Postbag
Let's be informed
- Published: 8 Feb 2013 at 00.00
- Newspaper section: News
We need a series of debates between candidates for Bangkok governor to help educate and inform voters. Each candidate would have an opportunity to prove that his promises are really feasible, not just empty words. The given candidate's opponent will be all too happy to prove on-the-spot that what he says is nonsense. Thus, for example, can Pheu Thai's Pongsapat Pongcharoen convincingly prove that he will be his own man, not another puppet, when Thaksin's personal lawyer, Noppadon Pattama, confirmed to the New York Times that PM Yingluck is no more than a stand-in for the fugitive mastermind in Dubai?
Or, if MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra builds tunnels under intersections to ease traffic, won't we have even worse congestion while they are being built _ especially since the BTS lines are being expanded and the government's first-car scheme promises hell in the streets already?
As James Madison put it, ''A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps, both. A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives''.
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