Help Thai farmers
Re: "Debt woes far from over", (Editorial, July 31). The elephant in the Thai debt room is that it's nearly impossible for Thai farmers to pay off their debt -- and each government, including Srettha's, carefully dodges the issue, letting the boils fester and grow.
The situation is critical. The average Thai farm household has debts of over seven years' total household income, and the average Thai farmer is 58 years old. Only 20% of our farmers finished M6. Almost 2/3 of Thais (which includes farmers) struggle to read and understand simple instructions, like "Take one tablet of medicine every four hours, but only when your head aches."
While Srettha is to be praised for reducing debt to some extent, he needs to make a sustained, long-term effort in making farmers more productive and thus able to pay off their debt. I have seen no recognition of this problem by Srettha, much less achievements in solving it.
A disastrous war
Re: "Nato's blame game", (PostBag, July 13) & "Nato overreach", (PostBag, July 31).
Colin Roth and Paul Renaud both grievously misrepresent the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Roth unfortunately confuses the terms facilitate and instigate. Nobody is accusing Xi Jinping of inciting Mr Putin to attack Ukraine but China is helping Russia's war effort both by not condemning the invasion and by building up its own strategic stockpiles with the purchase of cheap oil Russia would otherwise have difficulty selling.
Mr Renaud portrays the US as the "provocateur" of Russia's invasion by virtue of its push for Ukraine to become a member of Nato. In fact, the US has in recent years been at best lukewarm on Ukraine's potential membership.
My own conjecture is that when Mr Trump lost the 2020 election and was not in a position to make good on a secret deal not to intervene if Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr Putin felt pressured into making a preemptive move on Kyiv in the hope both the US and Nato would accept it as a fait accompli as they had with Crimea. Instead, the hasty and clumsy "special military operation" fell apart, the West had time to come to Ukraine's defence and we now have a disastrous war that was neither provoked nor initiated by either the US or Nato.
Be more transparent
The ability to publish comments in a newspaper is a hallmark of a vibrant democracy and gives readers a voice. The Bangkok Post allows this in their comment section, which is an achievement in itself. However, it is equally important that the rules for moderating these comments are clear and transparent.
Recently, a comment containing offensive content was published and was not removed despite multiple reports. This raises questions about the effectiveness and consistency of moderation practices.
The header of the Post's comment section says comments will be moderated, and certain types of content will be ignored. Yet without clear guidelines on their website, it remains unclear how this moderation is actually carried out. It is crucial the Post revises and clarifies its moderation policy to maintain reader trust and promote respectful discourse. Readers deserve to know how their contributions are handled.