Published on December 02, 2005
30 years after its revolution, Laos is mired in poverty, corruption and tyranny ...
The ruling communist Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) in Laos disregards international contracts and agreements concerning democracy and real independence for the country – accords agreed to in Geneva in 1955 and 1962, Paris in 1973 and Vientiane in 1975. Since the LPRP takeover on December 2, 1975, more than 500,000 people have left the country. Since 1975, people who have opposed the government have been jailed, put into detention camps and murdered.
There is no democracy, no independence, no human rights, no development in this land. But there is poverty, inflation, suppression, dictatorship, a one-party system and corruption. Laos is a police state that is overly dependent on Vietnam. The traditions and cultural identity of the Lao have been taken away. The unemployment rate among young people has lead to drug dependence and prostitution. Girls are often made to work in brothels to provide for their families. The education system is not very developed. The literacy rate in Laos is 60 per cent. Good schools are only for the children of LPRP officials. The healthcare system has been damaged by 30 years of communist government. Only officials of the LPRP can receive the full service of the system. Children often die. The Lao government hunts down and murders those who support democracy, an activity that has extended into an area of Thailand near the Lao border. We look at this development with great apprehension. 1. We implore the EU and the US to pressure the Lao government into supporting human rights. Political prisoners should be freed at once, without conditions. 2. We implore the EU and the US to encourage the Lao government to enter round-table negotiations with opposition groups inside and outside of Laos, for the purpose of making a constitution, enacting reforms and creating conditions that will lead to holding free elections in Laos. 3. We want the EU and the US to pay attention to what is happening to human rights near the Lao border in Thailand. The Lao government has hounded Lao democracy supporters in that area. We demand that the communist Lao government and the LPRP: 1. Change the constitution to allow a multiparty system with free elections monitored by international observers and develop democracy in Laos. Acknowledge opposition groups inside and outside of Laos. 2. Respect human rights, free political prisoners and allow a free press and the right of assembly. 3. Put an end to extreme corruption among high officials! Accept international assistance to help develop the education and healthcare systems. Bounthone Chanthalavong-Wiese Vice president and executive director Lao National Council for Democracy Hagen, Germany ----------------------------- ... while Burma also suffers, but we can remain hopeful Re: “Suu Kyi’s safety under threat”, Editorial, November 29. I could not agree more with your editorial. The extension of house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is the result of the impotent policy of Asean nations towards the iron-fisted authoritarian regime in Burma. If Asean could pressure Burma to give up its chairmanship of the summit meeting now set to convene in Kuala Lumpur, why can’t it pressure the junta into releasing Suu Kyi forthwith? Thailand is appeasing Burma’s junta, and other countries in the region do the same. Your editorial should be an eye-opener to the media in Asean countries. Regretfully, the media of the great countries of China and India have no space for the cause your editorial espouses. Your editorial is great not only for democratic activists of Burma, but also for civil society in Thailand. Further, if your editorial becomes the basis of an initiative to lobby the media in China, the goal you set will be realisable soon. In the future, when you write about the hated junta’s rule, please write not only about Thailand’s role, but also include the respective roles of the two great neighbours of Burma, namely China and India. I have no doubt it will serve as a catalyst for the escalation of the movement. BK Sen Bangkok ----------------------------- Ah, so that’s what this spat is really all about Re: “The good old days”, News, November 30. As I see it, the article presents the real reason why Sondhi Limthongkul is complaining about Thaksin Shinawatra – Sondhi wants to be successful in his business. Sondhi is misleading Thai citizens. He tries to use the good faith of the Thai citizens to make himself rich. Thais should not listen to Sondhi. Let him show off, but there’s no need to pay attention to him. Tansuwanrat Theeradaje Bangkok ----------------------------- My mind’s made up on what motivates the PM’s top critic Re: “The good old days”, News, November 30. Thank you for your report on the true story. Many people can now understand why Sondhi Limthongkul (the bad guy) has to do something to the PM. Methinee Bangkok ----------------------------- Analysis provides meaningful details on Sondhi vs Thaksin Re: “The good old days”, News, November 30. The article was well written, and the research is to be applauded as well. I specifically appreciate the links drawn between Somkid Jatusripitak (who is overrated), Pansak Vinyaratn, Chai-anant Samudvanija (who is not as transparent as some believe) and Viroj Nualkhair (a bad apple from the beginning) to none other than the Manager newspaper founder himself. This is something that is not explored enough in the mainstream Thai press. Only once the relationship between Sondhi Limthongkul and Nibhat Bhukkanasut (a former adviser to the PM) is explored can the pieces of the puzzle be put in place. One may come away thinking that it is the PM who actually decided to cut off what he viewed as a malignant faction within his advisory team – a morally right decision, but one that is haunting him now. Concerned Reader Bangkok ----------------------------- Capital punishment doesn’t fit the crime No prose can possibly express the depth of feeling surrounding the case of Australian Nguyen Tuong Van. Short of an 11th-hour change of heart on the part of the Singaporean government, the mandatory death sentence by hanging will have taken place this morning. If the Singaporean government thinks Van’s case is going unnoticed by Australians, even Australians living abroad, they are wrong. I have written the following poem to express how many Australians are feeling at the moment. If Singapore is not merciful, its good image in Australia will change to something like that expressed in the following poem: ‘Ghosts of Hangings Past’ Superficial is this beauty/ It cannot last Now the world knows this cruelty/ Gone is the mask. Affluent materially/ Poor at heart, so Out come the ghosts of hangings past/ Rope seeking to haunt Every mandatory-death-sentence supporter’s cold stone heart! Martin Murray Bangkok ----------------------------- Look at the evidence when making environmental law It is curious that the Kyoto-Protocol people chose Montreal as the venue for their meeting this year, for it was in this city that the flawed Montreal Protocol was promulgated in 1987. The Montreal Protocol instigated a worldwide ban on CFC refrigerants, based on the mistaken belief they were causing ozone depletion and an ozone hole over Antarctica. We don’t hear much from the ozone-hole people these days, but about a decade ago, they were as agitated as the Kyoto Protocol people are today, and they carried a similar message that the sky was falling and human activity was to blame. Scientists told us that CFC refrigerants were finding their way into the stratosphere where they were reacting with the protective layer of ozone that shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This process was said to be causing ozone depletion worldwide but particularly over the South Pole, where an entire area was found to be so ozone-deficient that it offered no barrier to dangerous UV radiation from the sun. We were told that ozone depletion and the ozone hole were caused by human activity. We were fed horror stories of what would happen if the Earth were unshielded from UV radiation. In fact, some of the horror was already being found in nature. The Montreal meeting was convened, and the Montreal Protocol was issued. All of this was based on measurements that had been taken for less than a decade. The measurements did show that atmospheric ozone over the temperate latitudes was decreasing and that the ozone hole over Antarctica was growing. These changes were assumed to be a trend and the trend was assumed to be man-made. Both of these assumptions have turned out to be wrong. The changes are cyclical and not a trend; they are caused by changing solar activity and shifting stratospheric wind patterns, not by man. So the scientists are now worried about global warming instead of ozone. Global temperatures have been rising since 1979; there is a coincident rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). They are sure that these changes are man-made. They say that these changes are caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Accordingly, the Kyoto Protocol calls on participating nations to reduce their production of carbon dioxide by lowering fossil-fuel consumption. It is based on the idea that human activity is pumping too much CO2 into the atmosphere and the fantasy that global warming is made by man and can therefore be controlled by man. Both of these protocols are built on wild extrapolations of limited data and non-credible associations between human activity and planetary phenomena. Cha-am Jamal Phetchaburi
Post your comment to this story here