New visas worthless

Postbag

Published: 31 Dec 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: News

The new Cambodian and Thai visa arrangemen is a PR stunt to conceal the fact that seven years of negotiations over common Asean visas have yielded nothing except petty squabbles and internal fighting in Thailand about who gets to syphon off visa fees.

Virtually all of the nationalities listed can get a visa on arrival, free in Thailand and at a price in Cambodia, without the hassle of going to an embassy beforehand.

The visa is only of slight use to Chinese tourists who will still have to queue up and pay again at the second country they visit.

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kena
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Discussion 7 : 31 Dec 2012 at 08.497
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Thanks for shedding light on ASEAN's smoke and mirrors, unthought-out visa thing. SE Asia could implement easy visas and a common currency if its stuffed shirts had the brains to do so. Instead, all they care about is money. If it doesn't stink of money, ASEAN doesn't want to deal with it.
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nighthawk
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Discussion 6 : 31 Dec 2012 at 08.216
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Vint if someone hit you in the head with a baseball club, you have a right to get mad. Anf if I ask you not to revenge but to just forget it because it is new year, would you listen to me? Vint it didn't happen to you, so you don't know how bad it is.
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Eggmeng
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Discussion 5 : 31 Dec 2012 at 07.545
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While I would agree that were Thaksin to remove himself from politics Thailand would be better off, it's a gross oversimplification to say that alone would return the smiles to people's faces.

The genie is out of the bottle. Personal debt and its cause - an obsession with consuming in an increasingly madly material world; in short the incessant desire that Buddhism warns of - are the chief reasons for the malaise that is affecting so many. And there is no reversal in sight.

Here's to a better 2013.
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oldairman
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Discussion 4 : 31 Dec 2012 at 07.484
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RE Sacrife for Country.
Vint I suspect more than 90% of the country would agree with you and Thailand would then make great strides towards the future for ALL the Thai people.
Sadly however the person to whom you are writing is deaf and blind to reason and only see what HE wants for himself and HIS version of the future of Thailand and not what is good for Thailand as a whole.
If all Thais listened and talked to each other and worked together there would be no need for reconciliation as it would be here already.
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sibley
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Discussion 3 : 31 Dec 2012 at 06.533
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The visa run is just another tax tourist, why do tourists with a twelve month category 0 visa need to go out of the country every 3 months why can they not just report to an immigration point, still pay some money for administration costs but not wast a day on a bus ride to Cambodia every 3 months,

Is this idea to sensible.
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Renaissance
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Discussion 2 : 31 Dec 2012 at 06.252
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Vint: I like your letter. The trouble is that Thaksin clearly wants Thais to sacrifice their lives, sacrifice the prosperity and reputation of the country, and sacrifice the unity of the nation so that he can regain his Prime Minister's chair and his 45 billion Baht. Because he is causing so much stress, people's health is suffering.
Visas: There are too many old-style men with obsolete thinking in charge of the visa system. Indeed, the whole Immigration system needs to be overhauled by young women. Women don't run a home like the old men run Immigration.
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Victor
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Discussion 1 : 31 Dec 2012 at 02.011
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I was woken up in the middle of the night by the 'music' made by my neighbors, who most likely will keep on 'singing' till next year, and was looking for something boring to read so that I could go back to sleep, then I found Vint Chavala's open letter to Thaksin. Before turning my computer off and heading to bed, may I add that he, Thaksin, could come back as a monk, a win-win situation for all?
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New visas worthless | Bangkok Post: opinion