Thitinan Pongsudhirak's article "Myanmar's Rakhine issue handled poorly" (BP, Sept 8) was in-depth and well balanced.
Is the Myanmar Buddhist majority victimising the Muslim minority based on religion? Apart from the 1.2 million Rohingya, there are 4-6 million Muslims in Myanmar who call themselves "Myanmar Muslims". Most adopt Myanmar names, although they can use Muslim names, and practise according to their religious faith. There are Muslim descendants of the Moguls, from the Middle East (both Sunni and Shia), Bangalore, China, etc, who settled in the land earlier than the Rohingya, and they never ask for ethnic rights or land for themselves. They coexist quite peacefully with most Buddhists. There were bouts of violence in the past but most were spurred by ulterior political motives rather than religion, and sometimes it plays into the hands of Buddhist extremists.
I can say the Myanmar Muslim community enjoy more freedom than those in some Muslim countries. Women can wear a headdress or not, can drive cars and taxis, can watch football, can play in female teams and can go about anywhere without male escorts. So when the Rohingya claimed ethnicity and land and refused to take part in citizenship application programmes initiated by the present NLD government, people became more suspicious of an ulterior grand design from overseas. To the majority of Myanmar, it's a matter of sovereignty and a serious case of national security more than a religious issue.
It's totally unfair and absurd to claim that Aung San Suu Kyi has done nothing or very little to solve this decades-old complex problem. She has formed a high-powered commission headed by Kofi Annan for recommendations. and this commission has taken a year to study and has just came out with the report and recommendations. On the day the report came out, the militants attacked 30 police outposts. Just before the attacks, Indian and Bangladeshi intelligence reportedly picked up two phone calls from Pakistan to the head of the militants to strike "now".
With regard to Buddhist extremists, some media outlets portrayed them as larger than they are. They have more bark than bite. The NLD government has effectively curtailed their activities.
A lot of people are talking of Ms Suu Kyi's failure as a human rights advocate. When she entered the elections in 2012, she had already declared she was not a human rights icon but a politician. She is not going to let herself to be imprisoned by her own laureateship. She has a nation to defend.
Aung Maung
Chula must open its mind
Chulalongkorn University asks the media to be fair in its reporting of the incident involving student activist Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal. The university cites it had "cultural roots and harmony to balance its liberalism and freedom of expression".
Would the university, in keeping with its defence of cultural roots, go back to the days where multiple wives, concubines and slaves were an accepted part of Thai heritage?
The university, as a fertile breeding ground of our future generations, must not stymie students who have an opposing point of view. After all, Galileo was excommunicated by supposedly scholarly men for holding the view that the Earth was round. Those same men look rather foolish today.
BMW
Prayut beats Hun Sen
Regarding the Sept 8 editorial "A 20-year straitjacket?", I somehow feel safer, more at ease and more comfortable with Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha for the next 20 years than with Hun Sen.
My only real gripe with our prime minister is his sell-out to China for so much of Thailand's infrastructure, high-speed rail lines and heavy investment. Hun Sen, on the other hand, is only a smaller, weaker version of the mentally unstable roly-poly who runs North Korea, treats Cambodia as a family business, and is trying to establish a ruling dynasty.
I believe Gen Prayut genuinely cares about Thais and Thailand. Hun Sen only cares about himself. It's Gen Prayut for my two cents any day, today until 2037, if I live that long.
General Golani
Duterte's phoney war
The son and son-in-law of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have been accused of being involved in drug trafficking (BP, Sept 8).
Notice how they get to hire the best lawyers and will be given every chance to defend themselves. Compare that to the thousands of poor people, some as young as five years old, who have been slaughtered as a result of Mr Duterte's drug war.
Make no mistake about it. His war on drugs has nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with politics and legalised murder.
Eric Bahrt
Japan trains more expensive
Re: "Skytrain fare hikes not fair on commuters" (Opinion, Sept 7).
Sirinya Wattanasukchai should double-check her source regarding train fares in Tokyo. The least expensive ticket for the Metro or JR lines in Tokyo is ¥140 (42.7 baht at the current exchange rate). That rate covers a distance of up to two stations. As you ride farther, the price of the ticket goes up, just like in Thailand.
The shortest ride on the BTS skytrain is 15 baht. Even if you take the most expensive ticket at 45 baht, it is barely more than the least expensive ticket on the JR line in Tokyo. The price of a BTS ticket is not "more than double" that of a ticket in Tokyo.
a reader
Skytrain too dear for many
Thank you for providing correct information. But the main point I want to make is that, with the minimum wage of 300 baht a day, so many city commuters cannot afford the skytrain.
Sirinya Wattanasukchai
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