Justice at the end of the 'Pastry-gate' money trail

Now the National Counter Corruption Commission has decided to sue former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after the Office of Attorney General (OAG) wanted to postpone the action.

Given how the OAG has had a number of reservations on many cases against Thaksin submitted by the Assets Examination Committee, the tycoon may want to approach OAG members to work for him. He is in the market for defence counsel. A few members of his defence team are now in jail for contempt of court and will be facing attempted bribery charges.

Thaksin is not adept at hiring competent lawyers, going back to Ample Rich. The public is also anxious to learn about this investigation, both at the police and OAG levels. It is unlikely that the imprisoned attorneys came up with the B2 million on their own. If Thaksin's lawyers are convicted, one of them should be granted immunity by the OAG so he can talk. From convincing testimony, we can put to rest the identity of the principal and the origin of the money trail. If and when justice prevails, as a society we can rebuild.

Netirat Intira

Bangkok

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Jasmine rice debut on AFET a boon to all farmers

The article by Jiwamol Kanoksilp "Jasmine Rice to Debut on AFET" (News, July 1) must surely bring smiles to those connected with jasmine rice. The listing and trading of jasmine rice on the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand will certainly help to secure the availability and stability of the jasmine rice trade. Furthermore, this listing will also promote the desire to increase investment in the research and development of jasmine rice.

Hopefully, the listing will deter jasmine rice-farmers from shifting to other commodities, such as tapioca for ethanol production, which is becoming an issue. This listing will definitely act as a catalyst for other commodities to follow forth, thus increasing the greatly needed industrial interest in research and development activities in Thailand. Bravo!

Ramjitti Indaraprasirt

Pathum Thani

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Lofty credit card criteria keep foreigners thrifty

Re: "Expats can apply for credit cards", News, July 3.

 Judging from the information given by The Nation, we foreigners should be grateful to most Thai banks. By setting unrealistic salary requirements to qualify for a credit card, they protect us from impulse buying. This means that we can surf the Internet safe in the knowledge that however attractive a product may appear to be on a website we cannot be trapped into making a purchase. Likewise many spam scams ask for credit card information.

The downside is that we cannot purchase legal copies of or make donations for shareware, even if we want to. We have to look for other ways of acquiring it. Likewise we cannot join subscription organisations or make donations over the Internet. The visa and work-permit requirements generally seem reasonable;however when will authorities come to terms with the realities of life in Thailand for foreigners?

Gareth Clayton

Bangkok

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Balanced measures needed to fight sexual harassment

Re: "Sexual-harassment scourge worth more than a soundbite", Opinion, July 5.

While I applaud Veena Thoopkrajae's article citing sexual harassment in Thai universities as a scourge, there are two things about her article I find disturbing:

1) Nowhere in her article does she leave open the remotest possibility that sexual harassment could also be of a female-on-male nature.

This is strange because it's now widely accepted, in the West at least, that female-on-male bullying is on par with the reverse but is rarely reported.

2) She applauds the Higher Education Authority's consideration of a proposal to allow complaints against lecturers to be allowed via the Internet.

She states that one advantage of this would be, "...the teacher doing the harassment would not be aware of the investigation".

Notwithstanding the fact that this author has pronounced the lecturer guilty, but she also supports a complaint system that would expose all teachers, male and female, to the mercy of all sorts of disgruntled pupils and crackpots and without their knowledge.

Martin Kelly

Bangkok