POST BAG
Your article regarding the plans of the ICT Ministry brought up some important points but confused two separate issues.
The first part of your article discussed the plan of the ICT Ministry to do away with the need for a court order to shut down a local website deemed offensive for whatever reason, by whoever is deciding for the country what is and is not offensive for the day. The reason a court order is needed is so there is someone checking the system is not abused, so I find the possibility of the removal of this need to be quite alarming.
The other part of your article regards filtering (ie blocking) of websites outside of Thailand and a proposal to purchase software to assist the act at a massive cost of 500 million baht. Aside from the fact that internet filtering slows down internet access for everyone, requires constant maintenance and attention, and tends to be highly ineffective, what is wrong with the existing filtering system? How much tax money was and continues to be wasted on that?
The ICT Ministry should be serving Thais and acting as an information enabler, but has instead been actively reducing and disabling what Thais can access for years, all at the whim of whoever is at the helm at the time. Blocking websites that are still visible to the rest of the world at a cost of 500 million baht is a colossal waste of resources _ all because someone might get upset.
Ben Harris
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CLEARING UP THE US ELECTION LAWS
It is pretty obvious that the Bangkok Post letters column is not the best place to get information about US politics. The Oct 31 Postbag is clear about that. There is no ''United States election''. The US holds 50 or more separate elections for national offices such as president and senator. Each of those 50-plus elections has its own rules. This confuses many people, including almost all contributors to Postbag.
First we have ''Alan'' showing that he does not understand the term ''native-born American''. ''Native-born'' does not mean born on American soil _ it means that the person is an American citizen from birth. Many people born in Bangkok are native-born Americans. Senator McCain is a native-born American because he was born to American parents. The ''sense of the Senate'' resolution Alan refers to had no effect on the law or on McCain's status.
Then we have the more confused ''Bangkok Crawdog trying to explain the United States voting laws to Postbag readers. He is also wrong. Contrary to what he says, there is no US law prohibiting a felon from voting, and there is no US law allowing a convicted felon to run for office. All such laws are state laws, and there are many of them. Some states allow convicted felons to vote; some do not. Some allow felons to run for office; some do not. There is ''absolutely'' a law, in fact several of them, which prohibit convicted felons from running for office, although not in Alaska.
George Sullivan
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INHERITED IMPUNITY
Can anybody tell me if Vatana Asavahame and Public Health Minister Chalerm are related in any way? It seems both have sons with somewhat the same inherited characteristics.
We all know the saga of Mr Chalerm's dear, sweet, innocent young men, and how when trouble comes their way they seem to find a way to get off scott-free.
Now we have Ms Vatana's youngest darling Chonsawat, who seems to have the same ''Do you know who my father is?'' mentality, just like the Chalerm boys, and ends up with the horrible punishment, ''Smack him twice on the knuckles with a three inch ruler, and let him go''
Thaksin complains about the Thai justice system. In some cases, he is right.
Farang Observer
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POLITICIANS ARE THE SAME EVERYWHERE
Why should writer Bangkok Crawdog (Postbag, Oct 31) be amazed that an American senator from Alaska is a convicted felon? The Americans have perhaps learned it from the Thais. Look around you, Crawdog. How many currently serving Thai politicians are convicted felons, are under indictment or been arrested for ''minor'' offences such as murder, extortion or abuse of power?
Here is a copy of an excerpt of a letter printed in the Bangkok Post a number of years ago. I kept it because it made quite an impression on me:
''Can you imagine working for the following company? It has a little over 500 employees, with the following statistics.
- 29 have been accused of spousal abuse.
- 7 have been arrested for fraud.
- 19 have been accused of writing bad cheques.
- 117 have bankrupted at least 2 businesses.
- 3 have been arrested for assault.
- 71 cannot get a credit card due to a bad credit rating.
- 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges.
- 8 have been arrested for shoplifting.
- 21 are current defendants in lawsuits.
- 84 were stopped for drunken driving in 1998 alone.
Can you guess which organisation this is? Give up?
It is the United States Congress. This is the same group that perpetually turns out the hundreds upon hundreds of new laws designed to keep the rest of us in line.
Jack Gilead
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YOU MUST BE JOKING
Your report in Spectrum by Maxmilian Weschler on Thailand's ''King of Fraud'' seemed almost euphoric about 60-year-old anonymous Mr Khao's life of swindling, mainly tourists it seems, in Thailand, using gangs of down-and-out foreigners to help, and seemingly the Royal Thai Police as well.
One feels almost sad he could not keep up with technology. The first ''farang'' I came across in this business was a Briton, who succeeded in cashing four separate travellers cheques in four different provinces in Thailand. He was jailed for three years for the first offence, then when he completed his sentence was sent to Khon Kaen on the second offence, then Udon and so on. Altogether he was sentenced to 12 years for fraud involving travellers cheques with a value under $1,000. Looking at the current situation in Thailand it seems like there is one law for rich Thais and one law for the poor foreigners.
If you offer every villain in Thailand anonymity, this could be the start of a very long-running series for Spectrum.
Andrew Drummond
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