OPINION

Education solution

Re: "Creating the ideal city", (BP, May 30).

Bangkok governor-elect Chadchart is to be highly praised for itemising his goals for us. But his "Good Education" goal forgets that quality education teaches "how" to think -- not "what" to think.

Our youth badly needs the ability to question, think, analyse, and test safe, creative out-of-the-box ideas to help Thailand develop. Thus, Mr Chadchart should look to our demonstration schools -- like Triam Udom, Sathit Chula, Thammasat Secondary School, Sathit Prasarnmitr, or my alma mater, Sathit Pratumwan.

Evaluate, promote and publicise school administrators and teachers on "improvement" in system-wide test scores, like Pisa (as well as gains in absolute scores), to encourage even low-performers with potential. Create inter-school mentor relationships and give both mentors and mentees credit for mentee improvement.

Re: "Old frozen vax to be tested on monkeypox", (BP, May 28).

A recent Thai Ministry of Health announcement stating they will culture monkeypox virus and experiment with a 40-year-old smallpox vaccine as a treatment suggests they are intending to dramatically overstep the bounds of their scientific responsibility.

There is no biosafety Level-4 lab in Thailand, nor are there adequately trained scientists in this country capable of doing such work under the proper biosecurity protocols. Monkeypox is an orthopox virus, a family of viruses which includes smallpox, which killed untold millions and was one of the scourges of mankind up until it was globally eradicated in 1980. Although monkeypox has for millennia shown little transmissibility, the latest unprecedented global outbreak indicates it has undergone genetic modification for gain-of-function transmissibility and potentially possesses enhanced lethality.

I beg the Ministry of Health not to open this Pandora's Box in Thailand!

Re: "Govt aims to slash road deaths by 2/3", (BP, May 26).

Having recently completed a 3,000-km driving tour around Thailand, I gained first-hand exposure to the challenges that officials face in attempting to reduce highway fatalities.

Speeding -- far in excess of posted limits -- was common throughout the kingdom. Drivers regularly cut dangerously in front of other vehicles. Red lights seemed more like suggestions to stop rather than firm constraints. Motorcyclists wearing helmets were a rarity in the provinces. Most disturbingly, I saw scores of kids, some clearly younger than 12 years of age, operating motorcycles on the highways, invariably without helmets.

I came upon three major multi-vehicle traffic accidents -- at least two of which had resulted in fatalities. I passed through several superficial police checkpoints, but never once saw a police car stopping a vehicle for a moving violation in the manner that police regularly do when enforcing traffic laws in other countries.

I applaud the long-overdue programme of the government to reduce road fatalities, but I don't agree with the pre-emptive excuse already being laid out for the likely failure of the programme, due to "lack of public cooperation".

The solution to reducing highway fatalities and gaining public "cooperation" is actually very simple: police need to step up their presence and even-handedly ticket and levy stiff fines commensurate with violations. Tickets must be transparently issued and fully recorded in a computerised system that tracks payments and the records of repeat offenders. Experience in other countries has clearly shown that when drivers are hit in the wallet for traffic violations, they very quickly reform their driving habits.