OPINION

Warning on Russia

Re: "Russia is back and it's a little bit better," (Opinion, July 13).

Mr Kavi, make no mistake that Russia is back in cahoots with authoritarian regimes in Asia. I am not sure if Russia with its third-world economy can be a global power and capable of shifting or changing repressive regimes in the region. In this new century, having nuclear weapons and an armada does not make a country a superpower. Pakistan have them, and so also North Korea and many others.

Just look at how Cuba, a close ally of Russia for decades, has revolutionised its economy. Starvation, unemployment, and dire economic conditions have forced Cubans to take to the streets. Where is the Russian influence gone? And of course, its new love for China is no surprise. Both countries see America and its allies as big obstacles.

In the Asean parlour, bringing normalcy to Myanmar means that human rights, freedom, or democracy are not important. Normalcy can be achieved by shooting or shoving people in jail. If this is a windfall for Asean then we will have similar consequences in Africa, the Middle East, Cuba, Nicaragua, and many other South American countries.

Vaccine perils

Re: "Govt lambasted for wasting early success," (BP, July 13).

The TDRI hit the nail on the head. But the course was, unfortunately, predictable. The military is good at imposing lockdowns. After that, and when vaccines became available, some thinking and analysis plus research became necessary. And Thailand's position as a leader began to fade, and then became what the TDRI described.

For instance, for several months now the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines have been known to produce only 50% efficacy or slightly more.

Still, Thailand continued to buy them. The results were illustrated in yesterday's story of a nurse vaccinated with Sinovac who nevertheless became infected and died. This is spending good money on a poor quality vaccine that caused disaster which could have been avoided. The TDRI is correct!!

Mixed messages

Re: "Stop Living in fear," (PostBag, July 11), and "Thaitanic disaster", (PostBag, July 10).

The writer of these letters has me profoundly confused.

In his latter letter, Mr Jason A Jellison made a lot of sense, outlining just how badly the Prayut government has mismanaged the allocation of Covid-19 vaccines, leading to the current mess that the country is now engulfed in.

But then in the next letter, he talked about how people are exaggerating the seriousness of the Covid-19 crisis, dismissed it as nothing more than "the flu", and said that even though he has an underlying condition, he still went back to the US and then came back to the kingdom to live and tell about it!

So sir, I think it would be useful for you to clarify things, and state exactly whether you believe the coronavirus is something which the general populace should be concerned about or not.

Devil in the details

When asked to describe his leadership strategy during his time in office, former US president Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) said: "I delegate, delegate and delegate."

In Thailand in 2021, the prime minister seems to be doing pretty much the same thing -- but the devil, however, is in the details.

This time, our PM displayed his leadership qualities by delegating powers that once belonged to his cabinet members to himself -- so that he and only he can use them.