ABC asked right question but used wrong people to make its case
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Re: "Thai democracy: 'wrong buttons in wrong holes'", Politics, April 1.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News) reporter Samantha Hawley might deserve to be called “gutsy” for having challenged Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha over his dictatorship (see ABC’s news report: “What happens when a foreign journalist challenges the Thai PM over his dictatorship?”).
However, ABC made an error in including interviews with former education minister Chaturon Chaisang and core red-shirt leader Weng Tojirakarn in the same news report.
Why?
It is a proven fact that these two men were members of the illegal Communist Party of Thailand in the 1980s.
Judging from their recent political records, it has yet to be established whether Mr Jaturon and Dr Weng are now genuine advocates of democracy, as they claim, or part of a Maoist core that might still remain in Thailand.
Vint Chavala
