Last week his eminence grise Bill Clinton swept into the Kingdom as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for tsunami aid to review progress in the recovery effort. He said later the task of helping people left homeless by the tsunami was not complete as only 30 per cent of them were once again living in permanent homes.

Clinton would have served his brief better if he had asked penetrating questions such as:

Why, nearly two whole years after the tsunami, has only a shameful 30 per cent of the displaced people been re-housed?

Where have the donated funds been used; how much of the money has been spent and how much remains?

Why has progress in the relief work been deplorably slow?

As a UN special envoy, these were legitimate questions for Clinton to ask.

Offering gratuitous advice on the restoration of democracy was well out of the purview of the supposed purpose of his visit.

Sadly, Clinton's visit seems to have achieved very little in ensuring effective application of tsunami aid.

John de Laurent

Bangkok

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Whistleblowers should be acting out of integrity

 Re: "A bold move to protect anti-corruption whistleblowers", Letters, December 4.

I disagree with Burin Kantabutra regarding his proposal that whistleblowers get 50 per cent of all the graft that they expose. Why does there have to be a payoff for doing the right thing - for doing your job? It just perpetuates the mentality of needing an incentive to be honest.

Give whistleblowers credit, sure, but not money - unless it's to be used for their protection.

Honesty should be as natural as breathing. The act of bravely standing up to corruption is only sullied by such a payoff. A bribe is a bribe, whichever direction it travels in.

It's a sad society when citizens sell their integrity on the open market.

Boris Loosebrain

Bangkok

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New ministers should explain wealth to clear all doubts

 Re: "There are honest people in government and civil service", Letters, December 4.

Major Mark Smith explains the surprisingly high level of wealth enjoyed by some members of the present government through the fact they "did not come from poor backgrounds, nor marry into poverty".

Major Smith may well have hard evidence to this effect, but I do not think it is generally available.

To remove all possible doubt, especially in view of the unusual wealth of the discredited previous administration, perhaps the relevant Cabinet members could share with the country how they accumulated their wealth, in some cases totally out of scale with their employment remuneration.

Christopher Fry

Bangkok

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Advertisements ruin the pleasure of the Skytrain

 Will the deafening advertisements at Phrom Pong BTS Station ever stop? What was once a world-class transport system is now a joke and an embarrassment.

Riding the BTS at sunset used to be first on my list of "must do" activities for friends visiting Bangkok; now it's off the list. They don't need an elevated mall experience. It's crass.

The noise was so loud the other day, my friend couldn't hear her cellphone.

Please turn the sound off. Leave the images if needs be, but no sound, please. I don't need to hear about how to whiten my skin; I only want to get to Siam Square in peace.

Ralph Davidson

Bangkok

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Youngsters' abuse of mobiles calls for an advertising ban

 Re: "Students hooked on Internet, cellphones", News, December 4.

It's shocking, really, that 95 per cent of Bangkok teenagers spend three hours or more every day on their mobile phones. That must affect their studies, waste their parents' money and lead to all sorts of naughty nonsense, including setting up dates with the opposite sex after hours of flirtatious talk. Almost as bad as alcohol consumption, I would say.

What say the authorities ban mobile-phone ads? It would be good for the health and studies of our children, to say nothing about the personal finances of parents.

Jeremy Ringalot

Bangkok

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Agricultural price support is only a temporary measure

 I fully sympathise with rubber farmers who've been hurt by the dramatic 60-per-cent plunge in rubber prices over the past few months. But I suggest that Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont use this opportunity to review the role of agriculture price supports in general, and rubber in particular. Since he is an appointed, not elected, prime minister, he can seek to benefit the nation from a long-term perspective rather than focus on winning the next election.

Nobody is guaranteed a livelihood for life. To me, price supports are to smooth out drops in income, so farmers can adjust to changing conditions. Thus, they should be very temporary and should not remove the incentive to adjust by making up for the entire loss.

For example, in the case of rubber, the changes cited are mostly fundamental and long-lasting - lower demand and excess supply in both domestic and international markets. So planters have to either drastically lower costs, seek new markets or get out of the industry.

What Surayud might do is make up 50 per cent of the loss for, say, one year or until the price rises, whichever comes first, and offer free, intensive training for those who wish to enter other professions.

Instead of staging mass protests against the inevitable, farmers should work with the government to make sure that the training offered meets their needs.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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British triathlete died of a heart attack, not drowning

 Re: "British athlete drowns in triathlon", News, December 4.

Crucial information in your report was incorrect. The report stated that William Scott Stewart drowned during the swimming leg of the Laguna Phuket Triathlon. The official cause of death was an acute myocardial infarction (cardiac arrest). Mr Stewart was unconscious when rescued from the lagoon; after receiving emergency medical treatment he was transferred by ambulance to the Bangkok Hospital Phuket where he later passed away at 11.08am.

Nattira Anakasiri, assistant public relations

manager, Laguna Phuket

Phuket

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Rights group warns against rise of vigilantism in South

 Since the beginning of the new school term on November 1, separatist insurgents have killed five and injured at least two teachers and set 10 schools on fire while Thai security forces have struggled unsuccessfully to protect schools, teachers and students. On November 24, armed insurgents shot and burned Non Chaisuwan, a 48-year-old teacher, in front of terrified staff and students in Pattani's Sai Buri district.

Militants from the youth wing (pemuda) and guerrilla units (Runda Kumpulan Kecil, or RKK) of the separatist National Revolution Front-Coordinate (Barisan Revolusi Nasional-Koordinasi, or BRN-C) target schools because they are considered to be a symbol of government authority and Buddhist-Thai culture.

"Insurgents are terrorising the civilian population by attacking teachers and schools, which they consider are symbols of the Thai state," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "These attacks on civilians are not just grave crimes. They also threaten children's basic right to an education."

Attacks on educators in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat have become a regular part of the past two years of separatist insurgency among the predominantly ethnic Malay-Muslim population. Many ethnic Thai teachers have been shot in their classrooms and their lodgings. Insurgents have ambushed both teachers and security patrols trying to convey students safely to their schools. Teachers have been held hostage in exchange for the release of insurgent suspects from government custody.

This new generation of village-based militants in the National Revolution Front-Coordinate - who are often referred to as fighters, or pejuang - is attempting to divide society on ethnic and religious fault lines by playing on mistrust between Buddhists and Muslims. The militants' leaflets, recently distributed in Yala, claim that the southern border provinces are not the land of Buddhist Thais, but a religious "conflict zone" - similar to Palestine or Afghanistan - which must be divided between Muslims and infidels. According to the leaflets, Fatoni Darulsalam (or "Islamic Land of Patani" in Arabic) will be liberated from what they call the Buddhist-Thai occupation only by force.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's government has promised to give special attention to measures that would make schools safe and teachers secure to continue their work in the community. But Human Rights Watch also warns against the possible rise of vigilantism as the local population is encouraged by the authorities to defend itself against militants.

Human Rights Watch

London