Does the right hand know what the left is doing?

We now seem have all the ingredients for a good Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera or even slapstick farce brewing in the Kingdom; but sadly the libretto is of very serious stuff.

We have the Assets Examination Committee, a body set up by the coup leaders who seized the country to rid it of a leader they asserted was corrupt - and charged that body to root out abuses of power by that regime and bring transgressors to book under the legal system. 

The coup leaders did not rewrite the law nor change the rules in any way. They simply set the AEC the task of investigating certain matters. We now have the AEC standing "trial" as to whether it has the right to exist constitutionally.

Given that it was set up by the authors of the current Constitution the result should be a "no-brainer". However that may not be the case. It will soon become clear how independent the courts in the Kingdom are and how they interpret their role and the oaths they swore.

Even more bizarre we have the AEC submitting papers of indictment to the Office of the Attorney-General which includes the indictment of the Attorney-General. How these papers can be processed appropriately with the Attorney-General in post is a moot point.

Thailand is a country that has copied legal and administrative systems from the West. These lie uneasily on the Thai way of doing things. Rather than be seen as a bulwark of the democratic state they are constantly and cynically abused, by those whose duty it is to uphold them, as vehicles to advantage and enrich themselves.

Moreover, I cannot in all honesty see that there is the slightest will to change this in any way.

Culturally the country is simply not capable of being a sophisticated democracy and will continue to be a weak and shallow copy abused by its leaders.

Daniel W Delaware

Bangkok

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Children are our most important natural resource

Compounding the tragedy of the devastating earthquake in China is the fact that many of the victims were the only children the distraught grief-stricken parents had, due to China's mandatory population control one-child per family policy.

In Burma, homeless cyclone survivors and weak helpless orphans are the most susceptible to water-borne diseases, also to the risk of malnutrition.

Underage refugees too often face futures of hardship, abuse and recruitment as child soldiers, slave labourers or sex workers.

Children represent our global family's greatest and most important natural resource, so we must learn to educate, nurture, protect and love each and every child on our lonesome planet as our very own.

Chanchai Prasertson

Bangkok

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Why being patronised is not desirable for some

I have read a transcript of a talk made last year by Jakrapob Penkair at the Foreign Correspondents Club.

The title was "Democracy and Patronage System of Thailand", (whatever patronage system means).

At one point he said: "I went to the United States as a student in 1992 and I could never understand at the time why people could be angered by being patronised.

Some friends responded angrily to me and to people I saw them talking to, "Don't patronise me".

Apparently, Jakrapob misunderstood the meaning.

Patronise is a verb and it has different meanings.

It means, "to act as a patron to; support or sponsor", or "to go to as a customer, especially on a regular basis." It also means, "to treat in a condescending manner, ie to treat someone as if he/she is inferior".

When a farang snaps: "Don't patronise me," he means, "Don't look down on me", or "don't talk down to me," or "don't treat me like a child." Now Jakrapob should understand why farangs don't want to be patronised.   

Meechai Burapa

Chiang Mai

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Combining grief with business is in bad taste

While I applaud and indeed rely on your continued, albeit less prominent local political coverage, I regret that your new format seems to have promoted business news over all else.

David Tuck (letters May 15) rightly highlighted this disparity. 

He refers to your headline "CP Group reports no big disruption" which is juxtaposed with a photo of a mourning mother at the site of a collapsed school building. Yes, CP may continue flying the Thai

flag of commerce, but common sense please when it comes to illustrating this point.

As David suggests, a suitable comment from a member of CP Group's management on the disaster would have been acceptable, and if a photo was needed, then a deliriously happy chicken or pig would surely have done rather than one of a distraught mother whose heartrending picture should have been placed elsewhere.

Lem Morgan

Nonthaburi