In response to your editorial entitled “Drug war is flagging”, on Jan 19, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Bangkok wishes to state the following:
1. Indonesia is now confronted by drugs and precursor abuse, an emergency that requires extraordinary measures. The Indonesian government in exercising its constitutional duty to impose stern actions within the framework of Indonesian laws against drugs-related offences which are regarded as one of the most serious crimes.
2. The execution has been imposed on anybody regardless of nationality based on strong legal evidence and through a judicial process. It is carried out as a last resort and only after all legal options have been exhausted, including appeals and requests for presidential pardons. The law stipulates that the death penalty is exercised in accordance with the level of the offence, such as that distributors, producers, and drug lords.
3. Drug-related offences pose a serious threat to the nation as abuse is on the rise. In 2013, there were 4.5 million cases; this number is predicted to rise to 5 million in 2015. We have around 4 million narcotics addicts; about 4.4% are 10-19 years old, 9% are 20-29 years old, 3.7% are 30-39 years old, and 2.1% over 40 years. They are abusing about 2 tonnes of heroin, 49.5 tonnes of crystal meth, 147 million ecstasy pills and 242 tonnes of marijuana. An average of 1,500 Indonesians die every month to drugs-related abuse.
Penny D Herasati
Counsellor for Political, Security and Legal Affairs
Hollow victory
Re: “City Hall claims B800m victory over fire truck scam”, (BP, Jan 18).
Only in Thailand would authorities claim “victory” in recovering 800 million baht of an acknowledged overpayment of 1.9 billion baht and other expenses totalling more than 5 billion baht. While recovering 16% of total losses might be face-saving to some, it is hardly good financial management.
It has been argued that if Thailand had used the fire-fighting equipment during the past 10 years, it would have jeopardised the country’s case for recovering damages from the supplier. But, in the end, Thailand has not even recovered the costs of storing the equipment and its depreciation in value.
Admittedly, the case was complicated and stretched across several administrations, but the country would seemingly have been far better off to have cut its losses and made whatever use of the equipment.
Greater effort should have gone into prosecuting the corrupt Thai officials responsible for the overpayment debacle and less effort tilting at windmills.
Samanea Saman
Fate sealed long ago
The Bangkok Post’s Jan 19 headline reads: “Yingluck’s fate sealed, says Pheu Thai”.
Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, but Yingluck’s fate was sealed right from the start when she refused to listen to anyone except her brother.
Did it really take this long for it to sink in, and figure it out?
Charlie Brown
Time for sunshine
Re: “Queue jump back to Canada”, (PostBag, Jan 18).
I feel compelled to voice two issues in response to Ron Dale’s letter.
First, and perhaps most obvious, is the fact that just because Mr Dale himself has not been subject to local police harassment doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist (I’ve never encountered a king cobra in the wild, yet I am confident they do exist).
In fact, one need not look any further for evidence of this harassment than the article titled “Sukhumvit shakedown” in the very same issue of the paper in which Mr Dale’s letter was published.
Second, the vast majority of Thais I know (to say nothing of the expats) would far prefer that unflattering instances such as police shakedowns and dual pricing be discussed openly and honestly.
Those who would prefer to deny the existence of such blights upon this fine country are dwelling at best in a state of denial, and at worst in a state of complicity.
As Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”.
I suspect that each and every country — be it Canada, Thailand or those spanning the latitudes between — would be well-served to welcome a little sunshine into its own darkest recesses.
Maxwell Brock
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING
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Fax: +02 6164000 email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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