I agree with Dan Swift that more critical, campaigning regional journalism is essential in Thailand to address regional issues and local corruption. But a robust local press is not always the panacea it seems.

In Pattaya, where I live, there are three regular English-language newspapers. None of them seriously take on local government and the chronic official corruption and incompetence in the city. The papers are more like vanity publications, more intent on promoting the owners and their friends' images, supporting their business interests and showing off the rather-too-cosy relationship the owners have with local officials. And this is the root of the problem.

By currying local power and influence, these newspapers compromise themselves too much to be of any use in highlighting and fighting local corruption.

For instance, no newspaper has yet commented on the disturbing sight of a well-connected mayoral candidate grinning smugly down from massive billboards across the city, welcoming people to Pattaya. At the taxpayers' expense, of course; and he is yet to be elected. What's happened to our mayor? Who authorised this abuse of taxpayer's money?

I don't expect to see the answers to these questions in the local press anytime soon, as the owners are too busy buttering up their contacts in city hall and the local police station to give a damn.

TC

Chon Buri

-------------------------------------

What schoolchildren really need is real-life interaction

 Re: "More kids? Just give them bigger classes", News, April 21.

The European tradition of an examination-based system of school education can be found in Canada, the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia and the sub-continent. It's obviously still in use in Thailand.

One of the non-educational "values" of the system is to allow education authorities an escape route each year when there are no places available for thousands of Mathayom 1 students; it's simple to bump up the already bulging classrooms from 45 students to 50 or even 55 students.

Although adding five or 10 more students per classroom is a stretch, an exam-oriented system is open to this sort of adjustment because in this system "learning" means preparing for examinations; hence, the classroom is not a learning environment but a place where information is received. The teacher has a dual role as both the purveyor of information and the manager of an overcrowded room. Unfortunately, it seems that parents will accept the system as long as their children get enrolled.

Obviously, students in a classroom double the size of what a class should be have little opportunity for any real learning, and unless they have an extremely creative teacher, they are thrown into a passive, sponge-like mode of acquiring knowledge of which the most likely result is boredom and indifference.

Many students figure out that they can simply read the textbooks themselves and do enough to slide through the exam. They also know that their parents will be enrolling them in tutoring classes. These factors liberate the students, especially those in Mathayon 1-3, to do what they need to do and do best - socialise!

I believe that school is primarily a social institution. I found that my students never wanted to miss school because there was always too much going on socially with their friends and with the student-centred special programmes the teachers involved them in - be it art, music, games or even scouts. For students aged 12-16, socialisation is their work - how they learn about the meaningful things in their life in the present moment.

Doing well in exams and receiving good grades is important to parents, and while they urge their offspring on in these endeavours, I urge them also to respect equally their children's need for engagement and success on the social level. What knowledge we acquire is readily forgotten; life experiences tend to be absorbed effortlessly.

Mr Bill

Bangkok

-----------------------------------------------

One national religion goes against Thai secular nature

 What are the motives of those Buddhists who are demonstrating for their religion to be written into Thailand's Constitution as the "national religion"? Do they feel it would unify the country, or is it that they will be able to claim additional funds for their expenses?

If it's about bringing the people back to Buddhism, then they have much work to do just restoring credibility in their behaviour. If they think the government will provide them with a velvet lining, then those writing the new constitution will be fearful of the divisiveness of such a provision.

They also need to remember, if they have not in all their glory forgotten, that His Majesty is officially known as the patron of all religions in Thailand, emphasising the secular nature and tolerance of Thai society. Do the Buddhist hierarchy simply want to sweep this aside?

David Harrison

Bangkok

-------------------------------------

Thaksin's lawyer defended land deal, not Pridiyathorn

 Re: "Pridiyathorn wrong to say land deal was acceptable", Letters, April 22.

I wholeheartedly agree with the writer's conclusion. It can never be acceptable for a wife of a prime minister to buy any assets that belong to the authorities while he is in office.

However, the culprit for having stated the correctness of the land deal after MR Pridiyathorn Devakula's testimony to the Assets Examination Committee was not Pridiyathorn but Thaksin's lawyer, Pichit Chuenban.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

-----------------------------------

Thailand gained from China's fear of foreign investment

 Re: "Thailand best served by Japanese approach to West", Letters, April 18.

John Arnone goes back to the 1950s and '60s and talks about how Japanese businessmen visited Los Angeles to see how America operated, but never gave American business free access to invest in their country. The Japanese have for years had a one-sided economic standard, though they have now opened their country up a bit.

Remember, it was US buying power that built Japan, Europe and is now building China. Had America not opened its doors to the world, we would have had a different world today.

Thailand has to think what is best from a long-term viewpoint, not an emotional one. Do not try and model Thailand on Japan or China, this is much too difficult for anyone. Thailand has to come to grips with change.

I recall when many years ago the Thai parliament would tell the US Congress how America needed to embrace the Chinese. One congressman stated, "When we finally do, you will be sorry that we did." He meant that the jobs would be sucked from Southeast Asia into the country with cheapest labour, China. The economic miracle of China was built on the strength of its leaders, good or bad, to embrace change. Today China has shown what it is capable of. What would Thailand have been today had China embraced reforms earlier?

Give the Thais a little more credit. They are very capable folk.

Plato from Sacramento

Bangkok

-----------------------------------------

Concerns over fate of 30 Mon detained in Malaysia

 Kaowao Research and Development Centre has been informed by the Mon Refugee Organisation (MRO) based in Kuala Lumpur and the Kaowao Newsgroup (www.kaowao.org) that 44 Mon refugees and asylum seekers were arrested in Malaysia for illegal entry or lack of proper documentation during raids by local authorities and RELA (Peoples' Volunteer Corps) in February and March.

They were detained in different camps, namely Kelakadah, Sedang, Patumouth, Puchong and Kotaraya. Of the detainees, 12 have been released, two were taken to the Thai-Malaysia border, but the other 30 people are still being kept in the detention camps at the time of writing.

We are gravely concerned that these Mon people may be ill-treated and deported to Burma under Malaysia's immigration law. Among the detainees, nine individuals and MRO (Penang Branch) leader Nai Mon Nyang (UNHCR No 35406-C00999) bear accreditation from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Malaysia. Our MRO source has informed us that the UNHCR office there has not yet visited the detainees or may not have been allowed to visit them.

If these Mon people are deported to Burma, as we fear, they could face arrest and grave risk to their personal security. Civilians, especially in southern Mon State where Nai Mon Nyan fled from, continue to suffer various forms of oppression by the Burmese Army, which accuses them of supporting a Mon armed group that is active there. Human rights abuses by the Burmese Army have intensified, with many villagers abandoning the area to find refuge elsewhere.

Concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of the detainees, we call on the Malaysian government and the UNHCR to guarantee their well being and to ensure that they are not subjected to whipping and deported to Burma.

Arkar Ong, Coordinator,

Kaowao Research and Development Centre

Calgary, Canada

---------------------------------------

Seize assets of those who run overseas-job scams

 While the authorities are seizing assets, they should also seize those of people who peddle fellow Thais for overseas jobs and leave them penniless or even homeless. Families have pawned their houses to send abroad members who were then left stranded. A recent case is of Thai workers who were taken to North Carolina to work on farms.

Michael

USA