The junta leader recently was quoted as saying in a news report earlier this week that by appointing Sontaya Kunplome as the new mayor of Pattaya they would "also benefit local administration reform".
The hungry spirits never seem to give up thumbing their noses at the Thai people. That they feel unashamed to appoint the son of notorious convicted murderer and "Godfather of Chon Buri" Kamnan Poh reveals that reform is only an otherwise meaningless sound bite in the NCPO's upcoming campaign strategy. That strategy, conceived as a means to prolong the general's power as long as possible, is a direct assault upon the freedom and sovereignty of the Thai people.
Elections are intended to produce a representative government, but the current constitution has conveniently circumvented that proposition in order to further enable the junta's long-term power grab.
In addition, the upcoming election results will be so constrained by a largely appointed government as to render Thailand a "lame duck" for a very long time. Let us hope there is a remedy to this situation hidden among a new generation of Thai leaders.
Mr M
Rankings measure up
Re: "Least best Thailand", (PostBag, Sept 28).
With due respect to Somsak Pola, his piercing of my previous elation (not argument) of Thailand's top in the world as "least miserable" was naively sceptical. Bloomberg's rankings for the years of 2017 and 2018 were based on statistically collated data as well as developed by international agencies since World War II to measure the economic and social well-being of each country.
When an Isan man is sacked and moved back to his land, he is still regarded as employed because he has something to do to upkeep himself. Unemployment is when there is no alternative. Unemployment in Thailand averaged 1.43% from 2001 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 5.73% in January of 2001, (extremely miserable in the US in 2009 was at 9.4%). Inflation in the 1.5% range in Thailand is monitored monthly and published by the Commerce Ministry and the central bank. Its compilation is based on international systems and subject to audit by world agencies. Its method in measuring a country's overall situation is the best available though no one regards it as a perfect tool.
Songdej Praditsmanont
No bus improvements
Re: "Quarter of city's public vans to be retired", (BP, Sept 25).
I bet this stupid policy will never succeed in improving this secondary bus system. We all knew that their poor service and safety record have existed on their operators and drivers. Replacing vans with mini-buses does nothing to improve the system.
R H Suga
Embrace solidarity
Re: "Even an imperfect UN is still the world's best hope", (Opinion, Sept 27).
This relevant article deserves to be completed with at least two ideas strongly emphasised during the current 73rd session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
The first idea was formulated by Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the UN, and was well-repeated by several delegations. He said "More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations".
The second idea developed in the majority of statements delivered by the UN member states reflects the profound conviction that multilateralism represents the only possible response to the global challenges we face today.
The current world order is chaotic. We witness a serious erosion of universal values and fundamental principles of international law. This situation leads to instability, confusion, mistrust and polarisation.
What is to be done?
It is imperative to recognise that our collective future rests on solidarity and to use the whole UN family to reinvigorate multilateralism as a vital pivot in promoting sustainable cooperation within the world community of nations.
Ioan Voicu
Where's the beef?
The Skripal case is a comic opera. This never-ending "fairy tale" is laughable. As Walter Mondale, ex-vice president of Jimmy Carter and subsequent presidential candidate against Ronald Reagan exclaimed during his campaign "Where is the beef?"
If Novichock really had been used, it was not developed in the Soviet Union! It is eight times stronger than any other nerve gas. Many, many people would have died an immediate death.
It is ludicrous to beat a dead cat.
HHB
DJs in the big house
During the last full moon party over 90 foreign DJs were arrested for not having a work permit while they played their 2-3 hour set and many are now sitting in Koh Samui jail. Why has there been no reporting of this? Seems like a big enough story.
Timsahb
Digitisation to disaster
Every human on the planet needs to question the sudden hard push by the technocrats and elites demanding digital IDs.
There is no reason for this shift other than to increase control of the population and to ensure direct dependency on the governing elites for existence.
A cashless society means that the government can "take" all your money with the push of a button. Anybody that trusts any government with this much authority needs to have their head examined!
I have never heard anyone in private conversation state that they felt the need to have a digital ID or that their certified ID cards were inadequate.
So where is this impetus coming from to make people dependent on digitisation?
What "problems" is this really solving?
So what if you can open a bank account from your smartphone -- is this really a good thing?
How about all the banking jobs that are lost through such innovations? Is greater profit for the banksters more important than allowing a human a job where they can provide for their self and family?
