re: "'Rap nong' still too brutal" (BP, Editorial, June 11, 2021)
Dear editor,
What sets of moral values and social norms are being followed by those who commit acts of hazing brutality and by those who suffer them?
On the one hand, you have the set of moral values that commit acts of violence to bully a nation into submission; on the other, you peacefully protest to have your voice heard. On the one hand, you use unjust law to silence dissentient opinion that you deem disrespectful to your awesomeness; on the other, you willingly suffer unjust imprisonment according to bullying law because your stance is the morally right one.
Which is more plausible: that the bullies brutally forcing a show of grovelling respect from those deemed lower in the social hierarchy are supporters of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's law and order authoritarianism propping up traditional social structures intent on furthering their own existence, or that the bullies support the student protestors being punished for daring to seek and speak truths about those Thai social structures?
Which is more likely: that the student protestors endorse the conservative Thai social norms of thuggish hazing by seniors of juniors, or that they condemn such abuse committed in the name of 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 June 13, 2021, under the title "A moral conundrum" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2131515/brutal-hazing-is-not-bonding
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