Postbag
Re: ''Abhisit deserved grilling'' (Postbag, Dec 16).
Foreigners living in Thailand should acquire sufficient knowledge about this country before they comment on it. Otherwise, their views might be destructive, or even catastrophic.
If the 91 deaths in May 2010 have brought sadness to their families and loved ones, wouldn't the relatives of the 2,500 people who died at the hands of the police in Thaksin's Shinawatra's war against drugs in 2003 have suffered the same way?
The BBC's news presenter Mishal Husain acted in an unintelligent and unmindful way in her interview with Abhisit Vejjajiva.
I also advise the BBC to change its attitude when reporting situations in other countries.
VINT CHAVALA
Lamphun
Saved from red-shirt ruin
Re: ''The Good, the Bad and the BBC's Ugly Abhisit interview'' (Opinion, Dec 14).
Philip Cunningham has it right. The BBC's current batch of Brahmins are utterly out of touch, and rather inferior when it comes to interviewing skills. I'm a Brit and tend to defend the indefensible because I'm British and that's what we do. But the moronic persecution of the former PM by Mishal Husain in her interview made me cringe! I saw the smoke when downtown Bangkok was burning, I saw the bamboo staves and barbed wire barricades manned by unwashed violent men in red. We all did.
The police copped out. Mr Abhisit exhibited great patience but finally had no alternative but to involve the army. He shouldn't be charged with murder. He should be applauded for stepping in to save the city, and the country, from red-shirt ruin.
And the BBC? I've not seen a single report on the horrors in the deep South. Maybe Husain would like to have a go down there and do a bit of real journalism?
Mr Abhisit is a gentleman politician, not a murderer. He did what he was forced to do. I admire him.
HUGH PAXTON
Orwell all over again
It is cautionary to note that, following his experience as a producer during World War II, George Orwell, in his seminal novel 1984, based the Ministry of Truth on the BBC's Broadcasting House.
KEITH CASTELL
Bangkok
Violence was inevitable
In regards to the murder charges against Abhisit Vejjajiva, I think we should understand that when you're a leader of a country you may have to make decisions that will cost people their lives.
Ironically, my complaint about Mr Abhisit was that he was too soft. I was shocked that the red shirts could get away with overrunning parliament and forcing the legislators to leave, chasing sick people out of a hospital, calling for the assassination of the prime minister and doing other things which would have had them slaughtered in many other countries.
But whether he was too tough or too soft, the red shirts created a situation where death and bloodshed became inevitable. Let's not forget the red shirts rejected all efforts to resolve the problem peacefully and the consequences were sadly predictable.
ERIC BAHRT
Western justice flawed
The entire value system of the West is broken and must be ignored or discarded while considering allegations of murder against former Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban.
In 2011, the UK, France and the US violated UN Security Council Resolution 1973 and killed innocent civilians in Libya, but their respective courts and news media have said almost nothing about those atrocities.
Their silence is deafening.
Earlier this month, the US State Department recognised freedom fighters in Syria but also said the most effective of those fighters are terrorists with possible links to al-Qaeda.
In other words: convenient enemies are terrorists, but when they are convenient assets then they are freedom fighters.
When some governments kill innocent civilians, those deaths are murders, but when Western governments kill innocent civilians, then those deaths are forgotten.
Please find a Thai or Asean way to deal with current dilemma as the West quite obviously has nothing to offer Thais in this particular situation.
GUY BAKER
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2012/12/17/foreigners-must-wise-up/
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