Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has a golden opportunity once again this week. Media firebrand Sondhi Limthongkul has challenged the prime minister to meet him for a live debate on television for the whole nation to watch. Thaksin’s refusal to accept will only add to some Thais’ suspicions and disrespect of their lofty national leader. For this is a chance for him to clarify, point by point, once and for all, any allegations and doubts concerning his honesty, integrity and sincerity as worthy of Thailand’s top office-holder. There are so many contentious questions for him to give answers to.

PM Thaksin must not forget that for the last five years he has made so many unnecessary enemies, through either his government’s controversial policies or his personal conduct. The Kingdom’s respected elders and academics have been insulted and humiliated by him. People in society are increasingly casting doubt on his ability to lead. Even leading personalities who once saw him as our country’s new hope, such as Luangta Maha Bua, Sanoh Thienthong and Sondhi, to name just a few, have turned against him. Worse, they are openly calling him a bogus leader.

Thaksin must realise now that his Saturday-morning talk shows are working only as a venue for him to explain his policies and report their progress, but to deliver a one-sided attack on his critics is simply unwelcome by any means. Only an open debate will do the trick. So, Prime Minister Thaksin, take up Sondhi’s challenge. For you can run, but you can’t hide.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

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Kingdom is going through a very unpredictable time

Thailand seems to be teetering on the brink of a dangerous political episode that will set the country back 50 years.

All are aware of Thaksin’s brittle and fragile ego, but they really seem to have touched his sensitive nerve centre with the shares issue and ensuing protests.

Not for the first time is he making threats that are out of place in a democratic society, but he seems also to be losing his patience and has declared the only boundary he has is His Majesty the King.

During his tenure, events seem to have formed a pattern: the deaths of 2,000 people in the drug war, the heavy-handed approach to the South, introduction of drinking curbs, abuse of the US, threats to the press etc. This is junta talk, but nothing would surprise me about this man. Even if he called the military out onto the streets, it would not be much of a surprise: see then where that leaves Thailand.

A Warner

Bangkok

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It’s certainly nothing new for citizens to fudge their taxes

One question I would like to ask in the Temasek-Shin fracas is how many of those lambasting the PM’s tax avoidance actually pay the correct amount of taxes themselves in Thailand.

One of the good things about this fracas is that Thailand suddenly finds itself with lots of friends, foreign friends to be precise, who question the PM’s integrity in avoiding taxes in transactions through the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Just how many of these so-called friends, some of whom spend a considerable amount of time in Thailand, actually declare the actual amount of tax in Thailand?

We are now in the personal-income-tax filing period, and it’s nice to see if these people actually practise what they preach. The recent fracas notwithstanding, most expatriates in Thailand tend to receive a huge portion of their salary/stock options/medical benefits etc from abroad, which they do not declare in their annual income-tax filing and only pay Thai taxes based on the minimal amount declared for work-permit purposes.

Furthermore, most companies (Thai and foreign) in Thailand tend to abuse their accounts by deducting expenses not incurred for the purpose and benefit of their business operation and thus in contravention of the Thai Revenue Code. To give an example, numerous businessmen deduct entertainment expenses (a huge amount incurred in the establishment of a certain prominent – some newspapers say maverick – politician) against their corporate income tax. Are these expenses incurred for the benefit of their business operations? Should the Revenue Department look into this area? Nope, since doing so would open a floodgate and leave a lot to be desired by the business community.

My mum always tells me that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Unless these people (both Thais and foreigners) clean up their own act, they themselves should not question the PM; otherwise, it’s a matter of the pot calling the kettle black. I am not a fan of Thaksin or any other politician but just want to give a neutral view on this issue without being blinded by the huge amount at stake.

Tripezy

Bangkok

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Police are powerless to put a cork in late-night revelry

I am sad to report the fact that despite the arrival of a new police chief, illegal nightspots are still allowed to operate after closing hours on Chaweng Beach on Koh Samui, keeping residents and tourists sleepless all night long.

After a while of being forced to follow the law, a certain nightspot in central Chaweng is now blaring out loud music again, some nights until 4am and some nights until sunrise. I know it is early days yet, and the new police chief has been in office only for a couple of weeks, but what is happening does not bode well for the future of Samui. I do not know whether the new police chief does not know what is going on or what, but it is very sad that influential people and not Thai laws are setting the standards. Several complaints have been made to the local police, and very little action has been taken by them so far.

If the authorities want to allow loud late-night nightspots, then those nightspots should be moved away from residential areas, and it should not be like today, where they are surrounded by hotels, guest-houses, apartments and rooms for rent. We want to able to sleep at night, and we want it now.

Samui Resident and UK Citizen

Surat Thani

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Malaysians need to look inward to explain HIV rate

Re: “Couples must take test for HIV before marrying in Malaysian state”, Smart Life, January 30.

Once again, Malaysia has shown its flair for discrimination and irresponsibility. Kelantan state chief Nik Aziz Nik Mat reportedly stated that “one reason for the spread [of HIV] was that local men travel outside the state to have sexual encounters and then return to their wives”. Somehow the problem is said to be that the country is located next to Thailand.

Right. So the exacerbating HIV situation in Malaysia has more to do with its silent neighbour to the north – whose HIV-infection rate, by the way, has been falling – than the lasciviousness of some of its own population? Couldn’t it be possible that something is wrong with Kelantan itself? Is the state’s law so overly restrictive or oppressive that Kelantanese feel the need to take comfort in Thailand?

Panuwatana Ittigusumaln

Bangkok

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Sheer opportunism detected in war protests

Re: “Are T-shirts the latest weapons of mass destruction?” Letters, February 6.

Cindy Sheehan lost her son. Her son was a volunteer and chose to be a soldier. I now see Sheehan trying to profit from her son’s demise (thinking about running for Congress). She went to the State of the Union address to cause trouble and was thrown out. The State of the Union address is not for mothers to protest and profit from their sons’ demise. If I were her deceased son, I would be turning over in my grave. There is a time and place for everything. Wrong time and wrong place!

Bill Cymbalsky

Bangkok

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Educating the public is key to preventing epidemics

My husband and I have been visiting Asia every year for more than a decade. We are alarmed to realise that in all those years, general hygiene practises have not improved. People still cough and sneeze without covering their mouths, frequently spit wherever they please and, my husband informs me, fail to wash their hands after using the toilet. The people we observe are well-to-do visitors from Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore as well as Thais, representative of the Asian middle class. If they were less fortunate people with limited education and perhaps limited access to water, one could understand this apparent ignorance of basic hygiene.

There must be far more and much better education on how germs, viruses and epidemics spread, for if the privileged few do not understand this, how can the multitudes?

1. Asia is where a bird-flu epidemic will begin.

2. Asian governments must fund programmes to educate their citizens about practising good hygiene to protect themselves and others.

3. Asian adults who must know better should stop spreading germs and viruses by unrestrained sneezing and coughing.

Hopefully, it is not too late.

MLS

British Columbia, Canada

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Whom to blame for Nepal’s deaths over the past year?

Re: “Nepal’s king has failed as a leader”, Editorial, February 5.

A very realistic assessment of present-day Nepal’s situation. Thanks for that. There arises a question though: who will take the responsibility of the loss of more than 2,000 lives during the royal rule that began on February 1, 2005? Maoists? The alliance of seven parties under the king himself?

Devendra Adhikari

Kathmandu