OPINION

Weed out dirty cops

Quite often Thai police officers found to have committed illegal acts have been shunted instead of stripped of their ranks and tried in the court of law.

Worse, some of these criminals in uniform have been "recycled" into the police force again and again. Some have been promoted to even more important positions in the force.

This is the most deplorable and apparent illegal act that could be expected to happen in any national law-enforcement force.

That is why the Thai police force is one of the most ineffective and corruption-plagued law-enforcement forces in the world.

Law-abiding Thais are waiting for the Prayut Chan-o-cha government to recognise this social malady, and begin reforming the Thai police in a serious manner.

Today the European Union and its member states celebrate Human Rights Day. As inequality and violations of human rights pose increasing challenges across the world, and conflict continues in countries such as Syria, it is all the more important that we redouble our efforts to defend the rights of all people. This is why this year we join the United Nations in calling upon people to stand up for someone's rights.

Each of us has an individual responsibility to stand up for these rights. We can draw inspiration from human rights defenders, who bravely face increasing pressure and threats in many countries. The European Union resolves to protect them, and to promote civil society space. EU officials at all levels do this by meeting with human rights defenders, monitoring their trials, visiting them in detention and raising their cases with governments. In 2016, the EU has also provided financial support through the EIDHR Emergency Fund to more than 250 human rights defenders and their families who are at risk because of their daily work.

Whilst individual action is essential, the European Union as a whole will continue to play a leading role in promoting a rules-based global order, with respect for human rights at its core. The EU's Special Representative for Human Rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, is actively raising the profile of EU human rights policy globally. Meanwhile, EU delegations are working tirelessly to defend human rights in their host countries. The EU remains a vocal advocate for human rights in multilateral fora and lends its full support to the UN human rights system, which is fundamental to protecting universal human rights and monitoring compliance.

In the coming year, the EU will be pursuing the follow-up to the new Global Strategy for the EU's Foreign and Security Policy, launched in June 2016, in which we pledged to foster respect for human rights both within and outside the EU. This includes ensuring the highest level of human rights protection for migrants and refugees in all EU action on migration and development. We will also be assessing progress on our ambitious Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy for 2015-2019. Equally, we will renew our commitment to combatting torture and ill-treatment and protecting the rights of the child by reviewing our EU guidelines and further strengthening the impact of our policies on these issues.

Today and every day this year, the EU will stand up for human rights worldwide, and will commit its full support to every individual who does the same.

Re: "Crash and burn", (PostBag, Dec 9).

There is one major factor… the human factor. All the vehicle inspections, all the strict enforcement, everything else is all for naught as long as the offender can pass his driver's licence out the window for inspection with, "coin of the realm", tucked neatly beneath it, palms down. Most of us have participated in this well choreographed dance time and again, both off road and on road, with different partners. It costs us a bit more than a Thai "offender", but then, Westerners, it is assumed, are able to afford it.

Now it is December and already department stores in Buddhist Thailand are decking the halls with holly as loud piped music asks us to ride on a sleigh through the snow with cut-outs of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (snow in Thailand?).

As we approach Christmas, let us not forget the many other gods born as the result of parthenogenesis, many of them on Dec 25 too!

And not only gods!

Many fabled heroes and famous men were also the result of virgin births, or so their followers believed. Men such as Romulus, Alexander the Great, Asclepius and the Egyptian pharaohs, Amenhotep III and Thutmose I.

The list is almost endless with an A-Z of gods from Assyrian, Aztec, Babylonian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Incan, Indian, Japanese, Norse, North American Indian, Phrygian, Roman, Teutonic, and almost every religion of every region on earth stretching back over many millennia, many of them predating Jesus.

There's Attis, Buddha, Caleus, Deganawida, Dionysos, Fot (Beddou), Glycon, Heracles, Hertha, Horus, Houji , Huitzilopochti, Isis, Indra, Jesus, Krishna, Lao-tzu, Marduk, Mithras, Neith, Odysseus, Osiris, Perseus, Quetzalcoati, Ra, Sennacherib, Tammuz, Targitaus, Tukulti-Urta, Ullr, Uranus, Vishnu, Weath, Yu, and Zoroaster, to name but a few.

Notably, Attis, a Phrygian god born of a virgin about 800BC, was crucified, dead, buried and rose again after three days. Does that ring a bell? So let's invite them all to a massive interfaith ecumenical party and together celebrate the diversity of religion.

Or perhaps, we should say, the striking similarities of religion.

Eric Bahrt in his Dec 7 letter, "Very clean vegans", is correct when he tells us there are non-animal fat shampoos, etc. I'd like to take this opportunity, and hope I do not sound like a commercial. Abhaibhubejhr (we pronounce it Paipubet) Government Hospital here in Prachin Buri is one of Thailand's top herbal producers of shampoos, soaps, creams and other products.

