POSTBAG
It is incredibly naive of Cha-am Jamal to assume that Cambodia would be willing to let Thailand dictate the basis for bilateral negotiations over Preah Vihear (''Do without the ICJ'', Postbag, July 26).
It is simply unthinkable that the Cambodian side would agree to disregard the 1962 International Court of Justice ruling just because Thai officials wish to turn back the clock and get a second chance.
Cambodian negotiators have already dismissed a map introduced by their Thai counterparts, and they would surely do so again, as they have absolutely no incentive or reason to do otherwise.
This conflict is unlikely to be solved through bilateral negotiations, and the sooner the UN accepts its responsibility to step in and take proactive steps to protect the Preah Vihear temple, the better
NERVOUS NELLY
Bangkok
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It's not nationalism, but plain foolishness
The stories about local residents in the disputed Preah Vihear area arming themselves and demanding militia training shows the ludicrous mentality of these people.
Do they honestly expect to ward off a Cambodian invasion with those antiquated weapons? This is not exactly the American Revolutionary War where the sides fought each other with almost equally matched squirrel guns.
One doesn't see patriots, but a bunch of old fools, like the photo of the old gent holding a rifle (Bangkok Post, July 25). The backward thrust from a fired rifle would be enough to dislocate his shoulder, thus saddling the local hospital with more work.
Let the professional army deal with the non-existent, so-called defence problems. That's what they are there for
JACK GILEAD
Prachin Buri
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Kantharalak district has seen much sadness
Your editorial (''Khmer polls a prelude to calm'', July 26) said, in part: ''The temple area's resurgence as a political and military flashpoint was the last thing the long-suffering villagers of Kantharalak district wanted. It all brought back terrible memories of the civil war in Cambodia which saw the bloody rise to power of the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and then the Vietnamese invaded the country three years later. Older villagers recall how this prompted a huge outpouring of refugees, many of whom scrambled up the escarpment and sought shelter. There were so many that thousands had to be forced back into Cambodia where they were caught in exchanges of gunfire amid driving rain or snared in minefields. The exact number of those who died will never be known.''
I don't know how many Khmer refugees were sent back from the Kantharalak area but there were some 42,000 men, women, old folks, boys, girls, babies forcibly repatriated from there on June 8-12, 1979.
These people were on the border and in Thailand in Aranyaprathet and Ta Phraya districts of present-day Sa Kaeo province. This was in the rainy season.
As you say, the number of deaths of those repatriated are only estimates but some estimates go as high as 8,000 from mines, sickness, malaria and starvation.
It was a sad few days for Thailand's reputation, and the largest post-World War Two forced repatriation of refugees in the world
THANYABURI MAC
Pathum Thani
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Welcome to the club
So Mick Jagger is now an old age pensioner (Bangkok Post, July 26) and entitled to a 91-a-week pension from the British Government Pension Fund.
I am sure that he has paid full contributions, but I hope his residence is in one of those countries where the British government will increase his pension in accordance with the UK cost of living index, even though I doubt he really needs it.
I have tried to bring to the attention of the various powers-that-be the plight of expatriates living on frozen and pitifully small pensions, but to no avail.
I've tried and tried and tried, but I can't get any satisfaction.
So much for the myth of British fair play
RON MARTIN
Sattahip
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No one is an angel / You reported that Somchai Jitsuchon said ''technocrats have a greater motive to be transparent in spending than the politicians'' (''Fiscal policy becoming less transparent'', Business, July 26). I wonder on which empirical study Dr Somchai based his claim.
In theory, technocrats and politicians are equally human. In practice, based on my own experience working with technocrats and politicians, they are equally human.
Neither are angels. James Madison, the fourth US president, wrote: ''If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary''.
Leonid Hurwicz, Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson provided plenty of mathematic refinement to this famous statement, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics last year.
Fiscal accountability and transparency is not a question of who but a question of how.
VISOOT PHONGSATHORN
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Stories are priceless
It is with a sense of quiet amusement that I have been following the saga of the stolen diamonds in recent editions of your newspaper.
One stone purportedly weighed 2,100 carats, and the other 1,759 carats. These respective weights would make the stones the second and third largest rough diamonds ever discovered, after the 3,106-carat Cullinan.
I can assure you if this story was true: a) they could not be transported on the back of a Bangkok motorcycle, and b) they would be worth a lot more than 315 million baht.
Perhaps your next headline for the developing story should read ''Another African gem scam unearthed in Bangkok''
BOB VAN ES
International Gemological Institute (Thailand)
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Saluting the troops
Scarcely a day passes without the Bangkok Post printing yet another paean of praise to the Thai armed forces. Today we had the navy saving turtles.
I wonder if this is an exercise to repair the image of the armed forces after the latest coup debacle, or if you are preparing us for a new military takeover
DOM DUNN
Bangkok
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