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Published on September 19, 2007

On Sunday at around 3.30pm I was running around frantically, shutting all the windows in my home because rain was screaming in horizontally from every direction. The clouds covering the entire southwest portion of the sky were the blackest I'd ever seen.

I am certified to fly a small plane, so when I heard a jet go by, I thought to myself, even in Thailand - where there is little regard for human safety, where parents routinely clutch infants with one arm while steering a motorcycle with the other - even here, the airport would be shut down. Surely that plane is being re-routed. I was wrong.

I hope that those people who have lost loved ones from this tragedy do not settle with compensation from the airline. Phuket Airport should have been closed for at least two hours and the authorities need to be held accountable.

The crash was no accident. This is a cover-up for Thailand's refusal to adhere to basic standards of safety.

Among other things, fishing boats are converted to dive boats - with restructuring of ballast under no engineering supervision - and allowed to sail. And how many hotels have no fire alarms?

Tourists must be told to take full responsibility for their own safety. But then, they may not come here, and - gasp - money will be lost. The truth will come out.

Christy K Sweet

Phuket

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Lessons not learned from previous disasters

One does not need to be a fortune-teller to know what the cause of the crash at Phuket airport will be attributed to.

The circumstances are almost identical to the Thai Airways crash at Surat Thani a few years ago. Certainly weather conditions will be blamed. However, the fact is the pilot makes the decision to land and is responsible for assessing the prevailing weather conditions at the time. In the case of Phuket, as at Surat Thani, ruling out any mechanical failure, there can be only one conclusion - that of pilot error.

One would think that, after the Surat Thani accident, Thai airlines, whose pilots fly in tropical weather conditions, would have ensured their pilots were well instructed in such risks. After all, pilots who fly in extremely cold conditions, which also entail serious risks, are very well instructed and suffer few accidents attributed to weather.

Recently, it was reported that in the case of the Surat Thani accident, efforts were made to blame the aircraft manufacturer for the accident. The plane crashed on its third landing attempt after two "go-arounds".

Such attempts to blame scapegoats, rather than those really responsible, will only ensure Phuket is not the last of this kind of accident in Thailand.

I offer my heartfelt condolences to the families of victims of this needless tragedy.

Steve Pedrottta

Bangkok

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No end in sight to rural vote-buying

Stemming vote-buying in general elections in Thailand would require not just appropriate laws and effective enforcement. The problem has permeated rural Thai society to the point that a candidate must outbid his strongest rival in order to win votes. Rural voters have become sophisticated, albeit wrongly, to the point of asking for a bidding for their votes. A popular folk song in the northern and Northeast regions goes: "I wish there were an [political] election every month".

Thus, education and care for the well-being of the rural poor seems to be the only way to defeat this problem. As for the most effective way to stem vote-buying in the next election, the Election Commission should appeal for help from relevant organisations that have the capability to help accomplish this Herculean task, such as the European Union and Thailand People's Network for Elections. Or at least, be friends with them.

Chavalit Van

Bangkok

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Rebranded politicians equals more coups

Re: "Coup: one year on, no lessons learned", Opinion, September 18.

The premise set out by Pravit Rojanaphruk that "social and political disunity" was cited as the pretext for staging the coup misses out a few vital elements.

To my mind, and that of many people, it was the emasculating and ever-increasing dominance of Thaksin Shinawatra and his merry band of thieves over the political, social, economic and legal spheres that spurred the military to act before it was too late. Rather than disunity, I would cite as examples, greed, policy corruption, graft, tax evasion, having the EC, the Revenue Department, the civil service, the Senate at his beck and call, and his undiluted aspirations of power.

I agree, cultural change cannot be undertaken over the short term, especially when the powers-that-be see no personal reward in doing so. This can best be illustrated by the re-branding of the same old politicians in new hats, manipulating myopic self-interest.

But the idea of "social and political disunity" disappearing is a non sequitur given the climate of economic distribution. One has only to look at the vehement hatred between the left and the right in South American politics of old to realise that while the rich remain in breach of any social contract with the poor, it will always remain this way. I remember seeing tanks bearing down on barefoot farmers in Quito when the government shelved the poverty blanket in one sudden and remorseless piece of legislation.

To suggest Thaksin had some ideological leftist leanings in his dealing with the country's poor is nonsense; he used populism to his own ends, knowing full well that these people made up the majority of the electorate and by having them in his pocket, he could stay in office and abuse power forever. Until, that is, General Sonthi swept him aside.

Until and unless there is change in this country in terms of recognition that unity will only come to the fore when there is a social contract between those who have and those who have not, disunity will continue unabated.

Progressive taxation, a focus on education for all, grants for the poor in schooling and university, welfare benefits and free medical treatment, were the cornerstones in bringing about social changes that produced a workforce that was sufficiently educated to cope with modern-day economics. And it was accepted that those who earned disproportionate levels of income would pay higher tax to achieve this. If there is no political and social will to implement changes in deference to the majority, Thailand will not be seeing the end of the coup anytime soon.

James Groveway

Bangkok

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Get to the root of the financial problems

Re: "Uncertainty looming for fiscal policy", Business, September 18.

The sub-headline of this article, "Experts warn of problems under floating exchange-rate system", gave me hope of reading of an alternative fixed or "target" exchange rate system. But instead I read about the views of three leading economists - Messrs Chalongphob, Supavud and Pisit - on the disasters that may ensue if we do not watch out for all the problems outside our control such as sub-prime mortgage debts and China no longer supporting US deficits.

Since our concern is with the floating exchange-rate system, which is the root of the problems, why do we waltz around the issue surrounding the system that is disadvantageous to our interests, when compared with our neighbours and competitors? I would truly like to read reasons why Thailand should not take on a fixed exchange rate system, aside from the feeble reason of it being unorthodox.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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