What a great editorial! In fact, the article was so great that the first thing I did after finishing it was check the calendar. To my immense relief, April Fool's was over a week behind us. I love the headline "A blow to Thai democracy" very, very much, but love the kicker even more: "The mob has beaten the ballot box in South-East Asia".

You are such a brave lot of journalists. Do you know what would happen to you if you wrote anything like that in Thailand? My opponents would go over every advertisement in your publication with a microscope to see if there were any commercial windfalls coming from my government or telecom companies. Thank God it came from you, a prestigious international news magazine, and I can't wait to rub all my critics' noses in it.

Your sympathy and understanding brought tears to my eyes. "The political system in Thailand was not as badly broken as Mr Thaksin's opponents have often claimed," you said. "If it were, he would not have had to sell almost all of his family's assets in January, including the television station that is supposed to have been so central to his power. That sale made the most recent election at least reasonably free and fair."

This is spot on. So sick of those who saw nothing but greed in that Bt73,000,000,000 tax-free figure. And thank you for not mentioning Ample Rich and all the share transfers. I have tried to tell those stupid critics that it's not an important aspect of the Shin Corp-Temasek saga but they wouldn't listen. The Economist must know best, and your article will surely help my case here. (It would have been perfect, though, if you had endorsed my Nasdaq listing explanation and shut those bloody boo-boys up.)

And, yes, I can never win where iTV is concerned. Bought it and they cooked up some nonsense about media control; sold it and I'm a traitor who handed over a valuable national asset that is supposed to be independent from foreigners. The same goes for Shin Corp: kept it and they bombarded me with conflict-of-interest rubbish; sold it and more of the same garbage.

Big thanks for not going along with the accusations that I'm a control freak. Why they call it a broken checks-and-balances system is beyond me. The Constitution Court is alive and well, despite what every pretentious intellectual in Thailand would have you believe. The National Counter Corruption Commission may have stopped functioning (the members' genuine need for a salary hike was unfortunately overly politicised), but the Anti-Money Laundering Organisation will still be able to look into corrupt journalists' bank accounts as usual.

Yes, the system remains healthy like you suggested. Guess you must have been laughing yesterday, too, when all major newspapers published a joint editorial lamenting media "intimidation" and "interference". What a bunch of jokers! A little slap on the wrist and they whine like babies. Those liars should have been born in Burma.

"It's a great pity that the mob was in the end allowed to beat the electoral system. The correct way to oust Mr Thaksin should have been at the ballot box." You said this with overwhelming authority and I hope my publicists learn a thing or two from your article. Those losers retreat into their shells every time they hear anyone quote my "Democracy is not my goal" statement. Of course I said that, but, hey, if you folks from a truly democratic country don't mind, why should Thai people?

"While Thaksin is undoubtedly a disease in the body politic, the cure that has just been applied is worse than the illness itself." You hit the nail on the head again. I never said I'm perfect, but look at those people.

You are so right to call those protesters a "mob". They tried to be peaceful and civilised but at the end of the day they wanted to undermine an electoral process, which you correctly imply is the sole essence of democracy. You are also right to ignore their talk about ethics, legitimacy and good governance.

Be careful, though, because they may go after you by citing your tough stance on accountability and transparency in the wake of the Enron fraud. But I'm sure you'll cope with that. Just repeat your punch line: Election is democracy. Election is democracy. Election is democracy. And everything will be fine.

Yours sincerely and thanks a lot again,

Someone once called Thai Con

Tulsathit Taptim