Published on June 27, 2005
Senators would be singing a different song if it meant getting some free TV time
A Senate drive to hold a no-confidence debate against the government fell short of the required number of signatures by 20. Most of the senators who refused to sign the petition argued that the debate was redundant since the opposition is going to grill the government anyway. Let the lower house do its job, they said. I wonder whether the result would have been different if the Constitution allowed senators to keep their jobs for life. With senatorial elections due some time next year, I’m sure the Senate would not have wasted any time in holding a debate, and our honourable senators would be shoving, scuffling and screaming to be in front of the TV cameras during the session.
SP Samut Prakan ------------------------------------ Thai officials should borrow Malaysia’s tourism notes Re: “Malaysia is getting the tourism mix just right”, letters, June 23. Full marks to JR Smith for pointing out the efforts Malaysia has made to understand what entices tourists to a country and the lack of understanding and coordination among the various Thai authorities that has kept them from doing the same. Singapore and Hong Kong have also implemented successful policies. It is no secret that Thailand’s neighbours are cashing in on the decline in high-spending tourists coming to Thailand, who have been put off by restricted and confusing entertainment hours, the heavy-handed harassment of tourists going out for an after-dinner drink and the risk of being locked in for urine tests and passport checks. I applaud the government’s policies and crackdown on eradicating underage drinking and drug abuse, but why does it seem the police are focusing on respectable tourist establishments and are ignoring the local entertainment venues that continue to stay open until past legal hours with little or no law enforcement? The manner in which law enforcement treats tourists at entertainment venues makes them all feel like criminals. Fifty-year-old entertainment laws should be amended to address current worldwide trends. Amend entertainment licences to allow extended weekend hours for venues that cooperate with authorities and provide clean, controlled entertainment in tourist locations such as Sukhumvit Road, nearby the five-star hotels and high-end restaurants. Reducing visa and airline landing fees is not the solution. The biggest influence when it comes to picking a holiday destination is lifestyle. Thailand has a lot more to offer than other countries in the region with its culture, friendly people, beautiful destinations and resorts and fantastic restaurants. Why not add to that sophisticated, respectable nightlife that will also cancel out Thailand’s once seedy reputation? And with the midnight shutdown of cable TV, more tourists will be looking to escape their hotel rooms for alternative entertainment outside. There seems to be a large gap between the government’s aims and actions. If they are more accommodating and friendly to tourists, these tourists will return with their friends. A Clark Bangkok ------------------------------------ It’s time to consider opening casinos I have been involved in the gaming industry in Malaysia for 25 years. Based on that experience, I think it is time Thailand start a casino within its borders. Tony Toh, director of operations, Foreign Holiday Philippines, Inc Manila ------------------------------------ Some suggestions to boost the conservation campaign I have read with interest the various solutions offered in the last few days to the fuel crisis. Among the solutions given were: shutting down all TV stations after midnight; enforcing speed limits of 90km per hour on general roads, 110kph on expressways and 120kph on motorways; and switching air conditioners off for an hour during lunch break. The above ideas cannot be considered solutions to the crisis. The following are better nationwide solutions: - Alternating-day vehicle operation based on drivers’ licence plate numbers. - Bar all inter-provincial and inter-city buses from departing stations every 30 minutes unless buses are at more than 50 per cent capacity. - Set a speed limit of 90kph for all roads. - Switching off air conditioners during lunch will require more electricity to cool down the room after lunch. Dialling back the air conditioner to 22-23C is a better alternative. - All malls/shopping centres must close by 8-9pm daily. - All long-haul inter-provincial trucks should be kept off the road before 8-9pm. - Turning off every other highway light throughout the Kingdom. These are just some of the alternatives. If there are 40 million vehicles travelling the roads nationwide on a given day, just think about the fuel savings if only 20 million vehicles are moving. Driving at 110kph or 120kph is ridiculous and burns two times as much fuel as a vehicle travelling at 90kph, which is a lot safer if an accident should occur! Buses travelling the highways with no or very few passengers burn unnecessary fuel and increases the frequency of the need for repairs. Most people leave work by 5pm, therefore any shopping (at malls/shopping centres) that needs to be done can be done before 8-9pm. Long-haul trucks that travel during the day and have to sit in traffic are just wasting fuel, which comes out of the pockets of businesses and individuals. Turning off every other highway light will cut down on power usage and will not hinder visibility at night. Enforcement: Having travelled throughout Thailand by car, I have on many occasions gone through police checkpoints. If a vehicle is travelling at 90kph, it takes an hour to travel 90km. If a vehicle is suspected of exceeding 90kph, and stops at a checkpoint, the policeman on duty can relay the licence plate number of the vehicle to the next checkpoint. In addition, the police can inform the driver that his licence plate number will be forwarded to the next checkpoint. This in itself would deter some drivers from exceeding the 90kph speed limit. Also, vehicles travelling with even-odd number licence plates in violation of the permitted days can be fined at police checkpoints. Unless substantial fines are levied for violators of the law, the government’s fuel-saving campaign will fail. Alan Bangkok ------------------------------------ We must reject cruelty through our purchases A few weeks ago you ran an AP photo aptly titled “No Escape” [Regional, June 17] in connection with a brief paragraph on the resurgence of the bird flu in Indonesia. This image was very disturbing. It appeared to show a hen or rooster being burned alive in a fiery inferno. The way the bird is sticking out its neck makes it clear that it’s still alive and struggling. Its wings are half-consumed by fire, its beak is open as if it’s screaming or gasping for air, its eyes are wide with terror. Wow! What a nightmarish way to die! I am assuming the photo depicts birds being destroyed in connection with the bird-flu scare, though it’s not clear under what conditions this is happening. What is clear is the cruelty that these animals are subjected to during the so-called culling process. Apparently some birds are not even killed before being thrown into the fire, but wind up being tossed in there alive and kicking. I am not a vegetarian and farming animals for food is an acceptable thing to me. But I don’t believe that just because we raise animals for food, we have the right to treat them with the sort of contempt and inhumanity on display when they are burned alive or suffocated in plastic bags, as was (and is still being?) done in Thailand. Doing this to a pet would land you in jail in most countries, but when it’s done to farm animals, there are no legal consequences and we turn a blind eye. We don’t want to see, we don’t want to know. We should. I believe both diseases like bird flu and the inhumanity depicted in “No Escape” arise from the same problem: the spread of large-scale industrialised farming. We as consumers should do our best to stop or minimise our purchases of products that come from these places and try to find alternative sources for our meat products, such as free-range farms. We should also try to push for deep reforms in how large-scale agrobusinesses are operated and push our governments to give some protection to the farm creatures that give us back so much more. No one with a heart could ignore the image of a live animal experiencing the agony of being burned alive. But it’s dying this way because of us. Farang Rak Thai Bangkok ------------------------------------ Hazing is an effective way to avoid a meritocracy Regarding the issue of school hazing: it depends what the purpose of higher education is. If the purpose is to learn, then hazing is pointless and stupid at best, potentially lethal at worst. If, however, the point is to establish a collective, monolithic identity, so that all individualism is squeezed out of the student body, and so students will do what they are told like a herd of sheep; and so that they develop a corps-d’esprit style of loyalty to their own class that will protect them in a riot of mutual back-scratching as they progress up the career ladder, ensuring that people still get ahead in Asia because of connections rather than merit, then hazing’s an excellent thing, and should be encouraged. Just ask PM Thaksin’s contemporaries from police school. TJ Bangkok
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