Once more, BBC shows bias

The BBC reporter, however, had his own agenda in tandem with a number of Thai academics abroad, which was to attack the monarchy, the lese majeste law and the Army, the latter being held responsible for the cover up of the civilian deaths. At one point he queried Abhisit Vejjajiva why the government was taking over a year to produce an official report on the fatal shootings. The former PM then asked the reporter if he knew how long it took the British government to publish the official report on the Bloody Sunday shootings by the security forces in Northern Ireland in 1972, the final report of which was published last year. Taken by surprise, the BBC man mumbled that, being an Irishman, he knew the answer from the start. Clearly, he thinks he already knows the truth about the Bangkok shootings too - truly impressive investigative journalism, tinged, nevertheless, with embarrassment since the instigators of the riots, instead of being sentenced as they would have been in Britain, are now in Parliament and government. I think he was lucky he was not doing some other story critical of the authorities in Singapore, for he would have been locked up there straightaway.

That being said, I am in agreement with the BBC that a white paper on the Bangkok shootings should be published, that all the deaths must be accounted for, whether the victims were ordinary citizens, reporters or soldiers. I am also in agreement with the need to amend the lese majeste law, possibly by taking the Dutch law as a role model. Actually, I have for some time advocated the amendment, especially when the King himself has said that he suffered because of it. On this note, I fail to see why successive governments, including the present one, have not taken the cue from His Majesty.

Sumet Jumsai

Bangkok