OPINION

A lesson for Suu Kyi

It is possible to feel sympathy for Aung San Suu Kyi to the extent she is a very brave woman who wants the best for the Burmese people.

The trouble is she has been selective in her loyalties and has pandered to public prejudice.

Now she is completing her political education and is learning it is not possible to negotiate with gangsters.

If you make a deal with the devil, sooner or later the devil will turn around and bite you.

It's all in the spacing

I am delighted to see Ye Olde Pedant's Feb 1 letter, "What's in a name", which says exactly as I have always thought about the slang perception of the name "Bang Sue" grand station. I was about to write similarly a few times. However, I do not agree with the suggested solution.

The writer seems to misunderstand the Thai pronunciation when he guesses that the Thai word which is transformed into "Sue" would pronounce roughly as "Sir".

In fact the word pronounces like "Rue" in French (which means "street" in English) or like a German word with ü (u with an umlaut).

Therefore, my suggested solution would be to still spell "Sue" but write the name in one word as "Bangsue" the same way as we write "Bangkok".

More than a shave

Re: "Protest banner leads regional police chief to shave his head", (BP, Feb 3).

I must confess that I read with some interest, liberally tempered with sincere credulity the explanation given by the commissioner of the Royal Thai Police's (RTP) Provincial Police Region 3 that it was necessary, among other decisive deeds, to shave his head because "police must cherish the royal institution with the highest respect".

Although it is not obvious how shaving one's head manifests the cherishing with the highest respect of an institution, there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the assertion.

Let it be accepted that it is thus.

That logically suggests a most compelling implication that traditional acts and deeds that express the values of the RTP also manifest the cherishing of the royal institution.

Perhaps those acts and behaviours for which they are rightly renowned are also manifestations of that same respect towards the higher institution.

If so, that's an interesting take on what gives the RTP and its sibling institutions their well-deserved reputations.

Traffic getting worse

Re: "Shutting down Hua Lamphong not a bright idea", (Opinion, Feb 3).

The traffic problem in Thailand is like that of the US in the 1960s.

The US built the interstate highway system, with construction awards going to the lowest bidder.

Now it is faced with a crumbling infrastructure. Thailand has the opportunity to do better with its transport system if it just opens its eyes and sees what doesn't work.