POST BAG The Bangkok saga

As a misfit in Thai politics I would love someone to explain to me why a bus lease is a matter of national politics.

In any other country the renewal of a city bus fleet or metropolitan firetrucks would be matters dealt with by the city authority. But not here, as the PM and so many other national officials, MPs and the NESDB get involved.

I understand that one of the reasons for that is certainly a fear of corrupt practices and some obscure laws that give the government a say on capital equipment. I do not understand how a matter like that could be of any interest to Thai citizens living in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Bangkok has a governor, What's his role if he does not have a hand on how to equip his own city?

Maybe the metropolitan area deserves more independence when it comes to making choices for itself.

A city tax should be implemented for Bangkok dwellers to pay for their own infrastructure.

And national political life would not address only the needs of less than one fifth of the population in saga like stories.

ALEX ROSS

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Many duty-free scams

All those who travel a lot, please be very, very careful. An Indian was detained in Bangkok for stealing a packet of cigarettes from a duty-free shop at Bangkok's international airport.

He had paid for chocolates and a carton of cigarettes. The cashier put an extra packet of cigarettes into his bag and he thought it was a free pack.

He was arrested for shoplifting and the police extorted 30,000 baht from him for his release.

He spent two nights in jail and paid 500 baht for an air-conditioned cell, 200-300 baht for each visitor, and 11,000 baht for his final release. The police shared the money in front of his eyes.

On top of that, he was charged in court and fined 2,000 baht by the magistrate and handcuffed and escorted to his plane. His passport was stamped ''Thief''.

While there, his relatives requested help from the Indian embassy and was told they were helpless as many Asians are similarly victimised daily and letters and phone calls to the Thai authorities are ignored.

He shared a cell with a Singaporean the first night who paid 60,000 baht for his release. The second night it was a Malaysian national who paid 70,000 baht.

Mind you this was not in a shanty shop in downtown Bangkok but in a duty free shop at the Bangkok Int'l Airport. BE WARNED. The above 100% correct information because Mr.Rajan Khera's customer from India faced exactly the same scenario mentioned above when he was in transit at Bangkok Int'l Airport coming to Taipei.

Someone else went through the same ordeal in Dubai.

He bought things at a duty free. The salesgirl put a bottle of cologne in his shopping bag (he did not see it happen). He was arrested for stealing (this is before he even picked up his luggage).

He sat in the airport jail (where he was harassed the whole day _ no food, no water for one day. Only after he paid a fine (bribe) of US$500 did they let him go.

These are scams that are happening all over the place.

Please be careful.

All of this is pre-planned and certain people who work at the airports know who to target.

SUMIT S

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Northeast illusion

Letter writer Mr Warner (''Isan and self-reliance'', Postbag, July 5), who has resided in a small northeast village for five months, cites health care as an enduring gift from Thaksin Shinawatra.

Forty years ago, when I first came to Thailand, one of the things that impressed me most was how any Thai could get medical care free at a state hospital or clinic.

That is, Thaksin shamelessly re-branded something already available for decades as something new.

What was really happening was that his wife owned the company that produced the tens of millions of cards for his ''30 baht''scam; he purchased five private hospitals; and he changed the Ministry of Public Health regulations to allow patients to use their ''30-baht'' card at private hospitals that would be reimbursed for a set amount, based on what the cost is to a state institution. The latter guaranteed cashflow to his newly-acquired private hospitals, while boosting their profits dramatically and attracting more patients than otherwise.

Yes, northeasteners are wonderfully hardworking, self-reliant people. But they are woefully ignorant _ or naive _ in thinking that Thaksin ever did anything that did not benefit himself financially. No exceptions.

He was just very good at masking his real intentions with well-packaged and well-publicised programmes that ultimately petered out, leaving illusions and dependence in their wake.

A REALITY CHECKER

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Awareness of facts

US-based Chevron and French-based Total are doing business in natural gas in Burma today, and China, Thailand, India and Singapore have lucrative deals in place with Burma's military government, according to a recent CNN report.

Total representatives provided CNN with details of its projects, and described benefits to employees in the form of social pensions, employee representation, holidays and good contracts; Chevron would not respond to CNN.

About 30% of Thai gas comes from Burma and Thailand uses gas to generate about two-thirds of its electricity.

This is where awareness starts in foreign affairs, with facts, and the facts are studied until understanding becomes awareness. Without facts, awareness is very hard to achieve, so why wouldn't Chevron provide CNN with some facts, as I doubt it would do any harm and I doubt Chevron has anything to hide?

Claiming transparency and openness while remaining opaque and closed has become an obstacle to awareness in some parts of the West and Chevron is just one small example.

We are far from awareness in the case of Burma because we are still so far from the facts, and some parts of the West are more hindrance than help.

GUY BAKER

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Animal neglect

It was sickening to read that in the last two years 300 animals had died at the Chiang Mai Night Safari, which the zoo director admits was due to incompetent care of the animals (''A battle to save wildlife'', Editorial, July 4).

One of the frustrating things about writing Postbag letters is that I sometimes wonder if anyone is listening. For years I've been writing letters complaining about the Night Safari and urging the public to boycott it. But the public keeps going there, the animals keep dying and neither the government nor the Chiang Mai tourism industry could care less.

Where do we go from here?

ERIC BARHT

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Reconsider rice patent

Re: ''Thai rice gene patent sends wrong signal'' (National news, July 3).

I totally support NSTDA's decision to file for the Thai rice gene. Not doing so would certainly generate a public inquiry as to why it was not done.

In addition, we should applaud the biotech researchers for being the first to crack the code of the jasmine rice gene. The question I have is why the Thai authorities would not issue the patent request? Simply saying that the gene that generates the jasmine aroma is not a product of innovation but a natural occurrence does not hold water. If this is the case, then the US authorities should have turned down the patent request when it was filed.

I would encourage the responsible agency to reconsider the patent request for the sake of the national interest.

RAMJITTI INDARAPRASIRT

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