Foreign media only using Western standards

I am also sure Head is aware of the various alternatives the country faces to the current Abhisit Vejjajiva-led coalition. But I merely prefer to give Abhisit the benefit of the doubt if there is a possibility some sort of harmony will be achieved. He should not be blamed for things he did not do.

My view is this: while most Thais who have either forgiven Thaksin Shinawatra his "war on drugs" or indeed openly supported it, from my minority perspective, admittedly a foreign one, I cannot.

Having interviewed relatives of innocent victims, the instigators of this carnage have, in my view, disqualified themselves from public office. And they did so long before the principal, Thaksin, was accused of enriching himself at Thailand's expense.

The Times reported: "Thaksin's version of the war on drugs was to license the police to execute without trial anyone they suspected of being a dealer. But for all of this, he changed for the better the lives of millions of rural Thais".

The above statement is true. But if you substitute the words, Thais for Germans, and drugs dealer, for say, homosexuals, Jews, communists or political rivals, this sentence would sit happily in the pages of Julius Streicher's Der Sturmer a few decades ago.

I do not believe there is a foreign media conspiracy against Abhisit. They are merely, like myself above, looking at the matter, using standards applied in the West.

ANDREW DRUMMOND

BANGKOK

Airlines should read the news before making claims

Ref: 'Bookings slump 20% since April 13; Emergency Decree has scared away Asian visitors: airline', Business, yesterday

It is very interesting that Thai Airways would make such an inaccurate statement and is another indicator that airlines do not understand the real world. The Asian tourists did not [stay away] because of the state of emergency. They did not come because they were afraid for their lives after political terrorists attacked the Asean dignitaries in Pattaya, which included heads of state from all Asian nations.

Then there were the two attacks on the Abhisit Vejjajiva, the attempted assassination of Sondhi Limthongkul, the burning of buses, the red shirts killing innocent people in Nang Lerng and parking LPG tankers in residential areas and threatening to blow them up. The state of emergency was declared, and the military was called in because the police were incapable of handling the problem.

Thai airlines need to learn and sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut because when you talk people will see how ignorant you really are.

TOM

BANGKOK

Trumpeting praise for an elephantine columnist

Ref: 'The rage before the rampage', Opinion, April 20

I like reading Chang Noi's columns, and he often hits the nail on the head, as he did in his last one.

I fully agree with him: put the effort in Thai politics where it is needed, listen to different sides in the political spectrum and do something with it. Learn from the past but don't let it obstruct the move forward. I am looking forward to more Chang Noi columns.

WILLEM VAN GOGH

CHIANG MAI

A slip between definitions

Ref: 'Debate media's coverage of the political crisis', Letters; 'The monarchy and the people depend on each other', Opinion, yesterday

With all due respect to both Sumet Jumsai (Letters) and Thanong Khanthong (Opinion), I would like to point out that the Oxford English Dictionary defines a royalist (with a small "r") as "a person who supports the principle of monarchy".

Thus, there is a good deal less to distinguish a royalist from a monarchist than, say, an Oxonian from an Oxfordian.

I have been called many things, including a pedant, but am, in fact, a Portmuthian.

CHRIS JEFFERY

BANGKOK