OPINION

Never too late to learn

Re: "Dorm laws unfair, say petitioners", (BP, Nov 10)

The dormitory law is indeed ridiculous. Since when does "age" have something to do with a student's status?

I am an undergraduate student and have many friends aged over 25 who have entered college to expand their career opportunities. It's never too late to learn and students over 25 should not be treated differently from any other undergraduates.

I hope the petition of the Dormitory Operators Association to the Office of the Ombudsman will succeed, or else there might not be any legal dormitories left.

Re: "Thais rank low again in English," (BP, Nov 11).

Do we really need yet another reminder of how low Thai students rank in English? We have been informed of this same problem for years. What no one has ever read about is any successful attempt to improve the system to make students more proficient. The few reported attempts designed by those with no experience in teaching or education were rather feeble, ill-thought out, and evidently, as the study shows, useless.

Reporting the low rank is like rain falling in a reservoir. It makes no difference, so why bother? If anyone had been interested, something would have been done ages ago.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise Yingluck's getaway driver, Pol Col Charit, has fled (BP, Nov 10). How long has Ms Yingluck Shinawatra been gone? What a joke. Do you think he would stick around to wait for her return?

Former British ambassador to the EU John Kerr states that "Britain has the right to change its mind" about leaving the EU (BP, Nov 11).

Like all Remoaners, Mr Kerr conveniently forgets that Britain has already changed its mind about the EU in a Leave/Remain voluntarily binding referendum. In the largest voter turn-out in British political history it voted to leave, by 460-plus electorates to 160-plus electorates. Subsequent opinion polls show this decision is gaining in popularity with every obstructive move by the EU. Remoaners should accept the democratic decision and support the Brexit negotiations.

The Nov 11 article, "The real legacy of the controversial Balfour Declaration", is spot-on in highlighting Palestinian hypocrisy. One might even use the old cliche that "the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". It is easy to see why. Blaming Israel for every social ill and each economic downturn is much easier than reconciling the inner conflicts (Fatah vs Hamas), making painful concessions on the core issues (Jerusalem and refugees top the list) and indeed engage in painstaking state-building.

The centenary of the Balfour letter is split in the middle by the 1967 war which led to Israel occupying the areas now wanted by the Palestinians for their state. But who or what prevented them from achieving that goal in the 50 years prior to 1967? Did the Palestinians "remember" their aspirations only after that war? Indeed, for two decades Jerusalem and all the other territories now under Israeli control or influence were under Arab rule.

Kudos to the writer for expressing an opinion which is not politically correct in today's public discourse.

Re: "Pathetic politicians", (PostBag, Nov 10).

Sometimes it seems to me that Ms Holzer is not a real person but a government troll.

But anyhow, politicians did not invent corruption. It was there for many decades entertained by military, police, "burocrazy" and business. The politicians were last to join the party.

I have to admit they were the loudest and most shrill. They challenged the corruption monopoly of the old elites. That is one of the conflict fault lines in recent Thai history -- it is reminiscent of the clash of new money and old feudal structures in the European history of the 19th century. Another fault line is the still-diffuse demand for participation of the politically and economically powerless majority of the country. These demands will become louder and louder.

Nowhere in the world did military governments have an answer to these historically fundamental fault lines.

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