Published on November 06, 2005
Taiwan’s exclusion from WHO endangers the health of the world
Recently the outbreak of bird flu in Asian and European countries has taught us a lesson about the importance of working together to prevent and contain the spread of infectious diseases. The WHO is the most important international organisation in the field of public disease control.
Contagious diseases have no regard for geographic or political borders. Today, with 192 member states, the WHO has almost realised the principle of “universality”. Unfortunately, the only exception is Taiwan. Taiwan has been barred from participating in the WHO since 1972 for purely political reasons. This not only violates the health rights of the 23 million people of Taiwan, including 140,000 Thai workers and overseas residents living there, but also constitutes a big loophole in the global network of health and medical care. At last year’s WHO plenary session, in addition to supporting Taiwan’s WHO bid, many countries expressed their hope that the WHO would, at least, show flexibility in finding mechanisms to allow Taiwan’s medical and public health officials to participate in the technical activities of the WHO. I sincerely hope the international community will not only support Taiwan’s participation but also push the WHO to make every effort to find appropriate steps and mechanisms to allow Taiwan to be a member of the WHO. Frank JK Chen Director, Information Division Taipei Economic and Cultural Office bangkok ---------------------------------------- Shocked at lack of empathy for the bereaved at funeral I have to admit that I am not in a good mood right now. I have discovered a lack of empathy, a lack of humanity, which is for me simply outrageous! Let me ask this: if you where in charge of a funeral set to begin at 2pm and the widow wasn’t able to show up at that exact time because of a traffic jam, would you then say to the others gathered around you, who are mainly members of the widow’s family, “I don’t care. 2 o’clock is 2 o’clock. We start the ceremony now. Cremate the man!” No? Me neither. But that’s what happened last Wednesday. The daughter of my good friend from Ubon Ratchathani lost her husband after only two and a half weeks of marriage, due to an abrupt heart attack which took his life. He was only 44 years old. They had been together for about two years and were very happy. She is in her sixth month of pregnancy. They looked forward to establishing a family. The couple had planned for some time how he could move to Thailand and stay with his beloved wife. He was talking about becoming an English teacher, as he is – was, I mean to say – an Australian and therefore very fit to teach students in English. My wife, from the same village as the widow, and I arrived a bit too late, too. Due to a traffic jam, of course. We sat down with the widow, regretting that we didn’t make it. I was angry at myself for not having left our flat half an hour earlier. It was then that I learnt, from the gruesome crying of the widow, that a person from the Australian Embassy had, despite protests from the widow’s family and even from one of his own personnel, a Thai citizen, forced the personnel at the temple to perform the ceremony and start burning the body. All of the widow’s family, expect the widow herself, was present. So a Thai widow, who had just experienced a shock that others can’t imagine, isn’t entitled to have funeral rites for her husband postponed for half an hour? The lack of humanity, empathy and emotional intelligence was shocking, and still is. Who would start a ceremony before the most important participants have arrived, whether it is a funeral or a wedding? Eivind and Jannapha Trana Bangkok ---------------------------------------- Thaksin digging himself into an ever-deeper hole Re: “PM stands firm on funds for supporters”, News, November 4. According to the Prime Minister’s Office Minister Suranand Vejjajiva, Thaksin’s statement about how he will support the provinces that elected Thai Rak Thai MPs first was made as Thai Rak Thai leader. As Thai Rak Thai leader he cannot distribute funds from the Thai government. These multiple roles for Thaksin are confusing. When he sues newspapers, he is a private citizen, when he does not sue Luangta Maha Bua, he is a sympathiser of the monk. His statement about the preferential consideration for provinces that elected Thai Rak Thai MPs is stupid. The statement has generated a lot of criticism. The PM should backtrack and apologise, but instead he keeps digging the hole deeper. Vinai Bangkok ---------------------------------------- The choicest cuts are for my supporters Re: “PM stands firm on funds for supporters”, News, November 4. PM Thaksin never fails to amaze us with his impulsive