Unhappy ingrates

re: "Campaign begins to impeach NACC" (BP, December 29)

Dear editor,

In his response to those Thai citizens to whom happiness has not been returned by its scrupulously timed ruling on the deputy Prime Minister general's sufficiently impressive wrist adornments, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) secretary-general is certainly correct when he insists "that the NACC's work had been done in accordance with the law."

Why does such loyal service by the rule of law so upset the unhappy ingrates? Who, after all, would go to all the trouble of selflessly staging a coup in order to make up a new rule of law without the natural expectation that rulings be made in strict accordance with their reformed rule of law?


 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 December 30, 2018, under the title "Unhappy ingrates" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1602906/let-investigators-do-their-job
  

When reality bites

re: "Time for Prayut to show his integrity" (Editorial, December 16)

Dear editor,

The Bangkok Post might feel that former army general Prayut Chan-o-cha, long reborn as prime minister, "is obliged to observe political etiquette and ensure fairness in the game"; the reality is manifestly otherwise: the only thing that the self-made politician feels obliged to do is whatever he himself wants to do. That is, after all, why he joined that long line of self-promoting Thai political animals who jumped from being members of Thailand's costly army of politicking army generals to self-elected supremo politicians without the inconvenience of  civil election or other such respect for political decency. As the Bible's Jeremiah (13:23) long ago realized, the leopard cannot change his spots.

 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 December 17, 2018, under the title "When reality bites" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1595362/picture-ban-is-telling
  

Dictator apologist

re: "PM blasts Thaksin's charter rewrite proposal" (BP, December 14)

Dear editor,

Suthep Thaugsuban's deceitful piece of unreason, that "The constitution received 16.8 million votes in its favour [in] the referendum, so everyone must respect the people's decision," is fully  consistent with the reaction of the self-elected current prime minister to former Prime Minister, now convicted felon, Thaksin Shinawatra's critical comments pointing out that Section 272 effectively turns the senate into a tool to hold on to political power, which amounts to legalized corruption. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has been loyally served by the anti-democratic PDRC instigator since 2010, according to Suthep's own admission in June of 2014, when he boasted that they began colluding that early to overthrew the previous supreme law of the Thai nation, the 19th constitution.

Naturally, dictators do not want amendments to the constitution made up at their behest to further their own agenda untrammelled by democratic values. It's a sad thing when even the likes of Thaksin can teach good governance to the ruling politicians gloriously self-amnestied. But it cannot surprise that the likes of Suthep and other apologists for dictatorship repeat the falsehood that an election automatically confers democratic merit.

 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 December 15, 2018, under the title "Dictator apologist" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1594494/dictator-apologist
  

Ban crime films now!

re: "Suspect says movies inspired him to B6m gold burglary" (BP, December 7)

Dear editor,

It is a matter of the gravest concern that a gold shop robber has admitted that watching "several films. …  about robberies … gave him the idea to imitate them." It is obviously essential to immediately ban all films about robbery, theft or other crimes before they corrupt vulnerable youth and adults, thereby leading to a flood of such crimes! Thai society plainly hangs in the balance. To save it, these wicked films that corrupt the good morals of viewers must be strictly prohibited forthwith before it is too late!

 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 December 10, 2018, under the title "Ban crime films now!" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1590794/ban-crime-films-now
  

Sheer happiness for the 1%

re: "Report: Thailand most unequal country in 2018" (BP, December 7)

Dear editor,

Who would not be impressed by the report from Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2018, which ranks Thailand comfortably at number one at last?

In 2016, Thailand's 1% elite owned only 58% of the nation's wealth, but the unremitting efforts of those selfless lads who took over to correct such states of affairs have managed to boost that to 66.9% ownership by the 1% this year. For those threatened by the good morals of democracy, another coup was clearly the sound investment strategy. And with Thailand's Gini Index "at a whopping 90.2,"  it is obvious what sort of ingrates complain about the state of the state.

The joy of coups: returning happiness to the 1%.

 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 December 9, 2018, under the title "Sheer happiness for the 1%" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1590390/sheer-happiness-for-the-1
  

Peasants, behave!

re: "Enough of the iron grip" (Editorial, December 7)

Dear editor,

The trouble from the dictators' point of view is that ungrateful Thai citizens, despite an amazing Gini index of 90.2 courtesy of those same self-made old boys, cannot be relied upon to mindlessly obey unless a little fatherly coercion is used, hence the urgent need for morally corrupt laws to be strictly enforced by the morally challenged politicians who stole the Thai nation by overthrowing the previously existing form of democratic constitutional monarchy, which was obviously not doing enough to keep the 1% in control of the nation and their servants.

As the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2018 shows, the economy is much happier now, with the 1% owning a more respectable 66.9% of everything Thai. And those upstart peasants are firmly back under heel.

Why risk what is so obviously returning happiness to all save the 99% of low worth ingrates?

 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 December 8, 2018, under the title "Peasants, behave!" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1589922/peasants-behave
  

Keep expectations low

re: "Dire need for elected Senate" (Editorial, December 6)

Dear editor,

Such values as transparency, openness and respect for the nation's people, even to allowing them a voice in determining the form of their government and society, characterizing democracy's moral superiority over dictatorship, it would be contrary to reason to expect dictators or their laws made up to benefit dictatorship to respect such. You might as well expect the basic right of free speech to be respected, thereby posing a dire threat to traditional corruption by allowing a well-informed understanding of national affairs, which understanding must leave devoutly promoted falsehoods open to correction.

 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 December 7, 2018, under the title "Keep expectations low" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1589106/keep-expectations-low
  

Dance of discord

re: "'Khon' dance no reason for discord" (Editorial, December 2)

Dear editor,

It is nice that Cambodia's and Thailand's local versions of the Indian epic have been awarded UN recognition. Who, other than that fugitive former Thai PM who famously boasted in March 2003 that "the UN is not my father," would not be proud of such august recognition to confirm their worth?  Will the currently ruling PM general (ret.) now also start to admire the UN suggestions that Thailand respect democracy and human rights, or will he favour the policy of the great fugitive?

But I also wonder: could the Post kindly tell us how many Thai people have ever seen a khon performance, unless forced to sit through one on a school outing? How many Thais today have any interest in doing so? Is it closer to 10% of the population, to 99%, or to 1%? This is a relevant statistic, but I was unable to find any figure. My guess is that it's much closer to 1% than to 10%, but I might be totally wrong. Like other  myths of amazing Thainess, could it be that solid, factual statistics are banned on the grounds that they would reveal truths that do not comport with enforced fantasies? Is Thai nationalism founded on nothing more substantial than myths told by unseen players hiding behind masks lest reality become known? The symbolism seems all too literal.

