Govt MPs display the |mentality of warlords

There is absolutely no upside to this. It is a huge accident waiting to happen. If Samak has any sense, he will order his supporters not to do this. Our government MPs should be reprimanded severely for even contemplating such an atrocious act.

This type of confrontation - just like two armies mobilising to do battle - has the potential to end in tragedy. There is no better way to create economic turmoil, social unrest and to truncate our country's march toward modernisation than to allow thousands to fight senselessly.

Calmer heads had better prevail - fast.

OUTRAGED TAXPAYER

BANGKOK

Joint parliamentary |session taken for a ride

The joint parliamentary session on Sunday was taken for a ride by none other than PM Samak Sundaravej. The session was actually called by the government citing a need to find a solution to the political crisis.

Instead of a sincere meeting of minds for the sake of the country, the session turned out no different than any other Parliament sessions where government members and opposition members grilled one another with the usual and all too familiar accusations and name calling. Even the House speaker took sides with the government and showed an obvious bias.

Clearly Samak already had his mind made up to stay in power long before he called the session. He was using the live telecast session to reaffirm his stand on the crisis. It is also obvious that he has no intention of finding a peaceful solution to the crisis, but instead is waiting for the right moment to strike the PAD, most likely with force and violence.

Should that happen, history will repeat itself and we will probably have our 28th military coup. Samak will find himself in a similar situation to his fugitive boss, and he will have no one to blame but himself.

SUPREECHA D

BANGKOK

Electoral fraud is not |really so sophisticated

Re: "The facts about vote-buying and the patronage system", September 1.

Excuse me, but in what fairyland does Chang Noi live? Oh, yes, the fairyland of Bangkok, where editorial writers think they have a clear view all the way to Isaan and where "facts" need no basis in reality other than within their own heads.

Come next election time, I invite the little elephant to come up and tour the Northeast that I actually live in, to talk with folk in the rundown chicken-shack residences, to visit the understaffed and under-resourced schools, and to watch the "better-educated", "wealthier" and "smarter" Northeasterners not as they cast their ballots but as they make their regular village rounds of vote-buying, all dutifully recorded in a book, so that they know who to reward later when their party is in office. He'll be in for a rude awakening.

JACK ILLEE

SAKON NAKHON