OPINION

Horrors of Hamas

Re: "Thai worker injured in Gaza Strip", (BP, May 16).

Now that the conflict is affecting Thai workers in Israel in a tragic way, it might be timely to clear up some of the confusion. Most of the world is protesting against the large number of civilians killed by Israeli air strikes, yet those must be taken with more than a pinch of salt.

Gaza's Hamas rulers are known for storing and firing rockets from civilian areas and using non-combatants as human shields. The casualty numbers are made public by Hamas-controlled bodies such as their health ministry, with Hamas using casualties for propaganda purposes.

The same world public opinion does not really care about Israeli civilians living under the constant threat of the thousands of primitive rockets fired into Israel indiscriminately. These rockets, along with booby-trapped balloons have been terrorising Israeli men, women and children for decades, yet Israel only replies every few years. Hamas rockets are aimed at civilians only: schools, kindergartens, nursing homes.

Govt incompetence

Re: "Govt has only itself to blame for jab fiasco", (Opinion, May 18).

Khun Atiya's article on the Prayut government's incompetence with the vaccine rollout courageously reinforces the historically poor service this military government has generally offered to the populace.

I watched with horror all the missteps by my US government in 2020 led by our former science-denying ex-president Donald Trump. The US finally got it together, focused, and delivered record numbers of vaccines in record time.

Thailand, a place that I dearly love and call my second home, has for years been beset by a reactionary stance with regard to any challenge. Unfortunately one can draw a straight line back to the school system with its 19th-century mentality, which discourages free thought and challenges to status-quo ideals and ideas.

If one probes more deeply this vaccine fiasco, one will be horror-struck by the backroom dealings hatched by some individuals designed to gain profits.

How can this country, a bastion of kindness and Buddhism, allow profiteering during a pandemic? The answer unfortunately is easy -- another sad example of "Amazing Thailand".

An Abhisit- or Thaksin-led government would have been at the forefront of a national response to this pandemic, and I strongly believe Thailand would have led the way, instead of its new posture as an also-ran.

This government has reliably demonstrated the concept of the five Ps in military jargon: Poor Planning leads to a P**s Poor Performance.

Unequal rights

Re: "Free jabs for all", (PostBag, May 18).

I often agree with Burin Kantabutra's letters, but I think the statement of "...while people have the right to do as they wish with their bodies, they do not have the right to endanger others by so doing..." leads to a serious question: whose rights come first?

Do the rights of adults who have acquired their education and careers outweigh the rights of the young who should be in school?

Do the rights of the 1% who may die of Covid-19 outweigh the rights of the other 99%? Do the rights of a driver outweigh the inherent risks of lethal accidents to vulnerable pedestrians?

I believe the needs of the 99% outweigh the needs of the 1%.

Many may disagree, but I think we should all seriously ponder whose rights come first.