The alcohol ban

General News - Wednesday December 19, 2007

POSTBAG

The alcohol ban

E-mail: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th / Snail mail: 136 Na Ranong Road, Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110, Thailand

I have to write in response to Paul Slack's emotive and inaccurate letter of Dec 17: "Why ban tourist fun?". Paul should show some respect for a perfectly sensible law to encourage voting in his host country, rather than moaning with exaggeration and misleading "facts". Tourism in Thailand is hardly a mess; those tourists that need alcohol every night to enjoy themselves are probably not the top choice for the Tourism Authority, and Paul must have been under some influence not to have noticed that this law has been in place for the last 10 years he has lived here.

MARK HOLLOWAY

----------------

Where there's a swill...

I read with interest the letter from the farang who has been residing in Thailand these past 10 years, who calls it "shameful" not to be able to buy a drink for two days. (Postbag, Dec 17).

Well, I don't think he has learned very much during his tenure in Thailand! I wasn't particularly looking for a drink last weekend, but I did have presented to me so many opportunities to obtain one.

At a local golfing tournament on Saturday I saw countless expats downing the amber liquid at the 19th hole.

On the Sunday at the local Thai-style beach restaurant, there were many people having a few beers and enjoying whatever spirits they pleased.

I'm sure there were always ways to imbibe as one may have wished to in the Land of Smiles. Nothing is, after all, as it seems. A friend of mine noticed many farangs had taken up drinking tea and coffee from large mugs all day at many bars in Pattaya.

If certain people cannot abstain from alcohol for two days, then one wonders just what type of visitor is being received in Thailand? Is the country a chosen venue for its cultural assets and natural charm and beauty, or a chance of an extended overseas pub crawl?

BUD WISER

Ban Chang, Rayong

----------------

Wrong bars closed

I am proud to report that all the bars for foreigners in Chiang Mai were completely closed down for three nights by the police, so that all of the foreign tourists could vote if they could vote.

People travelling here could see how serious the government was. Meanwhile, one tourist told me he found a Thai bar open and got more drunk than he had ever been in his life. Maybe the police should make sure all the Thai bars are closed and let the bars that cater to the foreign trade stay open? Duh.

LOTS OF LAUGHS

----------------

Serene drivers

My family and I have just returned to Melbourne, Australia after visiting Thailand for about two weeks. After my first visit to your great country, something struck me as odd on my arrival back home. Something which makes little or no sense. Perhaps one of your readers could help me understand it if they can.

Compared to our city streets, the traffic in Bangkok is many times thicker and slower; sometimes much faster. As a passenger, I felt I was in a giant pinball machine where I, the ball, never quite hit anything. To a newcomer, the traffic is a deftly controlled mayhem.

But nearly no Thai drivers get angry or impatient, or "lose it" as we say. In Australian cities we get furious in traffic much, much lighter than yours. So much so, some drivers have been knifed, beaten up or, most often, abused by other enraged and hysterical drivers. What is even more odd is that some of our drivers are impatient with other drivers who drive within the speed limit! Surely some madness is at work?

So how do the Thai drivers do it? What are they thinking as they crawl or fling their way across Bangkok? Is it because all Thai drivers have had Buddhist training at some time, and loss of control is bad karma, a loss of "attention" or a loss of "centre"? Or is it the realisation that a loss of patience will spiral an entire system out of control? Where have Thais learned their great patience and how to apply it so well? Please explain this mystery.

STEFAN CAREY

----------------

Crony system of politics and capitalism

Banyong Pongpanich is correct in his analysis of the current economic system in Thailand, which is prevalent in most Asean countries. However, the problem lies in the fact that both the political and economic systems are of a similar nature. Having read the many articles in the Bangkok Post over the past few weeks, referring to the political battles in each of the regions of Thailand, you could be forgiven for thinking that the whole political system is made up of various powerful family groups, either competing with each other for the spoils of office, or simply passing their positions onto other family members, in the manner of feudal lords.

These same families are the backbone of the crony capitalist system and, having achieved their political aims, are able to then achieve their economic aims with ease.

Unless there is acceptance in Thailand that the political changes that are necessary to reform politics are undertaken, then Thailand will continue to be like a dog chasing its tail. In advanced democracies, the military and the police are subject to parliament and may only become candidates once they have relinquished their posts in these institutions. They cannot both be creating and enforcing the will of the government as serving members of either service. Businessmen, or persons with considerable wealth, must declare all assets and interests, step down from directorships, create blind trusts and be at arms length, when making decisions if in government.

The public service institutions of treasury, health, education, etc, are free of direct interference and are there to undertake the policies of the elected representatives. Courts of law and tribunals hold the political and economic system together with consistent interpretations of both the constitutional and civil law. The distribution of wealth is undertaken through taxation, mainly based on the ability to pay and the level of one's position in the economic hierarchy, for both corporations and the general population. These are but a few examples of advanced democracy and capitalism in action.

As far as I can see, the crony capitalists/politicians of Thailand have little to say about taxation, especially when they can manipulate the law and not pay the billions of baht that should be contributed to the government coffers. Corporate accountability is lost in the ethos of saving face, rather than the ethos of the rule of law. The continued level of poor educational quality, which has always been a very handy tool of the elite, helps to maintain their power, as nothing is worse for them than people who start to ask questions of their leaders.

The Thai people will eventually lift themselves above the level of their representatives, as the Western countries did, over a long period of time. But I fear that the entrenched forces of military, police, political and economic cronyism will be fighting to hold them back.

ISAN FARANG

Bangkok Post