I share PM Abhisit's regret that we lag behind Vietnam and even Laos in the launch of 3G wireless communication services, especially since IT is crucial to our economic development. I agree that the cause of this is because we lack clear-cut 3G policies.
However, PM Abhisit fails to get to the root cause of the failure to have a clear 3G policy: our governments, including this one, tend to select ministers on the basis of politics - not on who can best fill a given position. Thus, for example, Thaksin had a Minister of Finance who, at his first news conference, showed he didn't know what GDP was, and a Deputy Minister of Finance who revealed she didn't know what value-added tax was. And who's now IT minister, even though at her first news conference she showed an almost total lack of IT knowledge? When the minister doesn't know beans about his/her job, what vision can the minister project, and lead the ministry towards? As Theodore Hesburgh noted, "The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet."
Yes, forming coalitions means all partners must be in the Cabinet - but how about some quality control in fitting the right person to a given position? For example, open all seats to all parties, and select the best candidate for each specific post based on job-related ability. If a party should head a ministry, but doesn't have the best-qualified person, then it might be given the chance to get two deputy minister posts instead (if it has the most qualified persons).
PM Abhisit, regretting a mistake is good, but preventing it occur again is better. Change the system to give us ministers chosen on their basis of ability to perform in their post, not just what party they're from.
Burin Kantabutra
Bangkok
Generational changes will overshadow crisis
Re: Forbes.com, "Conflicts Of Interest In Thailand", 8 July 2010
Forbes magazine (Forbes.com) on 8 July quoted a broker-analyst who had positive things to say about investing in Thailand, saying he saw recent unrest as "no different from students marching against the Vietnam war in the 1960s." The broker-analyst was also quoted as saying the unrest is irrelevant as "there's a secular, generational event taking place across the world, which overrides crises and is levelling the global economic playing field: the emergence of a middle class and new trading relationships in all corners of the world."
In other words, all the talk of pro-Thaksin versus anti-Thaksin, freedom of media versus censorship and reconciliation versus terrorism (which might be reconciliation with terrorism) is all a waste of time. The secular, generational event taking place across the world may push all Thai politicians aside and might even push reconciliation aside also, as there will be nothing left to reconcile if the secular, generational event relegates all the recent past to obscurity. To put it another way: everyone in power now is a dinosaur with extinction right around the corner.
Guy Baker
Bangkok
Ditch capitalism and we'd be living in caves
Re; Overdrive", July 14
Thanong Khanong's claim that capitalism has failed Thailand is way off the mark - "Capitalism has failed; why continue with it?" Opinion, July 16. What is holding Thailand back is not capitalism but it's shamefully poor education system and lack of the rule of law. That and rampant corruption in the public sector and cronyism in the private sector.
He further goes on to make the ridiculous suggestion that the world should adopt the sufficiency economic model to replace capitalism. Were that to happen we'd all be living in caves. Capitalism isn't perfect, but it's the best of the alternatives - and Thailand's version is severely flawed.
Kurt Heck
Bangkok
Govt land plan looks set to reward the lazy
On reading your article on the issues the locals are having with auctions of TAMC plots, it has lead me to ask a question about who is entitled to receive land for free. My Thai wife asked the local phu-yai and this is the explanation she receive: If you own no land you will be given in some cases up to 15 rai; if, however, you have worked hard, saved up and purchased some land (in my wife's case we have managed to secure 3 rai) you are entitled to nothing.
Surely this is double standards, yet again. If a Thai family in the past has never saved, worked a day in their lives, have contributed nothing to Thai society and generally just sat around and got drunk - there are many in my village - then they get rewarded for their lack of ambition and general laziness by getting land for free. Surely there must be another way to determine who gets free land or not.
jon
via Internet
Conflict, corruption: Why politics is hated
"Tea money" in Thailand is an old and inextinguishable factor of Thai government business. When Thai Rak Thai (TRT) turned it into "Five-star luxury and buy your own football team" money it brought the PAD out on to the streets.
Then the red shirts came out in peaceful protest - peppered with Seh Daeng and Arisman harassment - leading, to the Red Shirt riots. Is it surprising that political conflict and corruption top the complaints list?
TRT, People Power Party and Pheu Thai Party all rode to power on the backs of the people in the North and the Northeast. The party-list votes ensured they had good majorities. Had they not cheated in the elections they would be in control of parliament.
Pheu Thai failed the Red Shirt rallies by not representing them in parliament. The party failed them by not advising them to go home and leave them to do their job. Now Chalerm denies having had anything to do with the red shirts. They put him in parliament. He has done nothing for them. Shame on him.
RICHARD BOWLER
Bangkok
Less purchasing power in Land Of Smiles
Burin Kantabutra, (Letters July 15th), states that Thailand should encourage long-term stays and recommends that retirees from overseas make this "their new home". Unfortunately, the assertion that "their money goes much further here than in their native land" may no longer be correct.
The continued high value of the baht means that prices in Thailand have risen by about 30 per cent over the last few years, in terms of the euro/sterling. Not many retirees will have seen their pensions rise by that amount, indeed they get less baht than they once did. The pensioner loses two ways.
While Thailand was good value some time ago there are instances where it has become expensive. Retirees may think twice before spending and some tourists who have been here before may well choose other, more affordable destinations.
Richard
Chiang Mai
Doubts erode faith in Thai justice system
Two days ago, Switzerland freed Roman Polanski, despite the US authorities having an international arrest warrant out for him. The US, it appears, failed to convince the Swiss court about how it had dealt with the Polanski criminal case. Two weeks ago, renowned Russian musician Pletnev was arrested on suspicion of unlawful sex with a minor. Before accusing Pletnev of wrong-doing, we must ask ourselves: do we really trust the Thai authorities?
When I lived in Bangkok during the coup which ousted Thaksin, I heard my Thai elite friends say that the majority of Thais were not fit to understand what exactly happened. But elites' opinion, either "pro-yellow" or "anti-yellow", appeared too easily one-sided to be believable. Thais better be mindful that, during the recent unrest, the local media became so biased that one had to read the foreign press to get a clear picture. Even now, the authorities are still described as corrupt. Questions still linger as to why the yellows have yet to go through the justice system. Many farangs are beginning to wonder if Thais will do anything they want in the name of "justice", even at the expense of undermining their legal regime.
The Pletnev scandal is a mixture of factors such as credibility and past track record. There is still no guarantee of absolution for offence, but always the danger of condemning an innocent person, especially when the only apparent "evidence" comes from a gay boy at Pattaya, which is notorious for prostitution.
If found guilty, Pletnev could face up to 20 years in jail, which seems the manifestation of a state of legal uncertainty in a country which has lost many opportunities to regain credibility for its justice system. The moral of this story: be very careful about making friends in Thailand!
Julian Wang
Chiayi, Taiwan