Cease with the useless advice about the South

Your new advice of the month, "social mobility", whatever that is, will not win the hearts of racists engaged in ethnic cleansing of non-Muslims because their religious doctrine teaches them it is their duty to do so.

You are wrong that the jihadists don't have the desire or capability to expand their campaign of ethnic cleansing to other provinces of Thailand. It is common knowledge among locals from Satun and Songkhla to Phuket and Surat Thani that they are next, when the time is right.

Terror in the South is not about grievances, race or language - it is about religion. There are many grievances, races and languages across Thailand, yet we see no campaigns of ethnic cleansing except in the Muslim South, and the jihadists themselves tell us their motivation is Islam.

Until we integrate the South into the rest of the nation we "kufar" are doomed to eternal warfare and will never win the hearts and minds of a people who care nothing about us and respect us even less. The South must become more diverse like the rest of Thailand and the world. We must control the schools so that the more violent tenets can be reformed. We Thais must come to terms with the question of whether or not we value our culture and citizenship enough to want to defend them against those who view it as their right to replace secular beliefs with Islamic ones. A strong Army presence will be necessary even after peace comes, due to the long border with sharia-law states that are hostile to Thailand.

In the meantime, can you in The Nation just concentrate on reporting the news and stop trying to pollute our resolve?

LAOSUWAN

KRABI

Failed executives still get grotesque bonuses

Two scandals are running parallel in the US and Thailand. Both deal with the issues of corporate governance and rule of law.

American investors, taxpayers and media have condemned AIG executives who ruined investors in the failed sub-prime market. Yet AIG adamantly argues that the US Federal Reserve, which gave a humongous bail-out to the company, has no jurisdiction over AIG to "abrogate" its contracts in granting fat bonuses to those same executives.

A similar argument was raised here in Thailand at the annual general meeting of Airports of Thailand. Despite huge losses from 2008, the dominating shareholders, represented by bureaucrats appointed by the Ministry of Finance, approved fat bonuses to AOT's previous board members, who had mysteriously resigned en masse prior to the AGM. The resignations were allegedly to show responsibility for the losses, yet the interim board and shareholders awarded the bonuses from the penalty payment that King Power, a major AOT concessionaire, was to pay as a result of a court order.

Minor shareholders and the Thai Investors Association protested the move, to no avail, saying that King Power was reported to have appealed the court case. After many interruptions that saw AOT directors make phone calls to consult top Finance Ministry officials, the chairman ruled that, according to AOT bylaws, the previous board was justified in getting the bonuses.

The TIA has filed a complaint with the National Corporate Governance Committee, chaired by the prime minister, to look into the AOT resolution. A prompt reply from the PM's Office on March 6 says the prime minister instructed the Ministry of Finance and the NCGC to take over the case.

I don't know what will happen next, though I have more faith in this PM than the one who, despite chairing the NCGC, knew nothing about insider trading, assets hiding and siphoning that mostly involved his family and went under the radar, and who never once attended an NCGC meeting throughout his time in power.

CHAMNONG WATANAGASE

BANGKOK