Published on February 01, 2006
Thaksin saved on taxes in Temasek deal but he may pay with his political career.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Shin Corp stock sale of B73.3 billion may have been done without him having to pay taxes to our national coffers but may also cost him his political future for the fishy and breezy way it was done. PM Thaksin, as we know, is suspected of bending the law and rules of the land in trying to sweeten the deal to entice Singapore’s Temasek Holdings to buy his family’s 49 per cent Shin holdings. The revision of the law on foreign ownership of shares, from 25 per cent to 49 per cent, just a few days prior to the sale and the 300 million Shin shares transaction from Ample Rich to two of his children for only Bt1 each are cases in point.
To make such a naive blunder at this juncture, when the political situation is volatile and his own popularity is waning, would mean a disaster for Thailand’s vainglorious prime minister. Thaksin’s Shin share deal may have rendered him and his immediate family huge, tax-free profits, but his “business in politics” may turn out to be costly and even perilous for his political survival. Hubris and indifference to law are to blame here. Chavalit Van Chiang Mai ------------------------------------------------------- SET president needs to brush up on insider trading rules Re: “AIS share sales raise new questions”, News, January 30. I am baffled by the comments to reporters by Kittiratt Na Ranong [Stock Exchange of Thailand president] about the personal sales of Advanced Info Service shares in December and January by the firm’s president, Yingluck Shinawatra, the CEO, Somprasong Bunyachai and the chief technical officer, Vikrom Sripatak. Kittiratt told reporters that they should look back at earlier periods and they would see that the three executives had been reporting sales of shares prior to December. As Kittiratt should be well aware, the question is whether the executives were in possession of material non-public information at the time, not whether they had established a prior trend of reporting sales of shares. The implication that insider trader is somehow legitimate, if the parties involved have previously established a history of trading in the same shares, is quite simply ludicrous. In the case of Yingluck it is particularly hard to believe that she was not aware of the sale of Shin Corp shares to Temasek in late December and early January, since she personally was one of the contracting parties. Furthermore the amount of the gains made or losses avoided through the insider trading are immaterial to the legal penalties, as Martha Stewart can testify. Advanced Info Shareholder Bangkok ------------------------------------------------------- Thailand’s food hygiene standards are far from ideal Re: “A major beef with Thai-US free-trade negotiations”, Letters, January 29. Well, Christy Sweet, if you “escaped” the US to avoid mad-cow disease – of which there has been a whopping two cows that have had it – you sure did your homework and came to the right place. In your zeal to distance yourself from this obviously widespread epidemic, you have sought haven in the land of ceaseless bird-flu outbreaks, prolific strains of E coli in the food supply, cooks who pick their noses and fail to wash their hands after bathroom breaks, water so putrid that you can only drink bottled water and a government that does nothing to clean the waterways or crack down on food vendors whose edibles are tainted with an extensive menu of nasty bacteria, chemicals and other nastiness. And those are just appetisers! Enjoy your Thai eats that are also laced with heaping ladles of monosodium glutamate (to harden your arteries and encourage cancerous growths), shovels of sugar (to push you into a diabetic stupor) and eggs and meats that are left unrefrigerated for hours, if not days, so you can tell your grandchildren about doing the salmonella tango in exotic Siam. Wait until your second or third bout of food poisoning and 15th round of severe diarrhoea and write a letter again, and we’ll see if your tune changes. Copper Johnny Bangkok ------------------------------------------------------- Capital punishment defies teachings of the Buddha Re: “‘Execution is not the answer’,” News, January 30. Kudos to Somsri Hananuntasuk for her compassion and moral courage in publicly opposing capital punishment. Such courage is rare in Thailand. The death penalty is an atavistic barbarity grounded in the vengeful law of lex talionis (an eye for an eye). It has no place in a civilised society and never in a nation based on Buddha’s principle of respect for all human life. Gautama Siddharta rejected it. So did Yeshua. The deterrent argument is an obnoxious rationalisation, since overwhelming research and statistics have revealed that capital punishment does not deter the deliberate killing of another person. Even if it did, it should be abolished as inhumane. For the state to kill its citizens for crimes like rape and drug