OPINION

Rise above the folly

Re: "Foreigners flee Thai stocks", (Business, March 2).

Maybe it's time to do a bit of inward-looking? The SET is increasingly dominated by speculators, where the most active stock is regularly the same name(s), trading at a stratospheric p/e of 75 and barely warrants rational investing. Yet regulators don't flag it. IPOs are speculated on the first few days, then all but forgotten while never followed up. Gresham's law is a longwise principle that states that "bad money drives out good". The article rightly points out that investors should keep focusing on high dividends stocks, which rise above this folly.

For freedom's sake

Re: "5 parties pledge to not support vapes", (BP, Feb 24).

The five parties, the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), the Democrat Party (of course), Chartthaipattana, the Pheu Thai Party, and the Thai Liberal Party (really?), are to be commended for publicly exposing their strong stance against the notion that adults be permitted to decide for themselves how best to enjoy their own lives, in this case with regard to vaping, something that all five parties oppose for uniformly bad reasons.

Of course, this opposition to accepting the right of adults to the liberty to choose also supports the status quo that generates such lucrative extra income streams for members of the Royal Thai Police. Unjust laws tend to do that, at least since the US gave their Mafia a major boost by prohibiting alcohol back in 1920. Thai criminal gangs and their loyal employees in law enforcement are no less slow than their US counterparts in the 1920s at spotting a gift horse when morally challenged politicians indulging popular prejudices hand them the reins to riches.

Yes, e-cigarettes are almost certainly harmful. So is living in Chiang Mai's filthy air. So, too, is pigging out on sugary drinks or biking on the streets of Bangkok. Alcohol and tobacco might not be more harmful to users than e-cigarettes, but even if e-cigarettes were proven to be (they have not been) a significantly greater health risk than regular cigarettes, that could not be a sufficient reason to ban them for use by adults. Living in a free nation where individual liberty is respected does entail accepting that some adults will do things that are unhealthy for themselves, such as drinking alcohol.

If those campaigning against vaping are sincere, they will also propose banning alcohol on exactly the same health grounds and to protect children who might, horror of horrors, otherwise get their hands on whisky or champagne. The Thai mafia eagerly awaits such a promising new business opportunity.

Be less critical

Re: "US policy fails Again", (PostBag, Feb 9).

This time, Kuldeep Nagi writes copiously about everything wrong in only one place in the world because of "the right's tough guys". Where there is a hint of a niche to open a derogatory scab or wound about his own adopted country (not Thailand, where he lives), he picks and picks at it so that his picking will make it fester and grow into something ugly.

If the very country where he was born disappointed him so much that he fled it and sought citizenship with "the right's tough guys", one would naturally surmise he would be grateful to his newly chosen country that he freely swore allegiance to. Instead, he chooses to harp about his adoptive country.

One notes that Kuldeep Nagi's college degree is in botany, not political science. In that case, one would think that he would bash poisonous polliwogs, not the politics of his adoptive people.

Aiding democracy

Thai universities should help voters to be better informed -- and they're failing us. Our universities were not meant to be ivory towers, ignoring the real world.

For example, Thammasat University lists a key strength as "advancing society, democracy, morality, arts and culture for ... society." Yet, despite elections looming in a few months, universities are not helping our nascent democracy to develop.

Informed voters are key to a vibrant democracy. All candidates promise mirages and deliver the wind. So, we must know that what candidate ABC is promising is actually workable economically and politically and how Khun ABC differs from her rivals. That's where universities come in, for our professors and students are trained to objectively evaluate, question, and improve.

Universities should encourage their students, who are already or soon will be of voting age, to form campus clubs as the youth arms of their favoured political party and take on their rivals in campus debates with faculty members as impartial moderators and club advisers, going over each other's platforms and track records so they can be more robust.

Student clubs should host televised debates between leading candidates, so voters can see if candidates really have in-depth knowledge and expertise to lead.

