4/01/2011
EDITORIAL
Bangkok Post
The splinter group that flatters itself with the name Thai Patriots Network (TPN) should get a better grip on its actions and improve its understanding of good neighbourliness. This spinoff from the People's Alliance for Democracy has called for an unfriendly public rally at Sa Kaeo today. The target of the protest is Cambodia and its government. The "patriots" are demanding that Phnom Penh release their core leader and six other Thais who were arrested last week for illegal entry into Cambodia.
The protest is wrong on several levels, and should be abandoned so that reason and diplomacy can prevail.
The first and greatest reason to call off this and other anti-Cambodia protests is that they are wrong-headed. In fact, it is well known that Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government hold a specific contempt for the PAD and its offshoots. It is laughable that the Thai Patriots Network might believe that a relatively small protest could influence Hun Sen and his government. If anything, given the Cambodian leader's public statements, protests by yellow shirts only will increase the probability of continued detention and trial for network leader Veera Somkwamkid, Democrat Party MP Panich Vikitsreth and the other five Thais arrested inside Cambodia after having crossed from Sa Kaeo's Khok Sung district into Cambodia on Dec 29.
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