OPINION

Try Guantanamo

An interesting news story was broadcast this week on MCOT 107FM.

 It seems there are plans for a seminar in Bangkok, everyone invited of course, a lecture about the necessity of eradicating corruption.

I could not help but wonder why the prime minister does not start eliminating corruption within the highest ranks of his government, the higher echelons of the military, the police, and the civil service.

The daily reports of corruption within the ranks, the welfare department disbursing money to the poor and the elderly still continue. Not a word is ever printed about their arrest, trial, conviction, punishment. It is all the same old nonsense. The perp was transferred to an inactive post. How about trying transfer to Guantanamo instead of some luxury retirement area annexed to a golf course?

It seems to me that this obsession with what Thaksin Shinawatra may or may not be up to is a convenient way of keeping people's eyes glued on him instead of, for example, the latest Forbes list of the wealthiest Thais, which shows that this government has done a lot to help the rich who are now one third richer this year than last, but almost nothing for the poor.

I have no love for Thaksin who I consider to be a war criminal for his war on drugs, but I will give him credit for helping the poor a lot more than this government has. Even the people involved in the coup before this one did more for the poor than this group has.

Re: "Sticking up for the PM", (PostBag, May 5).

Once again Clara Holzer defends the indefensible without a shred of evidence to support her beliefs.

Ms Holzer's generalisations are totally unsupported. For example, how has she concluded: "thanks to the military government Thailand has managed to retain its sovereignty" and, ridiculously, "there is a lot more peace than during the former democratically elected governments"? And, "the "majority of the Thai people think the same way [as her]".

I think Ms Holzer's crystal balls need a good scrubbing.

Re: "Fake visa schools to be hit with charges", (BP, May 5).

As a foreign student who is soon graduating with a bachelor's degree from a Thai college, I applaud the Royal Thai Police for increasingly cracking down on schools that are nothing more than visa mills. However, many more changes are necessary.

Foreign students are not allowed to work in Thailand, yet the Immigration Department is not routinely asking for a comprehensive financial statement showing long-term fiscal solvency and source of income for adult international students who have yet to obtain undergraduate degrees. Although the Immigration Department does audit student grades and credit hours, there is generally no serious mechanism in place to assess undergraduate student competency in between when they complete their studies and when they get their Thai diplomas; basically leaving for-profit programmes on an honour system that runs counter to their financial interests.

Additionally, Thailand does not allow people to teach English without an undergraduate degree but a quick Google search shows many 120-hour TEFL programmes that are still operating in this country. This crackdown is a good start, but all international programmes in Thailand that are on the undergraduate level or below need to be reviewed and Thailand needs to consider closing 120-hour TEFL/TESOL stand-alone certificate programmes for foreign students as they fulfill no significant domestic need.

Re: "People power", (PostBag, May 4).

It has been repeatedly claimed that land upon which housing has been constructed for judicial officials in Chiang Mai "belongs to the military and is supervised by the Treasury Department" and thus the construction is "legal".

But don't the military and the Treasury Department exist to serve the people? Shouldn't the people therefore be fully consulted and respected by the 

 and the Treasury Department before decisions affecting national assets are made?

AFP, like Reuters, is a global news agency which presents itself as an unbiased source of news. However this is far from the case, primarily due to the influence of the French foreign ministry and related ministries.

What AFP neglected to mention in their leftist reporting on US politics, "Russiagate questions for Trump probe possible obstruction", was that the legislative branch of government has oversight responsibilities for the Department of Justice and the FBI. So when deputy attorney-general Rod Rosenstein said, "the justice department will not bow to threats" he was whistling Dixie in the face of his pending impeachment.

The absurd questions leaked to The New York Times, (another liberal news source with severely damaged credibility), like "what were you thinking when ...?" have no place in the context of an investigation under US law, and their idiotic construction suggests they are part of the continuing disinformation campaign orchestrated by desperate democrats both past and present.

Readers cognisant of the looming constitutional crisis in the United States will readily smell the rats.

Trump is not the subject of this investigation, has not been accused of any crime and can fire Mueller and Rosen at any time at his discretion. That AFP participated in this propaganda dissemination exercise is indicative of how well financed, powerful and ruthless the forces arrayed against President Trump really are.

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