Demand his extradition - PostBag

PostBag

Demand his extradition

Thailand's judiciary should waste no time in demanding the extradition of Thaksin Shinawatra. Britain should oblige if it is not to be labelled a banana republic and the last refuge of foreign scoundrels.

There is ample evidence that the Thai judiciary has no intention of harming Thaksin or his wife and children, but by skipping a court appearance he has certainly made it clear that a room at the "Bangkok Hilton" should be kept for him on his return, so he can answer all the questions of the court.

GILES WYNNE

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Who will be left to lead?

With the current trend of influential people fleeing the scene after being brought to book for wrongdoing, with many more cases in the pipeline against more so-called influential people, who will be left to run the country?

RON MARTIN

Sattahip

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Ex-PM 'flees the scene'

Those of us who have lived in Thailand for a long time have become accustomed to the phrase, "he fled the scene". Usually we see this phrase in relation to truck drivers who have caused accidents. Well, now we see that even ex-prime ministers can exercise the same tactic. The Thaksin era is apparently over and Thailand will be better off without him and his cronies.

STEVE RUBENSTEIN

Phuket

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Sad and embarrassed

I am neither a fan nor foe of Thaksin Shinawatra and as a fellow Thai feel sad for his fate of having to stay away from home.

But after reading his "letter to the media" (Bangkok Post, Aug 12) I felt even sadder, as the letter's intention was presumably to build a case for the British government to grant him asylum, by claiming our judiciary system lacked justice.

Irrespective of the embarrassment to his fellow Thais who are relatively content with their judiciary system, he simply had to damage others to save himself.

SONGDEJ PRADITSMANONT

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The man has a nerve!

Thaksin Shinawatra, who subverted the Thai legal system, twisted its laws, interpreted the constitution for his own benefit, enacted rules and laws to benefit himself and his cronies, now has the nerve to claim that the justice system is being subverted to get at him.

It is incredible.

His People Power party under his puppet Samak has tried to amend the constitution, change the criminal code and bribe the legal system to benefit Thaksin and the party.

As for the United Kingdom giving him political asylum, what can one expect from a country that has a justice system which permits a criminal of another country to roam freely at will, while sentencing its own citizenry to prison for much lesser offences?

Mr Thaksin will soon buy whatever he does not own, and the UK will be his.

JACK GILEAD

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'Miracle' of a movie

Where the Miracle Happens - Princess Ubolratana's movie actually delivers. Shot on location, it saves you the long trip North. Beautiful people try to do the right thing, no accusations or finger-pointing at the bad; just coming from the heart, it achieves what the rest of the movie world has forgotten. Goodness as a value in itself is offered. An example is set.

I recommend this film to everybody. And since it's in Thai, with English subtitles, go with a girlfriend and bring tissues, you might need them yourself since quite a few issues are addressed in a moving way. Bravo!

RALPH BRAUN

Chiang Mai

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Russia's aggression

Even those of us who lived through the good old days of communism are now flabbergasted at Russia's blatant aggression against Georgia with total disregard for civilian lives.

There used to be times when no one could really understand what the Brezhnevs and Khrushchevs, not to mention Stalins, were up to. But now they sure have successors in the duo of Medvedev-Putin. These gentlemen have deemed Georgian President Sakaashvili a person "no one would talk to" and have refused to negotiate with him.

But the same Russian leadership opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, saying the world should talk to Saddam Hussein. They strongly oppose any strict sanctions against Iran, let alone agree to a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear facilities, claiming one should talk to President Ahmadinejad. Moscow has been the only major capital to date to welcome the leadership of the Palestinian terror group Hamas; it seems okay to talk to them, too.

Such erratic behaviour is bad news for all the civilised world. The Cold War is not dead, after all.

ANDY LEITNER

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Israel Sorry for the loss

Reference is made to the complaints of Jerry Holiday and Glenn Fletcher about Thailand Post's services, published in Postbag on July 6 and 13, 2008, respectively.

I would like to reiterate that Thailand Post is doing everything possible to cure the irregularity of unarrived items, whether it be in operations or staff monitoring. However, with insufficient details of the posted items, I have to say that no further investigations can be done. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused.

MRS PORNTIP NIAMHOM VP, Quality Control Department, THP

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Point of view

Enough already, Alan Dawson (BP, Aug 7 and July 5), we got it a while ago where you are coming from, and any objectivity on the US presidential election from you never existed. You think McCain is a swell guy and Obama is a "rock star". And for people of your ilk, horror of horrors, Obama has never served in the military. But the winds of change are upon America, whether you dare to admit it or not.

ROBERT SINNOTT

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Wednesday August 13, 2008
Bangkok Post
General News