Thaksin Shinawatra has said he would come back "to work, otherwise the country will be in trouble". Was this conniving reasoning obtained from his PhD in criminology?

With only an ounce of conscience, he should instead realise he was the root cause of the damage to the country. First, during his five years in office, he as well as his cronies became considerably more wealthy, while the gap between rich and poor became wider. Second, the erstwhile UN Human Rights Commission recently ranked Thailand No 76, because of myriad human-rights violations, a long drop from its previous ranking. Third and most important, he has made vows twice and failed.

For the benefit of the country, he should disappear from the political scene forever rather than come back and cause more damage. And from my interpretation of the teaching of a highly respected monk, Thaksin seems to be "spiritually dead".

Vej T

Bangkok

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Singapore backed Surakiart for top UN post in 2004

 Re: "Seeking a safe haven at the UN?" Business, May 3.

The article said Singapore formally announced its support for Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai's candidature for the post of United Nations secretary-general after Temasek Holdings bought Shin Corp in January.

This is incorrect. The Singaporean government had formally expressed our support in writing for Surakiart's candidature in August 2004. In September 2004, Singapore also joined other Asean countries in endorsing Surakiart's candidature at the informal Asean ministerial meeting in New York.

Ja On Tan, Second Secretary

Embassy of the Republic of Singapore

Bangkok

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Discrimination in healthcare is wrong anywhere

 Re: "Promoting healthcare for foreigners takes sorely needed doctors from locals", Letters, May 22.

Dr Gerry makes an interesting point about patients visiting developing countries for affordable medical care. In the case of Thailand, it appears to be non-Thais seeking the services of "foreigner-priced" operations that seem to be unavailable to the indigenous population. I am not sure if these operations would be available to users of the Bt30 health scheme, or even if the same care would apply, but I would certainly hope Thais got priority over these "customers" (probably a naive expectation).

In the UK, there is a National Health Service that is stupidly described as "free at the point of service". It is not free; it is funded 100 per cent by UK taxpayers. Sadly, it is not policed effectively in any way, and foreigners from all over the world stream there for "free" operations, causing huge waiting lists where the British taxpayers have absolutely no priority at all. There is also a private system available for those wealthy enough to pay for expensive operations. If you are a UK taxpayer, you are then effectively paying twice for the same service, but without having to wait in line with all the "economic medical migrants" eager to take advantage of a system out of control.

Foreigners visiting Thailand will already be aware of the dual-pricing policy so prevalent round the country, which has already been exposed as outright racism. So there is already a clear demonstration of "wealth precedence", although in this case the foreigner being subjected to the higher entrance fee does not get any better service, or priority, than does the local.

Discrimination based on wealth or race is always an ugly business, not worthy of Thailand or any other developing nation. The lessons are clear.

William Becket

Bangkok

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Deal between Thai Mobile, AIS should be scrapped

 It has been reported that AIS will have a head start in third-generation (3G) mobile services over other telecom operators, thanks to a secret agreement with state-owned Thai Mobile, currently the sole owner of bandwidth rights for these services. AIS will apparently get first rights to negotiate for Thai Mobile's 3G services, giving it a lead of many months or even years.

Thai Mobile made an honest mistake - like those made famous by PM Thaksin - when it signed the agreement with AIS, for, being state-owned, its duty is to protect the country's interests, not those of any private party. Instead of holding negotiations in a closet, it should have called for open bidding.

As the damaged parties, other telecom operators should take Thai Mobile and/or AIS to court to invalidate the secret agreement on grounds that proper procedures were not followed, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage to AIS. For its part, the telecom regulators should revoke the agreement to level the playing field and protect the national interest.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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Thai entertainment industry must respect Lao feelings

 Re: "Laos on the receiving end", News, May 19. This is a very good article; I find your newspaper fair and balanced.

I am half Thai and half Lao - my grandmother is of Chinese descent born in Ratchaburi; my mother was born in Prachuap Khiri Khan and my father is from Laos. My grandfather in Thailand was a police officer, and my uncle served in the Thai Army. We now live in the US, because the communists tried to kill my father, because he was Western-educated. I love Thailand and enjoy visiting my family there every year.

The Thai entertainment industry needs to stop poking fun at the Lao and understand that many Lao exiled abroad buy Thai products, such as Thai movie VCDs, Thai music CDs and cooking and bathing products, thereby contributing to the Thai economy.

To understand how the Lao feel, a good example would be the film "Anna and the King". To Thais, it is a very offensive film, so consider this when making a film about another country.

Respect will bring respect in turn, and won't create hostility.

Leon Tasraku

USA

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To avoid 'foreigner' prices, just learn to speak Thai

 Regarding recent letters about special rates for foreigners, I would like to point out that different nationalities are never treated the same. At least the Thai government lets most people visit Thailand without any hassles; people from more 30 countries can enter without a visa, and the less fortunate ones can usually get a visa on their arrival. But most Western countries are less generous to Thais. My Thai friend, a medical doctor, was refused a tourist visa to the US for no apparent reason.

Of course, international politics is never easy to figure out, and I'm definitely not trying to justify the dual-pricing system for foreigners. I remember a barbershop near the Bangkok Palace Hotel that shamelessly put two different prices in its windows, which I have heard is illegal for a private business.

During my year's stay in Thailand, I was only charged the Thai rates. I just told them that I can speak Thai and it is unfair to be charged more than Thais. I told the same thing to the curator at Hariphunchai Museum in Lamphun last week, she didn't object my reasoning and asked me to pay Bt10.

I have yet to meet any Thai who supports the dual-pricing system, so I'm left wondering why nobody in the government moves to abolish it.

Kong

Hong Kong

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High time the world stopped burning things for energy

 Burning coal, burning gas, burning petrol, oil and all their substitutes - burning anything to provide us with energy must stop! It's not just about dependence on oil and all that that entails economically and politically; it's about the gradual poisoning and death of our beautiful planet, home to all of us.

How do we do it? At the risk of sounding like a phonograph record, we must accelerate development of clean sources of energy around the world, such as solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy. Where feasible, this energy should be used directly, like solar water heaters on rooftops across the country, as they do now in Iceland. In other cases, this clean energy could be converted into electricity for transmission elsewhere. We also need efficient batteries to run electric cars.

All this can be done by private companies, but it's difficult without government support. The US government especially needs to provide incentives and the huge amount of capital needed (what we spend on the Iraqi War would be more than enough).

I doubt if I will see it in my lifetime, but it would be nice to see a beginning being made and a universal awareness of the need for an urgent action plan.

Murray Brill

Athens

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Seems as though Third World doesn't really get democracy

 We recently saw presidential elections in Egypt supervised by strongman Hosni Mubarak who was himself a candidate for the post. The only surprise was that the opposition Muslim Brotherhood won as many minority seats as they did.

International observers agreed that the election was rigged, but when the leader of the opposition and members of the Egyptian judiciary hinted as much they were thrown in jail. This is the kind of scenario that passes for democracy in the Third World.

I feel that democracy is really a Western tradition. We just go through the motions; we don't really get it.

Cha-am Jamal

Prachuap Khiri Khan