In fairness, I am reminded of the West. Our cultural font is Homer's "Iliad," yet how many citizens of Western nations have ever read him in any language? Brad Pitt and Eric Bana's mild-mannered version in "Troy" is nice, but that niceness doesn't really do Homer justice. How many have thrilled to that blood soaked tale of vengeance, loyalty and humanity, complete with gore, sex, violence, sexual violence, betrayal, randy gods acting with full human capriciousness, and with a healthy contempt for decidedly non-divine but human, all too human, kings? These elements of Homer all helped the West rise above the despotic Middle East ruled over by the likes of the dictatorial Yahweh, who gave birth to the Christian god and then to Allah, all three claiming an unbelievable, and unbelievably inhuman, omnipotent benevolence that must be held in awe, or else. 

Naturally, severe dissociation from reality goes hand in hand with frothing 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 December 3, 2018, under the title "Dance of discord" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1586446/dance-of-discord
  

The joke of law

re: "Ray of hope for rule of law" (Editorial, November 30)

Dear editor,

The impressively slow progress on Premchai Karnasuta's case for alleged poaching in a national wildlife sanctuary can surprise no one. It exemplifies perfectly why Thai people do not trust Thai justice, or rather, Thai rule of law posing as justice. Even when the law manages to be just, it is applied with seemingly blatant discrimination to protect corrupt hi-so types who are members in good standing of the old boys club while coming down mercilessly on the poor and powerless, who correctly see it as being created by traditional hi-so types to keep the masses in their place underfoot. We need not imagine where Premchai would be today had he been an aged peasant picking mushrooms illegally.

Exactly the same is seen in the illuminating tale of Thaksin Shinawatra. When he was in with the old boys, he could do not wrong as they pushed him as their poster child elect for PM. Nor was a small "honest mistake" at the time ruled by the courts any bar to his political ascendancy while he was in good standing with the oligarchy, who even went along happily with his war on drugs, going so far as to condone, if not encourage, those vile abuses. They even defended Thaksin's defence of himself with obstructionist lawsuits and similar threats against the Thai press that dared to question him and what he stood for. It was only after he had fallen out with his former mates that all changed. Thai law was then redirected to attacking him, but that the only charges ever brought were for accusations so manifestly political that no country would ever extradite, while the actually real crimes of the drug wars were left untouched, is telling.

With such compelling examples of the corruption of the rule of law to serve injustice, who in their right mind, or in a morally decent mind, would respect what has traditionally been applied to favour the self-anointing elect and their gangs? To maintain this entrenched corruption in the rule of law has always been a major reason, for military coups against the Thai people, as we see with the self-amnestied gang who most recently overthrew the constitution of the Thai nation precisely when it looked as though democracy threatened to work. It was, after all, immediately after the Thai people's outrage had stopped the sleazy Pheu Thai amnesty bill that the PDRC and those collaborating with them ratcheted up their destructive protests intent on "shutting down Bangkok" and preventing an election, to pave the way for yet another coup against the evolving good morals of democracy. As we have been constantly reminded these past four years and more, everything since has been committed strictly according to the rule of law, the law, that is, as made up by the coupists. A sign of a small return to happiness is that the sensible Thai people no longer swallow the deceitful non sequiter that being the rule of law means being just, moral, decent or respectable.

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 December 1, 2018, under the title "The joke of law" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1585630/the-joke-of-law
  

Mafia drug scum

re: "Double-faced drugs policy" (BP, Editorial, November 20)

Dear editor,

The obstacles to reforming Thailand's impressively failing drug policy of decades, which failure, as the editor rightly notes, is continually proved by the tediously regular seizures of massive amounts of harmful drugs, is that the current policy greatly enriches three highly influential groups in Thai society: mafia scum, corrupt officials paid by mafia scum, and drug policy enforcement officers. These three groups demand respect that trumps all evidence of the harm that their favoured policy inflicts on every other group in Thai society. These groups are thriving thanks to the monopoly that Thai rule of law has for decades bestowed upon the mafia scum and their allies in the lucrative illegal drug industries. The high financial and social costs are  apparent in the persistently high rates of drug use and addiction, in increased crime rates, in  life-destroying criminal records for personal acts that harm no one, and of course in the massive boost to corruption allied with enormous financial costs draining the public budget, which public funds might  more usefully be diverted to health, to education, to rehabilitation and other uses that actually reduce drug-related harms.

Isn't it time the law stopped actively supporting mafia scum and instead worked to reduce drug harms to Thai society by following where the evidence leads? Such evidence as the before and after statistics not only for alcohol legalization following the US's costly prohibition experiment, that boon to the American mafia, but more recently for marijuana legalization and the impressive social benefits of Portugal's decriminalization of all personal drug use way back in 2001 consistently show how to reduce drug-related harms to society. 

Not only is there no shortage of evidence as to what the practical approach to reducing drug harms to society is, but there is a compelling moral argument that the state may not justly interfere in the personal decisions of adults that do not directly harm others: unlike murder, rape, theft and fraud, for example, getting paralytically drunk on the drug alcohol, or high on yaa baa, or stoned on marijuana, or even dead on heroin, or more slowly dead by cigarettes, does not actually harm anyone but the users of those drugs, and if adults, they are entitled to harm themselves, however stupid that might truly be. It is not the law's business to criminalize personal stupidity by forcing all to abstain because a few recklessly harm themselves: if it were, the sale and use of chocolate cake must also be made an imprisonable offence, thereby inviting the mafia and corrupt to also takeover that rich market.

 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 November 21, 2018, under the title "Mafia drug scum" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1579478/mafia-drug-scum
  

Biblical lessons

re: "Christmas circus" (BP, PostBag, November 16)

Dear editor,

Like many who oppose the joyous celebration of the birth of that still troublesome Jew named Jesus, who at least had the good grace to be conveniently born on the traditional winter solstice, Huubie Lowlands seems, whilst doubtless sincerely offended by all the good cheer of the hams, the tinsel, the turkey, the lights, the duck, the carols, the rich puddings, cakes and other joyful deliciousness of the season, a trifle curmudgeonly.

And there are more important lessons for Thais to learn from the life and death, especially the death, of that political radical and arch-criminal who was lawfully crucified for his subversive speech crimes against the Judeo-Roman status quo of ancient Judea. He is a fitting reminder of what happens to those who willfully speak opinions that offend the selfless leaders of society. Jesus, like other radical truth seekers and speakers through the ages, from Socrates onwards, was put to death in strict accord with the rule of law that he had knowingly broken. As such, he obviously deserved what he got. Similarly, we are regularly reminded that today's trouble makers get exactly what they deserve according to the rule of law made up by Thailand's selfless oligarchy, who are every bit on a par with the Jewish leaders working so selflessly with the glory of Rome to keep their society peaceful, unified and free of corruption. These are important lessons that Thais need  to learn annually — the rule of law protecting them must be obeyed, or else.

