If a state enterprise must be chosen to run airport parking lots, PTT should not be the choice, for its core mission is all about oil.

The Department of Airports plans to sign an agreement with energy giant PTT for the latter to manage the department's passenger terminals and car parks for commercial purposes (BP, July 18). But is this arrangement best for Thailand?

Isn't Thailand committed to developing the private sector, with state enterprises playing a role only if the private sector cannot effectively/efficiently do so? Retail giants like the Central or Mall Groups have vast, decades-long experience in running commercial retail and parking areas, and there's no need for a state enterprise here.

If a state enterprise must run the show, then PTT should not be the chosen one, for its core mission is mainly restricted to oil product retailing.

With at least 10 airports being considered, we should not use a winner-takes-all model, lest we end up with another monopoly that, like at Suvarnabhumi, fails to make Thailand a shopping destination. Rather, we should split the airports between at least three firms, using transparent, measurable key performance indicators to see which benefits Thailand the most, eg, the number of foreign shoppers attracted or revenue.

Put Thailand first.

Burin Kantabutra

Drowning in bad stats

From 2006 to 2015 Public Health Ministry statistics show drowning to be the leading cause of death among children in Thailand (BP, July 19).

This is very sad because drowning is largely preventable. It would behoove the Public Health Ministry to encourage both public and private efforts to teach young children swimming and water survival skills.

Michael Setter

Cultured cheaters

"A Reader" (Re: "Free to buy influence", PostBag, July 18) must have been living in cloud cuckoo land in America for nine years. Of course Americans don't buy votes, they are much too sophisticated for that, they (the global industries, the military machine and the banksters) buy their elected senators, congressmen and political parties. Much easier and more discreet to buy those at the top. Leave the voters to mess about playing democracy with the issues that don't matter or bother them. The rest of the world is catching on ... fast.

David Russell

Free trains go nowhere

Regarding new modern trains to be introduced by the SRT, (BP, July 14), how about some comfy new anything for the Aranyaprathet-Bangkok commuter line? Do away with the silly, free service, (I'm the only paying customer from Prachin to Bangkok, 26 baht for a westerner). The trains on this line are a disgrace, a discomfort, dirty and in desperate need of repairs.

Many are in worse conditions than the trains I've taken in many Indian states. Come on, SRT, think of Thais too, not only the mixed bag of people who use the long distance train runs. SRT management needs to be totally scrapped and rebuilt with teams with foresight, with younger people who can improve the SRT, rather than its currently fossilised, unimaginative, insensitive management stuck in a time warp.

Jack Gilead

Not-so-noble laureate

Re: "Suu Kyi a role model", (PostBag, July 19).

Michael Setter's description of Suu Kyi as a "Nobel laureate of demonstrable courage" is questionable.

Until The Lady embraces the Royinga in her plans for a future Myanmar she is nothing more than a self-serving politician, far removed from the stateswomen the world once thought.

An idol? Perhaps! But an idol with feet of clay.

David Brown

Doing a Boris Johnson

I was so moved by Boris Johnson's excursion into topical verse, I thought to write the following:

Hitler sat up in his grave, hearing the speech that Boris gave.
Obama warned of sharp decline, put the British last in line.
But Boris said "one thing is true, we'll have our cake and eat it too".
So sense and reason came to nowt, when Farage shouted "we want out!
Stuff the Poles, the Czechs; Britain's going to the dogs!
We can write a better story, full employment, gold and glory."
Hitler laughed, "I know that line, I used it often in my time.
Tell them what they want to hear, paranoia, half truths, fear."
What's the moral to this story? Never trust a lying Tory.

Leo Bourne

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