Inconvenient evils

re: "Manas case all too rare" (Editorial, BP, July 21)

Dear editor,
While it is indeed a healthy precedent for a Thai army general to be tried, found guilty, and imprisoned, it is also impossible to believe that this criminal's colleagues and superiors were entirely ignorant of his vile abuses of army power as he and his criminal accomplices in Thai officialdom went about their greed driven business of creating human misery. As the Post suggests, we can only speculate how wide and how high up the evil, or at least knowledge of it, extended. Thankfully, foreigners are not so complacent or willing to turn a blind eye to such evil, but acted to force at least minimal action against the evil that Thai authorities had long ignored.

Nor can it surprise that the good man in the Royal Thai Police who had courageously done the right thing to expose the evil to justice, Pol Maj Gen Paween Pongsirin, was forced into foreign exile: an all too common event when experts dare to speak inconvenient truths about Thai history, Thai society or Thai politics.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 22, 2017, under the title "Inconvenient evils" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1291847/inconvenient-evils
  

No smoke without fire

re: "Liu's death triggers frantic Chinese censorship" (BP, July 14) 

Dear editor,
Exactly as in Thailand, thinking Chinese know that their own opaquely unaccountable government is intent on keeping them ignorant of their own nation's society, history and politics. They might not know what ugly dirt is being hidden by the draconian censorship, but they know it's there: its existence proven beyond any doubt by the censorship that would not otherwise exist.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 15, 2017, under the title "No smoke without fire" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1287551/army-wont-face-reality
  

PM's wobbly road map

re: "Prayut hints at local polls next year" (BP, July 12)

Dear editor,
Surely everyone agrees fully with the PM when he pronounces, as quoted, that "People are already aware of how every politician behaves." After all, since May 2014, the PM himself has been the prime example of a Thai politician, aided by his set of other self-appointed and generously self-amnestied politicians whose behaviour shows the reality.

The people are also already aware of the worth of all politicians' promises made since May 2014, which are on the same sort of wobbly road map as is the PM's visit to the White House.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 13, 2017, under the title "PM's wobbly road map" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1286187/kindness-goes-long-way
  

Buddhism in chains

re: "Monk reform no easy task" (BP Editorial, July 7)

Dear editor,
It is not at all obvious that the religion known as Thai Buddhism has ever been primarily about following the wise spiritual and practical teachings of the Buddha, who would not condone, let alone join, the tool of the Thai state that uses his name under the legal auspices of the NOB and other bodies created by Thai politicians.

The artistic wonders of Sukothai are indeed wonders of Thai culture, but they were created to impress with the power, property and prestige of their builders: hardly Buddhist virtues. The monks brought in to adorn those structures were expected to obediently teach a version of Buddhism that comported with the feudal society of the times.

Little has changed centuries later. Indeed, under Thai law in 2017, such spiritual principles as seeking or aiding right understanding are often serious criminal offenses. Were they to start following the Buddha's sound spiritual teachings, Thai monks would be contradicting not only the unBuddhist "12 Values of Thainess", but would be in grave danger of joining the likes of Jatupat Boonpattararaksa (Pai Dao Din) in prison without bail.

Is having Thai Buddhism overseen by Thai politicians the solution or the problem?

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 8, 2017, under the title "Buddhism in chains" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1283287/perils-of-police-reform
  

Lost in censorship

re: "Reform body votes for tight social media censorship" (BP, July 5)

Dear editor,
States, governments, institutions and officials with nothing to hide do not censor. Period. There can be good reasons to hide things, such as sex from children, or troop movements during war; these are not the Thai issues being hidden from the Thai people.

 Felix Qui

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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.

The text as edited was published in PostBag on July 7, 2017, under the title "Lost in censorship" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1282603/make-them-pay-tv