What we need is regularly renewable leadership

Sonthi is right to say "you don't get democracy as you would go to McDonald's and order a hamburger". This is not an off-the-shelf contraption that works for everyone. As citizens in a modern democracy, why should we only be allowed to vote for our so-called representatives once every few years? Why not vote every time we use one of our government services: schools, hospitals, courts, revenue department, customs? We could fill in a questionnaire as we do when we visit a restaurant.

Why not organise the government along functional management lines, as in most modern business organisations, instead of geographical lines? Put the focus on functional efficiency and vote for people who are experts in governance instead of voting in local people whose only interest is the local constituency that voted for them.

Why not make the Senate the permanent "opposition" so that the opposition is not simply the losing party? Why not eliminate parties completely and have a non-partisan government as is done in several state governments in the US?

Everything should be on the table.

JONATHAN W PETER

PATHUM THANI

Plant the seeds of political awareness early in life

 We all say we want a stable government, yet that goal is ever-elusive. I suggest that we heed Thomas Jefferson: "That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part." By that, of course I do not mean taking to the streets to illegally boot out whomever a minority doesn't like. Rather, we must have "government by the people, for the people, of the people", which means a politically aware and informed society, with the common man and woman proactively voicing their opinions within the law and monitoring their elected representatives to ensure that they transparently follow their constituencies' wishes.

But it goes against the vested interests of both the PAD and Bangkok elite to have rural political activists, even within the law, for who wants to share power/wealth? Thus, we see the PAD proposing that a minority acceptable to the PAD decide for the hoi poloi, through their 30:70 proposal, and we see Bangkok mandarins still controlling the country from the centre.

So, where's the light at the end of the tunnel? I suggest that universities encourage their student bodies and faculties to be politically active within the law. Young PPP/Young Democrat clubs could study their parties' platforms and recommend improvements in policy and implementation. Young Lawyer, Young Journalist and Young Business Executive societies could study how the law is/should be drafted and implemented, including accountability of the military and police.

These students, and their teachers, are our hopes for a better tomorrow, for they are better educated than we and are not as corrupt as we are - yet. Let us plant the seeds of informed, active democracy so that our children may enjoy the shade.

BURIN KANTABUTRA

BANGKOK

Public ignorance means Thailand regresses

I would like these questions answered:

Are the PAD's leaders too rich to acknowledge that their actions are felonious and only acceptable in the international eye if they are intent on fomenting an ideological revolution rather than a self-serving reactionary regression?

 Where are the police? Where is the army? Does the constitution have any meaning? Is Thailand governed by the rule of law or the vicious mercenaries of crony capitalism? Whose pocket are these police and army generals in anyway? What did the students die for in 1973 and 1976 if not for democratic progress? It is time to fight back against the public's ignorance of the realities of these propagandistic arguments.

MAX

BANGKOK