Greta's v. Christian PM's fearmongering.

re: Seriously, Scott, are Greta's warnings any scarier than your church's? (SMH, September 29, 2019)

Well said Mr. FitzSimons. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, of course, every right to his ancient beliefs founded on nothing but unmitigated fantasy. If he wants to pray to the pixie king that lives on the green cheese that makes up the dark side of the moon, that would be as rational and as well-founded a belief, one that he would be equally welcome to hold. But he has no right not to be called out for holding such irrational, indeed anti-rational, beliefs. Nor does he have any right not to have the moral shortcomings of his chosen ideology bluntly stated.

The ugly fact is that his Christian beliefs from the despotic ancient Middle East reflect the primitive moral thinking of those times with their command theories of ethics: "Do what I command, or suffer." That is the ideology of absolute monarchs who brook no dissent, and that mindset of absolute, blind obedience to autocracy remains the moral compass of the Middle Eastern monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. That is why Abraham is admired because he was willing to murder his own son on his god's command. That is why popes torture and murder heretics, witches and blasphemers (but not loyal paedophile priests and bishops) on their god's command. That is why Islamic jihadis fly planes into buildings on their god's command, and the incredible promises of sex and joy eternal thereafter.

This is Scott Morrison's faith based on nothing but blind faith and a morally corrupt moral ideology that modern societies should have ditched centuries ago, that in fact the Western world was ditching well before the Christian invasion of Western civilization that set us back into a millennia-long dark age.

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Ugly reality of alcohol

re: "Lunlabelle's death spurs anti-booze drive" (BP, September 27, 2019)

Dear editor,

According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, over 2,000 people, mainly middle-aged men, die annually from alcohol overdoses in the US. Although it apparently surprised some in Thailand that people can and do overdose on the drug alcohol, with the subsequent death in many cases being an unhappy health outcome, it is perhaps a little better known that even moderate users of this drug suffer a wide range of  health harms from brain damage, to liver and other organ damage. But despite the very real harms that alcohol causes to drinkers, this is not what makes alcohol such a harmfully toxic drug.

What many in Thailand fail to understand is that alcohol is not only a drug of addiction, like heroin and tobacco, but that it is in fact the worst when it comes to harm caused to society. As reported by the former product presenter, "most customers in bars are under the influence of alcohol and forget themselves," and engage in aggressive, offensive behaviour that harms others. It is not only that alcohol kills on roads, tearing families apart as is a well-known drug reality in Thailand, where high road kills are a traditional accompaniment of major Thai celebrations.

Alcohol is also regularly implicated in rape and other sexual assault. Alcohol is a leading driver of domestic abuse. And it is a powerful cause of fights in bars, pubs and other venues where the drug is consumed.

In more refined hi-so gatherings, other drunks, or those merely under the cheerful influence of a couple of glasses of something nice, might find their equally intoxicated friends' loud, insistent ramblings entertaining and deeply profound. Those with clearer heads more clearly see the ugly reality that alcohol rapidly induces in users.

Of all the drugs to choose to use, alcohol is the worst for society and others. And it is only harm to society and others that can justify criminal sanctions against the sale and use of any drug.

 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 28, 2019, under the title "Ugly reality of alcohol" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1760289/army-chief-paranoid-
 

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Reference

• Alcohol Poisoning Deaths. (2015, January). Vital Signs, CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/alcohol-poisoning-deaths/index.html

Climate of ancient lies

re: How the culture warriors have lost the plot on Kyle and Greta (SMH, September 28, 2019)

There is nothing wrong with saying that the Blessed Virgin lied. It is sensible to believe she lied to get out of a sticky spot for unwed pregnant women in the despotic  Middle East 2000 years ago. There is no good reason to believe her incredible tale of divine impregnation, which was common across ancient Mediterrean, and only a credulous fool would believe it. Christians, Muslims and other fanatical zealots might get offended at that slur of truth on their pet ideology, but such silly beliefs deserve to be called out for the crap that they are. Mr. Sandilands, whom I'd never heard of before, should offer no apology to offended or outraged religious types who refuse to see reason, reality or right behind the blinkers of their despotic ideologies based on falsehoods.