What is the plan for all the workers displaced by technology?
Thailand is not a intellectually advanced enough to not only create a digital system to handle this, but also to have the technical capabilities to protect such a system from abuse and criminal activities from both internal and external sources.
Turning over intrinsic human activities and socialisation to computers and machines can only end in disaster for humanity (think Skynet and the Terminator).
I wonder if the military regime is pushing for replacing soldiers with robotic machines as much as they are trying to impose digital control of the population.
Instead of buying a submarine that has to be manned, how about walking your talk and only buying drones and equipment that eliminate the need for soldiers?
Darius Hober
I never said that
Re: "Desperate Democrats", (PostBag, Sept 28).
I never called Bill Clinton a "saint".
What I wrote was that if the Republicans are going to say Brett Kavanaugh is innocent of sexual assault charges until proven guilty, the same standards should apply to Bill Clinton.
Instead, the Republican hypocrites call Clinton a rapist when no charges have ever been filed against him.
I also never said that Hillary Clinton is my "idol". But I voted for her because she was running against a racist, sexist, homophobic, animal-hating sociopath.
The only reason I'm a "Democrat" is because the Republicans are even worse!
Eric Bahrt
Can't have it both ways
As regular readers will know, I am no fan of Eric Bahrt.
However, I must take exception to Clara Holzer's Sept 26 letter in which she labels his recent comments as appalling hypocrisy trying to paint Bill Clinton as a saint because no charges were ever levelled against him.
In the same context, Eric used the same argument about Hillary Clinton whom the Republican's war cry was "lock her up" despite the fact she was never charged with any crime.
To be clear, the context was the appalling hypocrisy that the Republicans were using the line that Brett Kavanaugh should be assumed innocent until proven guilty and that neither of the Clintons had ever been charged with any crime.
Ms Holzer's political opinions are well-known as is her strident defence of all things Russian especially in the case of their firmly established interference in the US elections, among other things.
Ms Holzer cannot have it both ways and expect to have any credibility if she makes arguments like that.
That is certainly what I would call appalling hypocrisy!
Martin R
Fireworks coming
I find it extraordinary that there are people who still support the ignorant, impulsive, undisciplined, undignified, uncouth, misogynistic serial bankrupt and serial liar who is now president of the United States.
These adjectives all describe facts which are documented, recorded, tweeted or videotaped for anyone in the world to see.
Trump's behaviour as a human being and as the president of a great country is clearly indefensible.
I can only conclude that many of his supporters share some of these characteristics and so supporting him makes them feel better about themselves.
However, defending the indefensible requires some imagination so now we have to listen to all this nonsense, but creative nonsense, about the "deep state" from Michael Setter and HHB.
Note that HHB wisely keeps his name secret, because you never know with the deep state...
Would this be the same deep state which is hiding the fact that Elvis is still alive and that men never landed on the moon?
Yet I agree with one sentence from HHB, that "spectacular fireworks are coming". Not in the way he would like to think though, and the sooner the better.
Keith Barlow
Change the channel
Sports Illustrated channels 177 and 672 are no longer available on TrueVisions. Sports Illustrated channels were a part of the TrueVisions' Platinum package.
TrueVisions has cancelled the Sports Illustrated channels with no advanced notice or explanation. About five or six years ago I upgraded from the TrueVisions Gold package to the Platinum package to get channels like Sports Illustrated, HBO Hits, HBO Family and other premium channels.
Now most of these channels are gone but I continue to pay the same monthly rate.
I have called TrueVisions a couple of times and tried the live chat feature. All I get is a bunch of double talk and no clear answers or explanation as to why Sports Illustrated was cancelled or what may replace it. And no talk of reducing the monthly Platinum package cost.
It continues to be clear TrueVisions management has no understanding of the meaning "customer satisfaction". Last note, I currently pay for two Platinum packages and True fibre internet. Maybe it is time for a change.
Rob
Filthy dog vermin
Chris in CNX in his Sept 23 letter, "Killer dogs should be put down", poses a good question, but a better one would be "Why aren't all dogs destroyed?"
On a daily basis, untold numbers of people are attacked and mauled by these worthless, disgusting animals. It is clear that dogs have no place in civil society, and they need to be eliminated. Perhaps we should consider the same for the selfish owners who are no better than the filthy vermin they keep.
Sign me,
Enough of dogs
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