Such annual lessons in respectful prostration before the legal authority of their betters cannot be begun too early. Nor can it be unfitting, as the cheerful shopping malls, our modern temples to the joyful life, remind us, to show proper seasonal respect by giving the odd luxury watch or other modest symbol of respect to those nobly bearing the burden of enforcing the law against upstart criminals, whether of the youthful Jesus type or of the more aged likes of Socrates.

 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 November 17, 2018, under the title "Biblical lessons" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1577442/no-safe-boxing
  

Suthep's chicanery

re: "Suthep's fall from grace gathers pace" (BP, Opinion, November 13)

Dear editor,

Whilst Atiya Achakulwisut's informative opinion piece on former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban was an enjoyable morning read, she might also have reminded readers that Suthep was so famously corrupt as a Democrat Party politician, a staunch man of that "hilariously misnamed" political party as Time magazine so aptly described it in November 2013, that his own party colleagues complained about him to the US ambassador. The Wikileaks  cable from the US embassy dated December 22, 2008 speaks of the "kamnan" as Abhisit's "close political partner Suthep." This despite the same cable going on to relate that "In recent years, Suthep has controlled the finances of the Democrat Party, and several Democrats have privately complained to us that he engages in corrupt and unethical behavior." But this was back in 2008, when Abhisit was forming his first government courtesy of an earlier coup against democracy. Worse was to come.

According to his own boasting shortly after it, Suthep was working from 2010 to destroy Thailand's civil constitution, which aim he and his allies achieved with the coup in May 2014. After blabbing a few  truths about the antecedents to their  overthrow of Thailand's supreme legal pillar and the foundation of Thailand's political system, he suddenly disappeared into a convenient but most unSuthepian monastic silence for some reason. It is hard to credit that this was from any commitment to such Buddhist ideals as right understanding, which ideal called for more elucidation of the background to the events from late 2013 that led to its overthrow shortly after of the Thai democracy which had proven itself to be evolving to serve as an effective solution to political problems:  Pheu Thai's sleazy amnesty bill had, after all, been halted in response to the outraged voice of the Thai nation. What followed demonstrated that the amnesty bill was merely a pretext for a deeper plot against Thai democracy.

Also interesting in the ugly story of the PDRC's well-plotted shutting down of a burgeoning democracy in Thailand is the mob psychology that so easily whipped to a zealous frenzy so many supporters, who appeared in all sincerity to believe that the bad they were aiding and abetting was actually good. Of course, this moral blindness that leads basically good people down the path to evil is not uncommon. The history of Christianity shows the same moral errors with its blasphemy trials, witch hunts, inquisitions, pogroms and other evils committed by those deluded by blind faith, by wrong understanding, to commit the most appalling atrocities, such as the Christian mob stripping the flesh from Hypatia before destroying the great library of Alexandria, the treasure house of Western culture, in 415 AD. Your typical jihadi terrorist today is equally convinced under blind, uncritical faith supporting evil that they are doing what is right. There was not only a moral failure on the part of Suthep's adulating street mobs as they actively worked to undermine the rule of law by smashing Thailand's form of democratic constitutional monarchy to replace it with a dictatorship, but a failure to understand, to reason critically. With a a view to preventing such outbreaks in future, it is worth pondering what went wrong in the heads of those so boastfully determined to "Shut down" civil society.

 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 November 14, 2018, under the title "Suthep's chicanery" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1575430/sutheps-chicanery
  

References

• Campbell, C. (2013, November 8). Thailand’s Democrat Party Is Hilariously Misnamed. Time. Retrieved from http://world.time.com/2013/11/28/thailands-democrat-party-is-hilariously-misnamed/
   
• NEW THAI CABINET APPOINTED, FACES CRITICISM [08BANGKOK3712_a]. (2008, December 22). Wikileaks. Retrieved from https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08BANGKOK3712_a.html 
   

A poll, not a conclave

re: "Foreign poll observers 'not needed'" (BP, November 7)

Dear editor,

Whilst it is encouraging to see Thailand's judicially cleared Foreign Minister contradict those who persist in the false belief that Pheu Thai and other elected governments of the Thai nation were not fairly and properly elected by the Thai people to represent the Thai people, surely it would, nonetheless, add credibility to invite foreign observers to Thailand's upcoming election due for some as yet unconfirmed time in the future. Nor would doing so be an admission of incompetence as the Foreign Minister implies: competent people do sensibly ask for help.

And after all, if those now busily politicking for the multiply-long promised election have nothing to hide, why wouldn't they want the elections to be certified as sound by the international community? This would also reassure those Thai citizens, the voters, who might reasonably suspect the dictator politicians of running a corrupt election.

 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 November 10, 2018, under the title "A poll, not a conclave" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1573454/a-poll-not-a-conclave
  

Democratic slurs

re: "Different visions" (PostBag, November 1)

Dear editor,

In his reply to my letter pointing out that the politicians ruling over the Thai people since seizing power in May 2014 by overthrowing Thailand's constitution and its form of democratic constitutional monarchy, Dusit Thammaraks repeats a number of pious myths.

First, there is the dramatically dubious claim that Thailand was facing "possibly devastating civil war." The discussion necessary to establish any such claim has never taken place. The known facts suggest otherwise: That the streets were so very easily cleared supports that at most a very brief period of martial law would have been more than adequate to stop the protests aiming to "Shut down Bangkok," thereby allowing an election to form a new Thai government to  proceed smoothly in accord with the constitution of the Thai nation.

When he then proceeds to suggest that Thai people cannot be trusted in the matter of "casting unbiased and honest votes," he repeats a falsehood popular with anti-democratic forces everywhere. This presumption of being superior to the great majority is not only false, but ignores the categorical moral imperative that people have a right to a voice in the form of their government, which means exactly what it says: you do not need any particular skin colour, educational background, political leaning, or career to be entitled to a voice in the form of your society. This is a moral truth that dictators reject.  Finally, no one is such a straw man as to think democracy a panacea that can magically cure all ills, merely that it is morally and practically better than dictatorship, save perhaps for the dictators making up their laws that collaterally just happen to be so very beneficial to themselves and those colluding with them. 

To the insultingly low opinion of the Thai people as unfit to have a fair say in determining Thai affairs, no supporting evidence is given. But myths are by definition blindly credited. Happily, the Thai people are no longer so piously blind, even regarding Thai affairs, as the dictatorially inclined who deem themselves superior would have them be.

