Govt has its priorities wrong
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Let me get this straight. The Thai government encourages the building of automobile manufacturing plants here. Then the banks offer unprecedented financing plans to allow people to buy them. As a grand finale, the government offers first-time buyers a Bt1
Now we have new cars all over city streets, but not many on the highways. This is because 90 per cent of the highways in Thailand are two-lane roads, one lane in each direction. The US has monitored what few two-lane highways still exist there and found them to have the highest accident rates.
So what does the Thai government do? Does it borrow Bt2 trillion to begin a programme of widening the highways or possibly even an aqueduct to run off some of the water heading south every year? Of course not – that would be too logical. Rather, it borrows that money to build a high-speed train system.
Observation balloons, aircraft carriers, almost a submarine, a high-speed train and maybe even a nuclear power plant. So you say, “If that’s the way you feel, why don’t you leave?” Why would I? It’s more fun staying here and watching the Keystone Kops revisited.
John Arnone
Yasothon
