So the April 2 election has now been nullified. The legalities of calling this useless snap election will be debated for years to come, but the cost to us and the individuals involved will be devastating. The individuals who caused the crisis have at no time proven anything of substance in regard to allegations of graft, corruption and/or mismanagement, and the fleas will be laughing all the way to their offshore banks. Again, well done, another blow in our faces. For some reason, we Thais can never get anything right, and we as a people are sinking deeper and deeper into a self-created hole of despair. Poverty around our nation is increasing for the majority, as prices for the basics soar because of rising fuel costs and more. The parasites are getting richer and richer as they feed on our exploitation. We look forward again to the same merry-go-round as under the Thaksin administration, because we haven't taught anyone a lesson. We were supposed to set a mandate to govern under strict imposed guidelines.

Where are we going? Thaksin and his other parasites milked our economy dry to their own respective benefit; will it be any different with the new incoming administration? I think not, because no one was brought to justice for graft or corruption and deliberate mismanagement. Why hasn't the Justice Ministry asked for assistance from international agencies such as Interpol to find out about illicit financial transactions?

Let us analyse what Thaksin did for the benefit of our nation. We still have widespread poverty, disorganisation, a thriving sex industry, including thousands of children exploited within this industry, his "fight" against corruption was a farcical public-relations exercise. Does the Thai public really think Thaksin cares about our nation? Thaksin and his associates only benefited themselves and to hell with us.

But we as a people are not innocent, because we never fight to a conclusion. We very quickly suffer from amnesia and forget what they have done to our nation, and actually, thanks to propaganda, see them as heroes. We are, as a people, not strong enough to effect the right changes, so maybe we deserve what we had and what we are getting. Everything in our nation must be overhauled: public service, law enforcement, our armed forces and specifically our justice system, because it is and has been suspect for a long time.

This will be my final contribution, as I am tired and feel lost, because we Thais are not fighting for a better future, and I see nothing but gloom for our children in the future, with a continuously corrupt and inefficient administration. We need courage to effect change, and I am afraid a lot of this courage is lacking. The rich only care about themselves and how to exploit the poor to their benefit. The poor are too busy surviving, the political parties too busy designing their next power plays by manipulation and deception and how to rip us off in the future.

Noppadon

Bangkok

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Allow We the People a significant say in reform

Re: "Reform 'pointless' if MPs don't change", News, May 10.

The three main political parties are agreeing on the key issues for political reform - but does anybody care what We the People think? I agree with the People's Alliance for Democracy's Suriyasai Katasila, that the general public should have a major part in the discussions - perhaps via public hearings, like those used in drafting our current Constitution.

I favour keeping the 90-day party-membership rule - unless there's a better way to prevent bed hopping by political prostitutes.

I suggest a ceiling on contributions that any single individual or juristic person can make to a party (as in the US) - say Bt50,000, so parties would have to rely on a broad membership base. To fund campaigning, each party would post a bank guarantee at the start of a campaign, enough to pay for all the time they wanted on state media. If the party won, say, 20 per cent of votes cast, the air time would be free. Annual financial statements of all parties, MPs, senators and their immediate families would be audited by a Securities and Exchange Commission auditor and posted on the Web.

We also need to revise the selection process of senators, so we don't end up with yet another Senate of wives and husbands. We should permit campaigning, so we know what candidates stand for - again, paid for by the state if (and only if) the candidate wins a given percentage of votes cast.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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S'pore's press only told part of the story in its poll reporting

Re: "No change in Singapore", News, May 8.

Your report stated that the percentage of votes for the ruling party dropped to 66.6 per cent, from 75.3 per cent in 2001. Yet The Straits Times came out with a banner headline of "PM gets his strong mandate", and the tabloid Today cheered the winning as "82 reasons to smile", referring to 82 government MPs won out of 84.

The win was against the background of 37 of the 82 MPs automatically bestowed with their seats, because the opposition chose not to contest. There is no requirement in Singapore for support by a minimum of 20 per cent of the vote for non-contested candidates, which is a prerequisite under the Thai Constitution.

