Troublespotting
Re: "Rail project needs transparency", (Editorial, Aug 14).
The Post editorial on Sunday is on the right track (pun intended) in demanding transparency and open debate on the true costs and benefits to Thailand of the long-debated high-speed rail link to China via Laos. As several studies have indicated, a high-speed rail line from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima and the Northeast is unlikely to be financially viable from the perspective of Thailand.
A Thai connection to the high-speed rail line already built from southern China via Laos would undoubtedly be of huge benefit to Chinese exporters -- and most likely to those officials standing in wait to collect service fees for issuing contracts -- but of what value will it be to the everyday Thai citizen? Given the immense cost of such a line and the potential for serious environmental and social damage, Thailand is well-advised to proceed with great caution.
Samanea Saman
General mayhem
Re: "Subs need trusted parts", (Editorial, Aug 12).
The Thai military has always been widely understood to be poorly organised, generally incompetent, and corrupt. Their top-heavy command structure selects for qualities similar to the generals now running the government rather than integrity, self-discipline, well-developed management skills and a sense of fairness.
These people should never, ever, be allowed to buy submarines, fighter jets or aircraft carriers. All the generals, whether serving actively in the military or the government should focus on solving the war in southern Thailand.
Solving it means a combined effort at reconciliation based upon understanding the insurgents' needs and demands and rooting out by force, only when absolutely necessary, those who use extreme violence such as was demonstrated recently. But foremost among the prerequisites for solving the southern conflict is for the Thai military and government to relinquish their obvious desire to maintain this unnecessary strife on an ongoing low-level basis in order to justify repressive measures against Thai citizens, line their own pockets, and televise reasons for their very existence. Without the insurgency and an occasional theatrical border dispute, the military is just another corrupt country club that delights in beating up new recruits and forcing them into degrading servitude.
Michael Setter
Power politics
Re: "An invitation to war", (PostBag, Aug 15).
The writer ML Saksiri Kridakorn does have a point when he states: "One thing about great power politics is that the playbook is usually published way in advance of actual events."
Russia warned after the fall of communism that it would not accept the continual expansion of Nato to places near the Russian border such as Ukraine, and the Rand Corporation decided that a Sino-US war in the South China Sea would actually hurt China the most, long before the Taiwan problem cropped up, as ML Kridakorn makes clear.
But the writer errs when he states: "Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925. WWII started in 1941". Actually, WWII began in 1939, sir!
Paul
Dog days
Re: ''1m strays to be neutered in two years", (BP, Aug 17).
While I applaud efforts to get so many stray cats and dogs neutered, now would be a good time to urge the public to never buy a cat or dog from breeders or kennels. If you neutered a million animals but then breed a million you're right back to where you started! Breeders are the root cause of this problem. Neutering animals and getting your pets from the shelters or the streets is the only solution.
Eric Bahrt