 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 November 4, 2018, under the title "Democratic slurs" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1569834/when-politics-override-logic
  

Uncharted seas

re: "Stop chaos in its tracks" (PostBag, October 29)

Dear editor,

When Dusit Thammaraks appears to extol the new army commander for threatening a coup on the grounds that "He made it clear that the army would uphold the monarchy and protect the constitution," he seems to overlook that a coup necessarily, by definition, overthrows the constitution, the supreme legal foundation of the nation, and that in Thailand's case, the constitution so overthrown is what also founds the democratic constitutional monarchy of the Thai nation. To be loyal to Thailand's form of democratic constitutional monarchy, you must, indeed, uphold and protect the constitution of the Thai nation.

Mr Thammaraks goes on to suggest that voters in the upcoming election, which might well come to pass sometime next year as promised, ask themselves some very pertinent questions. They are solid questions of the sort that voters should indeed be asking themselves of politicians who aspire be leaders of their nation. He specifically asks us to consider whether these "politicians have a proven record of loyal service to their country, coupled with dedication, honesty and integrity? Did their wealth result from hard work, or from the benevolent hands of parents and family? And what might be their real motivation and agenda?" Since they appear to be threatening to continue their own political careers, I was, I confess, a bit disappointed that  Mr Thammaraks did not also go on to answer his own very pertinent questions for the currently ruling politicians who seized power in 2014 by overthrowing the constitution of the Thai 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 October 30, 2018, under the title "Uncharted seas" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1566814/coup-ban-can
  

Butchers' logic

re: "Organ-less kitty 'needs necropsy now'" (BP, October 24)

Dear editor,

If true, the alleged killing by torture of the kitten warrants all the disgusted outrage it has occasioned. But honestly, is it any worse than the treatment meted out on a daily basis to the factory farmed pigs and chickens that chicken and pork consumers pay others to inflict on those animals for no better reason than to feed a lust for tasty animal flesh? In 2018, we do not need to eat meat, certainly not in the vast quantities that, contrary to medical advice, we tend to shovel into ourselves.

Whilst understandable, it is irrational moral hypocrisy to get in a tizzy over one person brutally killing a kitten for money whist happily paying others very well to inflict similar suffering unto death on far more animals on a daily basis. And whilst I'm not a vegetarian, those who advocate vegetarianism on the grounds that eating meat causes needless, and therefore unjustifiable, suffering do make a point that we meat eaters need to address. Even more challenging to reflect on is what justifies treating other animals that can suffer differently to how we treat humans when it comes to killing them. It is telling that, when philosopher Peter Singer followed through the logic here, the response from those incensed at the implications of how speciesism, which proffers only the lame excuse that "we're human and they're not", not only fails to justify the mass daily slaughter of non-human animals, but that the only sound answers to it require that both abortion on request and euthanasia under some circumstances be accepted, he received death threats!

Sound, rational thinking, as Socrates discovered in democratic Athens in 399 BC, can be a deadly business. The recent murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi state operatives for engaging in rational discussion illustrates the same point, as do the shameful episodes of Thailand's October 1973, 1976 and Black May killings by state officials. These modern events reflect the same feudal mindset against the good morals of critical inquiry that continue to underlie the imprisonment or self-exile of patriots for such "crimes" as engaging in critical discussion or merely liking on Facebook an article from a respected media source whose accuracy has never been rebutted, and the even more brutal media and online censorship that some nations engage in to enforce ignorance of national issues, history and figures. Contrary to the propaganda of despots, contrary even to much traditional majority consensus, respect for critical reasoning goes hand in hand with other 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 October 25, 2018, under the title "Butchers' logic" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1564142/pilots-in-a-pickle
  

Moral quagmire

re: "THAI union leader slams pilots' lack of 'the right spirit'" (BP, October 22)

Dear editor,

Thai Airways International labour union president is right on both counts: the pilots who wilfully damaged their employer, their nation, and paying customers had a legal right according to the rule of law to a first class seat, but good morals demanded that they not exercise that purely legal entitlement.

Exactly the same is true of politicians and those playing at politics. Thaksin had, for example, along with Singapore's morally challenged leaders among others, a strictly legal right to file law suits to stifle opinions found offensive, but healthy moral norms for a democracy ask such people to refrain from using the force of law to protect themselves from insults and other abuse, however tasteless or of dubious veracity.

Thai International's pilots, it appears, have learned all too well their selfishly bad morals from the example of Thai political leaders, past and present. The spirit of the Buddha's teachings is better than this arrogant imposition under the guise of strict legalism that contradicts 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 October 24, 2018, under the title "Moral quagmire" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1563406/bell-tolls-for-coups
  

Trotting excuses

re: "Army chief says no need to intervene if politics stable" (BP, October 17)

Dear editor,

There were a couple of troubling statements in the new army chief's recent news conference as reported in "Army chief says no need to intervene if politics stable." First, when he says that "We [the army] cannot let politics use us," the general appears unaware of the fact that it is, on the contrary, army generals who have persistently played at politics, repeatedly using the weakest of excuses to overthrow Thailand's democratic form of government.

Second, when he asserts the conditional that "If politics does not create conflict like in the past, there is no need for us to intervene," he fails to  forswear absolutely such unjust intervention in Thailand's evolution of political solutions to political issues. His loyalty should be to Thailand's democratic constitutional monarchy, which loyalty would seem to preclude a coup against that form of government of the Thai nation.

There are excuses trotted out for every coup against the democratic aspirations of the Thai nation, all of which fail to pass scrutiny. That there is corruption in politics is certain: it is there in both civil and military governments, but only one of these forms values the transparency essential to identify and eradicate the cancer of corruption. It is also certain that protests sometimes turn violent. But to think that these or any other defect in politics can be solved by a non-political intervention that destroys what little democratic maturity has evolved  is a mistake. It is equivalent to a Victor Frankenstein who, quite possibly from the best of motives, decides to treat cancer by cremating the patient. This might well give a deceptive appearance of working since, although continuing to infest others, the cancer in those prejudicially targetted subjects who are cremated will indeed be destroyed; but reasonable people might prefer a solution that  seeks to treat the cancer in all those infected in a way that is less certainly destructive of what truly matters.

As the history of the US, the UK, Australia, Italy, Japan and all others show, every democracy has problems. As history also shows they can be, those problems should be solved by political means, not by suppressing such solutions: cancer patients are not well-served if doctors who use chemotherapy, radiation therapy or surgery are banned from assisting those in urgent need, who are instead thrown onto a bonfire to the vanities of self-styled saviours.

