"Everywhere I went it was the same tale of systematic oppression and of a deliberate campaign to de-nationalise the population. Desperate resentment is aroused by the ban on Malay education." To Whittingham-Jones, Siam was behaving like a "colonial" power and "conqueror". That's why, she explained, "as outcasts of society it is hardly surprising if some of the more rebellious elements have become also enemies of society and taken to smuggling, piracy and gang robbery".

On the issues of corruption, blackmail and persecution of the ethnic Malay Muslim victims, she wrote, "Corruption of Siamese officialdom reinforced by racial prejudices exposes the Malays of Patani to continuous blackmail, victimisation and reprisal... Individuals are constantly shot out of hand or simply disappear and are never heard of again."

 Maya Angelou, the poet, writer and American civil rights activist, wrote "history, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again". The most recent upsurge of violence in the South unfortunately appears to have its origin in the re-imposition of central control by the Thaksin government over the Democrat Party- controlled southern provinces starting in 2001. The successful policies of the Prem government in the 1980s and early 1990s when Bangkok handed an "olive branch" to the South were largely discontinued. The dissolving of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre and Civilian-Police-Military Task Force has proved catastrophic. It has been argued that if the dissolution in itself did not cause the most recent outbreak of violence, it certainly weakened the government's ability to handle it.

It would appear that the present government is therefore at a crossroads. Karl Marx wrote: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." Surely there has been enough tragedy and it is time for history to be no longer repeated.

London John

Bangkok

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Minister's baffling comment minimises pollution problem

Re: "Haze lifts as festival nears", News, March 24. The statements put out by government officials to minimise real problems always amaze me. Now we are being told by Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla that, "Normally, our body can discharge dust particles it has inadvertently taken in by sipping warm water often." Just how does drinking warm water eliminate impurities that are already lodged in the lungs? This is another way to deny the seriousness of the so-called "haze" - air so polluted that it could be deadly.

Chokingly Disgusted

Chiang Mai

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'Disaster zone' designation lifted at a convenient time

The governor of Chiang Mai may have removed the "disaster zone" designation from the province, but I suspect his motivation for doing so is with an eye on enticing a lot of tourists up here for the upcoming Songkran celebration.

I have my own pollution indicator. When I walk out the door, if I can't see Doi Suthep, just a couple of kilometres away, we've still got a significant amount of pollution. Perhaps the governor is counting on the situation to improve. I certainly hope so, but we aren't there yet.

Adak

Chiang Mai

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Bangkok not learning from Chiang Mai's experience

So everyday now we are bombarded by the media with information and educated to the fact that burning crops causes hazardous air. Is it then safe to assume that we are all aware of what is going on in and around Chiang Mai? That being so, why here in Bangkok, just up from The Nation Tower in Bang Na, is rai after rai of bulrush being burned?

Only a few days ago a plume of thick brown smoke a mile high was blocking out the sun - and whoever is doing this is preparing an area at least five times bigger than this for burning.

Does this mean that the group of people doing this has no radios, no television sets, no newspapers or no brains to connect what they are doing with Chiang Mai? Or is it possibly a rich landowner with no conscience or concern for the health and safety of others who is behind it?

What amazes me is that no one seems to complain.

Mai pen rai I suppose, and just put your hand over your nose - I'm sure the 10 microns or less can't get through then.

Frustrated Farang

Bangkok

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Transportation disasters occur around the world

Re: "Please return to lost and found: public safety", Opinion, March 24.

Some say that in Western Europe or the US the culprits would have gone to jail and the customers would have boycotted the bus company long ago

British Rail has had several train crashes in its history, the most recent last month and to my knowledge no one has gone to jail and there has no boycott of their service. An Alaskan Air jet crashed off the coast of California a few years ago and even though the airline was found guilty by the Federal Aviation Agency no one went to jail and the airline has not been boycotted. The engineer who blew the whistle lost his job and business went on as usual. This is the usual "we the foreigners are superior attitude" from those who say that "in our countries this would not happen". The reality is something quite different.

Cape Margo

Bangkok

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Inward policies keep nation from becoming a major player

Re: 'Tribune' reporter's fallacy: Thai anti-foreigner sentiment", Opinion, March 23.

No one questions the right of the Thai government to pass laws affecting foreigners. It is only the wisdom of these decisions that is in question. Recent laws show very little comprehension of their consequences. For example, recent legislation restricted the number of re-entries a foreigner can have. This has caused many foreigners who were just living here and pouring money into the economy to leave because they do not work, do not have a work permit or are too young for retirement visas.

The reason given for this Draconian change was that some foreigners were working here without work permits. But anyone who has a work permit knows that personal income tax here is not high. Federal income is obtained mainly through business taxes - their company pays taxes. The reason why foreigners do not get work permits is because of the time-consuming, mind-numbing process of obtaining them! Poor understanding of causes leads to a bad law.

Then there are the recently passed business and banking laws, which were protested by every foreign Chamber of Commerce. Thais seem to think they should own a company that is financed and brought into being by someone else. What moral gymnastics led to this idea? Does anyone actually believe this will happen?

Then there is the long-standing, most hard-hearted and basically unfair law prohibiting foreigners from owning homes. That is about the cruellest thing anyone can do, to deny someone the comfort and security of owning their own home. Some claim foreigners will buy up all the "good" land, as though Thailand has a shortage of oceanfront. Others have admonished Thais for selling their land because they will just squander the money - as though every seller is a bungling idiot.

Time is a one-way street. It leads only to the future. That street can become a superhighway of progress or a donkey path of dwindling hopes and dreams. Thailand can become prosperous, but not without foreign money, foreign ideas and foreign help - which everyone else understands. But right now it appears that Thais have opted for the donkey path. The consequences will not be pleasant.

Michael Greenwald

Bangkok

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BBC a shelter for anti-US left-wing intelligentsia

Re: "BBC, despite its faults, has no equal for ethics and quality", Letters, March 23.

John Symons' letter proves my point that many expatriates in Thailand have a romantic notion of the BBC that is based on the past and out of touch with contemporary reality.

I am sorry to shatter John's dreams, but it is not "embittered" to draw attention to the BBC's fallen standards.

He may not realise it, but this is a topic of great debate in the UK. The BBC, like many other cultural institutions in Europe, has been captured by committed ideologues who are quite unrepresentative of their community, and who use the guise of opposing the policies of the current US government to propagate their real hatred of all things American.

The BBC has caught the intellectual malaise that now pervades Europe and that expresses itself in a patronising anti-American viewpoint on all issues. This seems to be compounded of envy, resentment and cultural arrogance.

It is not sufficient to excuse this as merely opposition to the Bush administration. It is more partisan and goes much further. How else can one explain the quite open and totally irrational wish to see Iraq descend into terminal civil war, the Taleban recapture Afghanistan or the triumph of Islamic fascism, other than as an outcome of an unremitting hatred of America?

John says that people "accept there is little better than the BBC in the world today". This is open to question, but it is certainly true that the BBC's "best" is not good enough or even up to its own past standards.

Rodney Sheaves

Bangkok