Time to 'Buy Thai'?
Re: "Cheap imports levied VAT from July: Move expected to create a level playing field for domestic entrepreneurs", (Business, June 22).
Thailand could emulate the example of the UK when it was in the electronics manufacturing doldrums in the late 1970s due to an influx of superior Japanese products.
The "Buy British" theme was introduced. Many retailers put Buy British stickers on all their British-made products. And the government supported the scheme by limiting colour TV screen size of imported products to 14 inches, later 18 inches.
British TV brands exploded back to the market under the caption, "Big screens make the most of colour". That government support plus the "Buy British" theme put a shot in the arm of an ailing industry.
"Buy Thai" seems to have a ring to it.
Hua Hin Paul
Stop the coups
Re: "Bolivian general arrested after coup attempt", (BP, June 27).
I am grateful to the Bolivians for the failed coup and for maintaining the democratic system in the country. Once again, I am really happy that they have such great officers to enforce the rule.
There are many places on earth where coups are common. Throughout generations, it has been proved that coups cause more drawbacks than positive results, and residents are the victims of it. Have these people ever thought of civilians before committing them?
As a Thai who has lived through two coups and with my belief more will happen in the near future, I never want such a thing to corrupt the system.
If only they could let the prime ministers do their job as they were elected by the people, our country's citizens would see democracy as a reliable system rather than a title to name our political system.
Karawat Saijanyon
Assange no hero
Re: "Assange logic", (PostBag, July 2).
Dennis Fitzgerald grossly oversimplifies the Julian Assange issues (plural).
Firstly, real journalists, of which Assange is not one, know that they do not have the right to unfettered publication of information, even if it is under the banner of "Freedom of the Press".
US intelligence agencies argue that Assange put lives at risk by his un-redacted publication of information on Iraq and Afghanistan, a position that Australia's own intelligence agencies agree with.
And Mr Fitzgerald totally ignores the accusations of serious sexual offences laid against Assange in Sweden. Rather than face the investigation, Assange fled to the United Kingdom, where he was arrested on charges of suspected rape, unlawful coercion and multiple cases of sexual molestation. Rather than face the music, Assange again did a hop-skip-and-jump, breaching bail and seeking refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum and which became his home for many years, and where he continued to defy Swedish requests for his extradition under the pretext that it was a spurious attempt to engineer his extradition to the United States.
Assange's treatment over the years has been, at least in part, of his own making. He is a complex and flawed character and no hero in many people's eyes.
David Brown