 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 October 19, 2018, under the title "Trotting excuses" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1560694/trotting-excuses
  

The coupist straitjacket

re: "20-year National Strategy comes into effect" (BP, October 13)

Dear editor,

On reading the wondrous promises of The first National Strategy, which is intended to lock Thailand up until 2037, one is not only reminded of the equally wondrous promises that Stalin's and Mao's national development plans made for the Soviet Union and China; one wonders also how collecting luxury watches from dead best friends is an example of sustainable sufficiency economics. While ever more are needed, the supply of dying best mates to collect them from is not obviously renewable; unless, of course, a new crop of such willing contributors comes with each new coup or extension thereof, thereby ensuring the desired sustainability providing a sufficient number of luxury pieces for flapping wrists.

Meanwhile, the rude reality of historical evidence, with such exemplary failures as China under Mao and the Soviet Union under Stalin and his successors, shows a strong correlation between democratic liberties and healthy national development, which is not surprising since, unless people are free to experiment with new ways and critically question old habits, customs and dogmas, mistakes cannot be corrected, wrongs cannot be righted, corruption cannot be eradicated, nor new circumstances adapted to. The coupists' straitjacket is a recipe for stultification and retarded growth. But they have certainly paid themselves sufficiently well to make it up.

 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 October 16, 2018, under the title "The coupist straitjacket" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1558626/support-young-mums
  

Enduring legacies

re: "2 great kings to be feted this month" (BP, October 10)

Dear editor,

King Chulalongkorn, Rama V, indisputably deserves the admiration accorded him for decades. Not least among his achievements that earned him the title "Great," are those reforms that helped to move the Thai nation firmly into the technologically and morally developing twentieth century. Not only did this great king willingly act to abolish the ancient tradition of slavery, as early as 1873 (Royal Gazette), he ended the feudal practice of prostration, arguing that such relics of a bygone era did not suit the modern nation he sought to forge for the Thai people. Like other great leaders, he welcomed ideas from outside to strengthen in all ways the nation he led, including the democratic values of the Enlightenment.

Who would not respect this great Thai reformer whose visionary mindset revised old ways to more fully respect the human dignity of all of his subjects?

Thailand is fortunate that this great king's example of modernizing has been followed by his successors, including such tireless advocates of progress as Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, who was instrumental in bringing modern medicine to the Thai nation, and the Prince's son, the late King Bhumipol Adulyadej, whose wisdom, as seen for example of his comments on Thailand's lese majeste laws, made in his birthday speech of 2005, must earn the respect of those who value human rights and decency. These descendants of King Chulalongkorn shared both Western education and their great ancestor's willingness to embrace ways of thinking beyond Thai tradition, thereby following in and confirming Rama V's enduring legacy to the modern Thai 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 October 13, 2018, under the title "Enduring legacies" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1557322/egregious-whistles
  

'Democratic' dictators

re: "Democrats 'may back regime'" (BP, October 10)

Dear editor,

The problem when "Mr Abhisit insisted that the party under his leadership would not support dictatorship," is that supporting dictatorship is exactly what the Democrat Party under his watch did in the lead up to the 2014 coup that overthrew Thailand's form of democratic constitutional government. Under Mr. Abhisit's leadership, his party has earned its international reputation as being "hilariously misnamed" (Time, November 2013). Either Mr. Abhisit fails to accurately state his own leanings, or he is a wash out as leader, having spectacularly failed to lead his party to respect anything like democracy, democratic values or democratic process.

 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 October 11, 2018, under the title "'Democratic' dictators" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1555874/get-tough-on-poachers
  

Cops wasting their time

re: "Unit owners at 'temple bell' condo face immigration fines" (BP, October 8)

Dear editor,

The official pettiness of raging Thainess that refuses to waste scarce police resources on actual crimes like murder, rape, theft, fraud or corruption when you can harass good people who have done nothing wrong save to ignore a law that invades their private concerns is not unexpected.

It is a timely reminder that some laws, like many traditional customs, are, as Shakespeare has Hamlet put it, "More honor'd in the breach than the observance."

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 October 10, 2018, under the title "Cops wasting their time" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1555194/a-nobel-prize-for-love
  

Voice of a junta-phile

re: "Misconstrued sarcasm" (PostBag, October 3)

Dear editor,

Thank you Somsak Pola. Your letter of September 30 was a wonderful opportunity to reply to, so perfectly capturing as it does the voice of the junta-phile. On reading it again, I can see that my sarcasm detector does need recalibration for these post-Orwellian times in Thailand. (In fact, your name under it should have alerted me. My apologies for my mistake.)

 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 October 4, 2018, under the title "Voice of a junta-phile" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1551774/rankings-no-surprise
  

Besting Thaksin

re: "Prayut apeing Thaksin" (BP, PostBag, 2018, October 1)

Dear editor,

In his letter, "Prayut apeing Thaksin" (PostBag, October 1), Somsak Pola might indeed be correct that the army boys who stole the nation from the Thai people by overthrowing Thailand's previously existing form of democratic constitutional monarchy are merely copying Thaksin; that would mean only that Thaksin might also be guilty of acting like Thaksin. It cannot excuse others who out-Thaksin even Thaksin's examples.

The current Minister of Defence and Deputy PM general (retired), has explicitly stated that the devices had been tested and were found to work as claimed. Now, it is entirely plausible that Thaksin also set an example of lying among his various honest mistakes, but that does not make later lies by others any the less lies or any less excusable. If the army signed off on the GT200s and persisted in their defence of the plainly indefensible, then they are guilty of, at the very least, gross incompetence that renders them unfit to serve as soldiers, let alone to dictate to the entire nation they have further corrupted by suppressing democracy and its healthy mechanisms in ways that Thaksin could never dream of. Thaksin, after all, did not amnesty himself as the politicians now dictating promptly did after giving themselves absolute power to, among other rewards of seized power, divert vast funds to the group that they have since officially retired from to become full time politicians in hyper-versions of Thaksin at his worst, absent the restraints of democratic principles and processes.

Whilst Thaksin will doubtless be pleased to note that there are those who still look backwards to his ways as exemplary, many of the the rest of us would prefer that Thailand move forward.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 October 2, 2018, under the title "Besting Thaksin" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1550382/future-learning
  

Reckless statements

re: "DSI: Grounds to charge GT200 distributors" (BP, September 28)

Dear editor,

Whilst it is not inappropriate that some businesses connected with the import and distribution of the  GT200, which certainly points reliably to gross incompetence, to fraud, and perhaps to corruption, have been found guilty and that others will be tried, some of the official responses manifest a disturbing recklessness.

When defence minister Prawit Wongsuwon insists that "the devices had been tested and found working at the time of purchase," this is tantamount to an admission of gross incompetence by the authorities who were responsible for and accepted that testing. A half competent high school student in a STEM program could have designed a double-blind test that would have proven the devices worthless. Gross incompetence is the least awful possibility that is plausible.

