OPINION

Drug war déjà vu

Re: "Pheu Thai vows to rid Buri Ram of illegal drugs", (BP, March 5).

Pheu Thai's promise made by Thaksin Shinawatra's daughter at a campaign rally in Buriram to "transform this northeastern province by ridding it of all kinds of illegal drugs" inevitably recalls the horror of her father's morally repugnant war on drugs in 2003, which saw more than 2,000 Thais killed under circumstances that have never been adequately clarified, let alone seen justice done.

There is precisely one way to justly rid a province or any other jurisdiction of illegal drugs: remove them from the list of illegal drugs; there will then be no illegal drug problem. That would be just. It would also be practical. It would also reduce drug harm to society, which has never appeared to be the goal of Thaksin or any like-minded politician riding the wave of populist unreason fuelled by blind prejudice whipped up by political players to serve only their own dubious agendas.

If Pheu Thai were proposing to eliminate illegal drugs by duly reforming a policy that is a solidly proven failure, it would deserve praise. If it merely seeks to repeat with variations one of the most shameful populist episodes of Thaksin's time as PM, it deserves only disdain at best.

Re: "Thai economic prospects far from rosy", (Opinion, Feb 9).

At first glance, things look great for the economy this year. But as has been the case up until now, Chartchai Parasuk cautions that things are not as rosy as they may seem, economically speaking.

All in all, things do not look so good for the economy this year. It will be interesting to see what the above writer prescribes to be the antidote for what ails both the Thai and world economies in 2023 in his upcoming BP series of articles.

Yesterday, I went to a Bangkok department store where they had caged hawks, owls, cockatoos and parrots for people to see and take photographs of.

They are wild animals, and exhibiting them that way is unnatural and depressing. The hawks and owls were chained in cages, and previous to yesterday, an owl was chained in an open environment alone, so when people got close to them, they must have felt frightened and depressed.

In one cage, the organiser allowed people who wanted to feed food to them (the food was there for the people to have bought) to enter, resulting in the birds feeling even more frightened.

People must understand more about wild animals being exhibited this way and treat them properly. They belong in the wilderness.

Re: "Hear, hear!", (PostBag, March 5) & Re: "Monitor lizards not for meatball factory, say police", (BP, March 2).

Regarding yesterday's PostBag, Mr/Ms Reptile make very valid points, but they politely omit that us lot have also been responsible for the ongoing destruction of the species' natural homes through our insatiable need for "development" projects.

This imposition forces Mr/Ms Reptile to migrate to less hospitable and, more often, less fragrant surroundings where such occupation is unwelcome and even capitalised on by local entrepreneurs.