Re: "TRC dissolution turns up political heat", (Opinion, March 8).
Thitinan Pongsudhirak is one of Thailand's most respected academics. However, I think he sometimes writes simply to reflect foreigners' feelings about Thailand -- without trying to make them better understand our country's custom and traditions.
I am not saying this because I am a fan of the Thai military: I am not even voting for any party linked to any coup-makers on March 24.
But I wonder why the scholar did not mention more about Thaksin Shinawatra as against his opponents. It is Thaksin who has done so much to divide and weaken our country from the outside.
As a Thai who was born and has lived here for more than seven decades, I think politicians are as much to blame as soldiers in making democracy unattainable in Thailand thus far.
Vint Chavala
Shattered remnants
The fact that the Constitutional Court's reason for dissolving TRC was for the high crime of "opposing the democratic system with the King as head of state" begs an obvious question. What, then, is to be thought of the ruling politicians who did not merely oppose "the democratic system with the King as head of state", but who actually smashed it?
Smashing the democratic system is, by definition, exactly what every coup against Thailand's constitutions has done. The constitution, that supreme legal foundation of all other laws and state institutions, the very foundation of Thailand's "democratic system with the King as head of state", is overthrown by every coup against it. So what are Thai citizens to make of those who, having smashed their nation's democratic system, are still dancing on the shattered remnants near five years later?
Felix Qui
Stop the booze ban
Some years ago I was in the Philippines when they just happened to be holding elections.
In every bar, hotel and everywhere you went there were signs advising that an election was happening, and that it was illegal to buy alcohol for a Filipino. As a tourist, I read the advice and accepted the government's view. I could happily drink but I could not buy Filipinos alcohol. The bars all adhered to the law. It was a serious law and they knew it.
Why can't the Thai government do something similar? Why make a blanket ban on alcohol so tourists and expats cannot drink? We don't vote, and the sad thing is Thais will still get drunk and get killed on the roads. Many will not even bother to vote and all the Thai staff working in bars and hotels will suffer; no farangs, no tips.
It is blind, narrow-minded governance.
Mike Casey
De facto caste system
Re: "Caretaker kills bearcat", (BP, March 7).
This news piece reminds us that it was exactly one year ago that Premchai Karnasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development Plc, was apprehended for poaching a black leopard and other protected animals in the Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary.
While the Karen bearcat poacher, whose humble social status can be inferred from his using only one name -- Tata -- will be spending the next three years and seven months in prison (his sentence reduced from over seven years because he apparently shot the bearcat at the instigation of two men who claimed to be government officials), Mr Premchai is still a free man.
The selective enforcement of the anti-poaching law -- the caretaker in jail but the company president free -- clearly shows the existence of a de facto caste system, where there is no equality before the law. It is this caste system that is the bane of the social "reconciliation" that the National Council for Peace and Order strived for, and which is a challenge, too, to the formation of a democracy where the "will of the people" is accepted by all citizens, regardless of class.
Edward Zile
Ignoring atrocities
There was nothing anti-Semitic about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's comment that the pro-Israeli lobby in America has bought off the US Senate and Congress. Read former congressman Paul Findley's book, They Dare To Speak Out and you'll see endless examples of how the pro-Israeli lobby will target any political leader who they view as being anything less than 100% pro-Israeli. And they have destroyed political careers that way. Why does America allow Israel to get away with spreading illegal settlements?
Why did America move its embassy to Jerusalem when no international law has ever recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital?
Why does America ignore Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even Israeli human rights activists when they document Israel's atrocities?
Eric Bahrt
Disastrous policy
Re: "Trump trade bombast makes US lose face", (Opinion, March 6).
Thanks to Mr Paul Krugman for his very objective and correct analysis of the present US policies under President Trump. Whereas Mr Krugman is describing facts and consequences of the disastrous policy, Mr Trump is boasting with wishful thinking, to say it mildly, and simple lies, confirming that he suffers from NPD (narcisstic personality disorder). No wonder people in Europe now trust China more than the US under Mr Trump.
