POST BAG
I can only shudder at your ''In Person'' feature on the Khattiya, or Seh Daeng, father and daughter relationship (BP, Nov 20). Was it intended to sanitise the confrontation at Government House into a cosy family dispute? If so, the fatal explosion early on Thursday morning will have put paid to that notion.
One wonders how Khattiyaa (who was presumably safe at home at the time) feels now that her father, who appears to be answerable to nobody, has declared that she is expendable.
Is Seh Daeng really able to unilaterally launch, or threaten, an attack in the centre of Bangkok? What do his superior officers have to say about that?
DISCONCERTED
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No recovery at SET
Re: the Thai stock market. Anyone who says a bottom occurred earlier this month is either lying or incompetent. We are nowhere close to a bottom and there are no signs of a bottom. There has been no volume confirmation and the fundamentals still have not improved; there are no signs of any sector pulling out ahead.
In a real rally, volume would be off the charts on at least a couple of days and without government intervention. We have not yet seen that. Plainly, there is absolutely no indication that we have hit bottom, none whatsoever.
A recession is typically 18 months to two years; we have just completed the first year of this recession and there is a significant possibility that we could be heading into a long-term deflationary depression. Actions by central banks around the world just make the problems worse by delaying the inevitable and creating artificial bottoms that cannot last.
When speaking of the SET, how can someone call a 100-150 drop a short move? That is 30% of the market. Comparing this to the 2001 recession and estimating 2.2 -3.5% growth is ridiculous. This is already worse than the 2001 recession and is likely to be more severe than anything any person has seen in their lifetime.
I'm tired of hearing the whitewashed eco nomic news inside Thailand. Doesn't anyone have the integrity to give us the real story instead of just speaking in a polite, non- alarming manner? Are they going to sweet talk everyone all the way to the bottom and then, when it's all over, exclaim there is a drastic problem and probably blame it on the foreigner investors who pulled out their money?
It was just a few weeks ago, one week before the big drop that these same people were saying that Thailand was fundamentally sound and that it was well insulated from the global crisis. Time to drop the facade of nice sounding speech and tell the truth. Quit whitewashing everything.
CHRISTOPHER L FEIGE
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Keep general far away
To me, to put General Panlop Pinmanee in charge of evicting the PAD from Government House is to go looking for a gas leak with a flame-thrower.
Yes, he says that he won't use violence, but remember Krue Se mosque, which he stormed in May 2004 with heavily-armed troops against lightly-armed terrorists and took no prisoners? He still defends that action as using the minimum force necessary.
Why does he talk about declaring Government House a security area, which would give him the authority to use force, if he knew he didn't need violence to boot out old ladies and old men ''armed'' with clappers and staves?
PM Somchai already has all the authority he needs to get the PAD out, for the alliance is clearly trespassing into restricted areas. To handle allegedly non-violent protesters, send in police with only shields (no guns/batons/tear gas). Gently but firmly lift each protester into a paddy wagon, making sure nobody suffocates, and give them their day in court.
Ask the National Human Rights Commission and international media to closely observe operations.
PM Somchai, don't use the PAD's sit-in as an excuse to spend our money on a new office for you and your cronies. Just get the intruders out peacefully, keeping Gen Panlop far away, and use Don Mueang while you repair the place (holding the PAD's leaders jointly and collectively liable for the bill).
As for Gen Panlop, shouldn't he be held accountable for using excessive force at Krue Se? An open and impartial court martial, rather than a cover-up, would do wonders to tell southerners that Bangkok no longer treats them like a conquered people, and hasten reconciliation.
BURIN KANTABUTRA
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The wide rich-poor gap
Having lived here and followed Thai politics for over a year now, I feel that Thaksin is not the problem, but only the symptom of the underlying problem _ namely, the enormous rift between the rich and poor in Thailand. Add to this cronyism and nepotism, the only way for the poor to escape their lot is either by becoming policemen or government officials, or by selling their vote to whoever promises to throw them a few crumbs from the high table.
The PAD must be uncomfortable with the knowledge that Thaksin would have been elected even without vote buying, as he enabled a limited degree of wealth re-distribution and is thereby a direct challenge to the Bangkok elite's right to shop for over-priced trinkets at the Paragon.
I do not support Thaksin for one minute _ he is a ruthless and cynical rogue who exploited this flaw in Thai society for his own ends _ but whether he returns to Thai politics or not, there will be others like him to take his place for as long as this issue is not addressed.
JONATHAN MAKINS
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No apologies
On Nov 17, CNN blogger Richard Quest wrote this about the recent G20 meeting: ''All I wanted to hear was one word, just one: Sorry. My question: Did the G20 actually make a difference? Or alternatively: Have the guilty politicians got away with the biggest financial swindle of our time?''
Quest reported that the G20 declaration defining the causes of the catastrophic financial crisis said, ''Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors in some advanced countries did not adequately appreciate and address the risks.''
I wonder, which advanced countries were they referring to?
READER
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Get what you pay for
The reason for the uproar by environmentalists over the leasing of government lands in Utah for oil drilling, is reported thus: ''If you are standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you're looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it'' (Bangkok Post, Nov 19).
The irony is that all of those thousands of arch viewers drove oil-fuelled automobiles for hours through the moonscape of Utah to get there. Without oil they would not be there in the first place. Since they have bought into the oil economy they may as well get a glimpse of the activity _ many kilometres away _ that made it possible for them to see the blessed arch.
CHA-AM JAMAL
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Protest creates gridlock
I was disappointed to see no mention in the Bangkok Post of the traffic chaos that occurred in Bangkok as a result of Thursday's protest outside the Stock Exchange of Thailand, against the listing of ThaiBev.
According to radio reports, as a direct result of the blockage of Ratchadaphisek road, major traffic jams occurred on Rama IV, Ploenchit and many other connecting roads, extending as far as Yaowarat. My taxi journey setting out at 5pm from Bang Lamphu and heading for Yannawa, a trip that usually takes an hour at most at a cost of about 100 baht, on Thursday took close to 3 hours and cost me 300 baht.
The description of the event in Friday's Post seems to suggest that the protest was a spontaneous expression on behalf of ''thousands of monks, students and social activists''. However, radio reports said a fleet of 200 buses delivered the protesters to the SET in the morning and returned to collect them in the evening. Clearly, the protest enjoyed large financial backing from someone with enough money to hire the buses and, as is the current fashion, hire the protesters, too.
N PARKER
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