Even more reckless is the statement by a member of the anti-corruption commission, who loftily intones that the expensive pieces of worthless plastic with a cheap antenna are as valuable as a Buddhist amulet, that "The equipment, even though it may not be efficient, has a high morale value."  Although this defence of the indefensible by an official from the anti-corruption commission surely deserves the loan of a gold Rolex, since relying on "the equipment" would seem to have posed an actual threat to national security, not to mention reckless endangerment of the lives of conscript soldiers on the ground who blindly relied on it based on nothing more than the unfounded word of their superior officers, this must also appear suspiciously like dereliction of duty to exercise proper oversight, the sort of failure that led to former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra being sentenced to prison. Or are some held to a different standard, one infallibly determined by the devotees of those magical GT200s?

 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 September 30, 2018, under the title "Reckless statements" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1549262/reckless-statements
  

Land of the unfree

re: "Time to lift rights bans" (Editorial, September 17)

Dear editor,

Whilst the Bangkok Post is doubtless sincere in the editorial "Time to lift rights bans " (September 17), that sincerity clearly fails to understand some basic governing principles of the Thai nation.

First. although some were duty bound on May 22, 2014 to cancel the democratic constitutional monarchy that had previously existed, which cancellation repeated a dozen equally well-intended precedents in Thai modern history, such wickedness as peacefully calling for discussion of the political structure of the Thai nation is not to be permitted less exemplary Thai citizens.

If all Thai people were respected as though they had dignity as free persons, as if they were endowed with basic human rights such as free speech to peacefully state an opinion on matters of national importance, they might very well start thinking that they are in fact a free people entitled to a democratic voice in their nation's affairs, thereby undoing the achievements of the example-setting politicians who have governed since May 2014 after they appointed themselves the ruling politicians of the Thai state that had suddenly been reformed into something very other than a democratic constitutional monarchy. Such an unwarranted aspiration to liberty by the Thai masses will never do. What, after all, was the point of the coup if not to stamp out that unThai notion that Thai people are free, that they have basic human rights consistent with a constitutional monarchy that respects democratic principle?

Naturally, some few do have a duty to shoulder the burden of freedom; but this duty should be limited to those who make up the rule of law to help the rest maintain their proper places, where tradition allows them the privilege of serving the nation and its generous abundance of army generals diligently protecting the interests of those select Thais who are apparently free to say and do whatever they want, including giving themselves and loyal allies both actual and de facto amnesties in case the laws has loop holes that might allow the better sort to be treated as the poorer type, an aberration not to be borne.

It is not, after all, as though the word "Thai" looked anything remotely like the word "free": they don't even share a single letter! 

 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 September 19, 2018, under the title "Land of the unfree" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1542614/land-of-the-unfree
  

Generals live off the people

re: "Too many generals" (PostBag, August 3)

Dear editor,
Johnny Waters ("Too many generals". PostBag, September 3) is to be commended for a timely reminder of a blatant example of corruption in Thailand's body politic. No one doubts that some civil politicians have been seriously corrupt, but at least they did not make up rule of law to whitewash anything on the scale of the amazing number of army generals living off the Thai people in return for doing little more than furthering the vested interested of army generals and their allies intent on maintaining a status quo that appears to primarily benefit the excess of army generals and the colluding oligarchy that likes things the way they have been for too long, however many coups it takes to keep things that way.

A Thai government genuinely intent on reform to eradicate corruption would not promote such an example to the rest of Thai society. 

Nor is there is any need to imagine the outcry had Thaksin sought to whitewash his corruption by a similar legal whitewash, at least not after he had selfishly betrayed the oligarchy that had until then lauded him as one of its own favoured poster boys.

 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 September 9, 2018, under the title "Generals live off the people" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1536782/herbicide-not-so-harmless
  

Practice what you preach

re: "Battered young novice dies" (BP, August 24)

Dear editor,

Perhaps some investigative reporting into abuses of young male novices in Thailand's Buddhist temples is long overdue. They parallel far too closely for comfort the traditional set ups and undeserved respect too long accorded Catholic institutions in the West.

And like those Christian orders, Thai Buddhist institutions show as much interest in cleaning up their act as they do in living by the actual teachings of their claimed founder.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 26, 2018, under the title "Practice what you preach" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1528618/high-quality-low-competition
  

A willfully vague law

re: "Student Union calls on Prayut to scrap new 'code of conduct'" (BP, August 18)

Dear editor,
The Ministry of Education again shows its expected competence fully consistent with Thailand's PISA ratings year after year. If you want "to prevent the problems of brawling, motorcycle racing, and drug use," the intelligent response is to ban "brawling, motorcycle racing, and drug use." You do not make a much broader, willfully vague law based solidly on bad morals to infringe unjustly on a range of personal matters. It is not the ministry's business what sort of pictures students post online; it is certainly bad morals for any ministry to be dictating what people do in private: if they want to have consensual sex, even orgies, the Minister of Education should not be interfering in any such acts. If the orgies are non-consensual, that is a police matter properly covered by the criminal law code.

But it's all expected: it is the rule under Thainess that whenever officials or greedy politicians talk of "good morals," they are doing something that is bad morals. The ongoing dictatorship, which loves to lip-synch the phrase "good morals," is the obvious example, but this latest regressive move that treats young adults as enslaved military conscripts is exactly the same: it is moral corruption deceitfully pretending to be its opposite. As such, it is a perfect example of traditional Thainess imposed by the oligarchy that likes to lord it over the peasants, who have, these past 20 years, taken to voting in informed ways that are healthily contrary to the corrupt bad old ways.

And as is also the norm in Thailand, the young students protesting demonstrate a better grasp of moral right and wrong than do the aging pooyai dictating to them. If there were any justice, the old relics would be down on their knees respectfully waiing the students who are correcting their morally corrupt prejudices.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 20, 2018, under the title "A willfully vague law" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1524830/a-willfully-vague-law
  

Monk's fall from grace

re: "Ex-monk too ill to show in court" (BP, August 17)

Dear editor,

I fail to understand the plight of a revered monk (ret.) who was a darling of juntaphiles until something suddenly snapped. The two questions I hope his court case might answer are: 1) How did he so suddenly fall from grace? Did he, like Chamlong with Thaksin, decide that his chosen PM was not quite what he had expected? 2) When will it be Suthep's turn, or is the famously corrupt former member of the "hilariously misnamed" party still in good standing with the dictators, just as Chalerm remained in amazing grace with Thaksin?

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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, 2018, under the title "Monk's fall from grace" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1524338/electric-nightmares
  

Shades of Thaksin

re: "PM Prayut wants Bangkok traffic relief in 3 months" (BP, August 15)

Dear editor,

Shades of Thaksin past! Is there anything that PM general (ret.?) does not copy from Thaksin and Pheu Thai, except, of course, at least a pretence of respect for the unfree Thai people denied a voice in the government of their own nation?

