INJUSTICE FOR THAKSIN? THE DRUG-WAR DEAD MUST WEEP

Dear former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra: This is not a letter
from hell. However, it doesn't matter where I live, or to be exact,
where I'm drifting.

Just wanna say "Hi", although you surely don't even know me. We have
something in common despite the big difference between us: I'm dead,
literally, and you're still alive.

I have been a wandering ghost since police gunned me down in 2003,
and I guess you, too, now know how it feels to be a drifter. Again,
having to float from one spirit house to another in search of boiled
eggs is a far cry from dining and lunching at Harrods or having the
world's best roasted duck every other day. But I just want to give
you my sympathy all the same.

Yes, the asset freeze is so unfair. What laws did they use to do that
to you? Where's the evidence of corruption? Do the rights of suspects
mean nothing to them? I mean, they haven't even formally charged you,
for crying out loud.

The same happened to me - well, more or less. Just as you were
targeted because you were rich, I was picked on by the police because
I was poor. I matched their drug-peddler stereotype - aggressive
behaviour, a long record of petty crime and possibly having been seen
a couple of times with well-known dealers - and the rest is history.

That I was innocent is not the most important point. Should they have
done that to me even if I had been selling amphetamines? It could
have been an honest mistake on my part, you know. I have come across
a few restless spirits like myself who were killed simply because of
their past drug records. We deserved formal charges and thus the
opportunity to defend ourselves in court, just like you did in 2001
when they tried to "dig up" your past mistakes.

At least you have great lawyers, and I wish you all the best. I
didn't stand a chance back in 2003 - not after the most powerful man
at the time gave the police a virtual green light. I still remember
what he said: "Because drug traders are ruthless to our children, so
being ruthless back to them is not a bad thing ... It may be
necessary to have casualties ... If there are deaths among traders,
it's normal."

I'm not sure which is worse: what happened to you under a military
junta or what they did to me under a democratic government. But then
again, I was a small, ordinary citizen. If the rulers deemed my death
acceptable collateral damage in a noble campaign, what can I say? I'm
just a nameless and faceless bit in human-rights reports, and the
likes of me are worth mentioning in Western-media editorials only
when we drop like flies.

So much self-pity from me, but you've got to understand I didn't have
an opportunity to say a word before I died. Some columnists and
newspaper editorials did mention the plight of people like me, but
the journalists didn't fare much better when that man was in power. I
remember authorities initiated a secret probe into many senior
journalists' bank accounts and defended the action by citing an
anonymous tip-off letter. Do you think that's democratic or "fair" to them?

Well, I'm here to express my sympathy and thus don't want to heap too
much upon you. I haven't heard you say sorry about the slain drug
suspects even once, but I always assume that's because you're busy.
Before I drift away, I offer my heartfelt support. This isn't
supposed to happen to anyone. Everybody - big or small, rich or poor,
powerful or powerless - should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

But deep down, I believe you will be fine. Even the "unfair" process
they apply against you involves subcommittees, committees, lawyers,
prosecutors and soon the courts, not to mention the watchful eyes of
the local and foreign media. My fate was determined by a blacklist
and police on a shooting spree.

Your worst-case scenario is a longer European vacation, a missed
chance to own a British football club and a loss of appetite for
Peking duck. I'm still having to raid spirit houses every day and cry
every night for my rudderless family members.

Yes, the world is so unjust. I wish you the best of luck in telling
everyone about the injustice befalling you. And no need to spare a
thought for me, because I was as worthless as dead both before and
after I died.

Tulsathit Taptim