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