trafficking is beyond the pale. What’s next? Economic crimes like graft and corruption? Thailand would have an execution a week. Even more astounding is that Buddhist monks support it, and those who do not are too craven to speak out against it. Shame! Why are they Buddhist monks? Somsri is more a true Buddhist than they will ever be. Bless her. She has my unreserved admiration. OG Pamp Prachuap Khiri Khan ------------------------------------------------------- Bangkok has a vibrant gay scene beyond Silom Road Re: “Utopian promise”, Trends, January 30. Kreangsak Suwanpantakul really needs to get out more if he thinks that Silom or Utopia-asia.com offer the only the gay community in Bangkok. Both exist to serve the small minority of Thai gay men who think that only a farang means lifelong happiness and older expatriates who can’t believe their luck that some young men still like them. The fact is that Silom and Utopia are irrelevant to most gay men in Bangkok. There’s a far larger community out there and Kreangsak seems totally unaware of it. The thousands of Thai men who meet their friends in the bars and restaurants of Ramkhamhaeng, Ratchadaphisek and elsewhere in Bangkok would be surprised to learn that they are not part of the gay community. And let’s not forget Saphan Kwai, the oldest gay neighbourhood in Bangkok and still popular with men from all over the city. As for the Internet, there are at least 20 Thai-language websites for gay men, offering everything from dating services to beauty products to news. Www.thailandout.com is an excellent portal. Utopia-asia.com is a minnow in that pool. And although Kreangsak denies their existence, there are currently three free gay magazines, two of which are marketed to the Thai-foreigner crowd. The third, Variety, carries monthly news on what’s going on in the rest of the city. Martin Foreman Bangkok ------------------------------------------------------- Sondhi’s planned march a valid democratic exercise Re: “Sondhi needs a reminder that nobody elected him”, Letters, January 23. Sick and Tired of Sondhi strongly denounces Sondhi for daring to draw a comparison between events now and the political situation in 1973. Actually, Sondhi was speaking rhetorically and perhaps he should not have made the comparison. But what he actually said was: “It will be my first and last action. I will give my life to the struggle. It will dwarf October 14, 1973.” This has been misconstrued by some to think that he is advocating violence on February 4 and that is definitely not so. What he really meant was that now he sees no difference between himself and his supporters and those brave demonstrators who demanded the end of General Thanom Kittikachorn’s military rule. Then it was government troops who responded with force, bullet spraying mostly unarmed students, and well over 70 protesters were killed in the streets. Thaksin has throttled the voice of freedom. It’s not just rhetoric when it comes to muzzling the independence of the media or even the public at large, and it’s resulted in people being jailed, civil proceedings and even murder! There is absolutely no question of Sondhi’s supporters perpetrating violence on February 4, or at any other time. The Sanam Luang reference was simply a bit of theatrical grand eloquence to finish off his show at Lumpini on January 20. And it was an old trick for Sick and Tired of Sondhi to falsely claim that someone with another point of view and agenda is planning something outrageous and then blame them for it. Sondhi is simply calling on the people to declare Thailand “free of Thaksin” by joining the demonstration. And even though Thaksin is a “democratically elected” leader, Sondhi, for all intents and purposes, sees little difference between Thanom’s authoritarian dictatorship in 1973 and circumstances now in 2006. Sondhi’s campaign may have started as a personal vendetta against Thaksin – “one dog fighting another dog” – but no one can dispute his commitment to the cause of removing Thaksin this last year and bringing to the public’s attention charges of corruption against the government. Lastly, Sick and Tired of Sondhi is obviously critical of any form of protest “ ... and if the public wants him out of power then all they have to do is tick an opposition’s box on the ballot”. If only it were that simple! All must agree that constitutionally guaranteed public protests and petitioning are democratic procedures. And the best way to show loyalty to this country is precisely by getting involved in it, and not running away. It will take a while to get a head of steam to bring about political change, and, at the moment, only Bangkok’s middle classes and some other aggrieved groups are spearheading this movement, but it will grow. Democracy goes on all the time – not just in the run-up to an election. Peter Marshall Bangkok Send us your views in an instant E-mail your opinion, with ‘Letters to the Editor’ in the subject box, to: letters@nationgroup.com
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