Missing the point
Re: "Thaksin reclaims political centre stage", (Opinion, Aug 24).
Thaksin key plan and vision for Thailand outlined during his talk to the audience of mostly concessionaires and billionaires, appears to benefit the rich and elites but disenfranchises the needy. His public address indeed undermines the prime ministership of his daughter.
It is very apparent now that Thailand has a "behind-the-curtain PM". Most of his nothing-new agenda reflects on his past "Thaksinomics" ideology.
While most rich and developed nations are trying to narrow the income disparity gap, Thaksin widens it. He did not even touch on the major cultural and structural problem endemic to Thailand: corruption, militarism, patronym, nepotism, and cronyism.
To me this is no surprise considering his past record on transparency and accountability. I still recall his "honest mistake" plea to the Constitutional Court on his shareholding concealment case; the sale of his telecom shares to Temasek without paying income tax; changing telecom regulations and lending to Myanmar to benefit his company; the rice pledging scheme under his sister's premiership, and on and on.
He also mentions his wish to give equal economic opportunity to people, forgetting that he said some time ago that "I would only give back to the people who only voted for me".
The Tak Bai massacre case accepted for deliberation by a court in Narathiwat will come to haunt him. Time will tell whether his vision or even campaign pledges will come to fruit, or are just another ploy.
Up the screening
Re: "Tourism firms jittery over mpox impact", (Business, Aug 23).
How many direct flights are there from the African continent -- a handful, maybe?
Surely nearly all arrivals, from many different African nations, would transit via a 3rd country?
How can these arrivals be screened?
Science triumphs
Re: "Musk's Neuralink says second trial implant went well, no thread retraction issue", (World, Aug 22).
As five centuries of increasing value have already demonstrated, science performs actual miracles to improve human lives. Prayer, on the other hand, continues to do exactly as well as it did 6,000 years or more ago.
Chinese red herring
Re: "Behind the bargains", (PostBag, Aug 22).
Michael Setter reports as facts, "forced labour and child labour in the Xinjiang region", and says they are the cause of the low price of Chinese goods.
Anyone is free to visit Xinjiang. Some 265,000,000 tourists did so in 2023. As far as we know, the US Embassy in Beijing has never visited. Reports from people who have been there do not support allegations of human rights abuses.
Allegations are not facts. Nor necessarily are they lies, of course. I have been to other parts of China and have seen ethnic minorities leading traditional ways of life, even while being part of China.
Xinjiang accounts for only about 2% of China's population and its main economic activity is agriculture. It is difficult to see how it could have the alleged impact on prices of Chinese goods. Maybe prices are low because Chinese factories are efficient?
Or perhaps the price issue is just an excuse to revive human rights abuse allegations?
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