OPINION

No time to lose

The Bangkok Post's Feb 4 edition reported that our water is unsafe for human and pet consumption. Last year that problem persisted until the end of May ... but what was done over the past year?

Now we have the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy in the toilet, deadly air pollution which is now responsible for loss of vision over time, no current vaccination plan, epic unemployment and children falling further behind in their education. The time for the usual rhetoric by government ministers is over and action is mandatory on every issue.

I'd start by allowing people to be vaccinated against the deadly virus. Over 100 million plus people have been vaccinated worldwide, including prisoners and terrorists. What is our plan and where do we sign up? Private hospitals should be allowed to use vaccines approved by developed countries while waiting for FDA approval. Call this an emergency situation of epic proportions if additional justification is needed.

If all of this week's crisis collection cannot be handled by the people responsible the PM should find replacements and fast. Life is not cheap.

Leo Bourne's assessment of Aung San Suu Kyi's political lessons sounds very much like something out of Alice in Wonderland. (PostBag, Feb 4).

Political lessons in the East need time to be absorbed. Politics in Asia in general is treated as a game, like Russian Roulette or robbers and cops.

Think about equanimity of mindsets and you will understand that Faustian deals with the devil are really waters in the same pool of the mind.

Sometimes these are stirred, sometimes allowed to settle but at all times they are better negotiated through the firmness of mindset without allowing the external world to deter you from being blown over.

Aug San Suu Kyi will be back, believe me.

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy in the Australian government joining the international chorus of condemnation of the Myanmar coup. The Australian Defence Department continues to provide military aid to the Tatmadaw, including training for some of its officers in Australia. Admittedly the aid only amounts to about half a million Australian dollars a year but it is disingenuous to argue, as does the Australian government, that it is better to keep doors of dialogue open than to close them. How do you have "dialogue" with murderous, rapist, genocidal thugs?

All fair-minded Australians should call on the [Scott] Morrison government to cease all aid to the Tatmadaw and expel the officers currently training there.

Re: Myanmar's military stages coup", (BP, Feb 2).

It appears that Myanmar's military has taken a page straight from former US president Donald Trump's playbook in alleging "massive fraud" in the country's recent elections, despite presenting no evidence for such and ranting that the vote was "rigged".

Trump must be very envious of Myanmar's military leaders, however. While Myanmar's generals were able to rally thousands of troops in squelching the country's fledgling democracy, he could only assemble a ragtag mob of insurrectionists unable to overthrow the US government.