Beware fool's dream

re: "Graft a 'human trait'" (Postbag, January 15)

Dear editor,
I am glad that Clara Holzer agrees with the point I had emphasized that "democracy does not stop at elections," which are, as she writes, but "a small step," albeit it an essential one, in the difficult process of achieving and maintaining a healthily functioning democracy. We are also in agreement that the temptation to corruption is a human trait, although I'm not sure that any solid evidence supports the claim that "it is exacerbated by a consumer oriented society."

However, Ms. Holzer appears to have missed the evidence I pointed out showing that democracy had been taking solid root in Thailand: the defeat by the outraged voice of the Thai nation of Pheu Thai's sleazy amnesty bill and the increasing pressure being put on that government to come clean about its rice pledging scheme. Such are only possible when vigilant citizens are accorded the right to seek and to speak truths, which is why free speech is a cornerstone of democracy.

To further clarify an issue that continues to confuse Ms. Holzer, democracy, whilst certainly being no guarantee of it, is indeed the "surest antidote to corruption" for the same reason: corruption can only be eliminated when financial, legal and other forms of corruption can be discovered and openly stated for what they are, something only possible under the democratic principle of free speech which is conspicuously absent under the currently ruling set of Thai politicians unelect and unaccountable. Censorship is beloved by the corrupt precisely because they have much to hide, which is the reason that undemocratic governments always make up a corrupt rule of law to confer the impunity of ignorance that censorship bestows on corruption. Yes, Clara Holzer, much as history shows that many of its particular instances fall short, democracy remains the only form of government whose founding principles make it inherently opposed to corruption.

It is a fool’s dream to think that an opaque government intent on using its own made up rule of law to silence healthy investigation and critical questioning of its acts and motives will be less corrupt than a democratic alternative: the forced ignorance alone precludes any sound basis for such a pious belief.

 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 January 16, 2018, under the title "Beware fool's dream" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1396486/beware-fools-dream
  

Defeating democracy

re: "Election obsessions" (Postbag, January 11)

Dear editor,
Echoing JC’s doubts about it (“Countdown to chaos”, Jan. 10), Clara Holzer (“Election obsessions”, Jan. 11) sensibly questions “the Bangkok Post's obsession with elections.” The answer is that the Post is “obsessed” with elections in the same way that most of us are “obsessed” with breathing. Elections are no more definitive of democracy than breathing is of being a thinking, feeling human, but just as the absence of breathing is a reliable indicator that there is no human person present, so is the absence of elections a reliable indicator that there is no democracy. But why value democracy?

The Post and many others, rather more than on Clara Holzer's short list, value democracy because it is the only form of government based on good morals. Elections are an essential tool, but as the examples of Mussolini and many others who got the trains running and the streets cleared of vermin show, perhaps even Trump, elections alone are no guarantee of the good morals that found democracy, for which a strong constitution enabling constant vigilance is also needed. The latest coup against a popular civil government and civil rule of law was committed because democracy was once again showing signs of taking solid root in Thailand. The sleazy Pheu Thai amnesty bill had been defeated by the voice of the vigilant Thai people and the awful rice pledging scheme was coming under increasing pressure from healthy vigilance. Democracy being the surest antidote to corruption, which thrives under repressive censorship, what traditional forms of systemic corruption might have been threatened next had such democratic shoots been allowed to take hold?

The Post and others are right to obsess not with elections but with democracy because democracy is the only form of government that is based on good morals. Even were it popular, the government of the current politicians making up a rule of law to enable their own agenda is an assault on 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 January 13, 2018, under the title "Defeating democracy" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1395090/leave-yingluck-be
  

A bold experiment

re: "Somkid scolds science ministry as kids lose interest" (BP, January 9)

Dear editor,

It would certainly be encouraging to see it take hold, but the trouble with science is that it's very much like democracy: it only works when old ideas inherited from tradition, every last one of them, can be openly called into question and be constantly pushed to defend themselves, sound approaches that are too often criminal under Thai rule of law.

Nor does science obediently respect authority, flatly contradicting the prime minister's reform of education with his 12 Values of Thainess.

 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 January 12, 2018, under the title "A bold experiment" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1394430/out-with-the-old
  

More bent than bent

re: "'Politician' PM muddies waters yet further" (BP, January 6)

Dear editor,

Who would have thought it? Thai military politicians appear to be less straight even than the civil politicians.
Who, given Thailand's decades of well-watched historical evidence, would not have thought it?

 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 January, 2018, under the title "More bent than bent" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1391998/fickle-friends
  

New drugs thinking needed

re: "Punishment addicts" (Postbag, January 6)

Dear editor,

Karl Reichstetter is correct that law makers have long played on the natural fears of parents for their children to whip up support for their populist wars on drugs, under which the ugly reality is that instead of reducing drug harms, children end up with criminal records in addition to worsened drug harms for themselves and 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 January 7, 2018, under the title "New drugs thinking needed" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1391618/ivory-ban-can-work
  

Being Thai

re: "A paragon of virtues" (Postbag, December 31)

Dear editor,

Apart from the error of equating traditional with virtuous, as if slavery, sexism, racism and other traditional evils were made good merely by the fact of being traditional, there is a more serious mistake revealed in Burin Kantabutra's thoughtful letter pointing out the PM's failure to practice what he preaches.

As the example of Jatupat Boonpatararaksa and others constantly remind us, the PM general's list of 12 Thai Values are self-contradictory: Thai law often criminalizes honesty, making it impossible to legally practice both Value number 2 (honesty) and Value number 8 (respect the law). But this is no surprise: the PM's 12 Values of Thainess were made up to reform education by replacing solid virtues such as critical thinking, respect for facts and healthy truth seeking,  things the Buddha calls "right understanding", with mindless respect for authority based on tradition.

The 12 Values of traditional Thainess as listed by the PM are not fit for decent people to live by, but are, like so many hoary traditions serving repressive status quos, themselves in urgent need of critical reform.

 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 January 1, 2018, under the title "Being Thai" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1388722/being-thai