| Matichon
- November 1, 2004 * Thaksin reports the situation in the South to the King. The Privy Councilor worries that the Thai people are fighting each other and the image of the military is bad. * Retort to Malaysia: On October
31, 40 Ramkamhaeng University students held a
protest at the Malaysia Embassy in Bangkok. They
were protesting Mahathir Mohammad, the former
Prime Minister of Malaysia, who gave an interview
on the Tak Bai protest and interfered in the internal
affairs of Thailand. |
*
38 friends of the October group [survivors
of the military crackdown on protesters in 1973]
submits the unsealed letter to the five ministers
who were part of the 1973 protests, not to support
the government that used violence on the Tak Bai
mob. |
|
Thairath
- November 1, 2004 The PM made a statement of regret and that he will compensate the victims in Tak Bai. But the critical comments from the Muslim leaders shows that the wound is very big and no ones knows how long it will take to cure this problem. Every time the bad situation happens, the government declares “we have done things in the right way,” but the bad situation happens and gets worse. The question is whether the right way is being followed--especially if the law is followed seriously, if rights of detainees are respected, and if the government assumes all defendants are enemies. The worrying thing is that this grief not only makes situation worse, but also makes overseas countries interfere. We can see this from the protests in many neighbor countries demanding that international bodies investigate. The former Malaysian P.M. also demands setting up a self-border administration in the border provinces of Thailand. That makes Thai state look like the dictators in Burma. |