Which is coming soonest: an "honest mistake" or an election?

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 17, 2018, under the title "Shades of Thaksin" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1523310/easy-come-easy-go
  

A nation uninformed

re: "The strong arm of the law" (Opinion, August 5)

Dear editor,

Mr. Dawson is spot on as he delineates the systematic legalization of corrupt morals by the junta, a legal reform with the primary intent of keeping the Thai nation uninformed about Thai affairs, which forced ignorance of the topic is always, without exception, the primary aim of all censorship. There is clearly much that those who seized power over the Thai nation in order to make up laws better suited to their agenda do not want Thais to know or to understand about Thai affairs. The major reform of these politicians unelected has been to criminalize critical public discussion, effectively outlawing the good morals essential to a healthy civil society that keeps government under due scrutiny, leaving the unspeakable unexamined.

Critics should note the extremely strong claim: all that is needed to prove it false is a single example of censorship whose primary purpose is not to enforce ignorance of the censored topic. Your failure to do so proves the stated truth about censorship. But do try to square its circles in support of the corrupt reform of Thai law.

 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 7, 2018, under the title "A nation uninformed" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1517154/a-nation-uninformed
  

Dictators love Thainess

re: "Philosophical Vacuum" (PostBag, August 4)

Dear editor,
Sadly, Michael Setter is spot on in "Philosophical Vacuum" (PostBag, August 4). It would greatly benefit Thai society were philosophy to be taught in Thai schools from primary on; that would, however, require not only that teachers start to practice the critical thinking entailed, but that Thai law be reformed to allow so untraditionally unThai a practice. Most sadly for Thais, such enlightenment is not about to happen this year or in the coming twenty: Thainess is the preferred ideology of the dictators, as has been the norm through history and across cultures for such practitioners of moral corruption.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 6, 2018, under the title "Dictators love Thainess" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1516490/narratives-of-denial
  

Migrants work harder

re: "Playing the ‘racist’ card" (PostBag, July 30)

Dear editor,
Peter Atkinson's defence of Barry Wallace and the like-minded against the charge that their attitudes are racist is doubtless sincere, as are the attitudes themselves. However, sincerity of belief guarantees neither truth nor decency. The Jim Crowe segregationists of 1950s America were doubtless also sincere in their beliefs about African Americans, which nonetheless remained racist and false. The same is true of Barry's claim that "if you look at the people who come to Australia, most only come to get money from the government, and many don't work and form conclaves. Also, they don't mix into Australian society."

To avoid the charge of racist prejudice prompting such accusations, they would have to be backed up by facts. The relevant facts are the statistics comparing Australian born citizens with immigrants and their children, which show Barry and his sincerely like-minded mates to be wrong. First, immigrants to Australia have higher education levels than the Australian born, with 9.2% having postgraduate degree compared to only 4.8 for the Aussie born. More tellingly, the children of migrants have consistently higher educational expectations than those of home born Australians: 60% of the children of migrants complete at least year 12, compared with only 53% of the children of parents born in Australia. Almost 50% of the children of migrants complete at least a bachelor degree, compared a low 36% for those with both parents born in Australia. These are not the statistics for a group who “only come to get money from the government.”

Naturally, this high motivation to build a better life for themselves and their children is reflected in substantial contributions to the Australian economy and to Australian society more generally. Australia and its non-immigrant population would be much worse off culturally and economically without the boons that migrants and their children bring with them.

Although racist prejudices certainly continue to exist in Australia, with 27% of Australian citizens (Yes, citizens) having experienced personal abuse or discrimination "because of their ethnicity," 86.8% of Australians report that they think it "a good thing for a society to be made up of people from different cultures."

The readily available facts, such as those cited above from The Place of Migrants in Contemporary Australia (Executive Summary), published by the Department of Immigration and Border Control, 2014, flatly contradict the sincerely believed falsehoods of Mr. Atkinson and those he would defend. To recklessly assume the truth of such false beliefs without bothering to check them is to indulge a prejudice which should properly be called racist.

Happily, at least for now in Australia, the racists continue to be losers.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 31, 2018, under the title "Migrants work harder" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1512962/identity-crisis
  

In a real bind

re: "Stifled speech stunts plans for future" (Opinion, July 24)

Dear editor,

The obediently passed 20-year strait jacket for Thais persistently voting against the bad old ways of Thainess sounds as wondrous in the unelected and self-amnestied PM's telling as the myth of Suvarnabhumi, whose reality turned out to have more than a few cobras infesting its swamp.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 25, 2018, under the title "In a real bind" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1509630/in-a-real-bind
  

Keeping the faith

re: "The faith of atheists" (PostBag, July 16)

Dear editor,

In speaking up for theists, Eric Bahrt did not get it quite right with his assertions about atheists. Atheists certainly have faith: they have faith that humans are capable of much good, although they also acknowledge the fact that when whipped up by religious fervour, humans are also capable of great evil, as in holy wars, pogroms, inquisitions, xenophobic genocide, and the like horrors that dot human history.

But the faith of atheists on what is real is radically different to that of theists. The faith of atheists is based solidly on evidence and reason: there is a vast and growing body of solid evidence that evolution is real; there is also an ever expanding body of solid evidence that helps us better understand the past, present and future of the universe we live in. In contrast, the faith of theists is, as Luther insisted, necessarily the epitome of blindness, having not a single shred of evidence or of reason to support the idea that any of the myriad gods and goddesses that delight us in uplifting stories, except when those stories are truly depressing, has the virtue of actually existing.

Atheists also have the humility, when confronted with the mysteries of the universe, to honestly say, "We don't know," unlike the facilely fake answer that "God did it."

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 18, 2018, under the title "Keeping the faith" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1505502/give-boys-thai-id
  

What do Thais think?

Re: "Majority believe election, new govt will improve economy: poll" (BP, 2018, July 1)

Dear editor,
Polls like those regularly reported from NIDA and Suan Dusit are interesting because they might indeed represent what Thais think, which is often not what is in fact the case. Still, it's useful to know what the public thinks, albeit only on officially permitted topics.

The truly important issues to Thai society, according to common assertion, are strictly off limits to informed opinion, being protected by censorship that enforces ignorance not only of the topics themselves but of what Thai people truly think about those topics of national importance. None may know what is thought lest what?

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 3, 2018, under the title "What do Thais think?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1496570/barges-bursting
  

Coup blimey!

re: "Poll date must be set" (Editorial, June 27)

Dear editor,

There was never any good reason for the coup, which would appear to have been staged  because some wanted to serve themselves a bigger slice of the Thai nation's wealth without earning it. Certainly, the public discussion needed to support any such extravagant a claim as that a coup was needed to benefit the Thai nation has never taken place, and the incredible fantasy of eradicating corruption was never less incredible than an election promise; rather, a hungry group decided for their own reasons to stage the coup which they were planning in detail whilst promising that there would be no such violation of the Thai people, in whom, according to section 3 of the Thai constitution, lies the sovereign power of the Thai nation — a moral and legal principle that the ruling politicians have ignored for more than four years.

