• 
• 

Published on March 28, 2008

The bluster and bombast of this man seems to know no bounds. For a supposed reinvented democrat, the country's leader shows scant regard for the division of power that is so necessary in a functioning democracy. He is clearly piqued that he cannot ensure the result he wants for the impending electoral fraud case by packing the bench with cronies and yes men. When will this man, and those like him, ever learn that the country is not a personal plaything to use and abuse at will?

Unless and until the Kingdom has truly strong independent institutions, it will continue to be robbed and violated by a marauding pack of self servers.

Only when real fear of being punished stalks the land will these unworthy men disappear from the national stage and return to the dark corners where they rightly belong.

Fred Morrice

Bangkok

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

Cheating's wrong - by youth or our leaders

I do not agree with the PPP's re-writing articles 237 and 309 of our Constitution. To do so means that cheating is okay in Thailand. Is this what we want to tell to the world? I am ashamed of those people who were caught cheating and were red-carded, who are now crying foul despite their own disrespect for the rule of law. They should be held accountable for their actions and receive punishment accordingly. However, the article concerning the selection process of the Senate should be re-written based on the number of people in each province.

Recently, a few students were caught cheating in exams and paid the price. Politicians are no exception.

Surasak Piputtana

Bangkok 

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

Gimmicks don't help students: education does

For the fourth year in a row, the average National Test scores of Mathayom 3 students have failed to exceed 50 per cent, mainly because of poor grades in subjects like English and the sciences. So, what does PM Samak do, but push for showy, easy-to-corrupt projects like the One Student, One Laptop handout - without considering that many schools lack Internet access, and almost no student has Internet access at home. Also, given that most information on the Internet is in English, which always has been the students' worst subject, how will they collect information to analyse?

Some ideas:

(1) Improving education takes lots of money. Remove the tax-deduction limit on donations to educational institutions, so people will be further encouraged to give to the school of their choice.

 (2) Float all school tuition fees, with the proviso that no otherwise-qualified student be turned away because of inability to pay.

(3) The demonstration secondary schools' students earned the highest scores - so let's have a nationwide One Tambol, One Demonstration School project.

(4) Train teachers to teach students how to think, not what to think.

 (5) Pay teachers and administrators based on their students' performance on tests of ability to think, not to memorise.

(6) Put the average test scores of each school on the Internet, so parents can aim for the best educational value for their money.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

Send us your views  in an instant!

E-mail your opinion, with 'Letters to the Editor' in

the subject box, to:

letters@nationgroup.com

The Nation