NCPO nonsense

re: "Regime denies Yingluck deal" (BP, August 28)

Dear editor,
Naturally the NCPO denies complicity in Yingluck's stroll from a looming prison sentence, boldly attributing it all to mere incompetence. Could anyone be so naive after three years of evidence as to expect them to say anything else?

The same NCPO also claim that they overthrew the highest law of the nation to protect the rule of law, claim that they tramped it under boot to bring democracy to Thailand, and claim that they have poured a fortune into the pockets of army generals on committees to bring unity and reconciliation whilst eradicating corruption. And of course, they had to give themselves an amnesty claiming that it was because the sensibly withdrawn (in the senate) Pheu Thai amnesty necessitated a coup.

All such claims by the NCPO being equally credible, what room remains to doubt the latest claim?

 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 August 30, 2017, under the title "NCPO nonsense" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1315503/bad-smell-at-coal-face
  

Reform must start at home

re: "Prayut wants reform of politics, people's mindset" (BP, August 25)

Dear editor,
The PM general is right that a change in the Thai people's mindset is needed: stop respecting groups who overthrow the rule of law; stop tolerating the bad morals of coups; stop blindly believing the lame excuses of those who have broken promises to serve the civilian government; stop accepting the systemic corruption whitewashed by rule of corrupt law that is reflected in the indefensible super-abundance of army generals and their useless toys; and demand reform of corrupt law made up by bad people to give themselves amnesties among other undeserved perks and privileges.

 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 August 27, 2017, under the title "Reform must start at home" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1313679/leave-academics-alone
  

Ugly 'good folk' truth

re: "Time to cut the 'superior' down to size" (BP, August 18)

Dear editor,
Paritta Wangkiat is to be commended for so clearly stating the ugly truth that those who think themselves the "good" rarely have a moral leg to stand on as they kick everyone that gets in the way of their traditional power, perks and impunities. The obvious examples from recent history are Suthep's PDRC mobs, those colluding with or demanding the overthrow of yet another Thai constitution, and their rule of law made up to oppose democracy.

Thankfully Thailand has such morally exemplary heroes as the courageous Jatupat Boonpattararaksa. Pai Dai Din, Chula's Netiwit and a few others inject a much needed breath of healthy air into the moral stagnation that has too long passed as "good" in Thailand. Good people, as opposed to self-adulating "good" people, neither make up nor use the rule of law to imprison or intimidate the truly good people working for a more just, morally stronger and wholesomely secure nation.

 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 August 19, 2017, under the title "Ugly 'good folk' truth" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1309095/ugly-good-folk-truth
  

Antidote to the poison

re: "Conquering the enemy deep within" (BP, August 11)

Dear editor,
If I might suggest one partial antidote to the poison that Paritta Wangkiat so lucidly exposes in "Conquering the enemy deep within" (BP, August 11), it would help if schools directly invited students to present opposing arguments to received wisdom, customs, traditions and antique morals. This might conveniently be done in social studies, history and other subjects that address Thai history, culture and society. This does not require that students be taught that received wisdom is always false, merely that it might not be so obviously true as some assume or proclaim it to be, that dissenting views do exist which have sound reasons that good people who value honesty and humanity need to answer.

This would be conducive to some healthy, critical review of the bad reasoning, the falsehoods and the ignorance enforced by censorship that feed divisive nationalism on all sides. Open discussion of dissenting controversial ideas is a healthy activity that is an essential part of any decent education. Such a healthy reform would benefit not only education, but would help to inoculate Thai society from the worst excesses of rabid nationalism.

 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 August 13, 2017, under the title "Antidote to the poison" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1305259/whos-really-losing-face-here
  

Scared of a laugh

re: "Military pulls bail for Pai Dao Din" (BP, July 28)

Dear editor,
So Thailand's international human rights award winner Jatupat Boonpattararaksa (Pai Dao Din) remains in prison "because he did not delete the shared article from his Facebook page, and posted photos that allegedly mocked the authority of the state" (Bangkok Post, July 28).

The thousands of others who shared the article have probably not deleted it either. Nor has Thai rule of law attacking informed opinion given any reason why links to articles whose truth has not been questioned should be deleted, except that under Thai rule of law telling truths about Thai affairs can constitute a serious criminal offense. Good people do not hold truth seeking or speaking to be bad morals, quite the contrary.

As to the absurdly false claim that just rule of law can imprison anyone who "mocked the authority of the state," Harvard University's renowned Steven Pinker perhaps puts it best when he writes that "satire and ridicule, even when puerile and tasteless, are terrifying to autocrats and protected by democracies" (The Boston Globe, "Why free speech is fundamental", 2015, January 27).

By accepting the consequences of his acts, with no hint of running away, Pai Dao Din proves himself a worthy recipient of the  2017 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights as he follows in the morally exemplary tradition of those branded criminals by unjust law as Socrates, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and the other true patriots in the long line of those who have suffered for the good morals that found democracy,

 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 August 1, 2017, under the title "Scared of a laugh" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1297783/up-in-the-air