Left in the dark
Re: "Govt urged to cut power tariff", (BP, March 26).
I write in response to your headline, which highlights rising electricity bills despite calls for the government to explore avenues for reducing tariffs. Among the proposed strategies, one notable suggestion from The Consumers Council (TCC) advocates for incentivising solar panel installations.
Inspired by your article, I contacted the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (under the Ministry of Energy) at 8.45am to enquire about potential incentives available for households opting to install solar panels and batteries. But my attempts to reach them proved futile; numerous calls to the provided phone numbers yielded no response, with one even directing me to a message stating it was outside of working hours (call back at 8.30am when it was 8.45am at the time of my call).
This experience begs the question of the government's commitment to environmental sustainability and alleviating financial burdens on ordinary citizens. If their dedication were genuine, they would have established clear incentives and effectively communicated them to the public. However, as it stands, there appears to be a dearth of such initiatives. It seems the government's reflex response to any issue is to throw money at it, whereas a more sustainable approach would involve strategic investment in incentives to encourage widespread adoption of solar power.
Samcharoen
Beyond warnings
Re: "Confidence boost", (Business, March 25).
Any stock exchange, investor finance, or broker industry needs strict rules that must be firmly enforced by the firm's management and even more so by official regulatory authorities like the SEC. Violators must be fined or suspended, not let go on a "don't do this again" or a "slap-on-the-hand" lame policy.
Individual retail investors must be guarded so as not to induce or tempt them to speculative day-trading enhanced by the brokers when these actually seek out responsible investing in fundamentally perceived undervalued companies.
The SET/SEC already has many good rules in place; the problem often is the lack of enforcement. Another way to discourage individual broker behaviour without issuing large, demoralising monetary fines is by issuing work suspensions. For example, a violating the rules employee is identified and then suspended without pay by the exchange for, say, seven to 14 business days.
Paul A Renaud
Wisdom of inquiry
Re: "Curious case", (PostBag, March 25).
Frederic Prager notes the great value of spreading the Buddha's sensible insights. One of those insights is the value of right understanding, complementing which is his Kalama Sutta. The instruction of the Kalamas (Kalama Sutta) is justly famous for its encouragement of free inquiry; the spirit of the sutta signifies a teaching that is exempt from fanaticism, bigotry, dogmatism, and intolerance.
It is hard to think of anything less in accord with the Buddha's wise teachings than the suppression of peaceful free speech, including critical questioning of tradition and authority figures, than unjust law that rejects compassion in order to enforce ignorance, always the intent of censorship.
Felix Qui
