I agree with PM Abhisit and Minister Ong-art Klampaibul, in charge of state media, that there is nothing amiss with the banned ad, "Thailand, We Apologise."
The censors, made up of representatives from all free TV channels, have been overly sensitive. The ad is very contemplative, for it asks questions like, "Have we done our duty? Have we cheated? Have we only waited for help (instead of helping ourselves)?" It is very even-handed and doesn't show any obvious political leanings. If anything, it's rather bland.
As Potter Stewart noted, "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself." The board of censors must have an extremely low sense of confidence in our ability to answer the questions posed by the ad - and so don't want us to even hear the questions. But I suggest that the proposed answers - that the culprits are all of us, and it's all of us who have to work together to correct this mess - are highly relevant to reforming and reconciling society. The questions and possible responses deserve to be discussed the length and breadth of our land, from the grassroots to high society, for we are all in this together.
Don't change a thing in the ad. Broadcast it on prime time as a public service, so that we can contemplate where we are going.
BURIN KANTABUTRA
BANGKOK
Thailand doesn't need to bank on Britain
Re: "UK serious about its future and serious about Asia", Opinion, July 19.
In his special to The Nation, Jeremy Browne, the British Foreign Office minister states that Britain is serious about its future. Well, so it should be, with a level of national debt not far below that of Greece, leading now to the most draconian belt-tightening measures for the British public since World War 2.
Let me deal with a few of his statements.
"Britain acts as the gateway to Europe". That may well be so for financial institutions, but hardly for the rest of commercial operations. Thailand will know on which side its bread is buttered. After all, Thailand's free trade agreement is with the EU, not with Britain as a single country - an EU member, but far from being the leading one.
On British investments in Thailand it is interesting that he quotes Tesco, Boots and Standard Chartered. But they are service industries, not manufacturing. Triumph motorbikes? I have yet to see one on Thai roads and you won't spot too many on British roads either.
On Thai exports to Britain, Thailand has a serious disadvantage because of the pound's decline by 32 per cent against the baht since the begin of the financial crisis, based on today's exchange rate. At the same time the euro declined by 16 per cent (only 10 per cent before the Greek crisis came to light). So much for the constant mockery by the British government and media about the euro's instability. Euroland must be counting its blessings that Britain has stayed out of the euro, as it would have dragged down the euro even further than the Greeks managed to do.
"Over 50,000 British citizens have chosen to make Thailand their home". Among those must be a great number of pensioners who are suffering from Britain's unique policy of refusing to pay pension increases to pensioners residing abroad. Because of a European court ruling they had to reinstate those payments for pensioners living in the EU, and it is time that this human rights violation is brought before the UN for a worldwide ruling.
Regarding Jeremy Browne's remarks on national reconciliation in Thailand, the Thai government will surely be thankful for his advice, but at the same time it will hope that he didn't rely too much on the BBC for his briefing on the recent political turmoil here.
HORST BULLINGER
BANGKOK