This may be a tad cruel to say but the atrocities in southern Thailand by the so-called 'law enforcement' agencies have toppled the hot topic of the diabolical defects in public constructions and the issue of abundant datukship from the mainstream media.
Many letters in malaysiakini last week as well as New Straits Times' boss Kalimullah Hassan and Karim Raslan in the Sunday Star covered this topic
It is not my intention to regurgitate the same recipe again.
I am more concerned that the atrocities had somewhat camouflaged the main issue which is no government, no matter what religious aspiration they have, can tolerate the formation of separatists.
When Indonesia was committing atrocities in Aceh and elsewhere, it was doing so under the guise of controlling a separatist movement. The world including Malaysia kept quiet. What moral authority do we have now to talk about the Thailand massacre?
This is the real issue facing countries such as Malaysia which pick and choose to condemn atrocities.
We kept quiet when Iraq invaded Iran, when Iraq invaded Kuwait, when the Chinese government killed innocent people in Tiananmen Square and Tibet. We also kept quite when the Taliban destroyed centuries-old Buddhist statutes in Afghanistan.
It is not that people have not been killed by the police in Malaysia The only difference is that Malaysian police have a little more finesse and always have a reason such as jumping into rivers or committing suicide.
In Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra was previously hailed as a saviour for killing many criminals involved in the drug trade, so why the outcry now if his people then killed what they called terrorists.
I think families of the victims in the latest Thai massacre should file a case with the International Court of Justice and take Thaksin to task for crimes against humanity.
We must remember to condemn all injustices, wherever in the world. Only then, will we have the moral authority to comment on the Thai tragedy. Otherwise, zip up and focus on cracked highways and datuks instead.