Greta, in contrast, speaks with passion about a very credible threat to human life, one that the gods have done nothing to save us from.

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The above comment, slightly revised from that published, is Felix Qui's response to the article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
 

  

Corruption detection?

re: "Apirat says B12bn of US arms 'transparent'" (BP, September 26, 2019)

Dear editor,

It is thoughtful of Army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong to defend the 12 billion baht deal for obviously needed military hardware, but has it been properly probed by the army's infallible GT200s, those unparalleled detectors of corruption in high places?

 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 27, 2019, under the title "Corruption detection?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1759409/oblivious-army
  

TM30 for Thais too

re: "Time of Lunlabelle's death crucial to investigation" (BP, September 24, 2019)

Dear editor,

Might I suggest a solution to the grave problem interfering with the police investigation into the unhappy death by alcohol of product presenter Lunlabelle?

Since they are so extraordinarily useful in preventing and helping to solve such crimes where foreigners are concerned, it is obvious that the TM30 procedures must be extended to the native Thai citizens, who surely deserve the same level of protection afforded to alien visitors.

If Lunlabelle, to use the topical example, had been duly having her TM30s filled in by her various landlords, landladies, landlads, and other overnight renters as might apply, the jurisdictional problems could be resolved by granting the case to the police station in the area covered by the latest TM30. Could anything be simpler? Could the good citizens of Thailand deserve any less consideration?

The subsequent elimination of terrorism and other crimes by the natives would be a collateral benefit to be enjoyed by the grateful 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 September 26, 2019, under the title "TM30 for Thais too" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1758629/a-touch-of-irony

In the version published by the Post, the first sentence has been edited to read, "the unhappy death of alcohol product presenter Lunlabelle," but it would have been better to retain my original text. As the subsequent comments on this story show, some of the Bangkok Post's readers were unaware that people overdose on the drug alcohol.
  

Hiding the truth

re: "Stop blaming others" (PostBag, September 19)

Dear editor,

Well said Darius Hober in "Stop blaming others" (PostBag, September 19). The worst possible solution to the threats posed by false statements would be to entrust truth to the state, or to any other sole institution.

Free speech is the only sound antidote to fake claims in the news, whether put about intentionally or sincerely, whether put about by officials or concerned citizens, whether put about by good or bad people, and whether in accord with or deeply offensive to social norms. Naturally, this efficacy against fake news is precisely why dictators make a habit of suppressing free speech, as section 34 of Thailand's latest permanent constitution does to prevent important truths about their nation being discovered by the Thai people.

 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 20, 2019, under the title "Hiding the truth" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1754239/hiding-the-truth
  

Don't censor art

re: "The Buddha, Ultraman and a middle way" (BP, September 10)

Dear editor,

In her thoughtful opinion piece "The Buddha, Ultraman and a middle way" (BP, September 10), Atiya Achakulwisut makes a sensible case for a tolerant middle way, but we have good reason to think that the Buddha would have made an even stronger case for tolerance, one that actively encourages the reinvigoration of received wisdom from tradition, including the critical reappraisal of his own insights.

 The Buddha had the good sense to refuse any claim to be infallible. His life story is of searching for deeper understanding, with the few final meta-truths being such as how difficult and uncertain, how impermanent, is the path to knowledge, something that our best physics continues to admit today. The hardcore conservatives of Thai Buddhism, a religion allayed for centuries to power politics that hardly follows the compassionate teachings of the Buddha's insights, seriously misrepresent the Buddha's teachings when they claim themselves to be infallible interpreters of his wisdom, in which honest admission of uncertainty is an important element. The Buddha, in his Kalama Sutta, explicitly encourages critical questioning, including of his own teachings. It appears, therefore, profoundly unBuddhist for anyone to claim infallible insight into any of Gotama's ideas, when he himself rejected such limiting rigidity that rejects improved understanding by others.

