OPINION

Street safety tips

In her May 15 comment, "Cough up cash to stop road carnage", Ploenpote Atthakor quite correctly pointed out that the apparent fascination with Japanese-style "points" deductions and new laws will have little sway with Thai drivers.

As she correctly says, there are many differences between Japanese and Thai drivers, the very first of which would be the fact that the Japanese driver has undergone thorough teaching and testing and is very well aware of when they are contravening a law or traffic regulation.

From daily experience on Thai roads, it is abundantly clear that such awareness simply does not exist here. Crossing white lines, swerving in front of vehicles, not indicating, jumping lights and non-observance of the rights of pedestrians is considered "normal" and tolerated even directly in front of police booths or officers standing road-side on many occasions.

Enforcement of existing regulations and better (any?) education will suffice to raise the level of safety on the streets here without adopting the laws of other countries with completely different cultural understanding of what is right and wrong, and consequently sense of guilt which is not prevalent here.

I can hardly think of a worse omen for Thais under 50 years of age than that nonagenarian Chai Chidchob is going to open the Lower House of parliament. Clearly this is a sign that there is going to be little or no progress on things that matter to younger people such as surviving the effects of global warming.

Apparently people under the age of 50 did something truly terrible in a previous life to get a government such as the one they are about to get.

I suggest the younger generation prepare itself for warmer and warmer weather, more and more pollution and a government that uses air-polluting generators to spray water from water cannons in the air to try to save us.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the Future Forward Party, must be applauded for his attempts to wrest control of Thailand away from the military dictators and restore democracy as reported in the May 14 edition.

Further to the point, he should be supported wholeheartedly by other non-military parties. Faced with the current situation where democracy in Thailand exists in name only, the parties which claim to be committed to democratic principles should demonstrate that commitment by putting those principles first and foremost.

Bickering about policy differences or trying to do deals in return for support, at the risk of allowing the generals to continue in power, is a betrayal of these parties' professed democratic ideals.

If these parties cannot put their policy differences aside for the good of democracy, above all else, then they are lacking the democratic principles which true democracy demands. Without a democratically elected parliament how can there be true democracy?

The first priority must be to secure democracy.

Then policy differences between the parties can be resolved in the parliament by robust and informed debate between democratically elected representatives of the people.

A party which is unable to put democracy first above all else has no real claim to be democratic. Shame on any parties or politicians who refuse to unite in the cause of democracy.

Re: "Level the playing field", (PostBag, May 17).

John Guest correctly points out the challenges in enforcing basic traffic laws in Thailand. You can't throw 12-year-olds in jail and you can't fine people who have no money.

What can be done, however, is to confiscate the motorbikes of those who ride about without licences or crash helmets -- not just for the weekend, but permanently. I predict such harsh measures would quickly result in reducing significantly the number of under-aged, reckless and untrained cyclists on the road.

Some will argue that confiscating vehicles, with no return, will deprive families (especially rural dwellers) of critical means of transportation. But, perhaps it is exactly that kind of hardship that needs to be imposed on those violating fundamental road safety regulations that is needed to bring about compliance.

Lungstib's complaint that he risks being kicked out after 30 years in Thailand obscures the fact that expulsion is a global issue. In the US, the 2 million undocumented residents known as Dreamers face the same threat of deportation, whilst there was a recent scandal in UK when British Caribbean citizens were deported even though they had been invited to work in the UK decades ago.

In Thailand, thousands of self-insuring retirees on annual extensions of stay -- easily approved by the Immigration Bureau -- could potentially find themselves booted out if compulsory medical insurance were introduced for all farang oldies with zero chance of being covered.

Already, one annual visa, known as O/A and obtained only from Thai consulates abroad, will have such a requirement from July.

Your correspondent is far from being unique.

Re: "Want a home in Thailand? You have 450,000 empty ones to choose from", (BP, May 17).

Knowing what we know about the arcane immigration laws and hefty cash deposit requirement in a Thai bank, why would anybody like to buy a property in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand? Why would anybody spend millions of baht and report to immigration every 90 days?

A Thai criminal has a better deal than an investor. Buyers beware that the Thai property market runs on deception and deceit.

Unless the immigration laws are straightened out in favour of foreigners, they should keep away from the property market.

You will be better off buying something in Cambodia or Laos.

My heartfelt support to Lungstib and many other foreigners who take care of their Thai families. I am 100% sure that if they did not support their families, the children would have end up in Pattaya, Patpong or Phuket in some massage parlor.

This country should be indebted to foreigners who pour billions in its economy and take care of Thais who otherwise would have remained shackled in poverty and ignorance.

I write this to inform PostBag readers about the "new" immigration requirements, and (hopefully) to stop all the whining about Thai immigration.

First, let me say that in 20 years of visits to the Bangkok immigration office, I have never had a bad experience with staff courtesy. Sure, the waits can be long (and getting longer -- more on this tomorrow). But the staff have always been polite and helpful. They are overworked and deserve credit, not complaints.

Regarding the "new requirements" I, like others, have been concerned with understanding exactly what they were.

It has long been clear the requirement is either 800,000 baht in a Thai bank or 65,000 baht per month minimum income (although PostBag writers have largely ignored the latter option).

This is the same requirement that has been in place for at least 20 years to get a retirement visa in the first place. What is new, is the need to annually produce evidence. This does not seem unfair to me.

What hasn't been clear is what "evidence" would be sufficient, especially regarding income.

I went for my one-year visa yesterday and was informed that for my next renewal they will want (1) 65,000 baht or more to be transferred into a Thai bank account every month for a year; (2) one year's worth of Thai bank statements showing this; (3) a letter from the Thai bank attesting to this; and (4) a Thai bank passbook showing a deposit of any amount in the days prior to visa application, to show that the account is still active on that date.

Although this will be a bit of an inconvenience, again it does not seem unreasonable if we want to live here.

What would be helpful would be for Thai immigration to publicise these criteria so we are not all in the dark until we go in for our visa. And foreign embassies should assist in doing this.

I observed some serious problems regarding work flow, but I will address these in a separate PostBag letter.

As a mere bystander, but one whom has travelled widely in Thailand over the last 40 years, it does appear to the uninitiated that the tourism industry is on a perilous downward path?

Despite the official line that "all is well" I cannot but notice evidence to the contrary. I notice recently that Chinese arrivals have suffered an alarming decline and Westerners in many of the more renowned destinations are as rare.

Of course I am not in a position to offer an explanation for this sad state of affairs, and can only offer the advice I was myself given many years ago, namely: "Be nice! (and accommodating!) and offer your client, that which they seek to maximise their enjoyment!"

This sound advice might prove both worthy and profitable in this instance?

My son just started school again yesterday, after what seemed like an eternity on holiday. On his first day he comes home from school with a letter saying Monday is a holiday in Thailand and the school will be closed.

I'm starting to wonder whether my son will finish school with any sort of worthwhile education at all given the amount of time he actually spends there learning

Re: "Buffalo population in decline", (BP, May 15).

For time immemorial Thai rice farmers used water buffaloes to pull the plough; but, nowadays they are replaced by tractors and mechanical plough.

Buffaloes played an integral part in Thai culture and Thai society, much like elephants, but they have never been recognised and treated affectionately. On the contrary, "buffalo" is a derogatory word; it is an all-purpose slur, meaning stupid, ugly, or fat, or all three. If you call someone khwai which means "buffalo" in Thai, you better run faster than Usain Bolt.

If buffaloes were humans they must be pretty upset that oxen and not them are used in the Royal Ploughing Ceremony at Sanam Luang.