Abhisit a great leading man, but he’s no leader

Richard Bowler seems to think I had my tongue in my cheek when I said that then-Prime Minister Abhisit’s failure to save the Asean summit in Pattaya from red-shirt protesters demonstrated he is unfit to lead the Democrat Party (“Abhisit should resign and never come back”, Letters, December 26). Not so.
Mr Bowler fails to understand that an honest, well-educated and politically adept man is worth nothing if he is not brave and capable. As leader of the state, Abhisit should have found some means to suppress the demagogue. If the police were uncooperative, he should have mobilised thousands of soldiers from the Chon Buri or Sattahip barracks to suppress the mob. If, for whatever reason, he could not give this order to save the summit, he should not have been prime minister.
I would emphasise that a country’s leader needs to be courageous and effective, in the style of John Kennedy or Vladimir Putin, not handsome and good at talking, like the lead actor in a likay performance.
Prasan Stianrapapongs