Conviction politics

Re: "Charter court rules Thamanat qualified to serve as MP", (Online, May 5).

The Bangkok Post reported -- as had been expected -- that "the sentence handed down by a New South Wales court in Australia is not binding on Thailand.

"Therefore, Mr Thamanat is still qualified to be an MP and a cabinet member under the constitution, the court ruled."

Folks, don't let the news mislead you that Thamanat did not commit a crime. He did. The court merely ruled that his conviction in Australia cannot be used to constitutionally disqualify him from political posts.

The ruling literally means that even if a Thai national was convicted of rape and murder in a foreign country, the conviction cannot be used to bar him from serving as an MP, cabinet member, or prime minister.

Let's go back to Thamanat. ''Newspaper in Australia reported that he had been jailed there for four years on a drugs charge.'' As a result, the media can rightly refer to Thamanat as Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister ... and a convicted drug dealer.

Somsak Pola
Prayut the pretender

Re: "Charter court rules Thamanat qualified to serve as MP", (Online, May 5).

Will Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha now stop claiming that he thinks there is anything remotely wrong with drug dealing? Will he give up the lame pretense that there is something intrinsically bad about dealing drugs?

The known facts prove such a claim fake. Irrespective of this expected ruling by the Constitutional Court, to keep someone who is a proven, convicted heroin dealer not merely in your government but in your cabinet sends a perfectly clear message to the Thai nation and to Thai youth: criminal drug dealing is fine so long as you don't get caught, or at least not convicted by a Thai court.

Indeed, the message that PM Prayut sends by keeping this man in his cabinet is blatant: drug dealing, and presumably any other crime in Thailand, is perfectly OK provided you manage to avoid, by any means, a criminal record in Thailand.

The reality of your acts, of your character, no matter how well known, matters not in the least. The relevant known facts matter not in the least -- all that matters is strict legalism, wherein justice plays as important a role as decency, honesty and other good morals.

Felix Qui
Blinkered vision

Re: "Thais, not expats, get jab priority", (BP, May 5).

Thais can catch Covid-19 from expatriates, like foreign kitchen staff in Thong Lor nightclubs, as readily as from their Thai colleagues.

Thus, we cannot afford to discriminate by nationality in fighting the pandemic.

Foreigners should be inoculated on the same basis as Thais.

I'm amazed that MOPH spokesman Rungueng Kitipati has the temerity to admit that "[expats] should wait for a clear policy [on inoculation] from the government".

We're well into the pandemic's third wave in a year and a half and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha still has no policy on how non-Thais are to be treated, even though they underpin our economy.

We're floundering, PM. Be proactive, please.

Burin Kantabutra
Hit and myth policy

Re: "Slum cluster was avoidable", (Editorial, May 4).

Regarding the Klong Toey outbreak and other clusters (my goodness, isn't Covid giving the English language a good airing?) the government would be well advised to study the Labours of Hercules.

In particular the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra (cut off one head and another appears) and the Cleaning of the Augean Stables (in reverse -- if the Songkran exodus had been prohibited we might not be in the current situation).

In the same Greek myths context it is facing a Sisyphean task by adopting such a haphazard approach to vaccination.

Ellis O'Brien
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING 136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110 Fax: +02 6164000 email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
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