OPINION

CP All disappoints

Re: "State funds give CP All cold shoulder", (BP, Feb 9)

I fully support the government funds' policy of not investing in any company involved in insider trading or in subsidiaries of the same group, as such involvement reflects poorly on corporate governance.

CP All's board continues to refuse to punish their top executives found guilty of insider trading: CP All executive chairman Korsak Chairasmisak, vice-chairman Piyawat Titasattavorakul, vice-chairman Pittaya Jearavisitkul, and Atheuck Asvanund, True group counsel.

These insiders had information on 7-11's negotiations to buy out Siam Makro shares. By planning to buy Makro shares ahead of 7-11's buy-out announcement, they would not be motivated to push for the lowest price possible, for a higher price would mean more for them -- and less for 7-11 shareholders.

The guilty parties claim they had a limited understanding of Securities and Exchange Commission rules and had "no intention" of violating them -- yet one of their co-conspirators was True's leading lawyer, its group counsel.

Thailand's Association of Investment Management Companies and foreign international and local retail investors have called for action against the wrongdoers.

In other countries, such as the US, insider trading can be punishable by jail. I join Bandid Nijathaworn, president of the Thai Institute of Directors, in saying "I'm disappointed with the resolution of (CP All's) board of directors (not to discipline the four inside traders)". As long as biting the hands of the shareholders who fed them is not severely punished by CP All's board, investors should think twice about trading in it.

As your Feb 9 editorial ("Forget about joining the TPP) suggests, there are valid reasons for opposing the TPP. However, the fact that it "actually establishes new legal guidelines that put the treaty's rules above national laws" is not one of them.

Every binding treaty does the same thing; if a country could escape its treaty obligations merely by changing its national laws, then no treaty would be worth the paper it is printed on.

Since the idea of raiding bridge clubs did not go so well may I suggest the military deploy specially trained units to canvass all urban, suburban and village areas of the country.

There they may combat one of the nation's genuinely dangerous enemies -- the Aedes aegypti mosquito. No tanks nor other expensive weapons will be required. Routine fogging would be a part of their important mission.

Also they could check every household for compliance with the Department of Health's guidelines for mosquito control. Who knows, in so doing they may uncover nests of subversives which seem to be foremost on their agenda of late.

The daily dose of tedious TV propaganda could be partially replaced by a refreshing educational programme describing how to eliminate stagnant water and recognise the symptoms of dengue fever, Zika fever, Chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis, and yellow fever -- all transmitted by the Aedes mosquito.

This inexpensive war could be fortified if necessary by the additional strategies of introducing genetically modified or irradiated mosquitos to complement the basic but proven effective methods of fogging and rigorously enforced breeding environment control.

Let the Thai military be engaged in a real battle worth winning for a change.

Can anyone tell me why I cannot get to the puzzle page (sudoku) from the link on your web page? There used to be an icon that you could click to go there, then that disappeared. Truly a challenge to hunt it for a bit, but now it has become more difficult.

Help wanted.

Matt Millar