Re: ''South strategy an utter failure'' (BP, Editorial, April 3).
The title of the editorial contained the three precepts of good writing: it was accurate, brief and clear. There is no doubt the southern strategy has been completely disastrous and has resulted in untold misery.
Thailand seems to be the land of Teflon, where nothing ever sticks, no one is ever responsible and it is always some unidentified person's fault.
Calling urgent meetings and undertaking populist visits to be seen with the victims accomplishes nought and is merely a cynical public relations jamboree. Will a visit from the PM speed the recovery of any of the injured, revive tourism or assuage anything in a meaningful way? No, it will not.
A doctor cannot cure a sick patient by smiling and prescribing a soothing cream. He must conduct a thorough examination to observe the symptoms, then make a diagnosis and decide on an effective treatment. This systematic approach is completely absent in policies formulated for the South.
It does not take the skills of a rocket scientist to deduce that the prime cause of the problem is a cultural one, particularly where majorities seek to subjugate a minority and deny them social and political expression.
I would direct attention to Britain's problems in Northern Ireland and the decades of violence and killing that resulted. Britain is a developed Western nation with sophisticated security services, but it failed to defeat the Irish Republican Army, which brought bombings to the capital London and many other cities. Reconciliation and power sharing was the solution and now there is peace.
Unless Thai legislators and others in positions of power realise that only by empowering Muslims in the South so that they feel in control in some meaningful way and not repressed and under the heel of the Buddhist majority, this bloody and senseless waste of life will continue.
Sadly, I for one do not see any breakthrough for the foreseeable future as there are no leaders of sufficient stature to carry such a policy forward. The vast majority are merely venal, lightweight and self-interested who can see no personal financial gain in getting involved in the South.
I did once hold hopes that Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, by being a Muslim and ex-army leader, might be the very person to literally pull the rabbit out of the hat. However, the utter pantomime that is his chairing of the reconciliation committee has sadly shown he lacks the necessary qualities to achieve such a difficult task.
JOHN DE LAURENT
Wages need to rise
Re: ''Happy Trails'' (BP, Business, April 2).
I am terribly confused about the problems facing companies with the 300 baht minimum wage, with some companies moving to other countries. Good decision!
How anyone can live on such a low sum of money as 300 baht is challenging to my imagination. I have lived in Thailand for four years and think Thailand must become a knowledge-based economy with high-level workers or stay as a third world country in which the people always suffer with low wages based upon cheap labour used by Western countries to increase their profits.
A knowledge-based economy is not based upon giving tablets to kids in the first grade. One of the educational problems I have been working on is the lack of English language skills. How will Thailand compete with other countries such as Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar and Cambodia that have significant English-speaking populations?
As the Asean Economic Community will bring cheap labour from these countries and other impacts upon the Thai economy, there is no room for delay.
Thailand can become either a major or minor player. It can keeps the old style of economy with exports of rice and other products or it can become a vision of what Asean could become as a global leader in technology, arts, culture and many other talents in which Thais are the leaders.
If change is the choice, then the wages of people need to rise and employers need to make some adjustments.
By passing on employee cost increases to the consumer, the consumer needs to make more money and their employers need to increase wages. Without such adjustments, everything will remain the same and Thailand will not progress.
Thais need to wake up to global realities and say that the status quo is not enough.
STAN
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