• 
• 

Published on August 19, 2007

Despite Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's reiteration to hold a general election this year, I would guess that the people voting either for or against the new constitution have such scant knowledge of its content that they will probably vote "yes" by default. So say opinion polls. Let's hope this "reluctant" yes vote by a strikingly ill-informed populace will pave the way for a return to civilian government later this year.

As always, the only possible stumbling block would be how widely the anti-referendum campaign can dispatch its baht rather than political and social leanings or "conscience" in determining its eventual outcome. Most people simply haven't had the time or interest to digest the reasons behind the changes.

But at the very last hurdle, the junta has seen itself fit to propose bills to stifle freedom of expression "with its restrictive and potentially punitive measures for governing the Internet", as stated in yesterday's opinion article "Junta's bills stifle free expression in run-up to vote". This is one step forward and two steps backward.

It seems likely that today will see the country move towards its democratic finale but at what cost to freedom of expression? With these men at the helm, the prospect of Thailand's enlightened and progressive involvement in the world will have been scuppered by the same shaky foundations of "reason" as the people voting on the new charter.

James Groveway

Bangkok

A jailed Thaksin would end up a political hero

There has recently been some discussion and news reports about the possibility of extraditing Thaksin from the UK back to Thailand. There has been an emphasis on the legalities of such an extradition along with some comment about Thaksin seeking refugee status.

One of the prominent characteristics of top politicians and senior civil servants is an inability to anticipate unexpected consequences. Many government policies have to be reversed or abandoned because of the unwanted reactions the policies engender. Regulations concerning foreign exchange and foreign investment and businesses are just recent examples.

A future and much more interesting example of unintended consequences would arise if Thaksin finds himself in handcuffs and leg irons being led into the remand prison. Later on, he might appear in court to be sentenced to, say, 10 years.

But what happens then? Thaksin is already a thorn in the flesh of the coup leaders and the government. In prison, he will become a conspicuous focus of dissent; the queue of Isaan folk waiting to visit him to buy him fruit and cookies would stretch way out of the door. Abroad, his well-funded political machine will constantly stir up the international media to cause embarrassment to the next prime minister. After all, reading the international press, it is obvious that Thailand is not flavour-of-the-month in many of the world's capital cities.

 So might it not be better long-term to allow the UK to accommodate Thaksin and ensure that extradition proceedings are just window-dressing? Even better, if he were to be granted political refugee status, he might even be obliged to forswear all political activity.

John Benson

Bangkok

Credit an invaluable tool for those who use it wisely

Re: "US a case study in dangers of rampant consumerism", Letters, August 16.

In John Arnone's letter, a connection is implied between the number of credit cards, lawsuits and psychiatrists with unhappiness, which is nonsense. Nowadays we live in societies where, thanks to increasing wealth, mental illnesses can be cured which could not be treated 50 years ago due to a lack of money and scientific knowledge.

Excesses like the sub-prime housing market fiasco now happen periodically and two weeks from now the stock markets will rise again. To talk about economic disaster is exaggerated; the US will not go broke and its economic fundamentals are still sound.

It's amusing that Arnone remarked that the Thai economy is 40 years behind that of the US. Creative financing was invented in Thailand where Thais charge Thais 20 per cent interest a month! Even in America they are not that inventive.

Let's not forget that for the majority of people credit is a magnificent tool allowing them to own houses and expensive products which otherwise would be out of their reach. The "tool" credit cannot be blamed only the people who use it in the wrong way. Credit is as water: we cannot live without it but sometimes there is flooding because of tree cutting. The water should not be blamed but the people. Modern society cannot live without "credit" as activities like starting a company or international trade etc would stop. Abject poverty and death for many would be our fate.

Egon

Bangkok

Bush's reign will leave an irreversible scar on US

Re: "The 'American empire' now in its end stages", Letters, August 15.

Although the US has been heading on a downward slope for decades, it has accelerated into a steep nosedive since the current administration took up the reins of office. The disturbing thing is - America hasn't realised it yet. There still remains almost 18 months of damage to be done by what commentators have rightly described as a medieval right-wing religious fundamentalist political group. America will indeed pay a heavy price for the Bush

presidency.

A Warner

Bangkok

Well-off unlikely to save us from global warming

I've just returned home to Chiang Mai after a two-month walk-about in the West - though, of course, I flew, not walked, and looked down, not sideways at Al Gore's factories or up at his hole in the sky. The last, 36-hour leg of my trek saw me flying home to Asia from Europe, which meant looking down on Paris, New York, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Bangkok and the nightmare I saw below me was not poverty but too many warm lights in too many respectable houses, too many boulevards connecting too many desirable destinations and, most strikingly of all, too many swimming pools in too many backyards that have never known the meaning of water shortage!

On the final leg to Chiang Mai I read Ken Albertson's letter to The Nation, "Prepare now for the inevitable environmental effects on the future," (August 14) in which he argues that a gradually warming planet will not be "all bad for all people", as if human suffering were somehow less in countries with "smart planning and investment". Less suffering in today's Norway, you mean, Ken Albertson? Less suffering in the new Moscow, or a jewel like Vancouver?

Without detracting from the good work of Al Gore and the countless other dedicated environmentalists the world over, it's important to remember that the dilemma we face is much more complicated than just what we make, what we eat and what we give off. Indeed, the quality of life from America to Zimbabwe is determined far less by our infrastructures than it is by our inner structures, the ones that give us all, rich and poor alike, our sense of meaning. Smart planning and new products get things done, but how much gets left out when that's all we've got going?

I see ads in Bangkok for the sparkling new condominiums and American style "homes" being bought precisely by the Thais Ken Albertson expects to save this country. But how many of these individuals see the value of smaller cars, for example, stricter regulations, higher taxes or fairer admissions to the schools they favour for their children? Indeed, how many of our potential saviours would have refused the Bt30-million bribe allegedly offered to swing that Supreme Court verdict. And how many would not proudly come up with even more if they could if they found themselves in a similarly high-profile fix?

Look down from the developed sky and you'll see a world just as much in ruin as anything in Africa - the fact that the suffering's less visible is not the solution to the problem but the cause of it!

Lung Kip

Chiang Mai