Postbag
Vint Chavala's letter (''Postbag'', yesterday) once again demonstrated the belief that the world's media has an agenda to belittle Thailand. It may have been true that the interview with Abhisit Vejjajiva, conducted by the BBC's Mishal Husain, was probing and forthright but after all, she was interviewing someone accused of murder.
His defence that she was unfair because she did not mention the sins of Thaksin is misguided. Does he believe two wrongs make a right?
Mr Abhisit cited the ''men in black'' as a reason allowing the use of lethal force, yet there has been no reliable evidence of the men in black firing on the army. Indeed, despite the bounty of one million baht for any evidence leading to any of these suspects, not one person has come forward. It is inconceivable that someone would not have come forward given that reward. Furthermore, out of 91 dead and more than 200 injured, not one of these suspects was found. It would suggest that the army were incredibly poor shots or that they were not to be harmed _ remember the sighting of the man in black entering army headquarters? It is suggested by at least two international organisations that their ''appearance'' was the excuse the army needed to open fire.
I also note that despite declaring beforehand that he would comply with all of the authorities' requirements, Mr Abhisit refused to sign a declaration that he would comply with the restrictions, leeway not afforded to many red shirt defendants.
Welshmike
Pattaya
MIX THINGS UP IN SOUTH SECURITY
The southern security forces have experienced many similar types of attacks, and lost many soldiers and patrol vehicles. However, they never seem to revise their patrol tactics. Therefore, insurgents who have studied their routines can easily set traps.
Unless patrol patterns and their frequency are altered, this kind of suffering will never be stopped.
I also have doubts about the performance of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung. He is supposed to be in charge of security affairs, but very seldom appears in the South. He did not even accompany the PM on her latest visit. We always see him in the media when arrests have been made, but we never hear any practical proposals from him on the problems in the South.
RH Suga
Lamphun
BLIMP ANOTHER BLIGHT FOR TAXPAYERS
The crash of the 350 million baht blimp in the South, following the expensive joke of the GT200 bomb detectors, that monument to indefensible defence expenditure. HTMS Chakri Naruebet, must surely ring some alarm bells, even among the most battle-hardened tax payers. Or am I from a different world?
Bob
US NEEDS TO QUESTION GUN CULTURE
Nicolas Cage says in his opening statements in the movie the Lord of War that guns kill more people than any atom bomb, missiles and other weaponry combined, and I suppose the main reason is price and availability. Now once again a lone nutcase for whatever reason kills more people, and sadly in this case many young children than most sophisticated terrorist attacks with the simplest of weapons, hand guns. And once again, as in most cases, it happened in the US, the country that spends more money on arms than most of the planet in the heavily publicised name of protection and freedom. In my mind it's hard not to believe that the amount of violence on all media outlets, the constant media backing of the US Military and its gun culture in general has to be at fault in one way or another. And if the naysayers argue that it's the person who kills, not the gun, then statistics seem to show that the US produces more serial killers per capita than any other country.
I'm in no way anti-American, and to be fair I do not see what is pushed in the media as anti-American, and this is not some anti-war issue of any sort, but just maybe it's time that America took a good hard look in the mirror.
Perry
Chon Buri
EX-PM HARDLY BRAVE TO FACE CHARGE
In a recent column, Voranai Vanijaka invites us to admire Abhisit Vejjajiva for his bravery in being willing to stick around and face the court verdict even if a guilty verdict leads to a death sentence. Well, given the sympathetic attitude of the courts to the Democrat Party the prospect of a guilty verdict shouldn't have Mr Abhisit chewing his finger nails, and like Voranai and I he knows that a death sentence is about as likely as Thaksin Shinawatra being elected Pope.
Then, in an example of the consistency that he so admires, Voranai drags out the old chestnut that if Mr Abhisit is going to be charged over the deaths of protesters, Thaksin should be charged over the deaths in the ''war on drugs''. Fair enough, but to get a conviction you need a ''smoking gun'' and I've no doubt that while he was PM Mr Abhisit had his men scouring the records for some actual evidence, and the fact that nothing came of it suggests that all they found was an empty holster.
On the other hand, as Voranai admits, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship people occupied public areas for two months and though their occupation was illegal it was peaceful right up to the last couple of weeks, what Mr Abhisit has to explain to the court is why he didn't order the dispersal of the protests at an early stage when he could have used non-lethal methods, and when the protests did turn violent what instructions he gave regarding the use of lethal force and what steps he took to ensure his orders were followed. And Voranai knows that given the reluctance of the authorities to release any details of their actions, a public trial is probably the only way we will ever get even an inkling of what really happened.
Voranai then trots out the old line that the violence started after the UDD ''refused a general election''.
He knows as well as I do that the government doesn't need the opposition's permission to hold an election, all Mr Abhisit had to do was call an immediate election and the protests would have dissolved overnight without a voice or fist being raised in anger.
''Here's to you, Judy Garland''? Wrong film star Voranai _ you mean Pinocchio.
Dom Dunn
CONTACT: BANGKOK POST BUILDING
136 Na Ranong Road Klong Toey, Bangkok 10110
Fax: +02 2403666 email: postbag@bangkokpost.co.th
All letter writers must provide full name and address.
All published correspondence is subject to editing at our discretion.
Bangkok Post online classifieds
Try buying selling goods and properties 24/7 in our classifieds which has high purchasing power local expatriate audience from within Thailand and around the world.
Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/16/abhisit-deserved-grilling/
0 comments:
Post a Comment