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Published on October 17, 2007

How can intelligent people talk of teaching Thai as a first language and Yawi Malay as a second language to primary school children who grow up speaking almost exclusively Yawi? By definition, Yawi is their first (sometimes only) language at home and therefore is by far the better medium for teaching elementary maths, science and so on for kids first entering school.

At this basic level the important thing is that children learn these non-language subjects well. How can I learn multiplication and division if I can't understand my teacher?

Yes, Thai language and, linked to it, Thai national history, culture and beliefs must still be taught effectively to these children as compulsory subjects to give them wider opportunities in Thai society later on. They also need to be able to deal with Thailand's stubbornly monolingual local authorities, so being bilingual is desirable - but the drive for Thai-language skills should not be at the expense of small children being able to learn other subjects.

In fact, the best method for teaching Thai to Yawi-speaking children is to teach it as a foreign language  the skills and tools for this are very different and far more effective than just pretending they understand it from day one.

Martin Searle

Bangkok

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Painting reflects the sad truth of Buddhism today

The Emperor is naked," cried the small boy. The exclamation from the child is no different from award-winning artist Anupong Chandhorn beautifully exposing, in his oil paintings, the ugliest and dirtiest deeds committed by Buddhist monks. I cannot see anything wrong in these canvasses depicting bad monks indulging in many vices forbidden by the Lord Buddha.

One award-winning painting, now at the centre of controversy in Thailand, is named "Bhikkus with crow-like traits". While it has won praise from scholars and revered monks, it infuriates some other Buddhists, including monks, who have called for the banning of the exhibition, of which it is part, being held at Silapakorn University's Nakhon Pathom campus.

The row escalated when a monk protested by lying on the street with his face covered with a poster of the paining. A well-known preacher went as far as to call the painting blasphemy and said that it would have earned the artist a death sentence had it happened in a Muslim country.

Though the monk said he would not call for his followers to ransack the university and burn it down, he warned that the likelihood should not be ruled out.

Today, the Criminal Court accepted a case filed by a group of Buddhists who say the painting could "destroy Buddhism".

If all these "foul-crying" monks are true disciples of the Lord Buddha and practise what they have studied, why kill the messenger? Should Hans Christian Andersen have been hanged a century ago?

Chamnong Watanagase

Bangkok

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Red tape should be done while airborne

I read that Singapore Air has taken delivery of the first of the new huge Airbus planes. It has a record-breaking amount of space and, with crew, it will carry over 880 people. I shudder. Can you imagine 880 people hitting Immigration at the same time.

What about something really innovative and passenger-friendly? Why not put an immigration officer with a small office on the plane?

Michael Clowes

Bangkok

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CIA: start smuggling arms into Burma

All of this rhetoric on Burma is getting very old. If everyone hasn't figured out yet that Burma is safely tucked under China's arm and nothing more than sanctions which have never persuaded anyone to do anything is all that is going to happen, I feel sorry for them.

What I still do not understand is why the United States has not initiated a smuggling of arms into Burma for use by the Burmese people. It has done so all over the world, so why not Burma? Even the Burmese people must be aware that if they want to solve their problem, they are going to have to do it themselves. Certainly Burma does not have the powerhouse military that Iraq did, and the regime should fall at the first sign of armed resistance.

The smuggling shouldn't be difficult. Drugs don't seem to have any problem coming in this direction, so why not arms in the other direction?

Once they have sufficient arms, it is only a matter of organising and initiating an uprising. And if everything in Burma is as bad as the world seems to think it is, that is what they will do.

Come on, America, stop the human-rights whining and put the CIA to work as you have done in so many other areas of the world. And if the Chinese should intervene, then that might be the time to think about a boycott of the Olympics. Certainly better than now when people are suggesting such a move because they refuse to do anything about someone else's problem.

John Arnone

Yasothon

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What practical alternative for Burma?

Given the number of vicious, merciless dictatorships there are in the world, I wonder why western governments and media decide to periodically single out one as a target of their ire, as they have been doing for some time with regard to Burma. Criteria of abuses to enable a ranking of these despotic regimes, so that the worst offenders can be identified and targeted first, should be developed.

Such criteria might include statistics on beheadings, floggings, amputations, stoning to death, persecution or prosecution of religious groups, denial of the right of free speech, curtailment on freedom of the press and expression, prosecutions for peaceful demonstrations, beatings by government officials, starvation, curfews, military force against civilians, and arbitrary arrests and detentions in the past year or so.

Burma would rank pretty low given the sad state of affairs the world is in these days; far below some countries that I could name offhand.

I note that the media often refers to the recent protests in Burma as demonstrations advocating democracy. Funny, I didn't see any signs or people giving that reason for their protest. Seems to me it had more to do with living standards and recent inflationary increases in basic necessities such as fuel.

What kind of democratic government do those calling for an end to the current military dictatorship propose for this country? Will it be a presidential system such as the US, with all of its faults such as the extensive lobbying and method of party and campaign funding? A separation of powers? A unitary or federal form of national government? What rights will be bestowed on, for example, the ethnic minorities in areas with ongoing rebellions? How will the Shan province be governed? How will this 50-year civil war be brought to an end? Or perhaps their democracy should be like that of Canada with its virtual cabinet dictatorship, sickening compromises, and delegation of powers to the provinces to the extent that not even traffic signs are standardised (to say nothing of the language that is spelled out on them).

Maybe Western leaders should give some thought to this before they stir up revolution and hopes among the populace that can never be realised.

Or  and this is really a frightening thought maybe they already have and they want to see another Yugoslavia or Iraq break out in Southeast Asia.

William

Bangkok

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