'Truce' declaration one more insult for the South

Despite its abysmal performance in its efforts to bring peace to the strife-torn deep South, the Samak government seems to be trying to capitalise on the weighty situation.

On Thursday, it broadcast a ceasefire proclamation by a group claiming to represent all the separatist groupings in the region.

It would be nice if it turned out to be true. The resentment and hatred the southern Muslim majority there has for the government and its officials runs deeper than the authorities realise.

The brutal incidents at Krue Sae and Tak Bai during the administration of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, in which hundreds of innocent people lost their lives, has never been resolved: no government officials have been tried for the alleged murders.

How can the Muslim majority down there be expected to forgive and forget? And how, then, can peace prevail?

The Samak government's idea of solving serious problems such as what's happening in the South is too simplistic and self-serving. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej should be ashamed to have let this Channel-5 TV hoax happen under his nose.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

Early bar closings a dream for Pha-gnan villagers

Living in Bantai village on Koh Pha-ngan in Surat Thani, the ultimate closure of night venues operating after 2am would be a dream come true for many of the suffering residents here.

For many years bars taking part in the "Shiva-moon Party", the "Half-moon Festival", the "Black moon Culture" party, the "Jungle Experience", etc, all of them in and around Bantai, have played their open air techno-noise terror from 9pm until 12pm the next day - 15 hours non-stop! - making it impossible for many residents to sleep.

This unbearable situation is repeated every third or fourth night! Even the obvious, massive illegal narcotics trade and abuse, as well as the rising number of drug-related crime doesn't result in the closure of these events.

According to press reports, the police raid in Phuket on bars trading after 2am a few days ago was due to a nationwide order. Does Bantai not belong to Thailand anymore?

Leave the party scene in Haad Rin (where the full-moon party is held), where everybody can decide whether to stay or leave. The villagers in Bantai don't have any choice.

Help us to regain our right on a good nights sleep and, much more importantly, to a safe neighbourhood.

Tired

Surat Thani

Complaints about noise in Bangkok fall on deaf ears

Re: "Bangkokians feel powerless to stop noisy intrusions", Letters, July 21.

It's a catch-22: you speak up to complain about harmful levels of noise but the people of Bangkok to whom you are speaking are already deaf from the past harmful noise they encountered. To them, Bangkok is peaceful and quiet.  Maybe it's time to get some young people into some decision-making positions; they may be listening.

David Brooks

Bangkok

Media covering up just how liberal Obama is

According to liberals themselves, Barack Obama has absolutely the most liberal voting record of anyone in the Senate. Americans ignore this at their peril.

Readers believing that Senator Obama would usher in anything other than a tax-and-spend, over-regulated, fiscal and economic nightmare are setting us all up for the sort of two-handed economic walloping only the far left can be relied upon to deliver.  Meanwhile, the American economy's GDP growth is now projected to be 1.3 per cent for 2008; and its respectable 5.5 per cent unemployment rate remains something the French and Germans can only dream about. Mainstream media journalists labouring to convince us that conditions are somehow worse than they really are, are part and parcel of the usual election year disinformation campaign carried out on behalf of Democrats.

Ron Goodden

Atlanta, Georgia

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