For example, Ung Ing wants to double, even triple, wages; how will workers raise their productivity enough to be worth that much? Given that whistle-blowers like Chuvit Kamolvisit uncover police scandals daily, should Prayut still hide ex-graft buster Vicha Mahakun's report on police reform? Should the RTP be decentralized?

Universities -- help democracy grow.

Trainspotting

Re: "Keep Thailand's rail history on track", (Opinion, Feb 24).

Associate Professor Parinya Chukaew's opinion on heritage matters seemingly reflects what is in my soul, as the Germans have it, those who built that first line to Chiang Mai.

It's indeed highly overdue that what still can be saved be finally recognised as an enormous cultural asset hiding and wasting away in plain sight!

It would help to add that there are train lines (such as the mountain railways of India etc) that have been declared Unesco World Heritage Sites. Both you and I could nominate our own candidates in this kingdom, I'm sure.

Everything Associate Professor Parinya writes is spot-on, yet, as is quite normal (not a "professional deformation"), you seem totally focused on the station architecture. May I add my own perspective, slightly more "holistic", even if this word is coming a bit too much in fashion?

I have seen some of these restored stations removed from their original sites, and they look embalmed, plasticised, and cold -- a bit like Ho Chi Minh's mummy or Lenin's in Moscow. However, I agree with preservation or conservation -- maybe, not quite this way.

For me, Thai stations are gesamtkunstwerk or a total work of art, beginning with their locations. Just a few examples -- those seemingly afloat on a shimmering sea of young green paddy fields lapping straight up to the tracks -- their tiny bucolic stations more dreaming islands than anything else (just a single one for all: Huai Sam Phat. The ones guarded by forests: Huai Sieu?)

Those shaded by great, old rain trees Nam Phong or Huai Suan Kwang. The mountain stations Khun Tan and many more. Even those (quite shockingly) located right amidst prime archaeological sites, like a station in Lop Buri province.

Or simply a glorious terminus, like Kantang in the southern coastal province of Trang?

The royal ones I should have begun with, not just Chitrlada but also Bang Pa In, of course, Hua Hin as their jewel, even Sawankhalok, the side-line built exclusively for King Rama VI's visits to Sukhothai.

What really delights me is their lovingly tended trees, plants, and flowers, trellis-gateways which also enchant foreigners of all shades: European, Japanese, and so on. These are elongated, straight-line dream gardens, and adding to their loveliness, each one is an example of Thai individualism, taste (even if "bad"), and hard labour.

Even their quirky humour, adorned (or disfigured) with kitsch statuettes of staggering variety (one station on the Korat line even tarting up their palms with neon-coloured fake coconuts). For me, such places are destinations in their own right, as the Michelin Guide has it: Vaut le voyage, worth the whole journey!

Can you take more -- like a long train schedule, with many, many lovely stations?

Are they intangible cultural assets? Including the ring of those brass bells and the beautiful, proudly-polished, iconic objects themselves?

The station masters' immaculate uniform and proud ceremony with a whistle, flags red or green while minutes before, he was probably crouching in his vegetable patch and will promptly return there the minute the holy schedule permits.

For me, the SRT staff are probably the only "clean", dutiful uniforms in the country -- who needs to bribe a train conductor?

The bustle and cackle of the train food vendors, mostly old ladies still with their baskets swinging from long bamboo on their shoulders. The smell of Isan gai yang (grilled chicken) or all the other delicacies (but not always!) for sale?

If all that must disappear for progress, shouldn't your students record all that culture, individual videos of that inexhaustibly rich spectacle? I have done so for many years and would gladly turn what I have over to you!

As to possible uses for dismantled old stations: may I add a few others? Europe is dotted with exquisite, small Thai-style pavilions, mostly royal-sponsored: in Germany, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. They are much loved, cherished and visited by the locals.

If Thai communities don't appreciate them, what about goodwill donations to foreign countries, cementing friendship: Old Thai railway stations in China, Japan or European parks, even in Dubai or Saudi? Bingo!