Thaksin is thinking about his family

I have another view of Thaksin Shinawatra’s motive in advising his lieutenants to “play dead”. 

I believe that the stay-low advice was more for his men not to annoy the military because the risk to his family members who are still in Thailand being prosecuted and asset confiscation has become more realistic with each passing day. 

The risk to his close ones of not leading the good life is now his immediate concern. For the first time, he has realised the benefit of playing dead or lying low and licking his wounds while waiting for better days. 

If he had adhered to this advice after the first coup in 2006 and not damned Thailand even via foreigners, he would be back in power and enjoying nice hot beef noodles by now. People would have forgiven him and welcomed him back in the hope of better prospects because of his track record. 

It is now almost conclusive that it is now far, far too late to change his spots.

 

Ref: “Ben Carson ain’t no Uncle Tom”, Letters, yesterday.

Meanwhile, I salute JC Wilcox for maintaining a high standard of rationale and a good level of communication in the English language. It was so pleasing to read even when he used a long sentence in characterising Eric Bahrt – so beautiful, tasteful and factual with few words.

In his letter of September 26 – “Grammar cannot be ignored” – I was put down for lowering the good of grammar. 

However, as a lover of the English language but not a scholar, I still believe that over-emphasising grammar in places like Thailand and even Japan is the cause of phobias in speaking English. I follow Mark Twain’s words: “I know grammar by ear only, not by note, not by the rules” and also John Green, an American author, as follows:

“But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.” 

Songdej Praditsmanont