OPINION

Electric nightmares

Re: "Electric taxis launch next month", (BP, Aug 17).

The electric taxis launch by the Department of Land Transport (DLT) is a partnership that does not benefit the customer at all! The pricing associated with the approved taxi fares -- starting at 150 baht for the first two kilometres, rising by 16 baht every kilometre -- for the privilege of riding in an electric car is ridiculous and only allows the taxi companies to gouge consumers' wallets.

I use taxis every day and my daily ride is 4.5km with an average charge of 60-80 baht depending on traffic. According to the electric rates, the same trip is instantly at least 200% higher with a 200 baht fare. Maybe some economic genius at the DLT can explain exactly why this type of collusion is something to be celebrated?

Not everyone that flies into an airport is "wealthy", ready and ripe for fleecing. Many travellers are just ordinary people with limited banking accounts.

If anything, electric vehicles should cost less to operate and be added to reduce costs, not triple them. It would be nice if the paper actually challenged the programme a little and asked a few questions about issues instead of just "reporting" what the powers that be say.

Re: "Ex-monk too ill to show in court", (BP, Aug 17).

I fail to understand the plight of a revered monk who was a darling of juntaphiles until something suddenly snapped.

The two questions I hope his court case might answer are:

1) How did he so suddenly fall from grace? Did he, like Maj Gen Chamlong (Srimuang) with Thaksin (Shinawatra), decide that his chosen PM was not quite what he had expected?

2) When will it be Suthep Thaugsuban's turn, or is the famously former member of the "hilariously misnamed" party still in good standing with the dictators, just as Chalerm (Yubamrung) remained in amazing grace with Thaksin?

Re: "Smuggled cigarettes worth B164m seized in Hat Yai raid", (BP, Aug 18).

According to the news, the authority in Hat Yai seized 77,250 packets of contraband cigarettes valued at 164 million baht, or 2,123 baht a packet! So I assume it was 77,250 cartons which holds 10 packets; that'll come to 212.3 baht per packet. Still too high, isn't it?

Re: "Going postal at Boris", (PostBag, Aug 18).

Immediately following the publication of Boris Johnson's comparison of the burqa to a letterbox, the left wing British newspaper The Guardian naturally pushed its way to the front of the self-promoting and "virtue signalling" mob clambering aboard the passing bandwagon, and described the comment as a "tasteless newspaper column joke", and inevitably labelled Boris with the increasingly meaningless accusation of "Islamophobia".

However, back in 2013, the same newspaper published an article by one of its journalists, a Muslim lady by the name of Remona Aly, who made the following amusing observation, or joke, one might call it: "Since the burka eye opening slit has been called a letterbox, and with the privatisation of the Royal Mail, seize the moment to set up an independent mobile mail service, AKA the Burqa Post".

No cries of outrage from all quarters, no accusations of Islamophobia, no demands for Remona Aly to resign, no grovelling apology from The Guardian.

Maybe in "multicultural" Britain it's acceptable for a Muslim woman to poke gentle fun at her own kind, but it's forbidden territory for a white Christian male.

The old quip tells us that "Hypocrisy is the glue that binds society together", but it doesn't always work like that.

Regarding the US media's coordinated attack on President Donald Trump, it only serves to underscore their bias. They are always free to print what they like, but to call it the truth and Mr Trump a liar is absurd.

Here are a few examples: Mr Trump feeding fish in Japan spun to make it look like he violated cultural norms, Mr Trump colluding with Russians to win the election, Mr Trump eating more ice cream than his dinner guests, missing Malaysian Airlines flight swallowed by a black hole (courtesy of "worst journalist of the year" award winner Don Lemon at CNN), and widespread reporting that a group of psychiatrists has diagnosed Mr Trump as being mentally ill (without ever speaking with him personally).

No one is preventing the media from responsibly reporting the news. However social media giants like Google, Facebook and YouTube are aggressively censoring conservative websites and shadow-banning conservative Twitter accounts, including those of members of Congress.

Mr Trump is playing the media like a maestro to expose their bias, and it is working quite effectively. It's all rather entertaining actually.

Re: "Not a fair cop, guv", (PostBag, Aug 18).

How did Lungstib know that the driver was drunk? From his description there is nothing here out of the ordinary, for this is the way thousands of motorists drive on Thailand's roads every day of the week.

I must admit that the dog bit was unusual, but it doesn't beat the woman I once saw using the rear vision mirror to apply her lipstick as she drove at 120 kph down the Bangkok-Chon Buri Motorway.

The photo of Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, carried by an online portal, sitting on a chair, hand over face, laughing, looks somewhat like the picture of North Korea's Kim Jong-il. Both are "tubby".

But Gen Prawit is at least laughing. The former North Korean leader had no sense of humour, whether it is to laugh at a good joke or at himself.

Gen Prawit can afford to laugh at anyone and anything, as he, like the North Korean tubby can do what he likes and get away with it.

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