'Sacred' traditions

re: "Stadium debacle leaves bad taste" (BP, Editorial, March 29, 2020)

Dear editor,

The Bangkok Post is being impertinent to the Thai institution that is by its own admission sacred. The sacred does not apologize to the mundane. The sacred holds itself bound to no law save its own fancies. The sacred does not sacrifice; it demands sacrifice.

The Royal Thai Army is living up to its sacred traditions. The nation may burn, but the sacred will look after the sacred as it has ever done.

Perhaps Thailand would be the healthier for a good dose of the earthily profane.

 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 March 30, 2020, under the title "'Sacred' traditions" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1888955/immigration-woes
  

All eyes on leaders

re: "Govt faces its biggest test" (BP, Editorial, March 28, 2020)

Dear editor,

The Bangkok Post is being unfair to his government of the best he could lure in. Whatever minor failings he consistently displays, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha's face mask coordinates perfectly with each day's extravagant suit in strict accord with his beloved principles of sufficiency economics. It reassures that things have not changed much to see the nobility of the rich and powerful's sufficiency principles in full public display under the current emergency.

The Covid-19 emergency, although perhaps not the virus, will pass. A silver lining coalescing is that the Thai nation is noting how its nation's leaders are behaving as they now bunk down to protect their valuable selves in accord with the usual tradition.

 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 March 28, 2020, under the title "All eyes on leaders" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1888085/incomplete-strategy 
  

Facts trump ideology

re: "China replies" (BP, PostBag, March 25, 2020)

Dear editor,

Dear Yang Yang, Counsellor and Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand, what you say in response to the earlier letter from Michael George DeSombre, the US Ambassador to Thailand is largely true, but not entirely. What you fail to say reflects a deadly devotion to ideology above truth and honesty.

The US president is certainly pandering to his populist racism when he deceitfully uses the phrase "Chinese virus." The virus originated in China, but that objective statement of fact is very different to Trump's racist language, which can only be harmful.

However, China is not blameless. Communist officials loyal to the legally protected party dogma suppressed initial reports. Citing the prevention of "public panic," Communist Chinese authorities used unjust Chinese law to harass the good doctor who had initially reported the virus in December last year and who had tried to raise the alarm in a more timely manner that would have saved many lives in China and elsewhere. The  heroic Dr Li Wenliang subsequently died of the disease about which he had patriotically tried to alert the Chinese people despite the repressive efforts of the Chinese Communist Party.

Truth and honesty, necessarily supported by strong legal protection of free speech, however ugly, mocking or otherwise offensive that speech might be, are far healthier choices than fanatical devotion to ideological myth.

 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 March 27, 2020, under the title "Facts trump ideology" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1886690/facts-trump-ideology
  

After the Italian, the American virus

re: "3 Rules for the Trump Pandemic" (The New York Times, March 19, 2020)

If instead of honestly calling it a virus that originated in China, Trump persists in calling Covid-19 "the Chinese virus" on the basis that that is where it began, which is true, he should now have updated to be calling it "the Italian virus," since that is where it has now killed the most, and if, as looks possible under his leadership, it ends up wreaking the greatest havoc there, the great faker will have to start calling Covid-19 "the American virus."

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/opinion/trump-coronavirus.html#commentsContainer&permid=105928126:105928126

  

The miracle of miracles

re: "Trump Now Claims He Always Knew the Coronavirus Would Be a Pandemic" (The New York Times, March 17, 2020)

Trump 'on Feb. 27, at a White House meeting: “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.”'

It is indeed like  a miracle. The defining characteristic of miracles is that they are, without exception, fake claims.

Every single miracle, including the miracle of blind, mindless faith in the likes of Trump and other self-proclaimed divinities, is fake through and through. Of the thousands of gods, devils, pixies, and elves that infest the human world, there is but one common denominator: non-existence.

Blindly putting your faith in the fantastic (literally fantastic) claims of absolute fakery is, however psychologically understandable, rarely the healthiest response to anything. However unpleasant it might be, a solid dose of reality is far more likely to cure the ills that confronts us, whether medical, social, economic or otherwise.

Trump's inflated fakery has already done great harm.

The true miracle made manifest here is the perfection of blind faith that so many have continued to accord him.

If only we could be sure that he and h

is like would disappear. That might take a miracle.

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The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to the The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html#commentsContainer&permid=105881251:105881251

Coup leaders at fault

re: "Dangers of democracy" (BP, PostBag, March 14, 2020)

Dear editor,

No, Dusit Thammaraks, not a single Thai coup against the nation's rule of law with a constitutional monarchy for the past 70 years at least was "made necessary by the consistent failure of our version of democracy." Those coups were staged to prevent democracy developing to solve very real social and political problems. The fruits of the repeated coups is seen in Thailand's retarded education standards, which all too well reflect the political and social problems that remain entrenched, as intended by coup makers working to prop up a corrupt status quo that the Thai people's nation should have been allowed to move beyond decades ago.

