Get tough on poachers
Re: "Poaching suspects may get off scot-free", (BP, Oct 9).
In February, Italian-Thai Development president Premchai Karnasuta was charged with poaching in Thungyai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary with parts of an endangered black panther in a pot. The case is proceeding at a snail's pace and the man may escape the rule of law.
This week, 11 people, including a district chief, were charged with poaching in Sai Yok National Park after they were found with guns and Asian bearcat paws, a protected species. Although armed with a rifle with silencer and ammunition, they claim that they'd bought the paws from villagers. District chief Watcharachai Sameerak resisted a body search, but park chief Panatchakorn Phothibandhit bravely called in soldiers and police to enforce the law.
If the suspects did not intend to poach, why did they bring a rifle? Why did the rifle have a silencer? Which villager did they allegedly buy the paws from? The police should plea bargain with the villagers and other suspects to jail the mastermind, protect our wildlife -- and show the world that rule of law is slowly returning to our beloved country.
Burin Kantabutra
'Democratic' dictators
Re: "Democrats 'may back regime'," (BP, Oct 10).
The problem when "Mr Abhisit insisted that the party under his leadership would not support dictatorship," is that supporting dictatorship is exactly what the Democrat Party under his watch did in the lead-up to the 2014 coup that overthrew Thailand's form of democratic constitutional government.
Under Mr Abhisit's leadership, his party has earned an international reputation for being "hilariously misnamed" (Time, Nov 2013). Either Mr Abhisit fails to accurately state his own leanings, or he is a washout as leader, having spectacularly failed to lead his party to respect to anything like democracy, democratic values or democratic processes.
Felix Qui
Two-week vegetarians
Re: "Token vegetarianism", (PostBag, Oct 10).
You can call them merit-makers or hypocrites. The annual vegetarian festival brings droves of followers of vegetarianism who shun meat for two weeks to spare animals from being slaughtered by consuming only plant-based dishes. They don't even take garlic because it's pungent. Wow.
Like it or not, I see this as hypocrisy. I'd liken them to people who steal (or kill) throughout the year and then, for two weeks, go on a hiatus to cleanse their souls. Then the theft cycle (or killing) starts again. Why not continue with this commendable act of sparing them from pain and suffering on a platter? How many of these two-week vegetarians follow the tradition seriously? Or is it monkey see monkey do fashion? Probably one in a million. I'm a vegetarian and have a clear conscience and soul.
Norman Sr
THAI's troubled skies
Re: "THAI plane skids off airport runway", (BP, Oct 10).
A Thai Airways 747-400 carrying 97 passengers from China slid off the runway at Suvarnabhumi airport Monday in heavy rain. Fortunately no one was hurt -- except for the ever-failing state enterprise.
A Boeing 747-400 can carry up to 660 passengers. That single flight would have gone unnoticed in a sea of red ink if it not had a mishap. But now it only serves to highlight why a state owned airline is a bad idea. Suppose those 97 Chinese passengers had been killed?
In 2014 Thai Airways lost 15.6 billion baht, in the third quarter of last year 6.35 billion disappeared in a failed marketing strategy, and so far this year they are down 381 million. They have a dismal track record and despite increasing passenger numbers have lost more than 40 billion baht in the last five years.
The government needs to put in place best practices across the board at Thai Airways to eliminate political interference and establish profitability. It will then be able to privatise the business, which will benefit Thais greatly. To continue to operate at a loss so as to create face for the junta is a foolishness the country can ill afford.
Michael Setter
Contact: Bangkok Post Building 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 fax: +02 6164000 Email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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