OPINION

Censors shield corrupt

Re: "It's the corruption, stupid", (Opinion, May 27).

It is indeed, as Mr Dawson sets out, the corruption.

The logic is not difficult. Fact 1: censorship is only ever used to enforce ignorance, in particular to conceal inconvenient truths. Fact 2: the current government censors more than any civil government ever has or could. The conclusion about the ruling politicians necessarily follows.

And since corruption always thrives best under those cozy blankets of censorship that protect it from just exposure, these logically certain conclusions explain both the coup and the denial of elections since May 2014. In conclusion, it being the best antidote to such self-serving censorship and the evils thus enabled, democracy is, as a result, feared by those who will justly lose out under it, and who therefore suppress it with a vengeance, as daily demonstrated these past four years.

Postponing the debt repayment of the Thai digital TV channels and so reducing the income for the government will be seen by many as the government pandering to their rich owners at the cost of ordinary citizens (BP, May 24). The facts are that most of these TV channels are broadcasting the same content and competing for advertising revenue which eventually will dry up as more and more of the young move away from fee TV platforms to the internet. The days of transmission of content through TV channels are coming to an end and inevitably advertisers are going to give up and move to platforms like streaming and the internet.

There are more than 20 digital TV channels broadcasting in Thailand, far too many. If returning licences is an option, better to close up shop now and contemplate a new business plan. Postponement is short-term thinking.

IRPC Plc, one of Thailand's largest petrochemical companies, is the backbone of the Rayong economy. It employs thousands of people. Countless contractors and suppliers rely on IRPC for their livelihoods.

I have lived in Rayong for more than 10 years and am aware that IRPC is active in local communities with civic action programmes and activities to support and enhance the lives of local people. This is all to the good and IRPC deserves the credit.

But behind this veneer of corporate social responsibility is a dark side.

IRPC refinery chimney stacks are repeatedly belching great columns of dense black smoke into the atmosphere. This happens with alarming frequency and today, for example, two chimneys have been emitting clouds of smoke on-and-off for the past three hours.

I live not far from IRPC and a day after these smoke emissions I can go around my house, run a finger along the tabletop or a bookcase shelf and come away with it covered with soot. God knows how much of the stuff I am breathing into my lungs.

If this happened in my home country, Australia, IRPC would be facing criminal charges involving fines running into millions of dollars -- yes dollars, not baht.

Monks are making headlines again -- for corruption, selling amulets under false pretences and more. Monks should be barred from politics of any kind. This is not Myanmar. Many spend more time whoring, drinking, enjoying good lifestyles, and almost no time in taking care of those in their communities, especially the poor and many hungry local people.

A group of monks comes to one of my favourite local restaurants every so often to enjoy an expensive, multi-course meal, washing it all down with a few bottles of Heineken. This morning while stopped for a traffic light, I watched two monks come out of a store that sells liquor, with a case of 100 Pipers, put it into the trunk of the car next to mine, and drive off.

Given the benefit of the doubt, they might have had something else in the box, but it was a sealed carton. All I could think of was the song, "There'll be a hot time, in the old town tonight".

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