Not so squeaky clean in the UK
While taking the BBC to task for its coverage of last year's violence in Bangkok (Letters, September 9), Sumet Jumsai refers to an exchange between Abhisit Vejjajiva and an Irish reporter over the 1972 Bloody Sunday shootings.
He goes on to assert that the "instigators of the [Bangkok] riots" would have received prison sentences in Britain, rather than becoming MPs. Perhaps he has overlooked the fact that various Pheu Thai MPs were jailed before obtaining bail or immunity. Cases are pending and there is no amnesty just yet.
Turning to the UK, where at least one dissident Thai intellectual enjoys sanctuary, I hope Sumet's faith in the British way of doing things is not misplaced. There, as here, the political game is never quite what it seems. Prominent members of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, for whom the term "riot instigators" might sound a touch anodyne, have certainly been imprisoned, interned and banned from entering mainland Britain. Yet they have also been involved in secret meetings with the British government and elected to Westminster (as non-attending MPs). Martin McGuinness, previously of the Provisional IRA's Derry brigade, is today deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.
As for the 38-year delay in reaching any sort of closure over Bloody Sunday, it will not be lost on readers that the 38th anniversary of a similarly traumatic event in this country is drawing near.
Chris Jeffery
Bangkok
