OPINION

Chana smells fishy

Re: "The Chana Hustle," (BP, Dec 12).

I fully agree that the Chana industrial park project in Songkhla smells like rotten fish. Consider: (a) How good can the judgment of the minister involved be when he smuggled "flour" into Australia, couldn't prove to Aussie customs that the powder wasn't heroin, lied to the court by confessing to smuggling heroin but served four years in Parklea Prison for it? (b) The Chana developer's holding a public hearing online when most Songkhla locals aren't internet literate (c) Deputy Interior Minister Nipon Boonyamanee, key policymaker behind this project, admits that his relatives gathered and resold land for this project at double to triple the amounts paid just a month earlier. No prizes for guessing where they got their inside information from.

Last December, Capt Thamanat signed an MOU with the Chana Rak Thin group. He should live up to it, suspend the project, hold a public hearing in person (with social distancing) near the proposed site, and have an organisation acceptable to both parties conduct an SEA.

Re: "Who's most vulgar?," (PostBag, Dec 11).

Yannawa David pointed out that slums in Bangkok's Klong Toey and Yannawa areas are "home to some of the finest and kindest folk in Thailand despite their vulgarities". That's true.

But for young Thais to use vulgarities and obscenities during their gatherings for political change will only lead to their own demise.

Such behaviour will only attract negative feelings from the silent majority of the country. Vulgarities and obscenities are foreign-induced traits that will only bring about negative responses from the Thai public.

Come election time, these young ones will realise that their bad behaviour will be a cause of their own demise.

Hooliganism and vulgarities are not acceptable when you are calling for democracy and equality in society.

Re: "Bahrt overdose," (PostBag, Dec 14).

Wil Wright expresses what a number of us have been saying for a long time; it is not clear why PostBag gives Mr Bahrt such exposure.

As the pandemic unfolded, it seemed fair to give him a chance to put forward his unorthodox views but reading them on a weekly basis has become tedious.

To its credit, PostBag has published letters which question whether the column has sympathy for the anti-vaccine campaign, but has steered clear of any response. Personally, I have decided to give the PostBag editor the benefit of the doubt in the belief that, by continuing to publish Mr Bahrt, he reminds us of the need to be vigilant in countering the dangerous distortions and willfully misleading statistics of the anti-vax movement as a whole.

Re: "Bahrt overdose," (PostBag, Dec 14).

I feel compelled to rise to the defence of Eric Bahrt from the attack launched against him by Wil Wright.

Eric is no one-trick pony! If you had been reading PostBag for more than two years, you would know that Eric is a man of wide interests who cherishes an even wider range of grievances.

Not only is he against vaccines, he is against meat-eating, cruelty to animals, the state of Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians, people like me who use pen names, and God knows what else.

So ease up on Eric, Mr Wright!

He is a gadfly. We need gadflies, although some of us might want them to bite less often.