PostBag
As a German living in Germany, I don't have the right to write about Thailand's internal politics. But I must counter the opinion of Somsak Pola, that military and politics are inseparable (Postbag, July 10).
Not just in Thailand but all over the world, wherever the military is directly involved in politics, the people are suffering. For a German, it would be unbelievable for the German army (Bundeswehr) to stage a coup. No stable democracy needs that.
I agree with Somsak Pola that Thailand would not be in the state it is today without the 17 coups! Perhaps it might have been a better country?
Also, a democratic country isn't at all like a computer; a computer is not able to think, but politicians can. Though you cannot reset the system all the time, when something goes wrong you can improve it every day, step by step.
POOWING
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Nurturing democracy
I must thank Khun Somsak for pointing out that Thai politics is like a computer (Postbag, July 10). That is the problem. In my opinion, democracy is like growing trees. I happen to know something about growing trees because I am a villager. In the village, you grow a coconut tree to get a coconut to eat. You couldn't just go somewhere to buy it, at least when I was growing up.
A computer, on the other hand, must be purchased. I am an engineer and have used computers extensively to make money to buy shoes for my children. By George! Khun Somsak, that's it. We had 17 coups because we tried to fix our political problem by resetting it like a computer!
You cannot reset a tree, you must wait for the fruit. You must take good care of the tree by watering it, especially during the early stages.
Khun Somsak, had we allowed our democracy to follow Dr Pridi's original plan, I have no doubt Thailand would have been in better political shape today. But what happened was that the military guys kept pushing the "reset" button without a clue as to what was wrong with the machine.
Actually, the military guys did worse than resetting the machine, they kept throwing away the machine itself!
Khun Somsak, democracy is like a tree, not a machine.
SUNTHORN SKULPONE
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Proper driving needed
I am from the UK and lived there for 40 years without seeing a dead body. Since coming to Thailand almost 10 years ago, I have seen about 20 corpses, witnessing the death of two of them. They were all victims of avoidable traffic accidents.
After visiting nearly 50 countries, I believe Thai drivers to be the most ill-informed, reckless and spatially unaware of all. I have had some near misses myself whilst driving and believe that the root of the problem lies in the lack of road user education.
As I grew up in Britain I was exposed nightly to road safety and awareness adverts, the catch phrases are with me yet. "Clunk click every trip", "Look right, look left, then right again", "Speed kills", etc.
I fervently hope that this new government, coupled with a public information TV channel modelled on the BBC, can together help, primarily, to reduce the death toll and, secondly, the tedious traffic jams caused by the long wait for the familiar white spray-painted outlines of vehicle positions involved in minor accidents.
Perhaps we could start with a "make sure there are no surprises" campaign, encouraging drivers and riders to indicate and look before changing lanes or joining a line of moving traffic. If only one person benefits by not being mown down by a pickup truck, surely it would have been worthwhile?
IAN PAUL
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Being overcharged
These days, when I eat out with friends, we either enjoy our wine at home before the meal or opt for a restaurant offering a reasonable corkage fee. We resent paying, for example, 1,500 baht or more for a very ordinary bottle of wine that can be bought in retail outlets for under 400 baht.
Beer and bottled water prices are becoming similarly excessive. The time has come to make a stand. Who wants to join us?
JOHN SHEPHERD
Founder Member, The Order of The Grand Crew
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Subject to rule of law
It warms the cockles of my heart to see the courts helping to raise the standard of Thai political behaviour out of the muck, by ensuring that the high and mighty are subject to the rule of law just like the common man and woman. As His Majesty has so wisely said, "If the country does not follow the rule of law, it will not survive."
However, we the people cannot rest easy. Faced with possible dissolution of the PPP, PM Samak is still seeking to amend the 2007 Constitution, saying that without Articles 190 and 237, political strife could have been avoided. Basically, what he's doing is akin to a prisoner in the dock saying, "Since I have the power, let's make what I'm accused of having done no longer a crime, so that I can go free."
To let the PPP do so would make a mockery of our legislature and judiciary, and confirm our status as a banana republic.
PM Samak and all MPs ran for office under the 2007 Constitution, and swore to abide by and uphold its provisions. Keep your word, gentlemen, and after your cases have been decided upon - then and only then - review the charter.
BURIN KANTABUTRA
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Global warmists lose
According to the monthly global mean temperature anomaly data published by Nasa, the monthly mean temperature of the earth's surface in June 2008 was 14.26C - 0.28 degrees cooler than in June 2007, when it was 14.54C. To make sure that data for the month of June is not a fluke, one may compare six-month moving averages. In June of 2008, that average was 14.44C, 0.33 degrees cooler than the same average one year ago, when it was 14.77C. It should be mentioned that over the last 12 months human activity has generated more greenhouse gases than ever before in any other 12-month period. Yet the earth did not get warmer. It got colder.
The idea that fossil fuel consumption directly attenuates global surface temperature has been proven wrong. This alleged relationship is the basis of the Kyoto Protocol and of its extension to 2020 and beyond now sought by the global warmists.
But the global warmists have been roundly rebuffed by the G8. They wanted a "commitment" to specified greenhouse gas reduction target by 2020. They would even have settled for the G8 to "seriously consider" a reduction by 2020. They came away with nothing for 2020. All they got was a "shared vision", and that was for 2050, not 2020. There is no plainer Orwellian way to say "thanks but no thanks".
CHA-AM JAMAL
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Blame govt for pollution
Re: Unusual genetic changes in animals living near Map Ta Phut. Khunying Suthawan Sathirathai, chairwoman of the Good Governance for Social Development and the Environment Institute, says the findings are alarming and the government should seriously look into the pollution problem.
But the government caused the pollution problem! Given an opportunity to do something about it last year, it did nothing!
Nothing but ensure that its cronies could continue to make "a killing" on toxic chemicals.
The Thai political class is utterly unconcerned with the well-being of the Thai people and of the Thai countryside. It is concerned exclusively with cash and with escape routes from the ecological disasters it has set in place in every area of its "responsibility".
JOHN FRANCIS LEE
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