After the US won sincere admiration by defeating Hitler and helping Europe with the Marshall Plan, Mr Trump is now "succeeding" to destroy the reputation of his country, even with its best friends. This confirms the saying by Napoleon, "for stupidity, there is no problem in politics". Three cheers to Napoleon.
Wolf v.z. Muehlen
Journalism is dead
Why doesn't the world's corporate media print photos that show the huge support Nicolas Maduro has, manifested in demonstrations in Caracas and elsewhere? Instead, we get pictures and reports which exaggerate the numbers of demonstrators in support of Juan Guaido? And why do we never see Venezuelan supermarkets empty, but full of food?
Mr Maduro would have been gone a long time ago if he didn't already have the support of the majority of Venezuelans -- the working class and the poor people, mainly indigenous and mixed dark-skinned people -- with reasons to refuse Mr Guaido and his white, Spanish, elite supporters. Mr Guaido's supporters never shared the nation's oil wealth when they were in power, until Hugo Chavez came and changed it all.
Isn't it a strange time we live in now, when we have to go to alternative news outlets to get proper information about Venezuela (and elsewhere) from journalists who actually were there like Max Blumenthal, Greg Palast and Abby Martin. Some people claim journalism is dead, and I am one of them.
A Johnsen
Chasing expats out
Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn,
Sitting here among the boxes of 12 years of living in the Kingdom I must ask "Why?".
I moved here in 2007 to get away from the high cost of living in the United States and make a new life for myself. I dutifully filed my 90-day registrations, renewed my visa in a timely manner and purchased reentry permits as required. I volunteered at local organisations and agencies, worked within my community and even served as a "temple boy" while I learned the teachings of the Lord Buddha.
I am not wealthy by any means, have no big pensions to keep me safe in my old age, a small social security benefit and some investment income have been more than enough to sustain my life here in Thailand.
I keep a modest amount in a Thai bank for my needs and withdraw funds from my US accounts as needed via ATM. My lifestyle most assuredly doesn't require 65,000 Thai baht per month to live on.
I have obligations in the US that require me to have funds available and most of my money is kept in tax-deferred accounts. It is easier to get money from the US to Thailand than it would be to send money back to the US to fulfil my requirements there. A quick trip to a local ATM or bank does the job.
But now you say that is not good enough, no, you must have your funds deposited directly into a Thai bank every month or keep a balance of 800,000 baht on hand, and untouchable, to live here. I don't happen to have US$27,000 that I can just tuck away for a rainy day and still keep up with my bills both here and in the US.
You have implemented these new rules with little fanfare and much of what we expats hear is through local blogs. Even the local English papers have been silent on this issue.
So, I congratulate you on your various "crackdowns". It's a shame that you must pick on those of us who actually contribute to the local economy every day, probably forcing many of us to leave this wonderful country.
With metta,
Fredric Prage
Pension palaver
The Canadian Embassy staff are to be commended for their ongoing support of their expat community over the Thai retirement visa requirements.
By continuing to provide the letter confirming pension income to Thai Immigration, they have stood strong compared to their weak-kneed fellow diplomats from the UK, Australia, and the US. All it would have taken to check that the pension was indeed being brought to Thailand would have been to ask for copies of international bank transfers. Simple. Instead, they turned their backs on goodness knows how many decent seniors trying to enjoy their last years in the sun.
Surely, with such a reduced workload, some of these diplomats should also be returned home?
P Kelly
Hua Hin
Useless medals
Re: "Apirat goes to court over medals slur", (BP, March 6).
If Thai generals are short of, or in need of more medals, a friend who visited Germany just days after the Berlin Wall came down bought several hundred medals that he purchased from former East German soldiers, many of them officers. I'm sure he'd be willing to sell them or give them away if it would bolster some general's morale. The East Germans couldn't explain what the medals were for anyway. But they sure looked good.
After all, generals, the same as other army personal need their toys like little boys. "I have one more than you." Stick your tongue out and say, "nyeh, nyeh, nyeh". A medal does not make a general. His actions and what he did to earn those medals do.
General Ya'akov Golani
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING
136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110
Fax: +02 6164000 email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
All letter writers must provide full name and address.
All published correspondence is subject to editing at our discretion.
