OPINION

Uncivil tales

Re: "Future Forward's Piyabutr denies charges", (BP, April 17).

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre" of blatant persecution of the elect, at least the regime of politicians ruling unelected have given up the hollow pretence that it was to bring reconciliation that they overthrew the supreme legal foundation of Thailand as a democracy with a constitutional monarchy. The post-election moves show the divides nurtured in the festering dark of the past five years to be deeper than ever.

There is, however, a silver lining seen in Future Forward's stunning success in the election.

This growing glimmer of happiness is that a large number of Thais, the better informed, more critically aware, more reform-minded, likely also the younger and less tolerant of the traditional corruptions, no longer believe the tales spread to justify uncivil control over the Thai people, which hobbling has for decades held the nation back economically, socially, politically and morally.

It's hard to avoid the suspicion that it is these fault lines exposed by Future Forward's popularity that has led to the amazing accusations being levelled against those people judged good by the Thai electorate.

Re: "Assange foolish not to go to Sweden", (Opinion, April 17).

It is easy to do a post-mortem of situations that one has not personally experienced. Most people under indictment will panic when it comes to choosing between life and death.

Assange knows very well that if he is sent to Sweden he will not be able to fight the charges coming from the United States.

At the time of his indictment, he was either facing the death penalty or life in a dark cell in the US.

Mr Dyer is also short on his observation about the First Amendment. Look what would have happened to the whistle-blower Chelsea Manning if Mr Obama did not pardon her.

And of course, Mr Snowden, another whistle-blower is still living in exile in Russia. I must also add that anyone who takes refuge in a foreign embassy and is under constant surveillance for more than six years will become narcissistic.

I hope the Australian government and the so-called post-mortem report writers, sometimes also called journalists, will support Assange and fight for his release.

On April 11, my wife removed the spare key from my motorbike to avoid it being stolen. In doing so, she released the security lock plate which needs the special magnetic key to reopen it, meaning I had to get the original key sent from my son's home 200 kilometres away.

I phoned him and asked him to send the key by express mail service as I needed the bike badly. Thai Post charged him 37 baht for their special EMS service. When it hadn't arrived by the morning of April 13, I took a drill to the lock plate and destroyed the magnetic element to use the bike.

The key arrived exactly six days after posting. That was certainly "special" of Thai Post but not in the way I had hoped. No wonder those orange vans are proliferating in my district; the "Kelly" messenger service must be getting it right.

As a further contribution to Eric Bahrt's put-down of American presidents, I'd suggest he (and others if it interests them) access the following BBC website, concerning the mental stability of presidents. Enter "he has incredible genes" and BBC.

The litany of "disturbed" people elected to the presidency goes back as far as George Washington. Trump is a babe in arms compared to some of the other psychotics and psychopaths.