Nation editorial showed red-shirt bias
Re: “Lets imagine a peaceful election”, Editorial, December 16.
On December 3, I wrote a letter (not printed) asking if The Nation is going mainstream and losing its way. The editorial on December 16 sort of confirmed my observation. The editor clearly revealed his/her bias in writing Yingluck Shinawatra was “forced” into exile – she actually ran away in a police car – and also helped show why Thailand is struggling. I assume the editor knows the distinction between exile and self-imposed exile and, therefore, by using “exile”, willingly exposed where his/her sympathy lies. Or, does the editor mean the police forcibly drove her to the Cambodian border and kicked her out of the country – a new take? Or that there were no wrongdoings in the rice scam?
The editor criticises the state’s violence under Democrat rule but forgets the terrible arson in Bangkok and the many killed by the other side – funded, equipped, armed and trained by who? Poor rice farmers? The instigators where never caught, because of the kind of police we have, as mentioned – and also because of the media we have, perhaps. These instigators were undoubtedly involved in politics, one way or the other, but the editorial leaves them out of its description of past and future Thailand. Democrats are responsible for violence, but so are some on the other side. Slick as eels, these people have never been caught, and they also evaded the grasp of the editorial on December 16.
A Johnsen
