Army was right to shoot

Re: ''DSI probe frustrates army brass'' (BP, Aug 21).

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha has every right to feel peeved.

Even if the ''men in black'' were in fact drawn from the army, the police force, the rangers or any other regular unit, they were still clearly and effectively positioned to fire their weapons at the government forces whose responsibility it was to keep law and order at Ratchaprasong. In any culture that is called mutiny, the crime treason, and the penalty the most severe on the books.

Likewise, there is no society in the world in which the commanders, military or civilian, of those government forces would be condemned for having returned fire directed at them, whatever the source.

The case against the Ratchaprasong mutineers, if so they were, is simple. They fired their weapons in the direction of the designated civil authorities in the middle of a busy city community inhabited by commuters, shop owners, parents, children, nurses, teachers, old people, students, street cleaners, taxi drivers and repair men.

Red-shirt demonstrators were conveniently placed by someone in the cross-fire. All were citizens who had a right to civil protection provided by the government at the time, including the army.

Any argument to the contrary is pure spin, and serves the interests of only a traitor.

If you want to hear that spin at its most servile and most cynical, listen to Robert Amsterdam's highly paid drivel.

LUNG KIPChiang Mai

30-baht scheme a bust

Re: ''Govt scrapes in on health performance'' (BP, Aug 20).

I am quoted in your story on Monday saying that I'm concerned about the cutting of the universal healthcare scheme budget by the government because the budget given to public hospitals has been inadequate for the past 10 years.

I've reviewed many articles showing that public hospitals have gone bankrupt because of inadequate budget allocations from the National Health Security Office (NHSO) while the agency's treatment coverage has increased every year.

The Senate's Public Health Commission reported on Sept 30, 2011 that there was a very serious problem with the inadequate budget from the NHSO that made hospitals switch the budget from the Civil Servant Healthcare scheme to cover the expenses of the 30-baht healthcare scheme. Many hospitals had no money to pay for medicines, electricity and water supply.

According to the commission, the permanent secretary for public health reported that after 10 years of the 30-baht healthcare scheme, state hospitals had a budget deficit of 7 billion baht.

Dr Jade Sirataranond, a member of parliament, pointed out that the NHSO did not reimburse the hospitals according to the timetable. Many hospitals suffered debt and lacked the budget to deliver good-quality healthcare to patients. He pointed out that there were 191 hospitals in debt, 77 of which were in serious debt and lacked liquidity.

The National Health Insurance Board began to require hospitals to limit medicines for the patients and limit methods of treatment for them in the 30-baht healthcare scheme, a policy that lasted many years.

The result of these limitations meant patients were unable to receive a ''gold standard of healthcare''.

Poor patients have no choice.

But patients who can afford to pay for their healthcare services choose to receive healthcare from private hospitals. That's why private hospitals have outstanding profit growth every year on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

In conclusion, I'd like people to understand the true situation about the management of the budget in the 30-baht healthcare scheme.The current situation in hospitals serving patients under this scheme is inadequate

The inadequate budget has led to substandard treatment and poor-quality treatment and outcomes.

One example of the outcome of poor treatment is an increasing death rate.

Policy makers and the 30-baht healthcare scheme should improve the quality of public health care immediately for the sake of patients' quality of life.

DR CHURDCHOO ARIYASRIWATANAPresident of the Healthcare Workforce of Thailand

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Share your thoughts

Discussion 1 : 23/08/2012 at 12:04 AM
Lung Kip, you put it so succinctly well done! D6 Dao, you round it off with the other pertinent point: who stood to gain the most from casualties. I'm guessing 91 might even have been a disappointing figure. This is not suggest armed men within the red crowd were deliberately shooting their own, but by firing upon the army from an unarmed crowd, the inevitable was going ton happen. This should be the very basis of the DSI investigation, only the cowardly shoot from among civilians.
Discussion 2 : 22/08/2012 at 10:05 AM
When you consider who had more to gain by shooting into the crowd at Ratchprasong the Army who would look terrible or the UDD soldiers who would create a body count and some sympathy its not hard to see who had motivation .
Discussion 3 : 22/08/2012 at 10:01 AM
The true irony of 30 baht healthcare ,the rice scam and the rest of Thaksins bag of cheap tricks is that most of his voter base believe Thaksin is paying for it when in fact it is the taxpayer who they call names like the elite and have total disdain for .
Discussion 4 : 22/08/2012 at 08:53 AM
On the surface Thaksin's schemes are deceptively attractive, like the Photoshop women in glossy magazines, but in practice the poor hardly seem to benefit, unlike himself and his well-connected friends and cronies, who no doubt have the headache of what to do with their windfalls. When it is all over, Thaksin will rue not considering the timeless truth that when the foundation of any enterprise lacks strong morality and public ethics, it inevitably crumbles and the edifice built upon it collapses. This may well be his legacy to mankind.
Discussion 5 : 22/08/2012 at 07:41 AM
Absolutely Right Khun Kip!! Denying of overwhelming responsibility is part of the " Great Lie" strategy, ordered by the Thaksin PR machine and executed by his red mercenaries' leadership. It is cynical, it is shameless and it is so shallow. Even more despicable is the fact that some posters here truly have the insanity to pretend the soldiers should have answered to the red bullets with tear gas and to the red grenades with water cannons!
Discussion 6 : 22/08/2012 at 07:28 AM
Yes, Thais need to remember what actually happened when Bkk was commandeered by dangerous rowdies. Military trained rogue fighters were killing authorities who were sent in to maintain order. Very serious scenario, which should not be obfuscated (by PT, Thaksin, The Reds), nor forgiven.
Discussion 7 : 22/08/2012 at 04:39 AM
And yet there seems to be plenty of money for the failing rice scheme, useless tablet computers and flood controls that don't exist. Priorities people please.

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