The problems that Dusit Thammaraks identifies as continuing to plague Thailand in 2020, even after another six years of undemocratic rule, are very real, especially the presence of people in government who clearly lack both honesty and integrity, including but not limited to the famously credentialled Deputy Minister for International Flour Sales and Monkey Feeding. But this persistent failure that blatantly characterizes PM Prayut's government is not the cause of coups. On the contrary, such an epidemic of systematized corruption is a symptom of the unjust law made up by and at the behest of coup leaders who have for seven decades set not only the legal foundations enabling the corruption and other abuses of the people in unjust rule by law and subservient institutions, but who have also set the example of arrogant disdain for the moral principles that found democracy.

Had the Thai nation not been subjected to the repeated coups under fake excuses of abolishing corruption (a sick joke that only the most naive could credit) and similar fake claims, or protecting despotic myths that flatly contradict the good morals of democracy, Thailand would long ago have solved many of the political problems that instead remain endemic in 2020. Specifically, Thailand today would be a more just society, with a stronger rule of law both respectable and respected by all, and led by politicians whom the people had learned to critically judge and from whom they demanded a high standard of honesty and integrity. That Thailand that could have been would also have had a stronger economy, with far greater wealth to be shared by all Thais. Today's reality is the high cost that the Thai people have paid for the power lusts of coup makers and those colluding with them against the respect that democracy dictates be accorded all.

And Mr. Thammaraks, you do not have to be Western to deserve respect and an equal voice in determining the form of your nation's society, laws and government.

 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 March 15, 2020, under the title "Coup leaders at fault" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1879015/anutins-racist-silence
  

Temple divide

re: "11 named in temple frauds" (BP, March 5, 2020)

Dear editor,

One part of a solution to the abuse of religion's good name is obvious: the state should not be supporting a religion, any religion, especially not by giving tax money to religious people for claimed religious purposes.

A healthy separation of religion from the state would also be in the best interests of religion, especially of Thai Buddhism, save of course the secular interests of those  decidedly worldly types who abuse the religious convictions of sincere believers to further their own lusts for undeserved and unearned power, property and prestige.

Religion, whatever its merits or demerits, is and should be a strictly personal matter free both of state establishment or prohibition. History, certainly Thai history, shows that religion has too often served as a tool of a self-serving status quo.

Religions and religious sentiments deserve to be freed of the traditional abuse by the corrupt, by scoundrels seeking refuge from justice, by abusers preying on the trusting and innocent, and by politicians who, whilst falsely claiming to honour them, in practice and in law reject the wise teachings of the Buddha and other spiritual leaders.

 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 March 7, 2020, under the title "Temple divide" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1873504/in-the-face-of-danger
  

Moral right to protest

re: "Student rallies need careful handling" (BP, Opinion, March 2, 2020)

Dear editor,

Veera Prateepchaikul ("Student rallies need careful handling", BP, March 2, 2020) could more plainly have stated that the students have moral right and reason on their side. The government of the man who overthrew Thailand's supreme rule of law in 2014 to make himself prime minister, whose coup also trampled into the dirt, yet again, Thailand's form of democracy with a constitutional monarchy, now preaches that the law is sacred and warns about touching the high institution. The hypocrisy is obvious to the least intelligent or informed, let alone to the students at Thailand's top schools and universities.

The same prime minister has, as Veera admits, consistently refused to bow to reason, to good morals, or even to the current supreme law: he has still not complied with section 161 of the current constitution. If Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha declines  to respect their patriotic calls for justice, for respect, for democracy, what are the students who love their nation to do? If their calls for an overhaul of the unjust charter and the undemocratic senate are rejected as expected, should the students, concerned Thai citizens, passively let the bad continue to triumph over the good?

Being so concerned for their success, Veera could have offered some more constructive suggestions. The students could have been advised to start campaigns to raise money to fund further activities. Information campaigns to counter the official propaganda from the forces disgracing Thailand's parliament could have been suggested. Peaceful street theatre to raise awareness could have been constructively encouraged.

And if Veera is so worried about Covid-19 spreading among them, he could as well have told the students to stop crowding together in enclosed lecture theatres, seminar rooms and the like — they are at least as safe out in the open air.

Finally, perhaps the beneficial synergy that came from forming transparent alliances with other good organizations that love their nation, such as the Future Forward Movement, would also be way forward for the students to avoid the pitfalls that Veera highlighted on the road map to democracy. In fact, reaching out respectfully with a clear message to form alliances with the rest of the Thai nation sounds a most sound strategy.

 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 March 3, 2020, under the title "Moral right to protest" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1870249/moral-right-to-protest