OPINION

Self-serving Abhisit

Re: "Asian liberals, democrats must fight back", (BP, Dec 10).

Abhisit Vejjajiva, a very astute career politician, should really be looking into the mirror and asking himself the following question: "What have I personally done in the last 20 years to fight back against authoritarian regimes to promote human rights and democracy?"

There are many career politicians in Thailand who fail to see their own reflection in the mirror. All Mr Abhisit and his party have done is to engage in gutter politics and bond with the military to serve their own purposes. They should practice what they preach.

Mr Abhisit is 100% right when he says liberals and democrats, once seen as a force for progress, have in the eyes of the people become part of the elite establishment: uncaring, irrelevant and sometimes self serving.

Re: "Myanmar launches diplomatic offensive", (Opinion, Dec 11).

Larry Jagan must be be feeling very cynical over what has been decided for the Rohingya refugees.

Any reconciliation in a serious, bloody fight must include both parties in equal measures.

The decisions list such generous sounding terms like "democratic, radical, widest engagement" with the complete exclusion of the Rohingya themselves.

These passive recipients should feel grateful for such charity!

In his Dec 11 letter, "The Israel issue", Klongtoey Harry writes that the Israeli ambassador is a guest in Thailand, therefore should not make requests from the Thai government. Has Harry differentiated between the Israeli ambassador and the ambassador of any other country as they are all guests, one way or another, outside their own countries? The American ambassador is a constant pain with continual moaning, groaning, complaining and reminding about Thailand's "return to democracy", of course, meaning America's brand of democracy.

Global Islamic terrorism today arises from the jihad imperative within Islamic theology; not from anything the West has done. The Islamic Crusades began in the 7th century and are still continuing today.

Nations around the world are spending fortunes trying to prevent still more acts of Muslim horror and yet Jew-haters as usual attempt to shift the blame to Israel or the West. Islam is more of an intolerant ideology than a religion and should be treated as such.

Ethics in the context of US politics is serious business, to wit the resignation of perhaps the Senate's only professional comedian, Al Franken. Kuldeep Nagi in his Dec 10 letter, "Living in a fake reality", writes, "The ethical problems of Mr Trump are largely responsible for corrupting personal media".

Yet there are absolutely no verified ethical problems associated directly with President Trump. Seven million dollars and almost a year of unfettered digging into every aspect of the Trump administration by a large team of biased FBI investigators has found nothing. The presumption "ethical problems of Mr Trump" is itself an artifact of naive over-exposure to fake news.

During a 1975 interview with 60 Minutes former president Ronald Reagan presciently said "If fascism ever comes to America it will come in the form of liberalism".

I would add that fascism has arrived and its harbinger is corporate fake news and a justice system thoroughly corrupted by politics. And to Mr Nagi, it should be noteworthy that the root causes of corruption may be understood as greed for money, craving for power and the naïveté of the general public. Corruption thrives in an environment lacking transparency and the light of truth is its most effective cure.

Re: "PM backs Thai fight against corruption", (BP, Dec 10).

The PM's actions would speak louder then his words if he appointed a non-military/police agency to investigate his friend Gen Prawit Wongsuwon.

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