OPINION

Try snail mail

Re: "90-day puzzle" & "Ninety-day riddle", (PostBag, Jan 15 & 16).

Regarding letters on the experiences with Thai immigration from Ron Martin and Ian Dann, might I suggest they submit theirs via mail? I've been submitting my by mail for over 10 years and have never had an issue with the process.

Unchecked abuse

Re: "Breaking men: a conscript's tale", (Opinion, Jan 19).

As a one-time conscript in the Australian army, I read Sanitsuda Ekachai's article with thankfulness that I did not have to suffer the hazing, humiliations, and debasements that she describes Thai military recruits going through. Yes, training was tough, and discipline was unflexing, but it was designed to produce a professional modern soldier, not the broken-hearted young men she describes.

But I do have first-hand knowledge of the situation she writes about.

For many years, I acted in loco parentis for a young Thai, who was unlucky enough to pull a red card. I had the money to "buy him out", but being honourable, he declined and said he would do the service. He was a short and not very robust man, and during recruit training was constantly bullied by some of his fellow recruits, with NCOs standing nearby doing nothing about it.

At his graduation parade, he had a black eye, and I managed to get hold of some makeup to hide it, so as not to distress his mother, who was on her way to the parade.

Later, he told me about some of the routine bastardisation that all recruits were put through by their instructors, including racing naked to the parade ground where they would be ordered to perform self-stimulation.

Those who finished first were allowed to run off to the showers, using all the hot water before some slower participants had to shower in ice-cold water in the middle of winter.

From Pvt Wanyawut Lampapahe in 2009 to Pvt Yutthakinum Boonnian and Cadet Pakapong Tanyakan in more recent times, the 21 recruits and trainees who died in the custody of their fellow recruits or instructors are well recorded. Not so well recorded are the disciplinary actions, if any, that were taken regarding each of these deaths.

Rules don't apply

Re: "Living in Thailand's age of impunity", (Opinion, Jan 17).

Kong Rithee is spot on that Thailand's "culture of impunity is world-famous, rivalling [its] beaches and nightlife". He cites pertinent examples that are too well known, both recently and from decades of tradition. It's almost as if he had inherited one of those trusty GT200 magic wands on which the Royal Thai Army spent over a billion baht: impunity indeed.

Perhaps some magical amulets from a sufficiently gilded Thai Buddhist temple could help, if only more devotees would donate a proper sufficiency of wealth to fund that most sincerely promised magic.

Thailand's age of impunity has already lasted over half a century. How much longer must it be enshrined as an untouchable?