Shared premiership would help cool tensions

Army chief General Anupong Paochinda must be more assertive and take a decisive role to enforce the formation of a national government. It is not enough for him just to support the idea. The obstacle now is the premiership. We can solve the problem by instituting three de facto co-prime ministers to run the country for a period of time, possibly one year.

This is an unusual solution for the crisis engulfing the nation. It would allow a system of power-sharing and a cooling-off period to deal with constitutional amendments and other polarising issues. The success of this solution depends on enlightened self-interest of our political parties.

Netirat Intira

Bangkok

The Hadron Collider has nothing on Thai politics

What happened at Parliament on Friday was beyond my comprehension. First I thought Samak would breeze through the vote session and again become prime minister. Then for a while it looked like Opposition Leader Abhisit Vejjajiva was going to run away with the position. And the next thing I knew the session was moved to Wednesday.

For me Thai politics is a lot more complicated than Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics theory, both of which I can grasp. I predict that some physicists will come up with a theory that unifies relativity and quantum mechanics before Thai politics achieves stability.

Meechai Burapa

Chiang Mai

Samak's defence showed contempt for Constitution

The Constitution Court voted unanimously 9-0 that ex-prime minister Samak Sundaravej violated the Constitution. He was paid for his television work by a private company. He stayed in the kitchen too long and got burnt.

The letters he submitted to the judges as evidence indicated that the company he worked for did not compensate him. These documents were back-dated and his tax records show otherwise. The real substance and intention behind his actions were fraudulent. This was not just a simple mistake.

People Power Party members insist on voting him back in as prime minister. The Constitution means nothing to these people.

Surasak Piputtana

Bangkok

Politicians might have missed a career in fiction

It's amazing how politicians can acquire power and reclaim it just by using their rhetorical abilities and nothing else. These people can tell lies day in and day out on TV and radio without a conscience. That's why we have only dunces at the helm of our government. How can democracy be thus abused?

These politicians could make very good novelists indeed. They should be encouraged to do so. Because novelists tell lies and show them as truth, but politicians tell them to cover the truth.

They should be diverted to greener pastures for the sake of our country and democracy. Rewards should be presented as an incentive.

Chavalit Van

Chiang Mai

Government malfeasance at an all-time high

I have lived in Thailand for almost 20 years and thought that I had already seen every possible form of governmental malfeasance, but the current government's brazen contempt for the principles of moral decency exceeds anything I could have imagined.

Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife, both international fugitives, have not had their passports revoked and no efforts have been made to extradite them. Samak Sundaravej, who when asked if he was Thaksin's nominee rhetorically replied "What's wrong with being a nominee?" is removed from office for violating the Constitution, and his party states that they intend to reappoint him.

In the meantime, they select Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law, to be caretaker prime minister, and their deputy spokesman announces that Thaksin has called from London to make known his preference on who ultimately should be selected.

The appointed governments of Anand Panyarachun were surely the best parliamentary governments that Thailand ever had.

Worried Father

Bangkok