Bring safety standards at amusement parks up to international level

Yet, this weekend's accident, which injured 28 children, points to an all-too-familiar lack of attention to safety inspections. The government should bring safety standards and related inspections up to those met at Disneyland, which has theme parks worldwide with far safer operations than Siam Park.

These measures will raise costs in the short run, but will attract more kids, whose parents will feel more reassured than now, and entrance fees might even decrease. Spending money on increasing safety is infinitely better than the immense negative publicity Siam Park's getting now, costs of liability pay-outs and the anguish that its owner and staff, not to mention the kids affected by the park's many accidents and their parents, are undergoing.

So, Chaiwat, reconsider your decision to sell. Bangkok Mayor Apirak Kosayodhin should boost safety standards and inspections to Disneyland's level for all theme parks in Bangkok, so that our children, and their parents, may have fun in peace.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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Surayud must do more to ensure election fairness

The Surayud government has hitherto been too lethargic in its efforts to ensure fair and unequivocal results for the December 23 general election.

First, the government failed to provide protection and support for the Election Commission (EC), an independent organisation with no teeth, in dealing with influential politicians who face complaints of electoral fraud.

Take what is happening in Chiang Rai, for example, where an influential politician is alleged to have committed fraud: the authorities have been compliant to the politician's demands to have police and Interior Ministry officials transferred for alleged prejudice - yet they ignored calls for protection from the complainant and witnesses in the same case, whose lives are allegedly being threatened. Second, the EC itself is facing internal squabbling. The organisation comprises members of the rigid bureaucracy, rendering it vulnerable to various kinds of infiltration and intimidation. Without support from Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and his government in its endeavour to ensure fair poll results, the agency will become ineffectual and, eventually, a joke.

Thus, Surayud should come out and stand behind the EC. He should take responsibility in ensuring that the December 23 poll results are decided with fairness and impartiality. The EC can't be deserted like this to fight dark influences by itself.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

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More personal freedom goes up in smoke

Re: "Wider smoking ban soon", News, January 12.

Well, it has finally happened. Thailand has gone full circle and become just one more America clone and eliminated the last of the personal freedoms that existed here for so long. No choices, no options, and no smoking.

Dr Hatai Chitanondh's ability to do what he has just done makes me curious about a few things.

How is a lame-duck government able to push through so much major legislation just before its demise? What did the junta actually accomplish except to further restrict the sins of the poor, while not one single corrupt official in the country has actually served any jail time. (Except one individual of lesser importance).

Dr Chitanondh tells us that his research indicates that bars will only be impacted initially and then business will get even better because non-smokers will begin to go to them. Exactly what research is he referring to? What other country has so many bars that cater solely to visiting and resident foreigners? And the smokers among them represent not 20 per cent or less of the actual patrons, as in America, but rather, 50 per cent or more of the patrons.

I don't know about the vast majority of bars in Thailand, but I will tell you exactly what will happen to the go-go bars, which presently represent a very large intake of foreign capital. They will all go bust, or barely survive, just the way business was harmed by early bar closing hours. It took a couple of years for those in Government House to admit that they had screwed up and reverse that decision and now they are going to do it again.

As for me, I really don't care because all it represents to me is once again losing my personal freedoms in an oppressive country. But fortunately, unlike in America, there is still Phnom Penh and Macau to retreat to when I take my bi-monthly vacations.

And by the way, the bar business in America is only a shell of what it once was before everyone became smoking police.

Lastly, I am finding that what has been going on in this country over the last five years is no longer worth commenting on. What everyone thinks it has to do with democracy totally escapes me. So as there really aren't many more freedoms lost to comment on, you probably won't hear from me again until it is time to write in and say: "I told you so."

John Arnone

Yasothon

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Samak might end up surprising detractors

Re: "FAQs time, with an expert as confused as you", Opinion, January 9.

The only certainty in Tulsathit Taptim's opinion column was that Thaksin would not return home for Songkran. Other than this question, he was full of uncertainties and caveats on whether the People Power Party (PPP) would be dissolved or form a coalition government with Samak as a prime minister.

Paraphrasing the words of Martin Luther King Jr, I had a dream that PPP would not be dissolved and there would be a PPP-led government with Samak Sundaravej as the prime minister. I also dreamt that Samak, in his powerful role, turned out to be a changed man, accommodating to all parties and a worthy leader.

Is this too much to ask?

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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