21 Feb, 2011
Bangkok Post
Vocational students fighting, hooligan-style behaviour _ we must put an end to this sooner rather than later. Draconian measures must be introduced or reinstated once and for all.
Innocent lives have unjustly been lost, resulting in family tragedies that can never be reversed. This is utterly ridiculous.
While I understand the sorrow and grief that the familiy members of those lost souls endure, I can't bring myself to understand why the authorities concerned, those in the Ministry of Education and the police force, appear to turn a blind eye to this problem that has escalated to the point of insanity. Do something! Act now!
PASSAVANT
More border facts
It was most refreshing to read the views of the former co-founder and publisher and editor-in-chief for 16 years of the Phnom Penh Post, Michael Hayes, on the current feelings inside Cambodia. It would be great if it could be published in the Thai press and distributed to those demonstrators of the yellow group.
However, I do not agree with Mr Hayes' view that because of history Preah Vihear should belong to Cambodia. In that case Pimai in Korat and Phnom Rung in Buri Ram should belong to Cambodia.
A large part of Europe, including the UK, should also belong to the Romans in Italy. Second, except for the yellows, no fair-minded Thais, including the government, have indicated disrespect for the decision of the International Court of Justice on Preah Vihear (only the temple). In its judgment, the court had no opinion on the 4.6 sq km disputed area because it was not presented to the court for judgment.
Third, I and many others, likely to be the country's majority, would have been angry if it was ''a Thai-initiated conflict of grossly unjust proportions''. I was led to believe otherwise, that it was a Cambodian initiative to quell rising protests by its own people over territorial concessions given to their northern neighbour. I do not care which version is correct, but like Mr Hayes I would hate to see this conflict prolonged.
After seeing photos of the suffering on either side of the border, a compromise for a joint operation of the surrounding area as suggested by Mr Hayes (but not the temple) is a must.
SONGDEJ PRADITSMANONT
Heed Muslim equation as they grow in number
The biggest and most important world news today is coming out of the Middle East _ from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Kuwait and other areas of protest and civil unrest. The most relevant element to add to all that is the recent US stand in the UN on Israel as it was in defiance of at least 130 members of the UN and a rejection of the concerns of the Muslim world.
There are, by the way, more than one billion Muslims in the world today contrasted with more than 308 million people in the US and about 7.7 million people in Israel, where only about 76% of them are Jews. The Muslim population is expected to reach about 2.2 billion 20 years from now, according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life project, with Muslims then representing about one quarter of the global population.
The English-language media in Thailand cannot be faulted for reporting the many serious, and some ludicrous, events occurring here on a daily basis, most of them in flux with new things to report every day, but Muslims inside and outside Thailand might be far more important to the future of Thai land than their presence in the English-language media in Thailand currently suggests.
You can tune out the important world news of the day only so much before it eventually comes around to confront you directly in the face.
GUY BAKER
Ban dehumanising re-enactments
Your story ''Frenchman held over child sex'' (Bangkok Post, Feb 19) exposes the total farce of the Thai police practice of making alleged wrongdoers re-enact their crimes.
How do you make someone re-enact the alleged molestation of an 11-year-old boy? Was the boy brought along to participate in the re-enactment, exposing him yet again to this alleged predator?
What a load of nonsense. It is time this practice was banned.
DAVID BROWN
Rayong
Why eat that unhealthy, dreadful yellow slosh?
What on earth is going on? Why all of a sudden has palm oil become the most important product since sliced bread?
People are literally risking life and limb to obtain a few bottles of the so-called precious fluid. Why?
I never use palm oil for cooking in a wok. I always use coconut milk and a little filtered water plus some chilli paste to create the base for many Thai dishes. Palm oil is bad for you. Why use it? All you are doing is making a small number of people in SE Asia incredibly rich and politically powerful.
Now is a good time for people to abandon that dreadful yellow slosh.
P MARSH
The ICC basketball in our political games
The seemingly pointless debate continues about whether PM Abhisit Vejjajiva could be indicted in the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the grounds of his birth in the UK for an alleged crime that doesn't meet the ICC's criteria for hearing cases.
Since Montenegro, of which Thaksin Shinawatra is openly a citizen _ and Uganda and Fiji, of which he is rumoured to be a citizen _ are also state parties to the Statute of Rome of the ICC, Thaksin had better watch out lest campaigns get under way to file cases with the ICC against him for the slaughter that took place during his ''war against drugs'' and the human rights abuses at Tak Bai and the Krue Se Mosque.
As there is no chance of either gentleman ever being tried in the ICC and the objective is purely publicity, it doesn't really matter how frivolous the cases may be.
GEORGE MORGAN
A queue too far is like an inactive post
Rainer Gaide's suggestion of having staff to go along the queues doing a preliminary check of passenger documents at the immigration checkpoints at Suvarnabhumi (Postbag, Feb 20) is an excellent one. However the Immigration Department will, no doubt, claim they have neither enough staff or funding to facilitate such a proposal.
Enter, on the same page, one Roger Crutchley who reminds us of the Ministry of Inactive Posts with countless numbers ready and waiting and, more to the point, already being paid.
Now, a responsible boss at the airport needs to be found to implement the scheme ... oh dear, more problems!
MR MAC
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