Doesn't that make you feel rich in regard to your media's independence and proud of your country?

The May 8 headline for The Asian Wall Street Journal summed up the result fairly well: "Singapore's ruling party wins, but margin shrinks - Results show voters want more openness but like the economy".

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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Massacre of unarmed Hmong women and children

Amnesty International strongly condemns the massacre of ethnic Hmong by Lao government troops in northern Vientiane province last month. The deadly attack, which took place some 20 kilometres northeast of the tourist town of Vang Vieng on April 6, claimed the lives of at least 26, mostly women and children. Another four were wounded.

Scattered groups of people from the ethnic Hmong minority make up the largely forgotten remnants of an armed rebel group involved in a decades-old internal armed conflict with the national armed forces. The victims of the recent massacre came from one such group. The government troops launched their assault in the morning hours, while the victims, reportedly unarmed, were searching for food outside their hiding places in the jungle.

The massacre took place amid growing concerns about 27 ethnic-Hmong Lao, most of them children, who have been held in incommunicado detention in Laos since December 5 of last year. The group was forcibly returned to Laos from Thailand, where they lived with their families in an informal makeshift refugee camp, housing some 6,000 ethnic-Hmong Lao who claim to have fled persecution in Laos for their links to rebels.

The whereabouts of the 27 returned Hmong have not been confirmed by Lao authorities, but credible accounts indicate that the girls are held in a prison facility outside the town of Paksen, east of the capital, while the boys have been transferred from a prison in Vientiane to one in an isolated region in the far North.

The recent massacre, as well as reports of other deadly attacks by government forces and the arbitrary detention of children, deepen Amnesty's concerns for the safety of Hmong groups living in hiding, some of whom are reportedly surrounded by Lao army units, struggling to find food and with no access to medical care.

The Lao government has so far failed to work out an overall peaceful resolution to end the conflict with these Hmong groups, to protect those who have laid down their arms and respect human rights. Instead, violence and persecution continue against individuals and groups of ethnic Hmong perceived by the armed forces as having links to the rebels. In 2005, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination raised concerns about reported violence against the Hmong minority, including acts of violence carried out by soldiers against children.

Laos ratified the Additional Protocol II to the four Geneva Conventions in 1980. The protocol applies to non-international armed conflicts, provides for the protection of those not involved in fighting and those who choose to lay down their arms and forbids attacks on the civilian population as well as individual civilians.

Amnesty International calls on the Lao authorities to open a prompt and impartial inquiry into the April 6 massacre, to ensure that those responsible be brought to justice. The organisation also urges the authorities to release the arbitrarily detained children and ensure they are reunited with their families in Thailand.

Brittis Edman

Amnesty International

London

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Why is it so hard to bring the 9/11 perpetrators to justice?

Re: "Fate of September 11 kingpins remains a mystery", News, May 8.

It's not merely the few alleged "kingpins" mentioned in the article that have not reached trial. The real mystery is the fact that not a single "terrorist", at any level, has been brought to trial for the 9/11 crimes, this despite the full weight of America's investigative and intelligence efforts. After years of torture, murder, mayhem, bribery, invasion, occupation and the sliming of American values and civil rights at every opportunity, the vast support network that must have existed in the US to support a timed and precise military operation like 9/11 still remains shadowy and undiscovered. Are these guys that good or what?

The Brits needed only four months to piece the facts together after the Tube explosions, and yet after four years, the US neo-cons have made no progress towards solving the crime of the century aside from the distraction and diversion of a few show trials of wall-eyed half-wits with obvious mental problems. Where is the evidence?

Not many could pull off a 9/11-style event, and thus the list of suspects must be significant in its shortness. Motive, opportunity, ability and who benefited from the crime would be the first questions to ask; but everything is overshadowed by the proven ability of the masterminds to protect even the smallest of their fish from the largest net in history.

Mr Don

Surat Thani

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