Improve politics, improve your living standard

Re: "Average Joe has no interest in politics", Letters, November 17.

At the heart of Martin Cramer's letter is the ridiculous claim that because "All that really motivates Mr and Mrs Average in the West is their standard of living", then "Mr and Mrs Average Thai" can't possibly be involved in a political struggle to transform Thailand. This really confused me. It seemed to be implying that "Mr and Mrs Average" whether in the West or in Thailand, share some opinions that all average people must share with each other simply because they are classed as "average". Perhaps Mr Cramer believes that he is on solid ground here because he shares his own "average" opinions with, he clearly hopes, the majority of the people in the world.

To top this off, he confounds us by saying that "The West and East are so very different" and then goes on to contradict this by telling us that both Thais and Westerners have exactly the same motivations to get more disposable income and a higher standard of living.

What all this glosses over is that to achieve a higher standard of living demands a better education system. It demands a progressive system of justice and efficient law enforcement. These are things that must precede a higher standard of living and which have only been on the Thai government's list of things to do when political pressure from the people has increased, as it has been doing for the past few years.

Jonathan W Peter

Pathum Thani

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

Hun Sen's smokescreen has Thais fooled

While a lot of people are furious about the Hun Sen-Thaksin episode, it is worthwhile noting that Hun Sen is eager to divert any domestic attention from his recent dealings with Vietnam, where he is said to have agreed to some Cambodian areas being "returned" to Vietnam - something his own people didn't like one bit. It's an old political ruse to divert attention from a domestic issue by creating a foreign issue and vice versa.

As far as Thaksin is concerned, we should not overlook the fact that he is only one among several other criminals that are convicted in Thailand and now staying in Cambodia. If I'm not wrong this is a quite a hi-so bunch. I'm sure there are even more of them feeling homely under the wings of Hun Sen.

Hun Sen has spoiled his reputation anyway, and the countries supporting his country - 60 per cent of his budget is said to come from foreign donations - will think twice, after he showed what he thinks of international treaties.

Sam Munich

Bangkok

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

Appalling conditions for maids working in Singapore

Slavery is alive and sick in Singapore, and the government profits. I recently met a young Filipina working as a maid in Singapore, and was sickened by her story. After fulfilling a two-year contract in the UAE, she returned home, got married and had a child. Her husband was unable to find steady work, so they decided that she should get another maid contract closer to home. Although she had been promised work by an agency in the Philippines, it wasn't until she arrived in Singapore that she was told the only contracts available were for two years with no day off. If she chose to wait for a contract with days off, she would have to stay indefinitely in crowded conditions with only instant noodles for food. She accepted a no-day-off contract and has been working for five months. She starts at 6am by washing both of her employers' cars, and usually finishes her duties at 10:30pm. For the first seven months, 360 Singapore dollars out of her S$380 (Bt9,000) wages goes to the agency to pay commission and for her flight. That leaves her with just $20 a month. When I researched on the Internet to see if there where any NGOs that could help, I found that the employers must pay the government almost the equal amount of her wages for the right to hire her (estimates range from 100,000 to 150,000 foreign maids in Singapore; you do the math) and they must hold her passport so she doesn't "run away". Most of the sites were for comments by employers complaining about maids' behaviour: "She was talking on the phone as the kids were terrorising the supermarket". There were a couple of articles about the Philippine and Australian governments unsuccessfully trying to get Singapore to respect basic human rights. What makes this story even sadder is that whilst the "madam" is Chinese, the "sir" is Australian and they both attend church every Sunday.

Small wonder the Singapore government assists in the castration of the Asean human rights commission

Jim Ellis

Phuket

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