OPINION

Thaksin's agenda

Re: "Better solution", (PostBag, May 16) & "Fixing Thailand's cannabis regulations", (BP, May 8).

Unlike Michael Setter, I am not convinced that free and fair elections, and certainly not constitutional reform, have anything to do with Thailand's farcical state of confusion over cannabis liberalisation.

It was never in doubt that, with the return of Thaksin, a former PM whose visceral hatred of drugs is notorious, PM Srettha would be "persuaded" to again outlaw recreational use of pot so the fallout was as far back in the rear view mirror as possible by the time the third member of the Thaksin dynasty is contesting the next election.

Even if the MFP again gets a majority, and can overcome the system stacked against it, the policy on marijuana use for medical purposes only will solidly benefit those who originally floated it, and there will be far more pressing issues to address than reviving the controversial debate on recreational use.

Slovak woes

Re: "Slovak PM in 'very serious' condition", (World, May 17).

Allow me to shed some light on the assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and the unbelievable spin surrounding its cause.

I love and know the wonderful Slovakia very well. My father was a Slovak and therefore I am your original Czechoslovak. Coincidentally, we have relatives living in Banská Bystrica, where Mr Fico was first treated.

However, what is not a coincidence is the sad fact that the would-be assassin, Juraj Cintula, 71, was a pensioner, writer and poet. Therefore this person, like me, lived through the horrors of communism for most of his life. Fortunately he is a bad marksman.

While I managed to escape the STB police and the apaparatiks after the Soviet invasion, he did not. Moreover, he lived with the communists who ran the country even after independence.

Mr Fico was an active, ardent member of the communist party. Under his premiership Slovakia became one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. Under his watch, journalist Jan Kuciak, who investigated the mafia connections to the Slovak government, was assassinated in February 2018, together with his girlfriend Martina. Only after the biggest demonstrations since the Velvet revolution did Mr Fico and his corrupt government resign.

I hope Mr Fico will recover, but will not return to politics.

Recognise the past

Re: "Thai Human Rights Council aspirations", (Opinion, May 17).

Well done, Bangkok Post, regarding the opinion piece "Thai Human Rights Council aspirations", by Vitit Muntarbhorn, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University.

You had the courage to publish it with the inclusion of the most forthright, honest sentence that I've read in the Post this century, and for several decades of the last: "The country still awaits the bravery of the pillars of the state to invalidate coups and their consequences rather than to accept tacitly the constitutions drafted by those who befriend coup leaders and their cohorts".

This is the sort of honest reason that Thailand needs. It is also the sort of peaceful speech that Thai law and its institutions are actively suppressing contrary to justice and basic democratic principles, as Prof Muntarbhorn so lucidly exposes.

As the erudite Burin Kantabutra rightly reminds us at intervals, the silence from those institutions and persons referred to has, with a single lame exception in 70 years, been ringing. Unfortunately, that sole, feebly voiced objection only highlights the decades of dead silence.

Beware of jab study

Re: "mRNA malaria vaccine due for first clinical trial", (BP, May 17).

Mahidol's new anti-malarial mRNA vaccine candidate is essentially Oxford University's technology, transferred to Thailand.

There is little possibility that the mRNA platform will have been re-designed from the extant model which could affect humans because the current model is deemed necessary to circumvent the body's ability to deactivate a naturally occurring pseudouridine-based mRNA inoculum.

Thus, we face the prospect of Mahidol injecting naïve Thai volunteers with a known experimental gene therapy. It is imperative that a great deal more long-term research be undertaken before unleashing another mRNA experiment on humanity. This project began in 2021 at Oxford and a full 10 years or more is required before licensing should responsibly be considered.