A page from Hong Kong

Written by changthai11 on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Post Bag

The PAD has dropped its earlier 70:30 proposal in favour of a new one, with some seats elected by ”representatives of various professions”. This new proposal is actually borrowed directly from Hong Kong. The Hong Kong system was created by the colonialists and maintained by the Chinese central government after the 1997 handover. Its purpose is to marginalise the power of the pan-democratic opposition.

One only needs to do a cursory study of the Hong Kong system to find that these ”professional representatives” are easily manipulated and do not represent the populace at large.

I urge all Thai people to reject this fake democracy. If you want to build a democracy, China is the very last place you would want to take after!

JESSE CHUN HAY LEE

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A Fugitive Mob (party)

I find it amusing to read the numerous letters offering personal solutions to the Thai government fiasco. Fuelling that humour is the use of words such as ”our”, ”we” and ”us”, as if the writers had some personal stake in this matter, or if the Thai people would even care to take any of these remedies to heart. Quite the contrary. My experience here leads me to believe that any suggestion forwarded by a farang would be immediately dismissed for that reason alone.

So, with all due respect to the Thai people, I will join the throngs in adding my two baht’s worth. Mine comes as the ruling party is about to be dissolved, but through the wonder of Thai politics, is able to just rename itself and start anew as if nothing ever was amiss.

My suggestion would be that the new party name itself the Fugitive Mob. I have dropped the word ”party” because it denotes some sort of opportunity of participation by all, rather than blind, sheepish following.

But they treat the fugitive in London as some sort of demigod. His brother-in-law, the new prime minister, has totally disqualified himself and his administration from being reputable, beginning with the outright lie that he alone is choosing his ministers. One need only look at his statement concerning the choice of one of the ministers: that his wife, the sister of Mr Thaksin, has ‘’settled” her differences with the candidate.

BRIAN D GRANBERG

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New Politics: whither decentralisation?

There is something to like in the PAD’s ”New Politics,” but much is old wine in a new bottle. I’m all for getting people more involved in politics if it means helping voters to be more informed, and involved in monitoring politicians. What’s the old wine? Well, power is still firmly in the centre. There’s no mention of provinces electing their own governors _ and holding them accountable _ so that they’ll be focused on solving local problems, instead of licking Bangkok’s boots. The military, police and civil servants still answer to Bangkok.

There are no proposals for vetting nominees, such as Senate hearing confirmations, so that we get qualified ministers, not those who have to run to the internet to find out what their ministries do. There’s no proposal to end party-hopping by politicians to prevent them from selling out to the highest bidder, promoting money politics. Instead of out-hopping the ”no money, no honey” ladies, I suggest that, except for its founding members, candidates must serve in a party for a full year before standing for public office under its banner.

There are no stringent provisions to control vested interests, e.g. state-owned enterprises have a long and disgraceful record of holding the country to ransom, yet they were one of the two outside groups (in addition to core PAD leaders) who drafted the ”New Politics” platform.

Ex-senator Chirmsak Pinthong wants a special role for the military, saying that when the country is in crisis, soldiers must take a stand against abuse of power by politicians. And who, sir, shall guard us against our guardians?

BURIN KANTABUTRA

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Airport taxis a rip-off

Re: ”New clamps on taxi gangs at city airport” (Bangkok Post, Sept 22). I would like to share my recent experiences with the taxis from the official counter at Suvarnabhumi Airport. I took a taxi to downtown Bangkok. After leaving the airport, the driver refused to turn on the meter. Still in the taxi, I called the public transportation centre listed on the airport taxi ticket, which is given to the passenger at the airport before the ride.

No. 1584 _ no answer (at around 11am). No. 021-329199 _ no English-speaking personnel. Then I called the Tourist Police under 1155 _ no help either; the officer refused even to talk to the driver.

The last three times I took a public taxi from the official taxi counter at the airport to downtown Bangkok, the distances according to the individual taxi meters were: 54km, 32km (correct) and 37km, with the corresponding fares. For exactly the same destination. I just cannot wait for the airport rail link!

ANNOYED TRAVELLER

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