OPINION

Don’t blame Trump

Re: “Unilateral America”, (PostBag, Jan 31).

It is with sadness that I read the egregious misrepresentation in M L Saksiri Kridakorn’s letter. As an American, I can say that the only point he communicated correctly is the widespread belief that America has lost its moral compass.

However, he wrongly attributes this decline to Donald Trump. Nothing could be further from the truth. The moral decay occurred long ago and is the direct result of globalism, which has infected not only the US government but most Western institutions.

The unipolar, hegemonic system that elevates imperial elites above the law created this decline. The corruption and moral degeneration we have witnessed over the past decades are being exposed by Trump, not created by him.

Indeed, it is not only the 66 international organisations Trump has already identified that nations should consider leaving, but even the United Nations itself.

Much like the League of Nations before it, the UN has proven ineffective at fulfilling its stated mission and is increasingly becoming a ceremonial body advancing the interests of those seeking to control humanity. This is why Trump created the Board of Peace, and Thailand would do well to follow some of its Asean neighbours and join.

America under Trump understands the future: a multipolar world of sovereign nations, each focused on improving itself rather than controlling others. The anachronisms of imperialism and globalism are fading into history — and that is cause for celebration.

Don’t blame Trump for making this obvious.

SSO tale of woe

Re: “Reality check for SSF”, (Editorial, Jan 30).

Recently, my international school in the Isaan region was visited by two officers from the Social Security Office (SSO), who informed us that all teachers at our school, Thai and foreign alike, would be stripped of medical coverage under the SSO programme, due to a 2011 law exempting private school teachers from SSO.

When asked how teachers had been allowed to enrol in the first place, and why this law was only now being enforced, we were met with shrugs and non-answers.

Coverage was removed without notice or warning. One teacher discovered this only when he unsuccessfully attempted to use SSO to pay for his wife’s medical treatment in the weeks before she was due to give birth. He is now without any medical coverage for the delivery, as private insurers will only cover pregnancies with sufficient advance notice.

This policy shift follows the Teachers Council of Thailand (Krusapa) enforcing inconsistent and onerous licensing requirements. I submitted my documents in July 2023 for approval for a Thai teaching licence, which requires a valid teaching qualification from one’s home country — which I possess.

Two and a half years later, my documents have still not been processed. Attempts to seek clarification are met with vague responses, such as: “We have changed our policy on how documents are processed.”

All of this comes on top of what is widely described as a learning crisis. According to Unicef, Thailand’s PISA scores fell by 30 points in maths and 60 points in reading between 2012 and 2022. Only 32% of students now reach baseline proficiency in maths, compared with an OECD average of 69%.

With teachers losing medical benefits and wasting time navigating an opaque bureaucracy, how can Thailand expect educators to focus on their students when the government repeatedly signals that teachers are on their own? These issues are clearly linked and must be addressed if Thailand is serious about improving educational outcomes.

Correction

In the editorial lead “Border talks disappoint” published on Jan 30, the sentence “Thailand, he said, should encourage the military to allow land ownership verification” should read: “Thailand should encourage the military to allow land ownership verification.” We apologise for the mistake.