Oppressive communists

re: "Apirat speech sends chill" (BP, Editorial, October 12, 2019)

Dear editor,

His speech railing against the evils of communism by Army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong was a little confusing. It might have been the case in the 1960s and 70s that the Thai left had been deluded by the lies of the Chinese Communist Party, but those lies have long been exposed by the wholesome free speech that exists in democracies. It is known, although perhaps not by the benighted mainland Chinese swaddled in the gloom of communist censorship to protect their beloved ideology, that Mao's rule was marked by massive death and suffering, that tens of millions of Chinese starved to death because of inept agricultural and other policies driven by the leftist ideology of Mao and his brothers in arms. And then there were the communist witch hunts, the purges of heretics, blasphemers and suspected apostates against the monolithic rule of communism. More recently, it is known that the communists censor, with their far worse equivalents of Thailand's Computer Crimes Act, to keep the domestic Chinese audience in ignorance not only of the lives and acts of those who rule over them, but of such historical events as the Tien An Men Massacre of 1989.

Perhaps a refresher course in basic history might help. The facts are that the the patriotic citizens of Hong Kong are protesting against the despotic rule of the Chinese Communist Party. Let's state that more clearly: the Hong Kong protests are anti-communist; they are opposing leftist communism. Whatever Joshua Wong's politics might be, they are  not communist. It is the Chinese Communist Party ruling with leftist zealotry from Beijing that is communist. Nor is there any reason to think that Future Forward's Thanatorn is any way sympathetic to communist ideology. He is, on the contrary, very much a capitalist and is actively supporting the ideals of democracy, which directly contradict both the principles and the repressive methods of communism. It is hard to compass how anyone could seriously assert that Thanatorn or any other member of Future Forward is remotely aligned with the repressive, anti-democratic methods and aims of leftist communism.

Nor is it Thanatorn or Future Forward who are cosying up to the communists in Beijing by doing deals to buy their submarines and so on. It is not the good people of Future Forward who advocate communist-style suppression of free speech to keep the Thai citizens ignorant of important national affairs. It is not Thailand's pro-democracy advocates who want the Thai people trembling in fear before the state as mainland Chinese do before the oppressive communist state.

 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 October 13, 2019, under the title "Oppressive communists" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1770929/living-in-the-past