OPINION

Bad behaviour

Re: "PM blames court cases for SET slip", (BP, June 12).

Lots of news & letters recently on why the SET has performed so badly for some time. What is never mentioned is broker behaviour.

It's been amply demonstrated that if trading vs. investing is mostly promoted, then most retail investors will lose out over time.

They will leave with a bad experience, which they then share with others, and so retail investor participation dwindles. They end up bad-mouthing Thai stocks when it was their often broker-sanctioned strategy that was poor.

What is sad is that many quality companies pay 10 to 20 times or more in yearly dividend yields compared to bank savings accounts. Investor bargains are often overlooked, as brokers who operate on 'churn and burn' practices are eager to earn commissions and rarely advocate for these opportunities, whether openly or indirectly.

To date, retail investor participation has dropped below 30% of total SET volume compared to years ago when it was double that.

Re: "SET's fall due to govt", (PostBag, June 14).

MP Foscolos' excellent citation of the government's self-inflicted fiscal misdirections as the cause of the SET's fall is most convincing. The blame on the court proceedings against PM and another is a blip and not fundamental to the economy and in the minds of long-term investors, especially those from overseas.

However, one is taken aback to state that there is a lack of control on inflation in Thailand. One likes to have mild inflation to facilitate growth. Unfortunately, lately the rate has been below 2% and per the Economist's consumer price rise in 2024, it is only 0.8%.

Re: "Ever been to China"? (PostBag, June 14).

I must regrettably inform Collin Roth that I have been to China many times, beginning in 1989, when I was not allowed to travel in the same car as my female translator. She had to report my activities to her "block" resident intelligence officer every evening.

As to Mr Roth's assertion that Muslims are not victims of genocide "as has been claimed by Washington", the Uyghurs have suffered systematic, extensive, and heinous human rights abuses, which have been well documented by Human Rights Watch, the BBC, and the UN, among others.

Germany-based Xinjiang expert Adrian Zenz found construction spending on security-related facilities in Xinjiang increased by 20 billion yuan (101 billion baht) in 2017, and the following year the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) identified more than 380 detention facilities in Xinjiang using satellite imagery. Google Earth confirms their existence today.

Mr Roth also fails to make the distinction between seeing ethnic Uyghurs selling food and the freedom to worship. There are Jews, Caucasians, Tibetans and Uyghurs living in China.

That does not mean there is religious freedom in China. There is only pretend religion, strictly constrained and controlled by the CCP. Freedom is anathema to all authoritarian governments.

This is not an issue of nationalism but of human rights and is becoming globalised each year.