Learn from past probe
Re: "Marine Police chief transferred over smuggled oil", (BP, July 8). Civil servants are transferred so they won't interfere with an investigation into their alleged wrongdoings.
But when the probe is over, the results should be made public, and all evidence put on the internet so we can see that justice has been done.
Marine Police chief Pritthipong Nuchanat was transferred while the probe into the disappearance of three ships carrying 330,000 litres of smuggled oil from a Marine Police pier last month was carried out.
When the outcome is announced, all evidence should be put on the internet, for justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done.
What must not happen again is the probe into the recent feud between top cop Pol Gen Torsak "Big Tor" Sukvimol and his deputy, Pol Gen Surachate "Big Joke" Hakparn, who each accused the other of being involved in money laundering.
Both cops had insisted that they had credible evidence, as befits their exalted rank as investigators.
Yet the probe committee claimed it found no evidence of wrongdoing while refusing to deliver its report in person to the media.
Many suspected a whitewash in the case between Big Tor and Big Joke. Will history repeat itself with the Marine Police -- especially since PM/Police Commissioner Srettha Thavisin is now stonewalling the public, refusing to disclose ex-graftbuster Vicha Mahakun panel's recommendations on reforming the police and public prosecutor's office?
Who's going to pay?
Re: "Anutin insists cannabis law must not be reversed", (BP, July 10).
Anutin Charnvirakul has gone to the crux of the issue in the debate on whether cannabis should be recriminalised after it was decriminalised just two years ago. He said: "Recriminalising cannabis would dent investors' confidence in the country. Investors need [policy] stability."
When cannabis was decriminalised in June 2022, dispensaries opened almost overnight throughout the country by entrepreneurs who, let us not forget, legally invested huge sums of money under the new legislation.
I was in Pattaya last week, and on a one-kilometre strip between Pattaya and Jomtien, there were no less than ten cannabis outlets. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 700 dispensaries in the city. So, how many thousands of outlets are there throughout the rest of Thailand?
If the government recriminalises cannabis now, is it going to reimburse the billions of baht invested by these entrepreneurs? I doubt it, which, as Mr Anutin rightly suggests, will send shock waves through the business community at the government's policy vacillation.
Positive spillover
Re: "China sees foreign visitor numbers more than double after lifting visa rules", (Business, July 7).
It is clear that China's visa-free scheme for foreign visitors, which has been in place since May this year, has had a dramatic impact on the number of tourists visiting the country.
The Covid-19 pandemic hit China hard, and experts estimated that boosting the number of foreign visitors could help increase the nation's gross domestic product by about 1%.
This could have a positive effect on the region as a whole -- other countries in the region whose economies are closely linked to China would benefit from a more economically stable China.