OPINION

No shortcuts in war

Re: "Russia's inglorious war in Ukraine, 12 months on", (Opinion, Feb 16).

Thierry Mathou and Georg Schmidt are jumping to conclusions since it takes decades for a warring nation to admit defeat in its inglorious war: the US was humiliated in Vietnam after 20 years in 1975, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan after 10 in 1989, and the Western military coalition in Afghanistan also after 20 in 2021.

As my country's troops entered Ukraine just 12 months ago, anyone now vainly expecting a denouement sounds like someone asking why nine women in their first month of pregnancy can't produce what one in her ninth can.

Besides, Putin didn't need to mobilise the masses even during the Chechen war within Russia, not to mention during his successful military campaigns abroad in Georgia and Syria. Unlike him, Stalin did need to do so in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded Soviet Russia and the frontline was thousands of miles long. So anyone expecting Putin to mobilise the masses now is like someone demanding to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I understand your editorial policy since an old Latin maxim states: facile credimus quod volumes (we readily believe what we want to believe). But don't forget that four centuries ago, the Inquisition, which wanted to believe in Aristotle's geocentric model of the universe, issued Giordano Bruno, who wanted to believe in a different (and correct) heliocentric model, a sentence of death.

Parlour tricks

Re: "Prawit vows to lift millions from poverty", (BP, Feb 11) & "Grand plans mean little to the poor", (Opinion, Nov 21, 2017).

Atiya Achakulwisut commented in her column in 2017 on then-deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak's declaration that there would be no more poor people in Thailand in 2018. As many as 14 million people, or 20% of the total population of 71 million, registered in 2017 as being poor to qualify for state aid, according to the columnist.

Last week, Palang Pracharath Party leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon pledged to raise 20 million out of poverty as he announced his party's policy.

Let's assume that politicians' goals have been achieved and poverty was eradicated in 2018. So within five years, 20 million people, or 28% of a population of 71.6 million, became mired and trapped in poverty (again). It's mind-boggling, to say the least.

Expats welcome?

Re: "Retirees wanted as volunteers", (BP, Feb 15).

Over the years, PostBag has published numerous letters from retired expatriates who say they would like to give something back to Thailand by volunteering as English teachers, but are excluded from doing so by Thailand's restrictive immigration and work regulations. As someone who spent several years teaching English at Thai universities and at an institute of technology, I am one of those who have written before on this subject. But all our entreaties were ignored.

Now the Ministry of Education (MOE) aims to recruit 30,000-plus retirees to volunteer in a programme designed to assist with educational programmes, particularly for the elderly.

I would like the MOE to clarify the qualification requirements for admission to the program; namely, are expatriates -- and in particular, retired expatriate teachers -- eligible?

North still fired up

Re: "Air quality remains low across North", (BP, Feb 13).

If my understanding is correct, from today setting fires is banned. If so, I don't think this message has reached the authorities of Doi Saket in Chiang Mai province. As I sit looking out at the hills surrounding our village, near the Mae Kueang dam, huge fires are "licking" their way up the hills. Every morning the air stinks and breathing is difficult. Masks out -- yet again.

Year in and year out, nothing changes. More empty words and no action. When are the authorities going to "wake up" to the health hazard, environmental damage and global warming? Or maybe the government of Thailand just doesn't care.

Shining a light

Re: "Lactasoy allots B600m to expand", (Business, Feb 6).

The Bangkok Post article about Lactasoy lifting its performance failed to mention that Lactasoy has increased the price of its milk by 25%. Clearly, your scribe didn't print this important fact or perhaps saw little conflict between advertising, objectivity and disclosure.

But thankfully, the market is the true arbiter of such matters, and a nimble new competitor has now entered the market to offer milk at a price which is not only lower than milk from Lactasoy but even lower than the price of its product before its increase.

So, in a way, the market has shone a light on what the Bangkok Post chose, or failed to do.

Twisted morality

Re: "Activists decry Malaysian ban on LGBT books", (BP, Feb 16).

When Malaysia's Home Ministry bans books that treat same-sex love and gender uncertainty in positive ways, on the grounds that "its objective was to 'prevent the spread of elements that are harmful to morality in the community'," it is important to identify exactly what morality was being protected by such a bad law. It is the morality of traditional violence against LGBTQ people. It is the morality of hate and intolerance. It is the morality that condemns 5% of the Malaysian people to fearful hiding of their true selves. It is the morality that pushes parents to reject their LGBTQ children. It is, in short, a morality that rejects love, liberty, respect and decency in favour of hate, oppression, fear and injustice.

Pandemonium

Re: "Cracks in the wall", (PostBag, Feb 4).

Thanks to Micheal Setter for pointing out the excellent article by Kevin Bass in Newsweek.

If he had taken the time to actually read the article, he would have found it quite informative.

In this thoughtful and well-written article, Mr Bass pointed out that the scientific and health community failed to show effective leadership from the very beginning of the pandemic. Their style of communication alienated a large section of the (already divided) community. This failure led to many people refusing the vaccine and other safety measures. Many avoidable deaths resulted.

To quote Kevin Bass:

"We crafted policy for the people without consulting them. If our public health officials had led with less hubris, the course of the pandemic in the United States might have had a very different outcome, with far fewer lost lives.

Instead, we have witnessed a massive and ongoing loss of life in America due to distrust of vaccines and the healthcare system..."

It is not enough to have effective vaccines and treatments, people need to be willing to use them.

Filling the coffers

Re: "Calls for scrutiny of tourism fund" & "Entry fees to include insurance", (BP, Feb 17).

Calls for transparency over the recently approved tourism fee are well-founded. Collecting 300 baht per international visitor will generate 4 billion baht per year initially, rising to more than 12 billion baht per year if international tourist numbers return to pre-Covid levels.

One of the main justifications provided for collecting this fee is that international visitors ran up unpaid hospital bills of some 400 million baht between 2017 and 2019. If this is a core reason for the new tourism fee, why collect more than 10 times the amount needed to cover unpaid medical bills? Where is all the rest of the money headed?

Proponents of the fee tout the claim that international visitors will supposedly be "given" medical and life insurance to cover the time they are in Thailand. But, clearly, if past unpaid bills have run to only 400 million baht, there is little or no need to provide such insurance to most visitors. Is this anything more than a thinly-veiled massive giveaway to the insurance industry?

If the 300-baht fee is collected, there will be a huge fund created. To date, no clear proposals have been outlined for the precise use of most of the money. The tourism industry and international tourists forking over the money are correct in demanding to know how these funds will be used.

Marching forward

Re: "Parties urged to shun populism", (Opinion, Feb 8) & "Graft is still pervasive" (Opinion, Feb 6).

The Thai police are certainly making a name for themselves, aren't they!

So, with Burin Kantabutra's oft-repeated wisdom regarding ex-graft buster Vicha Mahakun's excellent report to reform the RTP, why has the military government ignored it for two years?

Since Thai citizens' taxes already paid for the report, while the numerous political parties are jockeying for position in the (for now) May election, why are so many of them stuck on populism?

Doesn't it look like following through with Vicha Mahakun's report is a perfect campaign platform to include in a serious, more democracy-oriented party, perhaps the Move Forward Party?