 If the Buddha were alive and seeking to further deepen his understanding today, would he still give credence to such things as rebirth? Would he still accept the cultural baggage of the Hindu theism that prevailed when he formed his ideas? We can critically discuss based on the extant texts, but sensible disciples on the path to improved understanding will admit the limits of our own ability to know. And to claim an infallibility that intolerantly rejects other views is the height of hubris, which is not a Buddhist virtue.

The young student's paintings do not seem to me particularly great art, but they offer her creative reimagination for today of an aspect of her Thai cultural heritage, which she has every right to express. That the paintings clearly do offend some people cannot be a good reason to censor them merely for pushing viewers to reflect a little more deeply on values that they profess to cherish.

 Those who find such critical reflection offensive are free either to be offended, to ignore the cause, or to respond to it as intelligent, mature adults. Which response would the Buddha have chosen?

 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 12, 2019, under the title "Don't censor art" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1748164/dont-censor-art
  

Terrifying the selfish

re: "Govt critics face speech curbs" (Editorial, September 8)

Dear editor,

The rejection of respect for the basic human rights of Thai citizens, as written into the latest permanent constitution, is working as intended to thwart free speech. There are three reasons why free speech is truly foundational for every good society.

First, logical reason requires it, which is why dictators hate critical thinking, under which they must lose any reasoned debate that is rationally consistent. Second, informed opinion of worth requires it since what cannot be freely discussed can be neither understood nor known, a truth that is blatant in the traditional enforcement of Thai ignorance under law made up to prevent Thais understanding Thai affairs. Finally, every morally good form of government requires free speech, not only to discover and thus counter corruption and other evils otherwise nurtured in the dark places, but to respect the equal rights of all citizens, who are each entitled to an equal voice in forming both their government and the evolution of their society.

It is in good part because Future Forward has shown the moral and intellectual courage to respect the right to free speech, especially of those with whom they disagree, that they have rightly won both the hearts and the minds of the younger, the better educated and the more patriotic Thai citizens. Naturally, this terrifies those profiting selfishly from the bad old ways of the past, who resort to unreason, to forced ignorance and to repressive law to protect their richly rewarding bad from the good future to which patriotic Thai citizens would move their nation forward as it deserves.

 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, 2019, under the title "Terrifying the selfish" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1745774/terrifying-the-selfish 
  

Absurd farce goes on

re: "Rivals at odds over 'oath' debate" (BP, September 2)

Dear editor,

Although correct in his statement about the still ongoing oath debacle that "The issue could have been settled a long time before it became messy had the prime minister admitted his gaffe and offered an apology," Veera Prateepchaikul suggests too low an opinion of the rule of law. An honourable man who respected the rule of law would not only have promptly apologized, but would have corrected the mistake long ago by the obvious course of retaking the oath in the correct legal form. Instead, Prime Minister Prayut has plunged the nation into this absurd farce where the very legality of the government of the man who has already overthrown one permanent Thai constitution remains in doubt.

And of course the debate should be open to the Thai people. It might be in accord with Thai tradition to keep Thai citizens ignorant of important matters of national concern to Thai citizens, but however hoary, such traditions have no place in a good society, certainly not in a democracy. The vague term "national security" is meaningless unless the exact reasons are spelled out, something that the government has failed to do as conspicuously as the PM and his cabinet have failed to comply with the explicit legal requirements in Section 161 of the constitution. But why would anyone think, as the government of the legally uncertain PM apparently does, that the Thai people should be kept in ignorance of the Thai monarchy? How could informed opinion on this in any way threaten national security? How, indeed, is censoring such knowledge showing respect to either the institution or to the nation? The nation, after all, is the Thai people, to whom Section 3 of the latest permanent constitution explicitly says the sovereign power belongs.

 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 3, 2019, under the title "Absurd farce goes on" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1741559/absurd-farce-goes-on