PostBag
I have been observing the sequence of events since these protests began until now, when our Government House has come under siege. I must commend the PAD leaders for successfully brainwashing tens of thousands of people. Here we have an egoistic leader like Maj-Gen Chamlong bent on bringing down an elected government. All this, of course, arising from Thaksin paranoia.
On one hand, they claim to practice Ahimsa (non-violence), on the other they send a group of armed followers (protesters) to invade the NBT station. Even some protesters within the crowd still carry weapons. They say it is for self-protection.
They have lost their right to peaceful protest by claiming Article 63 since: 1) they do not respect the rights of others who do not see things the way they do; 2) their protest is no longer peaceful; 3) they are not protesting in a public place but have encroached on government land with the intention of disrupting the functioning of government; 4) they are bent on igniting a showdown that will end in violence.
Maj-Gen Chamlong is used to getting his own way in every protest. Notice how he and Sondhi keep claiming to have "won" with every little move they make. The obsession with winning has made them forget the risk they are bringing upon their own supporters.
As a fellow Thai, I appeal to the leaders of the PAD to give themselves up to avoid any risk of the use of force.
NAVANANT
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A big difference
Re: "Polarised like America" (Postbag, Aug 29). There is a big difference between the polarised electorate in the United States and in Thailand. The US is all mouth and no action, the Thais do more than just talk.
BILL CYMBALSKY
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Renegade Democrat
When I read the report that PAD leader Somkiat Pongpaiboon would be spared prosecution because as a Democrat MP he has immunity, I was not concerned. My first thought was that Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjaijiva would courageously demonstrate his sense of duty and his commitment to democratic principles by standing up and condemning this renegade within his own party.
DOM DUNN
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Both have done wrong
Both the extremely wealthy Thaksin & Co and ascetic Maj-Gen Chamlong & Co have clearly broken the law; the former by jumping bail and the latter by seeking to evict an elected government by non-democratic means. In both cases, the courts have promptly issued arrest warrants for the accused.
I suggest that when such bitter enemies both accuse the courts of being biased in favour of their foe, that is powerful evidence that the courts are, in fact, following Moses' command: "You shall do no injustice in judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour" (Leviticus 19:15) and deserve our full support.
BURIN KANTABUTRA
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Students know better
Guilt Gland's question, "Where are the students?" (Postbag, Aug 28) mistakenly presumes that the current PAD protests are ideologically aligned with the student protests of 1973, 1976 and 1992.
Those movements were always against the installation or return of unelected military leaders (Thanom Kittikachorn and Suchinda Kraprayoon, respectively) and in favour of either more liberal democracy or outright Marxism.
The PAD, contrarily, is a rightist royalist movement, having declared its mistrust of elections and preference for appointed leaders and military oversight of civilian bureaucracy. Despite its yellow-clad nationalism and insistent focus on Thaksin's genuine corruption, the current anti-government faction is a reactionary cultural movement, whose principles are anathema to genuine political progressives.
Student activists, for all their naivete, are not likely to mistake backwards for forwards.
The fact that neither the army nor the police have fired a single shot at the PAD, in contrast to the delirious suppression of past student protests, highlights the ideological alignment between the PAD and the existing power structure that gives orders to the men with the guns.
The students in 1976 demanded pluralism, wealth redistribution and systemic change, and were shot for it. Today's PAD demands oligarchy, submission and the end of majority rule by poor people insufficiently "Thai" to accept their lot as karma.
WESLEY HSU
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Next target Pakistan
If yet another country needs to be invaded in America's war against terror, then that country is Pakistan, not Iran.
Afghanistan is the only theatre where the Americans are fighting an enemy that may have had something to do with 9/11 and they are losing that war because a mountainous no man's land between Afghanistan and Pakistan makes it impossible for the Americans to hunt down the enemy ("Surging American deaths show Taliban is winning," Bangkok Post, Aug 26).
If the Americans are right, that given a choice, the Afghans would choose the Karzai regime over the Taliban, and that the Taliban is the real enemy, and that it needs to be defeated, then they have no option but to seize control of the border by invading Pakistan.
CHA-AM JAMAL
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Anti-American drivel
It is tiring to read the anti-American drivel published almost on a daily basis. It just goes on and on. Most of it stems from the Iraq war and the war on terror. However, those in opposition to the war on terror must tell us exactly how they will approach this evil and evolving menace.
The list of daily attacks is endless: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Algeria, Lebanon, China, Thailand, Somalia, Israel, Palestine, Turkey and many others. Last week three young militants were arrested in the UK for plotting to murder the British leader Gordon Brown.
It is ironic that the two nations at the forefront of the war on terror, namely the USA and Israel, are portrayed as the pariahs of this world. The US does much good in this world for which there is never any appreciation, only attitude.
Without any doubt the liberals of this world are undermining the Western world's ability to tackle this growing menace. Perhaps the monsters at Guantanamo Bay should be relocated to a five-star hotel.
ALFIE HAUPT
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PAD's pseudo-event
In her Commentary of Aug 28, Sanitsuda Ekachai wisely wrote that in Thailand, "The early generation of journalists were primarily intellectuals and free-spirited fighters against military dictatorship... (but) the more stable journalism became as a profession, the more was the media's tendency to play safe to protect business interests at the cost of the ideology of old."
In 1964, Marshall McLuhan introduced the phrase "the medium is the message" after the term "pseudo-event" was coined by Daniel J Boorstin in 1962. A pseudo-event is a staged event that occurs for the sole purpose of getting media publicity and has no other function, and that concept parallels McLuhan's idea that the "message" in a pseudo-event is overcome by the medium itself and the message becomes simply this: our event is in these media.
That is exactly what has happened with regard to the PAD in Thailand, and it is evident in their words and actions. The PAD is no longer concerned with their previous justifications for existence or their former motivations, because their new message is this: we can capture and keep the media in Thailand.
The US network CNN reported that the PAD had "crippled" Bangkok - complete nonsense to anyone who lives here in a city of about 10 million, and any reporter with math skills could have determined that the actions of one group of 1,000 to 10,000 people in a restricted area could not possibly cripple a city of 10 million. But CNN allowed itself to become the message for the PAD's pseudo-event.
OBJECTIVITY
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