Surakiart's key role

Former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai says one of the objectives of the government-appointed advisory board he heads in Myanmar is to narrow the "big gap of international interpretation and domestic interpretation of what happened in Rakhine state".

It is a challenging objective because the Myanmar government and the Tatmadaw are obviously in denial about the violence in Rakhine. That's why they banned independent media, UN agencies and humanitarian organisations from northern Rakhine after the latest violence began in August.

The access ban creates a delicate issue for the board led by Mr Surakiart. Its role is to provide advice to another panel formed by the Myanmar government to implement recommendations on Rakhine state made in August by a commission headed by former UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan.

Noting that "full transparency is the most effective way to dispel false and inaccurate representations of the situation on the ground", the Annan commission recommended "full and regular" access for media to all areas of Rakhine.

It is this recommendation that raises questions over State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi's reportedly "furious" response when Bill Richardson raised the issue of the two Reuters reporters on trial in Yangon before his dramatic resignation from the board.

Mr Richardson cites her as saying that the decision to charge the reporters under the 1923 Official Secrets Act, after they were arrested in unusual circumstances with documents about the security operation in Rakhine "was not the work of the advisory board".

How can that be if the Annan commission specifically recommended media access to Rakhine? As the commission noted in its final report, policies based on media restriction that inhibit the flow of information are counterproductive.

It added: "More than anything, they undermine trust in the Government, and give the impression that Myanmar has something to hide."

Mr Surakiart said he believed the credibility of the advisory board was intact despite Mr Richardson's departure. Many will be watching to see if the board's final report to the Myanmar government uses "Rohingya", or if it acquiesces to policy and calls the victims of violence "Bengalis", because Nay Pyi Taw wants the world to believe they are all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Geoffrey Goddard
Acrylamide cancer risk

Coffee will apparently soon be served with a cancer risk warning in California because of it's acrylamide content. Acrylamide is likely carcinogenic.

Bad news for vegetarians: acrylamide is found mainly in plant-based foods and not in dairy, meat and fish products. And when cancer is triggered, the cancer cell's preferred food is fructose. Stay firm at your plate with omega 3-rich salmon or grass-fed beef.

Happy Salmon
Constitution must stick

Re: "'Watch scandal' now and amnesty bill then" (BP, Opinion, February 2).

Academic Thitinan wrote: "The military aided and abetted a street-led movement that represented a coalition of interests against the rise, rule and resilience of Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his power clique." This warrants a little more discussion. In particular, what does it mean to stage a coup?

Since the constitution, as the highest rule of law, is necessarily the ultimate source of legitimacy for all other, dependent institutions of government for a society, this latest coup in the long line of coups against the evolution of democracy in Thailand was an assault on the central pillar of the nation.

When the central pillar of a society's political foundation is repeatedly overthrown to protect the vested interests of those working against it, it is little wonder that democracy has failed to develop healthy civil solutions to civil problems.

No nation could thrive under such regular setbacks. No one expects any constitution to be perfect or the best for all time, as the more than 30 amendments made to improve even the excellent US Constitution show, but the solution to discovered failures is to allow the people to fix those perceived weaknesses. Nor have the US, the UK or Japan, or any other nation been free of corruption, often on massive scales.

However, such corruption and other abuses have never justified toppling the central pillar of any of these nations any more than it could justify any of the coups against the Thai nation.

Finally, the events leading up to the latest coup effectively showed that democracy was again taking a healthy hold in Thailand. Pheu Thai's amnesty bill was so sleazy both in method and in content that even the UDD, the voice of the red shirts, officially came out against it, as I did at the time.

The Thai people were right to voice their indignation by protesting. But the events showed that the PDRC leaders and those allying with them against the rule of law that valued democratic principle were not interested in the amnesty bill except as an excuse to again overthrow the central pillar of legitimacy.

The protests did not subside when it was clear that the amnesty bill had been roundly defeated, but intensified as the leaders sought to inflict maximum disruption in their campaign to "Shut Down Bangkok" so as to force their vested agenda on the entire nation at any cost.

Let us hope that something has been learned in the near four years of regression since then, and that the latest constitution will be amended to bring it into line with the good morals at the heart of democracy.

This makes democracy morally superior to every alternative, even the most benign of dictatorships, which inherently reject the ideal that all citizens have an equal right to a voice in the formation of their society and its government, however offensive some might find some of those voices.

Felix Qui
Cultural exchange

It was fascinating how British Lord Michael Bates tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister because he was late attending the House of Lords for a question session.

Which gives me an idea.

Why doesn't Gen Prawit lend Lord Michael one of his watches so that he isn't late in the future?

And Lord Michael, to show his gratitude, could give Gen Prawit a little talk on accountability.

(PS: PM May refused to accept the resignation).

David Brown
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