OPINION

Time to call on India

Re: "Thailand must be a friend to Myanmar people", (Opinion, March 24).

Since he is a diplomat, it is not surprising that Kasit Piromya's solution to the Myanmar problem is long on talk and short on action. He decries Thailand's failure to take the lead in pushing Asean to take action.

He urges Thailand to "publicly and proactively support efforts" by other nations "to play a direct role in addressing the disastrous situation in Myanmar", and favours the call for "a special Asean leaders' summit to discuss the situation".

All of this is a call for more frothy talk while multitudes of Myanmar people are being slaughtered by their own army.

What is needed is immediate action. But by whom? The United States, Britain, and the European Union are far away and preoccupied with their own problems. Asean is toothless. Thailand will do nothing, because just as there is honour among thieves there is loyalty among military officers. The Thai generals will never do anything to oppose their Myanmar buddies.

This leaves India as the last man standing if the murderous and genocidal Myanmar junta is to be brought to justice.

In 1971, India played a vital role in ousting what was then West Pakistan from its genocidal role in what was then East Pakistan but is now known as Bangladesh.

What it did then it can do again.

I call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order the Indian army to invade Myanmar, liberate the people from the junta's despotic rule, hang the junta from the highest possible gallows, free the thousands who have been arrested, and restore democratic rule.

Only thus can India fulfill its role as the dominant power in South Asia and meet the demands of dhamma to crush evil, establish righteousness, and liberate the oppressed.

This sounds extreme, but these are extreme times, and I can see no other way to stop the ongoing genocide in Myanmar.

If anybody has a better idea, I'd like to hear it.

The hardship that Covid-19 brought upon the estimated one million sex workers in the country also resonated heavily in Patpong. However, the local community including NGOs like Swing our Museum and local businesses have joined hands to provide help to those in need.

Patpong shed its skin several times. It started in the 1950s as Bangkok's first modern central business district. Silom and Sathon roads followed. It hosted international news agencies, airlines and, somehow hidden beneath these, foreign intelligence agencies and their affiliates in the 1960s. With the end of the Vietnam War, Patpong transformed into one of the world's most famous entertainment areas.

Covid-19 is an accelerator of change, and we can see Patpong retransforming into a vibrant yet authentic contribution to the subcultural scene along the river, Charoen Krung and Chinatown. It's time to shed the skin once more.

Patpong Museum

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