OPINION

Themselves to blame

Re: "Police extortion racket in the crosshairs", (BP, May 13).

The most recent reports of extortion founded on bad law are consistent with what the public has come to expect from the Royal Thai Police. The reports also help explain why police are so consistently opposed to rational, just drug laws based on evidence: you can't extort people for victimless crimes unless their acts are deemed crimes, however harmless to society.

Apart from enabling mafia gangs to get rich, the major consequence of criminalising personal decisions that do not harm others is to encourage corruption, including the reported extortion. If the drug laws were sane and in keeping with good morals, police and like-minded officials would lose a major source of income, and society would be much better off in every way.

Exploiting goodwill

Re: "Prayut lashes out at pantry raiders", (BP, May 13).

I wish I could say I am surprised some of our community pantries have recently been raided. However, anyone with knowledge of either the Great Depression or of socialist states like Cuba and Venezuela, will be in no way surprised by this behaviour. Sadly, in every planned and closed-market economy, there are always people who take advantage of resources which are intended for the public good because they perceive that there are simply no other options available to them.

Hoarding, desperation and increased crime in the community are hallmarks of most government-centric economies. This whole episode has revealed what life really is like in a country lacking an open market for human talent. The longer these lockdowns go on, the more diverse the abuses will be. The history of heavily socialist states clearly warns that abuses will only increase as people's resources deteriorate. Stolen food and high crime are the reality of closed markets everywhere from China, to Cuba, and to most government-engineered markets in between. Why should Thailand be any different?

Cheap political points

Since food is more valuable than jewellery for some people these days, I am surprised no one has suggested posting a policeman at these community pantries. This is not an ideal solution, but there are some seriously hungry people here and in my opinion serious measures need to be taken to help them. I also find it disgusting that some people are trying to take advantage of people's misery to score political points by handing out food and other supplies in front of cameras, but if I were poor and hungry enough I guess smiling and pretending to be happy would be a small price to pay to get something to eat.

Fake figures?

The Department of Disease Control (DDC) informs us that as of May 12, figures for the outbreak in Thailand are 3,015 confirmed cases and 56 deaths. They add a further figure of 103,858 as PUI (patients under investigation).

The excellent Wikipedia Covid-19 website gives us a comprehensive review, including a breakdown of each individual case history. Here the DDC figures for Thailand are repeated, but go on to describe PUI as "suspected cases". An asterisk refers us to an explanation below which informs us that "suspected cases have not been confirmed as being due to this strain by laboratory tests, although some other strains may have been ruled out".

Can somebody please assure me that I'm mistaken in concluding that the numbers we are receiving may be based on manifestly incomplete information.