read the embassy website in order to avoid hitches.
Here's a well-deserved "Thank you!" to the US Embassy staff, for being helpful, polite and personifying "service with a smile".
Jim Christie
Beyond redemption
Opinions on whether or not to maintain a death penalty for criminals convicted of murder, rape, etc are divided. There are positives and negatives to both arguments. These factors may be culturally or religiously oriented. The same may be said for those wanting to exterminate stray dogs in our streets. Some criminals, like some dogs, are beyond redemption, beyond salvage, for lack of a more humane term. They might be left to rot in prison, (the story of the Count of Monte Cristo comes to mind), or they might be "dispensed" with. Either way is not at all pleasant.
Both necessity and practicality should override emotion. The death penalty is more ancient than the methods prescribed in the Old Testament. In some African dictatorships, I understand condemned criminals are still used to feed large, carnivorous zoo animals. Not pleasant at all.
Hungry Lion
A Saudi Caligula
The last few days have seen a veil lifted from the usually secretive Saudi autocracy. It has become very clear that we were all deceived -- or nearer to the truth, maybe we deceived ourselves.
For Mohammad bin Salman is no "Prince Hal", waiting in the wings to shake the corrupt dust off a tyranny, but in reality is a modern day Caligula. And why it matters for all of us is this aptly demonstrates the old and universal maxim: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Richard Parkes
In climate trouble
Re: "Fear of being blunt clouds climate issue", (Opinion, Oct 13).
I urge all readers out there to read Gwynne Dyer's piece if you have not already done so. It is scary stuff! Even if 10% is correct, then we are all in trouble.
Mr Dyer talks about how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) implies that we are all basically doomed if the average temperature of the earth reaches 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial average; it thus cautions that we must act now and limit the change to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The only way to do this is to reduce greenhouse emissions by 45% until 2030, it states.
Even scarier, is the possibility of run-away global warming, with average temperatures increasing by even 5 or 6 degrees above the pre-industrial average. Once global warming reaches a certain tipping point, the Arctic ice caps will have too much melting and so much carbon dioxide and methane will be released into the atmosphere, that no matter what we do, we will not be able to stop warming, the IPCC warns. Or as Mr Dyer puts it: there are "feedbacks" or "self-reinforcing processes that are unleashed by the warming we have already caused and which we cannot shut off even if we end all our own emissions".
The governments of our world know about these "feedbacks" but are too scared to acknowledge this to the electorate, since run-away global warming would result in the migration and deaths of billions of people, Mr Dyer implores.
Hopefully things are not as dire as the articles implies.
Paul
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