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Published on November 23, 2007

For the past five decades, it has been carrying out various abuses including forced labour, unlawful arrests and imprisonment, rape, torture, murder and genocide. With the world as our witness, our government's viciousness culminated in a brutal crackdown this September. Despite being unarmed and non-violent, monks and civilians were attacked, simply for protesting for the peace and democracy that many First World countries take for granted. As we cautiously welcome the recent positive gestures made by the ruling State Peace and Development Council, we seek alongside them your support for the following to be implemented:

1.The immediate and unconditional release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. This is the litmus test for the world to see the sincerity of the SPDC.

2. The release of all activists, monks and prisoners of conscience in Burma, and the assurance of the government to not detain or torture anyone for political expression or dissent.

3. A genuine, tripartite dialogue between respective parties that will lead to national reconciliation being implemented within the given time frame. To prevent this issue from being dragged on indefinitely, the government must cease tactics that would cause any further impediments.

4. To work towards economic stability by lowering basic commodity prices and making them more affordable for the general populace. Due to massive, uncontrollable inflation, many families are barely surviving on their meagre, stagnant incomes. Too many people, including children, have also been left starving on the streets of Burma. For its part, Asean should concentrate on establishing regional economic stability rather than allowing member countries to serve their own self-interest.

5. While the recent selective sanctions carried out by the West have had significant impact on the junta and its associates, Professor Gambari has rightfully stressed the importance of continual pressure from the international community. We hope that Asean will also keep up this pressure towards the junta instead of engaging it with the same business-as-usual attitude.

We appreciate your involvement and sympathy with our cause, and sincerely hope that you will take into full consideration each and every one of our requests. Unless Asean abandons its non-interference policy and takes firm action on members that violate basic human rights, we Burmese citizens will never get to taste the freedom and prosperity that you, our neighbours, currently enjoy. Please use your freedom to promote ours.

Concerned Citizens of Burma

Bangkok

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Burma will go its own way, like every other nation

Re: "Asean mired in Burma quagmire", Editorial, November 21.

Regarding Burma's "snail's pace" on the road to democracy, one should consider the following.

First, everything moves at a snail's pace in Burma anyway; why should the Burmese move at the same pace as New Yorkers or Bangkokians? As for the pace of democracy, the US took nearly 300 years to get where it is with regard to its version of democracy, and it is still in need of serious reforms. Do you really expect Gambari, China, Asean, or anyone else for that matter, to produce the "tangible results" that the UN and the West wants with regard to Burma in less than three generations? That's the minimum for an ideology such as democracy to make its way into the hearts and minds of ordinary people. If it's only the formal apparatus people want, that's easy: set up something that looks like democracy (like most of the world has done, including some members of Asean).

Second, your report assumes that Burma's road map to democracy is to the kind it thinks the country should have. I am not sure what that is, since it has never been discussed in any depth. Will it be a Thai, Singaporean, Malaysian, British or US style democracy? (I can assure you it wont be the latter.) But lest we are disappointed by our own unrealistic expectations and start pointing fingers when what we expect doesn't materialise, we should realise that most countries, especially Burma, have always done what they want to do, even under the most repressive, colonial conditions. So its version of democracy (if it decides to adopt some of its principles) will be a kind that corresponds best to its own historical experiences, dominant institutions and, of course, self-interest. Why should anyone expect anything else? And why should Burma or any country adopt a type of government drawn up by people whose values and historical experiences are vastly different?

Third, I say bravo to Asean for standing up to the bullies of the world on Burma's (and its own) behalf. Why should Asean be held responsible (and later accountable) for implementing someone else's self-righteous political agenda, especially one that is not really that high on its own priority list? Why should Asean be the fall guy for the US and the self-proclaimed and self-appointed "international community" that will abandon Asean at a moment's notice if it serves its interests?

What puzzles me though, is why the Thais who write to The Nation have become such mouthpieces for the West? Perhaps most are not Thais but Westerners. I would like to know what ordinary Thais actually feel about Burma.

MAT

Hawaii

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Open the aircraft carrier to paying visitors

Re: "Get rid of the Navy's expensive floating white elephant", Letters, November 22.

While on a local school outing several years ago, students and teachers had the opportunity to visit the naval base and docking site of the aircraft carrier "Chakri Naruebet". As the students and staff were boarding the ship, I and two other foreign teachers were clearly told foreigners were not allowed to board Thai naval ships. Nothing personal, of course. But as a person who has an interest in all types of ships, military or otherwise, I was at the time rather nonplussed and disappointed at being excluded.

Rather than sell off the pride of the Thai Navy, as Burin Kantabutra suggests, why not declassify the ship, move it off the base, say perhaps as an adjunct to some other seaside venue, and open it to the public? A reasonable admission that includes all entrants could be charged in order help defray the maintenance costs - enabling the ship both to still be venerated and allow all the public to have a much freer access to visit and honour it. Just a thought.

Mr Bill

Bangkok

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Faceless murder victims deserve better coverage

Re: "Three women killed in pickup", News, November 22.

Regarding the three Thai women who were murdered in Pattani, other than their names, little information was provided about the women or the crime. It was almost as if the report was on something that happened in South America and not Thailand. This seems to be a pattern. Thai newspapers will provide long, detailed reports on issues abroad, but the daily murders in the South of Thailand receive scant attention.

I fail to understand why the terrorism in the South receives so little coverage. Don't the victims deserve more than a recitation of their names? How about reporting on their lives, their dreams, how their families are coping with the loss? Maybe if Thai newspapers start reporting on the Southern violence, Thai people will become more concerned and start looking for a solution.

Josh Baker

Thailand

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