A tizzy of threats

re: "Regime takes aim at Future Forward" (BP, May 29)

Dear editor,

The reform-minded leader of Future Forward shows the appropriate disrespect for tyranny, so PM Prayut flies into another tizzy of threats — his regime's vision of Thailand 4.0 in a coconut shell.

 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 May 31, 2018, under the title "A tizzy of threats" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1476145/food-for-thought
  

Censors shield corrupt

re: "It's the corruption, stupid" (Opinion, May 27)

Dear editor,

It is indeed, as Mr. Dawson sets out, the corruption.

The logic is not difficult. Fact 1: censorship is only ever used to enforce ignorance, in particular to conceal inconvenient truths. Fact 2: the current Thai government censors more than any civil government ever has or could. The conclusion about the ruling politicians necessarily follows. And since corruption always thrives best under those cozy blankets of censorship that protect it from just exposure, these logically certain conclusions explain both the coup and the denial of elections since May 2014. In conclusion, it being the best antidote to such self-serving censorship and the evils thus enabled, democracy is, as a result,  feared by those who will justly lose out under it, and who therefore suppress it with a vengeance, as daily demonstrated these past four years.

 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 May 28, 2018, under the title "Censors shield corrupt" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1474045/censors-shield-corrupt
  

No justifying coup

re: "Peace, but poor miss out" (BP, May 21)

Dear editor,

Unfortunately, even if all true as they allege, not a single one of the junta's boasted "achievements" could ever have justified the coup. None dispute that it is nice not to have the PDRC mobs instigating confrontation as they deliberately "Shut down Bangkok" on behalf of those colluding with them to overthrow the supreme rule of law of the Thai nation.

But that could welcome cleansing of the streets could have been ended with at most a brief period of martial law had the army done its duty to the nation. There is no good reason to think the usual types of corruption are less today than they were four years ago, merely better concealed by the repressive ranks of good old boys patting themselves on their ample backs with luxuriously adorned wrists. Meanwhile, the moral corruption of the rule of law makes every former civil government look angelic.

 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 May 23, 2018, under the title "No justifying coup" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1471137/no-justifying-coup
  

Moral 'cyber warriors'

re: "Beware the cyber warriors" (Editorial, May 17)

Dear editor,

Before being let loose to monitor their fellow citizens, applicants for the position of "cyber warrior" should be required to pass an exam to establish their solid understanding of the salient moral and practical considerations that apply. These principles are lucidly set out by two Harvard University luminaries: Steven Pinker writing in "Why Free Speech is Fundamental" (The Boston Globe, January 27, 2015); and in Ronald Dworkin's powerful essay "A new map of censorship" (Index on Censorship, February 14, 2013). But then, such solid respect for good morals, let alone the the practical matter of citizens equipped with a well-informed understanding of Thai affairs, would contradict the intent of rule of law made up to defeat such goods for Thai 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 May 18, 2018, under the title "Moral 'cyber warriors'" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1467762/moral-cyber-warriors
  

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References

• Dworkin, R. (2013, February 14). A new map of censorship. Index on Censorship. Retrieved from https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/02/ronal-dworkin-free-speech-censorship/ (First published 1994)
   
• Pinker, S. (2015, January 27). Why Free Speech is Fundamental. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/01/26/why-free-speech-fundamental/aaAWVYFscrhFCC4ye9FVjN/story.html

Thaksin 4.0

re: "Bhumjaithai insists on insider PM" (BP, May 14)

Dear editor,

How much must the PM general emulate Thaksin before his ardent admirers burn up in ecstasy at his complete reform from a military man into a Thai politician who out Thaksins even Thaksin?

 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 May 16, 2018, under the title "Thaksin 4.0" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1466186/clinging-to-power
  

Coup and cry

re: "Regime not all bad" (BP, PostBag, May 8)

Dear editor,

Clara Holzer’s reply to Voranai Vanajika’s welcome return to the Bangkok Post is instructive as much for what it does not say as for what it does. First, she does concede that the faults Voranai lists concerning the ruling politicians are real. But to suggest that he is blind to “scandals involving former governments” is wholly unsupported. Voranai was well aware of such wrongs as the awful rice pledging scheme, the vile brutality, much praised by so many from the low to the highest, of Thaksin’s war on drugs and of other Shinawatra wrongs.


However, since it is much worse than what it unjustly overthrew, an appropriate response to the current government unelected, unwanted and self-amnestied is in fact “visceral hatred.” We really should despise the worse more than the merely bad. None of the very real Pheu Thai scandals could justify a coup against the supreme rule of law of the Thai nation, its constitution. Worse, this latest coup took place immediately after it was clear that democracy was showing signs of taking root. The appallingly sleazy amnesty bill that Pheu Thai had sneaked through early one morning had been roundly condemned, and was on the way out. That sure sign of democratic progress for the better was promptly trodden underfoot to protect the traditional injustices of Thai society that sees some treated very differently by Thai law and its officers. That same undemocratic tradition is what has for decades enabled the persistent corruption and other abuses of power that are embodied in much Thai law and sacrosanct custom.

 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 May 10, 2018, under the title "Coup and cry" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1462029/were-not-deaf
  

Thai-style injustice

re: "Democracy, but not Thai style please" (Opinion, May 2)

Dear editor,

It is a Thai-style happiness that Soonruth Bunyamee should need to remind us in "Democracy, but not Thai style please" (Opinion, May 2) that democracy is founded on the moral imperative that all citizens have an equal right to a voice in the form of their society, its institutions and its government, an ethical ideal that is necessarily opposed to the principles and practices of every dictatorship, however Thai-style well-intentioned that regime proclaims itself.

Like any such self-respecting semantic unit that proudly puts itself first, the prefix Thai-style functions to modify in a consistent way the meaning of the following root idea. Thai-style traffic flow is a jam. Thai-style honesty is censorship of truth. Thai-style respect is forced grovelling. Thai-style Buddhism is unBuddhist. Thai-style punctuality is lateness. Thai-style justice is injustice. Thai-style good morals are bad morals. Even someone afflicted by a Thai-style education understands what Thai-style democracy is.

 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 May 3, 2018, under the title "Thai-style injustice" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1457113/thai-style-injustice