PostBag
So Thaksin says he will be back. But for such a serious case, why is he being allowed out of the country in the first place?
His passport should be confiscated, he should be monitored under strict bail and be made to report weekly to the police, as is done in many countries.
It pretty much goes to show that if you have money, nothing much can ever put you in jail. But if you are a poor Isan farmer or a daily labourer caught stealing a few baht's worth of food to feed your family, you will most likely get held on remand until your case is heard.
PRISON GREENS
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Of parks and people
In her Commentary (BP, Aug 7) Sanitsuda Ekachai writes of the Western idea of national parks being wilderness areas. The wilderness area is the American idea of a national park, which can be done in the US thanks to its great size.
The UK started creating national parks years ago with the aim of protecting areas of natural beauty and the people who live in the area. If you go to one our most famous national parks, you will find farming, industry, villages and towns. I am not sure but I think the population and size of the UK are similar to Thailand's.
ERNEST V
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PM vs Bank of Thailand
I fear for our country in the showdown between PM Samak and the Bank of Thailand, as they have different goals and PM Samak has got the power.
To me, from his "Six Measures, Six Months" initiative it is clear that PM Samak plans to either call an election or be out of office in six months. Why else reduce fuel costs when all the world is trying to conserve energy? Why subsidise bus fares only for Bangkok's poor, who might vote for the PPP - but not for the poor in Isan or the South, whose minds are already made up?
So, Finance Minister Surapong's goal, in my view, is that which will get the PPP the most votes over the next two quarters, a very near-term objective.
On the other hand, like any other central bank, the Bank of Thailand's goals are - and must be - apolitical and long-term. If the bank's long-term objectives have been thoroughly thought through and are accepted by we the people, then it is the short-term policies that must give way. As Voltaire noted, "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong," and BoT Governor Dr Tarisa hasn't yet earned as much baramee as, say, Dr Puey Ungpakorn had.
What the government should do is to have Finance Minister Surapong debate the matter in parliament with the Democrat party's shadow finance minister Korn Chatikavanij, who has spent most of his working life in the capital market. Such a debate on a critical issue will help educate the people immensely, and help us rally behind whichever policy is adopted. Prime Minister Samak, do you dare allow such a debate?
BURIN KANTABUTRA
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Blaming online games
I wonder if all the current hysteria over violent online gaming is really warranted. Everyone seems to be taking it for granted that the recent tragic murder of a taxi driver by someone who happened to play the Grand Theft Auto game, can be laid at the door of the game. But is this conclusion really justified?
Killing without pity is the crime of a psychopath. The hypothesis seems to be that normal people may somehow be socialised into becoming psychopaths through playing a computer game. Psychopathic tendencies are, however, a genetic trait, according to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate.
The only other reason normal people go around massacring others without pity is when they have somehow dehumanised those people in their own minds. An example of this would be acts of genocide, when one ethnic group has convinced itself that another is less than human and can therefore be slaughtered. Emotional safety valves such as feelings of sympathy are suspended.
I have seen no research to suggest that people who are in other ways normal are likely to be affected by either a movie or a computer game in this way. As a human being, my intuition also tells me that this is highly unlikely.
Granted that violent games, doom-laden music and cultish videos are very likely to be within the milieu of disturbed people, but these people are already disturbed. To suggest that such people kill because of these games and other media is to confuse the symptoms with underlying causes. You don't have a cold because your nose runs, and the violently insane do not become so because of too much bad heavy metal.
NIGEL WOODWARD
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