sharp tongue. Is it lawfully correct to make a comment that constituencies supporting Thai Rak Thai will receive preferential budgetary allocations by the government of Thailand? Has our country turned into a large business empire? Thanks much to all of you who voted for him. Any Other Party Supporter Bangkok ---------------------------------------- Semantic subtleties make it hard to get a clear answer Re: “White House officials remain silent on secret CIA ‘prisons’,” News, November 4. Note that Thaksin did not deny that Thailand had such secret detention centres. He merely confirmed that Thailand has none currently. This comports with what The Washington Post reports. He then goes on to change the subject slightly and then uses an ad hominem attack on the Post. “It is a groundless report. We have no secret sites to detain and interrogate any terrorists. Speaking of Thailand, we have had only one [terrorist] arrest. That was Hambali, and we sent him to the US long ago,” he said. What are we supposed to believe? Jaime Bangkok ---------------------------------------- Attack on paper calls for thorough investigation Re: “‘Phujadkarn’ office bombed”, News, November 4. It seems that the political temperature is rising. The mysterious bombing of the Phujadkarn’s (Manager’s) headquarters cannot be taken too lightly. Everyone knows that this publishing house stands on the opposite side of the fence from the people who are in power. With lawsuits and counter-lawsuits presently under the review of the courts and the relentless criticism pouring out from the “Thailand Weekly” programme co-hosted by Manager’s founder, Sondhi Limthongkul, against the prime minister in particular and the government in general, there is a tendency for fingers to be pointed at the loyal Thaksinites as being the instigators if not the perpetrators of the incident. Not so fast, I would think. As Government Spokesman Surapong Suebwonglee said, and I tended to agree with him, the government had nothing to gain from such a hideous act. The spokesman raised the theory of a “third hand” whose involvement is definitely not beyond possibility. But then again the doubts will linger as he had said nothing about the government’s efforts to go to the bottom of the incident and find out who really did it. Any half-hearted efforts in this regard would compromise the government’s or the Thai Rak Thai’s image for being fair and just, especially since the damaged party is their most formidable opponent to date. There can be no dispute that “Thailand Weekly” is attracting more and more following and that its popularity has soared since its removal from Channel 9. Those who listen to the views expounded by Sondhi seem to be mesmerised by them. If Sondhi was on the government’s side, surely the prime minister’s ship would not being running into stormy seas. But since Parliament, both the upper and lower houses, seems to be largely incapacitated, the outlet for venting up the frustrations wrought on by the strings of high-placed and shameful corruption seems to lie with Sondhi, and he seems to be the man of the moment. Yes, most people would admit that Sondhi opens their ears and eyes for them, but I personally would rather like to hear Sondhi turn the attention of the listeners to other matters that would make their lives better, instead of hammering on the exposure of the wrongdoings that seems to have as its objective the silent coup against the government. A wise man such as Sondhi, blessed with vast knowledge in economic and business affairs, can help this government find the right way to address the ailments of our economy. It would be a pity if such wisdom were wasted in the wrong way, which is what appears what to be happening now. But if Sondhi speaks, the government should listen. For, to be sure, it seems to me that more and more people are believing in what Sondhi says than those who side with the prime minister. If Sondhi should have any political ambition, he can easily turn himself into an alternative, the likes of which the Democrat Party would have quite a challenge coping with. The point is that at the moment Thailand cannot afford another political disturbance in Bangkok. We have more than enough problems in the three southernmost provinces right now. A change of governments should be done by constitutional means only, regardless of how imperfect the Constitution is – and we are now aware that it is imperfect. Let us hope that this bombing incident will be fully investigated judiciously by the authorities. And let us hope that this incident will not become what the Thais say “a single drop of honey”, which means a minute incident suddenly becoming a major conflagration. Prachyadavi Tavedikul Bangkok
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