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Published on September 15, 2007

The remarks attributed to MR Pridyathorn Devakula by your reporter are nothing short of bizarre. Pridyathorn was quoted as saying that foreign investors in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) have manipulated the market to the highest level in the region, but strangely no examples of this alleged manipulation were provided in the article.

The former finance minister was also quoted as saying that Thai investors should not be worried that the market would not be bullish if foreign investors did not come any more. Since he also noted that foreign investors own 40 per cent of the Thai market capitalisation it is hard to see why he would not expect anything less than a complete market meltdown if foreigners were to shun the Thai bourse.

Pridyathorn adequately demonstrated while finance minister that he is at sea when it comes to stock markets. The record one-day loss on the SET Index caused by the introduction of capital controls in December 2006 seemed to come as a complete surprise to him. He would do himself and the SET a favour by restricting his public comments to the many areas where he is rightly considered an expert.

George Morgan

Bangkok

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UN has become part of the problem in Burma

UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari is a clueless bureaucrat, a bit of a showboat, who has become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. First Lady Laura Bush telephoned UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon because the UN was "missing in action" during the present crisis in Burma and also because UN envoy Gambari is putting the release of Aung San Su Kyi on the back burner and trying to legitimise the illegal national convention in Burma.

President Bush strongly condemned the military junta at the Apec meeting in Australia, but the stronger message that the US sent was not reported in the media. Two US aircraft-carrier battle groups, led by the USS Kitty Hawk and USS Nimitz, were conducting military exercises last week near the Andaman Islands, within striking distance of Burma.

Than Shwe has forty Cabinet ministers just as Ali Baba had forty thieves.

Myint Thein

Bangkok

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Set an example so the poor can believe in the law

Ex-Philippine president Estrada was found guilty of massive corruption and sentenced to life imprisonment. When he was elected in 1998 it was with the largest majority in Philippine history, and despite the verdict he remains hugely popular among that nation's poor, many of whom believe, along with Estrada, that he is the victim of political persecution.

The parallels with ex-PM Thaksin are disturbingly clear. Even if he is found guilty in court, I suggest that millions of poor will not believe in his guilt. Also, the poor can see for themselves that influential men, often in uniform, still deforest illegally at will, or plant villas/restaurants in prohibited areas. They know that the military and police now are legally pre-absolved from accountability for any act, including killing, in the line of duty, and that those responsible for the excessive use of force at Krue Se and the manslaughter at Tak Bai remain free from accountability, this despite repeated pledges about the rule of law and "no double standards" from those in power.

Why should the poor believe the rule of law has finally arrived and that any guilty verdict in the Thaksin case is just?

As long as the rural poor believe, and with cause, that Thaksin is being persecuted and that any government will just change one set of crooks for another, Thaksin's nominees will readily return to power, and we're back where we started.

I suggest that PM Surayud must empower the rural poor by showing them through acts, not words, that we do have the rule of law and that the laws apply to the high and the mighty as well as to them. Go after all major acts of corruption, not just those related to Thaksin. For example, clean up our police force. Court-martial the generals of Krue Se and Tak Bai. Jail those who raped the Salween forest.

Also empower the man in the street and invigorate our press to be proactive and accountable in monitoring the politicians of the day, including those now in power. Make it highly profitable to whistle-blow on crooks who steal from all of us. Make it easy for us to obtain official information, including via class action, to increase transparency in how politicians protect our national interests.

I suggest that under such conditions as those outlined above we need not fear a return of Thaksin's clones, or of anybody bent on stealing.

Burin Kantabutra

Bangkok

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No cheer in Bangkok's Dickensian kitchens

Re: "Restaurant-owners do not pocket service charges", Letters, September 13.

In his letter, Chef Hervé Frerard and his associate Marc Bogerd seem to suggest that they speak for most restaurateurs in Bangkok in dismissing the allegation that a levied 10 per cent service charge rarely finds its way to staff. In his letter he chides a previous contributor about checking facts prior to writing a letter, but he himself provides only a belief that the 10 per cent is indeed paid by the majority of managers. A belief is a far cry from a fact.

Additionally, he seems proud that tips at his restaurant exceed the pay he gives his staff. I would venture to suggest a strange, almost Dickensian, situation in which to revel.

Dr John Patterson

Bangkok

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Still no answers to southern crisis

Ramadan is a time for reflection", Editorial, September 14.

I was dismayed to read your leader on the southern insurgency. You rightly condemn the targeting of civilians by insurgents but make no equivalent point about the many forced disappearances of bystanders, as documented by Human Rights Watch. You say it is all down to a "tiny minority", but that is what insurgencies are like, with the majority giving passive support or acquiescing perhaps through fear. You say that moderate Muslims need to stand up and be counted, when you must know that they will then become targeted "collaborators".

You say of Muslim leaders "they must also find ways to act collectively and effectively to make change for the better", but you have no suggestions about how they might do this. You look for the cause of the insurgency inside Muslim communities ("must engage in serious debate about what has gone wrong within their own communities") rather than in the relations between these communities and the Thai state.

You suggest they can be as successful as anyone "if they strive to improve themselves through education and perseverance", implying that their failure is their own fault, and you conclude by observing that "many of them continue to be weighed down by a sense of victimhood".

You appear to dismiss history as having no relevance to understanding the insurgency ("old grievances of the distant past"), but surely history can help each side understand the other better.

Although Pattani paid tribute to Ayuthaya for 200 years, direct rule was imposed by Rama I in order to secure Bangkok's southern flank against the Burmese after 1785. Pattani has been periodically rising in rebellion ever since, and the current insurgency is just the latest phase of a very long story.

Does Pattani belong in modern Thailand? If the Thai state claims to be based on blood and language, perhaps it doesn't. But if the Thai state is a modern citizen state, after the models of revolutionary America or France, perhaps it does belong. But its southern Muslim communities should not be denied official use of their language, Yawi, an important part of their identity. And they should be helped to develop and become part of modern Thailand.

It is shocking and unacceptable that in Narathiwat mothers die in 72 out of 100,000 live births, compared to just 19 in Phuket (Unescap figures).

Richard Sproat

Bangkok

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