re: "Anti-graft mission failing" (BP, Editorial, January 28, 2020)
Dear editor,
By definition, coup makers, whose defining act overthrows a nation's supreme rule of law along with its form of government, in Thailand's case a democracy with a constitutional monarchy, hold the rule of law in contempt, contempt being what a coup necessarily exemplifies. When the self-made and self-amnestied Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha and his entire cabinet, including a convicted international heroin dealer, then refuse to comply with the explicitly written requirements of section 161 of the shiny constitution they had made up to serve themselves, it would be irrational to expect them to oppose corruption. Coups against democracy are made to enable corruption, not to end it. The transparency that comes with its other good morals are trampled under the boots by every coup against democracy.
The Bangkok Post rightly writes of Transparency International's latest report that "Thailand's slide down the Corruption Perception Index ranking from 99 to 101, while a disappointment, comes as no surprise." The editor's listed failures of the PM's two governments merely confirm what reason dictates: that censorship and the suppression of democratic principle go hand in hand with corruption and other abuses toxic to society. People who genuinely oppose corruption in its myriad forms create strong legal protection to enable the free speech that is foundational to democracy, even when it deeply offends, so that evils can be known that they may be exorcised.
The repeated coups and unjust legal machinations against good people and good morals to prevent democracy taking hold are the reason Thailand is so backward socially, politically, morally and economically. In every way, the good people of the Thai nation deserve much more than they have been allowed these past seventy years or so.
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 January 30, 2020, under the title "Free speech is vital" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1846754/better-safe-than-sorry
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