Re: “Vigilantes fight against human trafficking”, (BP, Jan 31).
I have a few questions. First, how do we know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Normally the word “vigilante” refers to people who ignore laws and make up their own justice.
Of course “traffickers” are bad people because that word has been demonised by the American media. Trafficking is defined by deception, coercion and force — plus, frankly, whatever else American culture says it is.
Smugglers are defined as helping people willing to pay to go somewhere illegally. What possible reason does either a smuggler or a trafficker have to abuse people? Everything about trafficking is highly exaggerated.
This article focuses on the smuggling of Rohingya Muslims, a very oppressed people for religious reasons, many of whom are in detention centres.
Consider for a moment how easy it will be for Thai Buddhist vigilantes to be seen as the abusers in this situation, because they send the Rohingya Muslims to refugee camps.
As a result of this article these vigilantes could become better armed, resulting in even more violence. Trafficking and smuggling are migration issues based on desperately poor people and not enough low-skilled jobs.
Lastly, I am curious as to how much easier and cheaper it might be to help poor people find a job somewhere that needs them? Until we treat trafficking as a migration issue and match people to jobs regardless of borders, this problem will only grow worse.
John Kane
Dead rubber bounce
PM Prayut should help rubber farmers hard-hit by falling world prices — but we should learn from Yingluck’s infamous rice plan, rather than repeat its errors.
We cannot control world markets, either in rice or rubber — but we can, and should, ameliorate its volatility. Aid to farmers should be self-liquidating, so that funds can be put to other uses, not self-perpetuating. Also, help should be focused on the poorest of the poor.
Growing natural rubber is a sunset industry, because artificial rubber is an almost perfect substitute and is cheaper by far. Thus, we should seek to help rubber farmers get out of the industry, for example by re-training them (or their children) for other work, paying them a gradually decreasing subsidy that is always below world prices, or helping them shift to better-paying crops.
I would not create artificial demand for the rubber, like making roads, because that would be creating a cost burden for road users. Most of our aid should go to the 20% or so of the farmers who are poorest.
Burin Kantabutra
Regime wants quiet
The question is whether American style democracy is a suitable system of governance for Thailand?
Would anybody in America have the power to summon people for attitude adjustment? Even in the darkest hours of the Vietnam War, American late-night shows did not stop poking fun at Nixon and his gang. Losing the war did not stop ordinary Americans laughing at themselves and their foolish leaders.
On the contrary, like everything else in Thailand, power and governance has become a process of cynical manipulation. We all know that “position is power”. It is a core principle in all forms of poker, including Thai power play. And the power that grows out of the barrel of a gun always has an upper hand.
As always, the international community is being reminded the current regime is not fighting for military power, but it must bring stability and happiness to Thai society and the nation.
Hence, if there is naivety on the question of its current tactics, nothing whatsoever can be achieved. The military wants activists to "play dead"; it wants the “silence of the cemetery” so that reforms can proceed. And of course, American envoys should keep quiet for Thai democracy to be born again.
Kuldeep Nagi
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