OPINION

Firming it up

Re: "Bankers allay app concerns", (Business, Nov 9).

It appears you've made a mistake. The language is not precise. In the second paragraph you state that "from transfers starting at 50,000 baht….."

But in paragraph 8 you state … "The TBA confirmed that mobile banking users who want to transfer up to 50,000 baht etc etc….."

These are conflicting statements which mean different things.

The first statement implies that transfers under 50,000 don't need a facial scan. The second implies that all transfers under 50,000 need a facial scan.

Which one is correct?

ESG perils

Re: "Carbon-offset market's dark side", (Opinion, Nov 9) & "Dow's 2023 Business Impact Fund drives social change and sustainability", (Online, Nov 10).

The Stock Exchange of Thailand rates listed companies according to ESG (as guided by the UN) and in their information for companies they admit their evaluations are aligned with "changing sustainability trends at the international and national levels".

What are the effects of ESG ratings? The changes in "trends" which the SET refers to are generally of minor significance regarding governance, but in recent years can make a big impact when it comes to social and environmental criteria.

The ESG rating of a company effectively influences investor sentiment. Yet the social and environmental aspects of ESG criteria guidelines are in many ways arbitrary and formulated with politically biased concepts as their foundation.

This often means the end result may have long term negative effects upon shareholders, society, and the environment. See the Project Syndicate's excellent "Carbon-offset market's dark side" for further insights.

Thus, when "carbon footprint" is the overarching criteria applied to a corporation, it reflects an entirely politically driven agenda with no environmental benefit.

This allows large cap corporations to continue to behave appallingly and pollute the planet in extremely deadly ways while simultaneously boasting high ESG ratings.

Mining companies are obvious examples, but consider that antibiotics, hormones, and hundreds of other drugs pollute our fresh water, plastics are everywhere in the ocean, and glyphosate is still ubiquitous throughout the nation.

This extensive pollution is killing large numbers of people and animals today. Can anyone prove that CO2 is doing this today or will do it tomorrow? Of course not, so why is it the pie-in-the-sky gold star for an ESG award?

The Stock Exchange of Thailand should focus on things that make sense, such as solving the problem of shares price manipulation, rampant insider trading, serpentine share distributions, and opaque nominee practices.

Better care needed

Re: "Overseas work lures Thais despite risks", (Business, Oct 23).

It is a tragedy that so many Thai agricultural workers have been caught up in the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Thai workers have been a growing presence in Israel since 1987. At that time, Israel began replacing Palestinians with migrants from Asia and Africa, especially in agriculture.

Israel signed a formal labour welfare agreement with Thailand in 2011, with the result that close to 100% of the foreign workers in the agricultural sector came from Thailand.

But subsequent reporting by Human Rights Watch and the BBC found Thai agricultural workers encountered abuses while being housed in squalid conditions.

So why do so many Thai workers opt for this situation in a foreign country far from home? It must be no surprise that 84% of these workers come from Isan where wages are so low.

Maybe we should be considering improving the lot of our Isan brothers and sisters back here in Thailand and in this way protect them.

Another report plea

Re: "Sticker on truck to be probed", (BP, Nov 10).

Corruption has been pervasive throughout our law and order system. Forming yet another committee to probe isolated incidents like grossly overweight trucks is just to put another Band-Aid on a festering wound.

PM Sreetha needs to release the three-year-old report of graft buster Khun Vicha Mahakun's panel on reforming the Royal Thai Police and Office of the Attorney General for parliamentary debate and solve the system as a whole.

No PM wants to break the rice bowls of the many mega-crooks he commands, which is why former PM Prayut Chan-o-cha hid Vicha's report from us for so long; Sreetha must tread extra gingerly, as Pheu Thai's godfather was convicted for corruption on a grand scale.

If we want a society where our leaders serve us rather than milk us dry, the public must be politically active in monitoring our elected leaders. and our media must keep the spotlight on them as well.

PM Srettha, release the Vicha Mahakun report!