These products are recognised nationally and can be found not only in the hospital store, but on shelves in many hypermarkets. I've given these products to local friends for holiday gifts, and sent them to Canada and the USA for years. Friends always ask for repeats. I'd suggest you try these shampoos, conditioners and soaps whether you are a vegetarian or not. The prices are also well within reason, not like overly expensive herbal products at beauty counters in high-priced department stores. We are talking about great quality and value.

Re "Regulator takes temple TV off air," (BP, Dec 8).

I wonder why police have not used direct enforcement and the PM has forgotten about Section 44.

Cut all utility services in the temple, seal off the compound except one escape gate leading to a temporary detention area. The use of tear gas may be necessary to support the police team.

Re: "Supreme Court forces nationalism into movie theatres", (Opinion, Dec 5).

I must disagree with Noah Feldman, a Harvard professor, when he decried India's decision to require citizens to stand for its national anthem. Nationalism is resurging because people are finally realising that we are nothing without a country.

Prof Feldman seems to think it is perfectly fine to burn his country's flag. Yet I ask him who it is who provides him with a safe home? Who provides him Social Security, Medicare, prescription drug benefits, disability benefits, Obamacare, civil rights and the ability to vote? Is it the United Nations that does that or the United States?

Requiring the able-bodied man to rise for his country should not be viewed as impinging on the very rights that only his nation can provide. If Prof Feldman wants to remain so cavalier as to the glory of a nation, let him resign his US citizenship and ask the UN to pay his social security.

Perhaps then he will realise why Donald Trump will soon be president... well, at least after the laughter stops, that is.

Mr Ordsall in his Dec 8 letter, "Stick to the facts", says that Ms Suu Kyi lacks the power to do anything about the atrocities being committed by the "scum" who are running Myanmar. In other words, this "democracy icon" is just window dressing for that government.

And wouldn't the respectable thing for her to do be to disassociate herself from those murderers instead of misleading the world into thinking that she has brought democracy to Myanmar?

Mr P Jackson's Dec 5 letter, "They can still ride", left me in a bit of a puzzlement.

The question is not whether the police, communities or schools should take up the issue of child safety dealing with under-aged kids riding motorbikes, but who has the ultimate responsibility for child care in any country. It is the parents. Yes, Mr Jackson, schools should definitely include teaching safety, as you rightly wrote, but for everything, motorcycles, to drugs, to alcohol to safe sex in their curriculum. In many countries they in fact do.

The problem as we all know is that you are in Thailand, not in the US, Canada, NZ or Oz. In these countries, "Safety First", emblazoned on a hard hat or on a sign at a work site is practised seriously. In Thailand, it is a slogan for show. "Think, before you do" does not seem to have ever worked its way into the Thai psyche, nor for that matter in many other countries, to a greater or lesser degree.

I agree with Martin R in his Dec 9 letter, "Equality in death".

In fact, why not change the style of reporting so it reads, "60 people were killed including 36 men who happened to be the sole bread winners of the families involved?"

Martin R is right. There is just too much sympathy being reported for the women and children, and to hell with the men who also happen to be involved.

Re: "Cuban history lesson", (PostBag, Dec 3).

It's not always political reasons that make people flee poor countries. The first who fled Cuba were Cubans who enriched themselves during the Batista dictatorship and those in cohorts with the American mafia. Later Cubans fled when "invited" to the US -- and who wouldn't flee a poor third-world country to a rich country if they got the opportunity? But while Cuban "Balseros" were welcomed, people from Haiti and the Dominican Republic were sent back.

Westerners criticise Cuba for lack of Western top-ranked "freedoms" but are not able to criticise the lack of the poor man's top-ranked "freedoms". What freedoms do seriously ill people or the homeless ask for? Best way to fairly judge Cuba is by comparing Cuba with their neighbours in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, countries struggling with poverty, disease, violence and criminality. Oxford Journals writes in "Health in Cuba": "In virtually every critical area of public health and medicine facing poor countries Cuba has achieved undeniable success ..."

Cuba has a healthy and literate population and you can ponder on why it's not democratic. Was there only one option left for a Cuban way to democracy -- by submitting and surrendering to the US?

There is no such thing as an "underused" bike lane, (BP, Dec 9). They are fully used by motorists, parked vehicles, motorcycle and hand carts. To cycle on the roads in Bangkok is a death-defying act as motorists have no respect for anyone other than themselves. So, you might as well get rid of them as they are not "fit for purpose", until and unless people respect bike lanes. I gave up cycling here. Too old to dice with death.