Sad indictment

re: "11 charged over hoax news stories" (BP, February 25)

Dear editor,

The story of a dastardly plot to increase the military conscription period was so obviously fake news that the response puzzles. For fake news to harm, it must first be believed. Would the authorities have it believed that this fantasy really was in fact believable? To whom? Why? How?

It seems, prima facie, as credible as asserting that the governing politicians overthrew the supreme legal pillar of the nation to protect the rule of law, or that they became dictators to protect democracy. Is it really being suggested that Thai citizens are prone to these sorts of beliefs? That would indeed be a sad indictment of Thai education.

What will we next be expected to believe that the Thai nation uncritically believes absent evidence?

 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 February 27, 2019, under the title "Sad indictment" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1635786/show-of-politics
  

It's love, actually

re: "PM backs senators' picks" (BP, February 23)

Dear editor,

In addressing the understandable concerns of his political opponents, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-cha asks of the senators hand-picked by the NCPO: "Don't they love the country? Everyone loves the nation. The love of the country and democracy shouldn't be monopolised only by political parties and politicians." Although he answers his own rhetorical question, that answer should not be dismissed as disingenuous. Surely the PM and those who support him do in fact love their nation, as do all other Thais, however dissenting their opinions, and as do the many non-Thais who freely choose to make Thailand their home.

But there is more than one type of love. There is the healthy love of a husband or father who respects his beloved partner or mature child as an independent person with their own aspirations, strengths, and goals, including the ability to decide for themselves how best to live their own life. Healthily loving parents and spouses enable their beloved partners and adult children to be a free persons, supporting them in their endeavours, even when their chosen course might be contrary to the sincere wishes of the loving partner or parent. Then there is the sort of love, no less real, that is the pathological love that leads to stalking, to obsessive control of the beloved object, and even to kidnapping and coercion.

The proof of the love that the senators have for the Thai nation will be shown when they vote for the next prime minister of Thailand. Will they prove themselves healthy lovers supporting the liberty and self-determination of their beloved, or will they prove themselves inclined towards the pathology of the obsessive that keeps the beloved fed on mind-numbing drugs, locked in isolation, and restrained in a straightjacket lest their overtures not be obediently reciprocated as demanded? 

 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 February 25, 2019, under the title "It's love, actually" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1634550/its-love-actually
  

Do as Buddha did

re: "Cops crack down on criminal monks" (BP, February 18)

Dear editor,

It is a good thing to apprehend criminal monks. A wholesome lesson would be to send them to prison as monks, albeit wearing the standard prison robes. There is no need to disrobe them since it is perfectly clear from their existence that being a serious criminal is entirely compatible with being a monk, just as it is with being a Christian priest, bishop or cardinal.

A more substantive way to cleanse the nationalistic religion known as Thai Buddhism is for Thais to start practicing the actual teachings of Buddhism as taught by the Buddha, which practice needs no state run religion office to control citizens. Don't support monks or monasteries that take money, gilt or gifts from politicians or political players in exchange for loyally crafting religious teachings to suit the desires of the conspicuously generous givers, which is exactly what much of Thai Buddhism does instead of teaching and following the actual teachings of the Buddha.

The Buddha's teachings in the Kalama Sutta and the First Precept are but two examples that show the gulf between Buddhism and officially indulged Thai Buddhism. The Buddha's wise teaching promoting right understanding in the Kalama Sutta flatly contradicts the censorship and mindless conformity to authority that is so beloved of certain types of Thai political players over the centuries, certainly of the past five years. Similarly, the First Precept, despite legalistic twistings to the contrary, clearly asks followers of the Buddha's wisdom to abstain from paying servants to torture and kill animals for no better reason than to sate a lust for tasty animal flesh: if you pay for a tender pork steak or a delicious chicken dinner, you are paying others to kill and inflict suffering on  your behalf. Even Thai law has the good sense to realize that mafia bosses who order their paid thugs to carry out their dirty work are nonetheless guilty of the crimes committed on their orders.

 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 February 20, 2019, under the title "Do as Buddha did" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1631286/do-as-buddha-did
  

Thais deserve better

re: "A right royal confusion" (Opinion, February 10)

Dear editor,

What the extraordinary events of recent days highlight is the sore need for the Thai people to know what the Thai people think about these issues. At the moment, they do not. This disrespects not only the entire Thai people, but the institutions involved, which as part of Thai tradition deserve to be known and respected as they are in fact known and respected. As every educator, scientist and other thinker knows, as even politicians well know, there is only one way to ascertain with any credibility how a people feel about any topic: conduct a well-run poll that returns reliable, credible percentages.

To arrogantly tell a person or people what they believe or feel about anything, certainly something truly important to them, without doing them the courtesy of asking for their opinion not only entails a grievous risk that the reported opinion or attitude being attributed to them absent any solid evidence is as mistaken as it is lacking in merit, but it is also the height of disrespectful presumption. The Thai people and their institutions deserve better.

 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 February 11, 2019, under the title "Thais deserve better" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1627110/thais-deserve-better
  

Democracy a must

re: "Regime fails on corruption" (Editorial, February 4)

Dear editor,

Imagine that! Despite their most earnest promises, which were possibly even sincerely believed by one or two of the promisers, corruption has not improved under the unelected politicians, whose autocratic rule rejects the democratic norms of transparency, honesty and respect for persons that can alone combat corruption! Following May 22, 2014, no other outcome was ever credible.

Until Thailand is permitted to move forward democratically so as to evolve strong constitutional protection for basic ethical norms such as free speech where even ugly truths that deeply offend traditional historical platitudes can be bluntly stated, the resulting failure to admit or understand the reality of Thai history, society, politics and other national Thai affairs, especially by domestic Thai citizens, will continue to provide an environment that nurtures corruption. Since their first days in the offices they occupied, the ruling politicians have predictably failed to eradicate the factors conducive to corruption.

The self-made politicians began their rule with wide ranging invitations to "attitude adjustment" and heavy handed clampdowns on the peaceful expression of honestly held opinions, including: eating sandwiches in a political manner, reading great literature in public, hand gestures, and meeting in groups of more than a couple. They duly arrested some under their rule of protective law, while others, among them those best qualified to help Thais understand Thai history, society and politics, were forced into exile abroad. These violations of basic rights, the foundation of any just, democratic system that respects people as equally entitled to a voice in the form of their society and its form of government, have continued for almost five years under the self-amnestied politicians, whose rule of law has demonstrated a consistent distrust of the honest seeking of truths that threaten to lead to well-informed understanding of Thai affairs. Under such an environment, it is inevitable that the corruption that has long plagued the Thai people must continue to thrive.

When Thailand's own international human rights award recipient, the morally exemplary Jatupat Boonpatararaksa, is imprisoned strictly according to the rule of law for his patriotic efforts to bring the good morals of democracy that won him the Kwang Ju Prize for 2017, it is clear that the rule of law has itself been to diverted to serve something other than those democratic practices and principles that are alone known to effectively combat corruption.

 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 February 6, 2019, under the title "Democracy a must" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1624366/democracy-a-must
  

Defence, not corruption

re: "Future Forward Party wants to 'reform' military" (BP, February 1)

Dear editor,

Future Forward is to be commended for openly identifying a root cause, admittedly among others, of persistent social and political ills besetting Thailand. Consistent with the recent Transparency International report's explicit recognition of the correlation between it and autocracy, this must include the endemic corruption of decades.

What Thailand needs is a small, professional military of women and men duty bound to defend the nation. What it has never needed is an army of generals plotting their political careers at the expense 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 February 3, 2019, under the title "Defence, not corruption" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1622666/defence-not-corruption