Impeachment is not the issue
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Re: "Impeachment would be an own goal", Letters, October 15.
Burin Kantabutra is a prolific letter-writer. Fortunately, he is not a lawyer.
He is against the National Anti-Corruption Commission’s efforts to impeach ex-PM Yingluck Shinawatra over her government’s mishandling of the rice-pledging scheme. He believes the drive for impeachment represents unnecessary persecution since Yingluck is no longer prime minister. But under the process of impeachment, an office-holder can also be banned from politics for five years.
Former US president Richard Nixon resigned amid unprecedented pressure from Congress but was then excused prosecution and potential imprisonment by his successor Gerald Ford, who was seeking to heal the national divide.
In his letter, Burin also took on the role of a judge and found Yingluck innocent, suggesting her ministers had mismanaged the scheme without her knowledge. However, Burin must be familiar with the principle that a leader must take final responsibility for the misdeeds of the officials he or she commands. In Britain this is enshrined in the constitution as “collective responsibility”.
I do not care whether Yingluck should be impeached or not, but I am concerned that justice should be allowed to take its course without interruption from amateurs.
Songdej Praditsmanont
