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Some of the more rational are predicting a year or two. Certainly, after the devastating events of the recent airport closings, it will take two years minimum. How many jobs will be lost by hard-working Thais, how many restaurants and hotels will close between now and then is anyone's guess. After the PAD was allowed to shut down the airports in Phuket and Hat Yai, it was clear to anyone with even an ounce of wisdom, that Suvarnabhumi was next. Why didn't Somchai, and his inept administration see this? They should have had thousands of police, and soldiers deployed to prevent it.

Now, Thailand has a black eye in the view of most of the world. Somchai, and to a larger extent the PAD, the perpetrators of what must surely be considered an act of terrorism on its own country, must take responsibility, and be held accountable for the billions of baht that have been, and will be lost over this foolishness. The high season is going to be a near total loss for Thai tourism this year, and the industry is going to suffer for a long time. Tourists simply have too many options, and most of them represent far more stability than Thailand has to offer. For those of us who live in Thailand, we know how wonderful the Thai people are, and how lovely the country is. But, for the first-time traveller here, there is no such perception.

Also, now that the PPP has been disbanded, Thailand must do whatever it can to quiet down nonsense that Thaksin is engaging in. He is not, and has never been, interested in the welfare of this nation. It is only about his own personal power and wealth. It always has been. His only power base is in his ability to muster support from people who do not truly understand the dynamics, nor the long-term effects of this power play.

It appears to me that Abhisit Vejjajiva is the only one with a clear vision of what Thailand needs now, and he is the only one who is not mired by a uniquely Thai level of insularity. Thailand needs the world far more than the world needs Thailand. It is time for Thais to come to grasps with this notion.

MARK SNYDER

BANGKOK

 

The rule of law is not for sale

I must take issue with those of your contributors who seem to think that it is somehow acceptable for a suitably contrite Thaksin Shinawatra to return to Thailand, write a token cheque for the tax he previously avoided, and do "merit-making" time in a monastery - then, hey presto, we all live happily ever after. Well, that's in fairy tales; the real world is rather less benign.

Thaksin has been handed a custodial sentence, the whole point of which is to punish the miscreant while deterring others. To let a convict simply buy his freedom and voluntarily enter the monkhood for a nominal period would undermine the entire basis of justice and the rule of law.

It seems clear that Thaksin is morally, if not financially, insolvent, with nothing to offer this country beyond a restitution of the millions he siphoned off it. If he cannot be brought back to serve his full jail term, he should be left to wither in the Arabian desert indefinitely, or at least for the duration of the ten-year limitation period.

Although he cannot be held solely responsible for the dysfunctional tendencies of the Thai system of governance, Thaksin, far from possessing the key to any solution, represents a major part of the problem.

CITIZEN JANE

BANGKOK