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Praise should go to Jittapas Pirompakdee, a 23-year-old heiress of the business clan that owns Boon Rawd Brewery - makers of Singha and Leo beers - for showing spirit and responsibility by resigning from her position at Government House.

In a letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, Jittapas acknowledged that she had been "careless" in handing out about 200 Leo Beer calendars, featuring female models wearing nothing but body paint, at Government House.

"Many people at Government House had asked for the calendars, so I brought them along for them," she said in her resignation letter. "I never thought it would become a big issue."

Considering her age and limited time in public service, Jittapas has shown she has the maturity to take responsibility. That's more than can be said about many of the country's lawmakers, most of whom are at least twice her age and who often seek parliamentary immunity.

And let's not forget the top executives in public and private offices.

Take the case of Wallop Bhukkanasut, executive chairman of Thai Airways International, for example. It took the national airline's board almost two weeks to decide to suspend him from duty while investigating the allegations made against him.

Wallop has been accused of abusing his baggage privileges and bypassing Customs checks.

While executives at state enterprises may think it is normal for them to be able to get away with a little bit of this and that, over time this kind of thing adds up and, before we know it, a regulation has been violated and a law or two has been broken.

For the directors at Thai Airways, we think the privileges they get are more than enough. These include 15 international and 15 domestic tickets for the highest class of travel per year. Similar privileges apply to their family members and companions.

As for Jittapas, she is a victim of hypocrisy. Some people didn't like the fact that the calendars were passed out at Government House - as if this were some sacred holy ground - and therefore decided to demand action.

If they are so passionate about the plight of women, why not do something about the brothels along the country's borders where young girls are bought and sold like commodities.

But taking the moral high ground in Jittapas's case was an easy way to score political points. Funny, none of those holier-than-thou individuals had lashed out at the journalists and officials at Government House who queued up for a free copy of the calendar.

We understand how the calendars could be offensive to some people, especially women. But then again, bad taste is not a crime.

We also understand that Leo Beer is coming out way ahead in this fiasco, considering the amount of free publicity the incident has generated.

While a certain sector of the public is up in arms over the content of the calendar, the Public Health Ministry has argued against it from the legal angle. They said the law prohibits the advertising of alcohol and therefore the calendar in question is in violation of the 2007 Alcohol Control Act.

But then again, how realistic is this law? Never mind the inability to enforce it - the logic and thinking behind it was flawed from the beginning.

If the idea is to erase the images and logos of liquor bottles and beer cans from public sight, we have failed miserably. Anti-alcohol groups have filed hundreds of cases, but none of these has gone anywhere. The authorities really don't know where to start.