The series of false promises from 2014 to return the Thai nation to the Thai people from whom it was taken by overthrowing the supreme legal foundation of the nation attest to the true nature of the collusion to trample the democratic wishes of the people into the dirt and silence their voice in the affairs of the their own nation. None of this is excusable. It is, rather, the epitome of corruption: corrupt rule of law, corrupt morals and corrupt acts that strictly follow the corrupt laws corruptly made up enable that legalized corruption.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 June 30, 2018, under the title "Coup blimey!" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1494982/killer-app-for-humanity
  

Decidedly 'Un-Buddhist'

re: "Debating the death penalty" (Editorial, June 20)

Dear editor,

The Post's editor is right that the death penalty raises "deeply moral" issues that should be discussed. The most obvious is that such killing directly contradicts the First Precept of Buddhism. That Thai Buddhism, loyally serving powerful political players who find killing highly acceptable, if not agreeable, for many reasons, does not categorically condemn the death penalty tells us something about the true nature of the religion known as Thai Buddhism, with its decidedly unBuddhist teachings and customs.

Prime Minister Prayuth's comments also illuminate issues worthy of note. First, there is the fake news claim apparently believed by the PM that the death penalty is necessary to deter violent crime. As the editorial notes, this is a false statement. To persistently spout such a falsehood shows either wilful lying or a wilful disregard for discovering the truth: neither of these are moral virtues.

But the PM has made an even more telling assertion in response to the condemnation of the latest legal killing by Thai authorities, insisting that not only is it necessary to maintain public order (a fake claim), but that the death penalty is necessary to teach lessons. He is in fact right that the death penalty teaches lessons. The lesson learned is seen in the murder and violent crime statistics for states that have the death penalty, for example Thailand, with 4 murders per 100,000 people compared with Australia, with only 1 murder per 100,000 and no death penalty for many years (UN Office on Drugs and Crimes International Homicide Statistics database). The lesson that has clearly been learned under the thinking espoused by the PM is that violence, up to and including vicious murder, is a solution to problems. This lesson is, of course, consistent with the repeated use of coups as a violent solution to social and political problems:  nothing peaceful or remotely in line with Buddhist teaching has ever been learned by this repetition in Thai modern history of using violence to overthrow a rule of civil law that some see as a problem to their vested interests.

 Felix Qui

_______________________________

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 June 24, 2018, under the title "Decidedly 'Un-Buddhist'" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1491334/cops-have-licence-to-print-money
  

Narcotic myths

re: "Meth. madness" (Postbag, June 4)

Dear editor,
Martin R. is surely sincere in his belief that nothing could be "more ludicrous and irresponsible nonsense" than a letter such as Observer's (Postbag, June 2) that "supports the legalising of methamphetamine." However, sincerity of belief is a poor substitute for evidence or sound reasoning, both of which solidly support Observer's call to legalize methamphetamine use.

Tellingly, Martin R. does not dispute that current drug policy enriches mafia scum. This is sensible. The policy of handing an official monopoly on the sale of these highly popular drugs to the mafia has the usual result of a monopoly: massive profits that would not otherwise be possible. The law makers who persistently favour this kindness to drug lords could not have done more to aid them. But the kindness to mafia scum does not end with guaranteeing profits so vast that the losses reported with tedious regularity of massive seizures does not dent either the bank accounts or the supply of drugs on the streets. No. This same policy is a sure enticement to corruption of the law enforcement industry. The same was seen in the US experiment with alcohol prohibition from 1920 to 1933. That costly US experiment gave the mafia there its solid foundation as the US legal system and politics was corrupted by the profits that inevitably followed criminalizing a popular drug. It can hardly surprise that law enforcement tends to favour the status quo that puts so much easy wealth in their way merely for looking the other way whilst staging the odd seizure for public relations to keep parents and sincere Martin Rs in awe.

But it's not only that current policy richly rewards the mafia and corrupt officials, it also wastes enormous resources that could otherwise be spent on programs that actually reduce drug harms to society, including: education, health treatment, rehabilitation, and research. And then there are the enormous financial costs of keeping people in prison who have not actually harmed anyone by using their drug of choice, whilst also condemning them to a criminal record that is harmful and breaking up a family in the process. Again, current law actively worsens drug harms to users and to society.

Having declined to rebut the solid arguments for legalization, Martin R. then makes the common and doubtless also sincerely believed statement that "Comparison with the effects on one's health of cigarettes and a few beers or whiskeys just does not stack up." This popular belief among alcohol users fails the test of evidence in two ways. First, the harm to users from their chosen drugs is consistently rated by experts with alcohol at the top, in the company of heroin, crack cocaine and methemphetamine (no one is so silly as to think meth. Is harmless). For example, Nutt, et al., in "Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis" (The Lancet, 2010, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6 ),  conclude that the most harmful drugs to users were, in order, crack cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and alcohol. But more sophisticated recent studies put alcohol as the most harmful of all, as seen in "Comparative risk assessment of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs using the margin of exposure approach" (Lachenmeier & Rehm, Scientific Reports, 2015, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fsrep08126 ). We all tend to have strong personal opinions based on what we think we objectively see, but these observations are never so solidly fact based as the results of hard research. When it comes to harm to society and to others, alcohol is easily the winner, far surpassing even meth., as Thailand's road toll, domestic abuse, rape and other statistics reliably attest. Of course, most alcohol users do not commit rape or get into fights after a glass or two, but even less meth. users do those things, however much attention the media give to the rare outburst that is an extreme.

Finally, as the evidence also strongly shows, for example in the before and after statistics for Portugal, which decriminalized the personal use of all drugs almost twenty years ago, the harm to society, which is surely of paramount importance, is greatly reduced when the personal habits of adults are not criminalized except where they actually harm or directly threaten to harm others.

Personal conviction is a wonderful thing, but it's sensible to base it solidly on facts rather than guesses based on limited and biased self-reporting. Observer is right that the facts and very practical aim of harm reduction, in addition to the moral concerns, all point to the wisdom of ceasing to reward mafia scum and the corrupt at the expense of society.

 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 June 5, 2018, under the title "Narcotic myths" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1479069/narcotic-myths
 

References

• Lachenmeier, D. W., & Rehm, J. (2015). Comparative risk assessment of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs using the margin of exposure approach. Nature, Scientific Reports, 5, art. 8126 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep08126
   
• Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Phillips, L. D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)61462-6