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Published on April 3, 2008

Naturally he had tried to keep the issue quiet for as long as possible. A "science" degree in business is not something a decent university would award, and the quaint little school he got it from in the Philippines doesn't look particularly world class. Then, when forced to reveal that he had such a thing, there is all this nasty made fuss about it.

The only important point that comes out of all this is that there is at least one more grave defect in the current Thai Constitution: the absurd and unjust requirement that ministers have a degree. This is absurd because it is based solidly on two total falsehoods: first, that having a degree means the holder is either intelligent or well educated, or both; and second, that not having a degree means the person is not intelligent or not well educated, or both.

Both of these beliefs are rubbish. The first is clearly disproved by the numerous counter examples of degree-holders in the political realm, the second by the equally numerous counter examples of highly successful people who have never set foot in a lecture room, and by people like Bill Gates who sensibly dropped out of Harvard.

More seriously, such a requirement is grossly unjust as it disenfranchises most of the population from serving their country at the highest levels. Could there be any good reason for so banning such a large part of the people from taking an active role in their own governance? No, there could not be.

The pathetic excuse considered above was probably the best going, and it is totally unjustified.

I have no idea why such an explicitly anti-democratic rule was written into the Constitution, but it should certainly be written out as soon as possible.

Peter Filicietti

Bangkok

Current administration

cannot think green

Congratulations to Greenpeace representatives for disrupting the recent Bangkok Climate Change Talks. Things need to be shaken up. I wouldn't trust the current leaders in Bangkok with setting up a sand-castle building competition, let alone overseeing the construction of four nuclear power plants.

Have the powers-that-be heard of concentrated solar? Have they heard of low-tech technology that can produce valuable oils from garbage?

Such things are not science-fiction or boondoggles - instead they're existing, functional and relatively low-cost technologies that are at the vanguard of what could be used to ease Thailand's future electricity needs.

Actually, the one best thing that Thais can do to lessen electricity demand is to ease up on air-conditioning over-usage. But the sages in Bangkok are too busy trying to change laws (to protect their assets) than to be able to focus on such frivolous things as conservation.

As for the issue of carbon credits, it's essentially a non-issue. Even if there were enough fluent English speakers within the Thai government to wade through the maze of regulations - and submit adept requests - the cost of applying would be greater than any compensation.

The reality is, Thailand does not have many real forests at all. A section of healthy tropical forest doesn't equal the carbon sink of a commensurate area of northern spruce forest.

Because of years of poor forest management, most of Thailand is either farmland or weed-choked scrubland - neither of which will qualify as carbon sinks of any consequence.

Ken Albertsen

Chiang Rai

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