Everyone is asking: "What does this blood-letting mean? Why are these protesters willing to sacrifice themselves for 'the big man' who relaxes casually with cakes and coffee at his hotel in Montenegro?"
I believe it's because they feel that being the big man's "chosen people" makes them feel important, just in the same way as that arm around the shoulder and "here's Bt1000, you'll vote for me? Right? You're my friend", says that you must be important.
This adulation of one man is part of the patronage system, which despises the new world of education, science and technology, parliamentary democracy, banking and finance, rational debate, secular law and judicial authority. The middle classes, whom they like to call "aristocrats", have come to represent that new world.
The whole blood drive on behalf of Thaksin says it all. Not only is it an attempt at black magic, but the black magic curiously inverts and attacks the meaning of scientific medicine: The same procedures designed to assist people to recover their health are inverted in a way that leads not to wellness but to distress, pain and bacterial pollution.
JONATHAN W PETER
PATHUM THANI
Red shirts must beware of hypocrisy
I have no problem with many of the red shirts' demands, for they are long overdue - like true democracy, for instance. But, reds, you should live up to your demands as well as mouth them - especially the one about "no double standards". For example, I fully agree that General Surayud had no legal right to his home in the forest reserve, and applauded for the record when you marched to force him to leave (which he did).
But what about the Alpine golf resort, whose owner has no legal right to own temple land? Why not march there, too?
Or, you pour your blood for PM Abhisit to walk on. But what about Thaksin's amending telecom concessions so that state agencies lost Bt138 billion to privately-owned firms? To me, that's stealing from the state's ability to help the masses, in order to line the pockets of telecom shareholders. Given that Thaksin and his wife, through shell companies, were the largest shareholders of the market-leader, AIS, was Thaksin not stealing from you?
Why so silent where Thaksin's concerned?
If you say, "He's a mega-crook through and through, but I still prefer him," then, fine - that's democracy. But first, live your principles. And, by the way, I say the same thing to the Democrats as well.
BURIN KANTABUTRA
BANGKOK
Elite spend on cars, not the country
Cambodia needs more money from abroad according to the Cambodian Embassy. Cambodia is one of the poorest countries on the planet. When you walk the streets in Phnom Penh, you will know why they need more money: It seems that most of the country's income is used on luxury cars.
Phnom Penh is the luxury car capital of the world. The dollar-a-day garment-factory girls are bringing the money to Cambodia. The political, administrative, military, police, and business elite take care of the spending - wasting this hard-earned money on cars instead of rebuilding the country.
How is it possible to be so selfish with so much suffering and poverty around you? For me the Cambodian elite is the ultimate shame of human behaviour - in a country that is heavily dependent on development aid from abroad. And the embassy claims it is a democracy!
I come from a democratic country in Europe where our democracy didn't allow private persons to import cars until 16 years after the Second World War. All money was used to rebuild our country. All worked together. That attitude moved us from being among the poorest countries to being the second richest and probably the most fair and even in Europe.
So, Cambodia, if you want to achieve anything as a democracy, you have to wait for luxury until you can afford it. That means the day when the United Nations, Save the Children, the Red Cross, and all the other aid organisations have finally finished their mission in Cambodia.
A JOHNSEN
FLORIDA
