re: "Thailand 4.0 not quite as we imagined" (BP, August 8)
Dear editor,
In her succinct opinion piece, Atiya Achakulwisut correctly notes that prostration in the Chula. Uni. mode is "a newly invented tradition." She might usefully have given a bit more historical background. In 1873, the great Thai king Chulalongkorn, Rama V, in his wise efforts to break with bad old ways of the past, to end bad old traditions and bring in modernizing reforms, explicitly abolished prostration, describing it as "severely oppressive" and unable to "render any benefit to Siam" (Royal Siamese Government Gazette,1873). This begs the obvious question: if the modern lights at Chula. University and elsewhere dictate that students or others prostrate themselves, what are they saying when they seem to directly disagree with the wisdom of the great King Chulalongkorn?
Personally, I think the great Thai king of more than a century ago was wiser and better in tune with good morals than the modern rulers of the university that takes his name. Thankfully, there are bright young citizens such as Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal to help his elders correct their mistaken notions of good morals.
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 11, 2017, under the title "Bowing to bad tradition" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1304175/bowing-to-bad-tradition
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