OPINION

THAI tailwinds

Re: "Panel mulls rescue plan for virus-hit Thai Airways", (BP, April 17).

Covid-19 appears to have been an absolute godsend for Thai Airways' (THAI) shareholders. While, its planes remain grounded, its shares have soared 354% to where they were trading back in December before we had ever heard of the virus. At that time THAI had not turned a profit since 2012, apart from a paltry satang per share in 2016, and was facing technical insolvency within the next couple of quarters with its shareholders' funds completely wiped out.

Now it will receive a bailout using taxpayers' money, justified by the lack of liquidity caused to global airlines by Covid-19, without the need to present a meaningful rehabilitation plan to address the lack of competitiveness and management inefficiencies that led to its near bankruptcy before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Since Thailand, unlike the US, does not own the world's reserve currency and consequently does not have the ability to print money to finance unlimited quantitative easing, it should be extremely careful in allocating the funds it will need to borrow and subsequently repay to finance stimulus. The cost of bailing out THAI is likely to be at least the equivalent of paying a month's worth of the emergency allowance of 5,000 baht a month to 9 million unemployed Thais, which the government seems to be struggling to fund beyond the first month. Bailing out shareholders of zombie companies that will most likely need to be bailed out again in the future does not seem to be a worthy use of government borrowings.

Re: "Coronavirus blues and clues in Thailand", (Opinion, April 17).

As Thitinan Pongsudhirak points out, Mother Nature's infinitely mindless Covid-19 assault on humanity also lays bare aspects of traditional Thai society that are themselves viruses sucking the life out of the nation.

The economic malaise of forced salvation has thrown into stark contrast the lives of those who preach "sufficiency economics" whilst living in careless luxury, even to the obscenity of fashion-coordinated face masks, and the precarious lives of the honest, hard-working Thai people -- the cooks, the taxi drivers, the vendors, the factory workers, the waiters, the teachers, and the good sex workers -- who create Thailand's wealth, now thrown on the bonfire to protect the ungrateful rich and powerful from natural reality.

And as the professor notes, the internet means that today even Thai citizens now know these truths about their nation's long-shrouded traditions. It will be most interesting to see how the self-replicating coup maker and the protege respond to the rising tides of awareness of Thai affairs among the Thai nation.

Roughly 12 million people who registered for the cash-handout programme were "not qualified". In a country where bureaucracy is the name of the game and where everything you need to do requires a visit to some govt office, this is the real situation. The only "real" jobs in this country are for those working in the myriad offices operated by government and wearing a uniform. Outside of that you don't exist.

The use of artificial intelligence technology to assess applications for the government's 5,000-baht "You will never be left behind" scheme appears to have resulted in many applications being wrongly rejected. I know a number of small-time vendors who run stalls in markets closed by the BMA who received text messages saying they are not eligible because they can still make sales. This ignores the fact that it is impossible for them to make sales while their market remains closed. They do not have an online business.

Hopefully, the appeals mechanism will reverse these nonsensical decisions. The likelihood of this will be much greater if the appeals are assessed by civil servants rather than the repeated use of unintelligent AI technology that is clearly not up to the task. We can only hope that struggling Thai citizens will indeed "never be left behind".

It seems to me that the Ministry of Finance officials should start thinking of alternative ways to leave their building if they can't do a better job of figuring out who the neediest people in Thailand are.

One hundred protesters could turn into thousands when people start feeling hungry and desperate enough.

China has many facets and dark sides when it comes to questionable actions dating back to Tiananmen Square. Its human rights cloud is endless. The secretive, dark side of China must end so it can be trusted and respected. The sad fact is the Chinese regime answers to no one and cares little about how we see them. China needs to show some humility and accept the harm and damage it has caused each and every one us all around the world. China needs to make changes within and start being a more open land and make Hong Kong and Taiwan free nations. It needs to be able to handle scrutiny and not deliver propaganda in the media.

Re: "Relief cash only covers a month", (BP, April 16).

