It is disturbing that he has chosen an unnecessary path to voice his belief, but it is more disturbing to see that some people can brand this suicidal act as heroic. What is democracy?

Nuamthong obviously regarded the money-buying, party-merging policy of the Thaksin government as a democracy. He also regarded the wide abuse of state power and human rights, such as the disappearance of Khun Somchai and the Tak Bai massacre, as acceptable practices under democracy. Had he realised that the coup was by far the best means to sort out the mess and was silently accepted by the majority of people, he would not have taken his fatal step.

General Sonthi is the accidental hero, as he has stood up to do the impossible, and he should be given time to prove that the interim government can chart a new course for Thai democracy. All parties should be patient and not exert unnecessary pressure on General Sonthi. Moral support, if not actual assistance, is required to encourage them to finish what they have started.

Yingwai S

Bangkok

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Cab drivers exploited by the authorities and greedy bosses

Why cast Nuamthong Paiwan's suicide as anti-junta, when, in fact, it was simply pro-Toxin? Pro-Toxin means what?

 Cab drivers have not had a fare increase for some seven years, regardless of fuel costs and rises in the cost of living. Taxi owners have bumped up their daily minimum charge to Bt550 from around Bt350. No matter how things go for the person renting the taxi on a given day, the owners get their daily rental. They bear none of the risk.

Under Toxin, the limits on the number of taxis was eliminated, resulting in a surfeit of taxes, making it much harder for taxi drivers with so many more taxis on the road. But not for taxi owners. Who are these taxi owners anyway?

Nuamthong Paiwan is just one example of "inToxination": a major misunderstanding of the reality of the Toxin dictatorship. As regrettable as any suicide may be, it is apparent that Nuamthong Paiwan could not compute the reality that he was being exploited, that his hardship and anxiety suffered on a daily basis was due to Toxin feeding the owners, the exploiters.

Wouldn't it be a boon for taxi drivers to have the powers that be do a study of major cities around the world to see what the taxi density ratio is to help ensure that the drivers, not the owners, get a decent return on their investment? May Nuamthong Paiwan rest in peace, but may others see the folly of his ways.

An observer

Bangkok

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Somebody should have noted the warning signs

I was really shocked and saddened by the suicide of taxi driver Nuamthong Paiwan.

Suicides are always sad - and there are far, far too many in Thailand - but why was I shocked?

Simply because the man had attempted it before by ramming his taxi into a tank in a high-profile protest against the military coup - and told an iTV reporter that he didn't want to live under the regime and was "planning to do something".

How many more warning signals could the poor man have sent out?

Was any attempt made by any agency or individual to counsel Nuamthong and try to prevent this tragedy? There seems to be no evidence that the iTV reporter said anything to prevent this during what could have been the man's last phone call.

I know that Eastern views on the value of human life are different from those of most Westerners, but while I don't agree with this man's opinion, his loss was particularly sad.

David Hardcastle

Chiang Mai

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The only way to sever evil is at the head, not the limbs

Re: "Destroy Thaksin's tentacles of power", Opinion, November 2.

Your editorial addresses one of the places from which Thaksin drew power to do his deeds. But as "useful" as the police force can be, they are merely a tool that he manipulated. What is more dangerous is his physical presence and his money. Both are extremely pernicious. The avenues for the use of his vast plundered wealth are limited at the moment, but his presence is now being fully employed. Following his wife's highly successful recent stunt as his proxy, the master performer himself is now sweeping into the region, with his mouthpiece Mr Noppadol proclaiming the ousted premier will return to politics again when the new constitution is drafted.

This is a dark spectre swirling around the fringes of the Kingdom. Make no mistake about the reasons for going to China. It is not to visit friends, and there will be no rest. This is the arch-villain gearing up for his return. Perhaps it will be golf in Korea, followed by a nice retreat in Vietnam and then his favourite pastime, shopping - where he can enjoy the company of the Lees and add to his selection of luxury watches in his favourite paradise, Singapore. Every now and again he will appear to keep up the impetus of his bid to return.

You talk of destroying Thaksin's tentacles of power, and whilst your analogy of a tentacle is very visual it should be remembered that cephalopods have the ability to regenerate their limbs if they are cut off. The approved method to stop something in its tracks has always been to remove the head. Whilst he cannot be stopped from gadding around the region, and there seems to be little rush to divest him of the vast wealth he accumulated in power, his reputation can be "removed".

His involvement with extrajudicial killings, disappearances and many other "policy" transgressions are not hidden in offshore accounts, they are not "afraid to talk", they are not erring on the side of reconciliation, they are matters of fact. They are atrocious acts of barbarism that must be accounted for. Is it beyond the wit of someone in authority now to bring these matters to light?

Dr John Symons

Bangkok

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A word of warning on Gross National Happiness

A recent report by the Abac Poll Research Centre on Thailand's latest gross domestic happiness has given us food for thought. According to the survey, which interviewed 4,800 individuals across 25 provinces, money doesn't seem to buy us a lot of happiness. Instead, self-rated happiness scores are found to be high among those who have good social ties in their community, those with excellent health, in full-time employment and who are completely satisfied with their job.

At the very least, these correlations are extremely encouraging. It indicates that just maybe the subjective evaluations of quality of life used in our surveys are correlated with what would normally be associated with objective measures of a good life. However, a couple of issues suggest themselves should the government wish to implement them directly into their policy design.

First, it should be noted that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. It provides no further information about the direction of causality between happiness and our objectively measurable variables of interest. For example, even if we did find income to be associated positively with happiness, it does not mean money makes people happy. It could have easily been the case that happier people make more money, or that our unobserved fixed characteristics, such as our sunny predispositions, keep us happy as well. With this in mind, it would appear irrational for policy makers to quickly base decisions on cross-sectional relationships alone.

Second, measuring happiness is one thing, but to come up with a policy that complements the statistics is another. An increase in gross national happiness from year to year may look as if we are on the right track, but such a national trend will come to nothing if we do not exactly know what causes it and thus how to maintain it. At the moment, it remains unclear how the available results can be used to generate an effective and efficient governmental policy in the foreseeable future.

Some of these issues, however, are easily fixed, given the right nature of the happiness data. Nonetheless, the problems aforementioned suggest some more thinking is required before we can agree on how a new well-being index for Thailand should look. I can only say that, at present, we still have a long way to go.

Nattavudh Powdthavee, PhD

London

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All Thais should be subject to one set of laws only

Pranai Suwannarat, newly appointed director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC), said more Islamic judges might be brought in to sit on judicial panels to advise on the legal aspects of Islamic law. My understanding is that all Thais are supposed to be equal under one set of laws. Sharia law has always been unfair to women, among others, and I find it hard to believe Thailand is willing to allow laws favouring males  to [be adjudicated by] Muslim judges, who apparently will be allowed to rule under a different set of laws than non-Muslims. We all want peace in southern Thailand, but there is a difference between negotiating peace and capitulating to terror.

Dean Barrett

Bangkok

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Apology accepted; now release innocent suspects

Whilst General Surayud's initiative in apologising to the people of the South is to be welcomed, the attorney-general's announcement that he will drop charges against those charged in connection with the Tak Bai massacre needs to be treated with caution.

The statement that charges will be dropped with the aim of achieving reconciliation with Muslims suggests this is being done as a gesture of goodwill on the government's part. The reality is this is being done to cover up the fact the government never had evidence to arrest these people and no hope of obtaining convictions.

The government should release these people, apologise for falsely arresting them and pay substantial compensation. Then they should turn their attention to the people who ordered the arrests and who committed murder at Tak Bai.

Dom Dunn

Bangkok