OPINION

Worm escapes hook

Re: "Prawit to resign if NACC watch probe finds him guilty", (BP, Jan 17)

It is impossible to nail Gen Prawit Wongsuwon on his watches scandal. Here's why.

First, by the principle of universal law, the burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. So Gen Prawit doesn't have to disclose how he got those watches; by contrast, the accusers have to prove he got them illegally, which will take forever.

Second, Gen Prawit came to power by violating the supreme law of the land, the constitution, and he got away with it. Do you really expect him to be stopped dead by the feeble laws about declaring assets or being unusually rich? Me thinketh not.

Third, Pol Gen Watcharapol Prasarnrajkit, the country's corruption czar, was appointed by the junta government and was Gen Prawit's former subordinate. By Thai core values, former subordinates are always beholden to their former bosses. You get the picture.

And finally, when push comes to shove, ie Gen Prawit is found guilty of falsely declaring his assets, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha can always prescribe the panacea S44 to cure his "big brother". I'm not a lawyer. In fact I'm a high school dropout. But I think it is a cinch to get Gen Prawit off the hook, scot-free.

We are constantly reminded of the alleged number of watches the defence minister has the opportunity to wear. What I don't understand is if, as we are also reminded, there is an investigation into the source of the watches, why he would want to keep coming out with a different one?

One can only assume that he must be confident that any outcome will confirm that he has no reason to worry what the social media says or thinks.

Re: "Plastic bag catastrophe", (PostBag, Jan 17).

Yes, when I was younger, like Bernie Hodges, supermarkets would pack in large paper bags. Fish and chips came on a piece of paper (the oily newsprint helped spread dioxin into one's system) and candy was wrapped in paper, too. Garbage was put into those big supermarket bags to be toted to the collection bins in the street, sometimes so wet that the paper bottoms fell out, the messy garbage left to litter staircases, elevators and sidewalks. Forests were being depleted for paper demand. Today they are still being depleted for furniture demand.

One could say "paper bag catastrophe" instead of "plastic bag catastrophe". Both are losing situations until a better alternative is found. Meanwhile, biodegradable and recyclable plastic bags are still preferable, for my money.

Recently, I saw Laura Ingraham of the Christian Right say on Fox "News" that liberals ignore the fact that their hero Martin Luther King was a Christian minister.

But when King was asked if it was odd that as a Christian minister he was a follower of Gandhi, a Hindu, he said: "There is more than one road to God." King also believed there was a universal force for good and that anyone fighting for justice, even an atheist, was part of that force.

What a far cry from the Christian Right in America with its history of racism, genocide against native Americans and contempt for all other religions. The famous runaway slave Frederick Douglas said the cruelest Christian slave owners were the most religious ones.

While King was also a harsh critic of the Vietnam War, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist Christian television evangelist and leader of America's so-called "moral majority", could not name one war in American history that he didn't approve of.

For these war-loving, Trump-loving, black-hating fascists to now claim Martin Luther King as one of their own makes me sick to my stomach.

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