So, the Emperor (in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale) has no clothes -- or nearly none. "Earlier, the government said it would allocate 5,000 baht per month for three months ... to 8 to 9 million (persons) hit by the economic shutdown" (BP, April 16, 2020). Now, PM Prayut Chan-o-cha reveals that we have cash in hand for only a single month. The need for cash is dire, and even the navy has given up two of its beloved submarines. And yet the PM promises that taxpayers will once again rescue Thai Airways International?

PM Prayut should not put THAI before the stomachs of millions of poor Thais. THAI lost over 12 billion baht in 2019, and then-president Sumeth Damrongchaitham said that such losses were normal for airlines amid fierce competition and price dumping to win customers. He added: "More than 20 airlines worldwide have shut down [recently], including large ones." In short, THAI will continue to drain the lifeblood from our taxpayers for years to come.

Other than "face", there's no compelling need for a national carrier, eg, it was a private carrier which evacuated the Thais from Wuhan, not THAI.

The millions of poor out-of-work Thais are infinitely more important to Thailand than any airline. Lavishly thank THAI's loyal staff, keep all contractual obligations and more -- and fully privatise the carrier.

From letters I've read over the years, I think there are probably more than a few people here who don't care whether Eric Bahrt goes on living or not either. In his latest letter, he sounds a lot to me like Doctor Oz, who recently said on the Fox propaganda channel that opening schools in America should be considered because only 2-3% of the kids would die from the coronavirus. Sadly, unlike Eric Bahrt, given a choice, they probably would care if they lived or died. I know their parents would.

It is quite positive that the net cases of Covid-19 are going down in Thailand, and the social distancing being strictly enforced by the government is working to a good level. As we have witnessed in South Korea and Singapore, the numbers can shoot up again. Therefore, the practice of social distancing should continue, where possible. One of the areas I am concerned with is visas renewals and extensions at the immigration departments throughout the country. The thousands of foreigners living in Thailand, who have been given amnesty until April 30, may flood the immigration departments after April 30. May I request the Thai government to kindly consider accepting and processing all visa renewals or extension applications and visa fees online. Only those cases with incomplete information, incorrect information or special circumstances should be asked to report or contact their local immigration department. It will not only save time, but both immigration staff and foreigners will stay safe.

Globalist gloom and doom purveyor Agence France-Presse had this nugget from the Gates Foundation: "And the chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation laid bare the challenge facing humanity to shield itself from the virus in future.

"There are seven billion people on the planet," said Mark Suzman. "We are going to need to vaccinate nearly every one. There is no manufacturing capacity to do that."

The vaccine industry has decimated the lives of millions around the world and vaccines are not safe. Google "Gates, Africa, vaccines" should proof be of interest. If the death rate from Covid-19 is less than 0.5%, which appears to be true, the above statement becomes sheer lunacy.

Everyone must question the motives of those who propagate messages of this kind. What degrees of greed and of due caution are weighed on the scale of decision making when these reckless statements are made, and who will pay for the errors when they manifest?

I agree with Somsak Pola in his April 16 letter that the Chinese embassy's screed is propaganda. But it did score some good points, especially in slamming "some Western politicians" (read: Donald J Trump) for passing the buck.

I commend the embassy's wordsmiths on their command of English rhetoric. But I caution them against succumbing to a verbal tic I noticed. The Chinese embassy is fond of paired categories. Instead of choosing between two words with similar meanings, the embassy uses both. It's OK to do this occasionally, but if you do it too often it distracts the reader from focusing on the meaning and makes him start counting the number of paired categories. These can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or even phrases.

I counted 22 examples in this letter of 597 words. (And, yes, I do have too much time on my hands.) A few examples: "transparent and timely", "full and effective", "prevention and control", "hatred and mutual blame", "unity and cooperation", ending with the concluding words " fairly and comprehensively".

The problem with habitually using paired categories is that it makes the writer sound indecisive. Why use two words when one will do? Choose the better of the two and delete the other. This will lend vigour to the Chinese embassy's propaganda.

I would send the embassy a bill for this lesson, but I am confident and certain that they would reply and react negatively and unfavourably.