OPINION

Abolish conscription

Re: "Military draft to stay: Prawit", (BP, Nov 26).

Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon's concept of the place of conscription in the Thai military seems completely inconsistent with the government's 4.0 modernising strategy. Rather than helping to create a "stable, equitable and fair" society, maintaining military conscription simply perpetuates the same old social and gender divisions (why are women excluded from conscription?) that impede any real progress towards achievement of those national development goals.

Surely it's time for Thailand to create a fully modern professional army, along the model adopted by many developed countries. As well as comprising of well-trained and equipped personnel, able to defend the country, that modern army would provide a career path and opportunities for occupational training for many young people, including women, who are disenfranchised by the current conscription system.

Gen Prawit worries that if conscription were abolished then there would not be enough soldiers to defend the country, but he contradicts himself by admitting that "conscripts represent a small percentage of all recruits". But wouldn't the country be better defended by a well-trained body of professional soldiers than a motley assembly of men who don't want to be there in the first place, and many of whom have spent most of their time since recruitment assigned as household servants to high-ranking officers?

The general claims that "public opinion would also have to be factored in if conscription were to be abolished", but it seems to me that the majority of the public is actually opposed to conscription. As one who is so passionate about watches, Gen Prawit must surely know that the time has come for Thailand to abolish conscription and move from the past into the present.

Re: "Make Thai rice great again", (BP, Nov 25).

I respectfully disagree with the positions advocated in the Bangkok Post's editorial calling for increased government support to the rice sector.

While it is understandable that national pride would motivate Thailand to try to maintain its reputation for producing the highest-quality rice in the world, policymakers are on the right track in focusing research and development on the digital economy and other more promising emerging economic sectors of the future.

It should be painfully obvious to all that rice farming is a poverty trap for farmers and a huge drain on the country's financial resources. Successive Thai governments have rained billions of baht in taxpayers' money on farmers to subsidise a sector that otherwise cannot provide a decent income to rice producers. Despite the handouts and support, most rice farmers remain poor.

The assertion put forth in the editorial that rice production has always been the backbone of the Thai economy -- while perhaps true in the past -- is no longer correct.

The 180-billion-baht value of Thai rice exported annually represents barely 2% of the country's total exports, lagging far behind at least nine other categories of goods shipped abroad.

Thailand will continue to produce outstanding rice well into the future. But, the sooner more rice farmers are shifted to other more lucrative sectors, the better for all. Current farmers may finally escape the poverty trap of rice farming and the country will escape from the burden of treasury-draining subsidies.