Human fictions

re: "China's Xi warns of 'grim' Taiwan situation in letter to opposition" (BP, September 26, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

More humans need realize that countries and nations, along with cultures, customs, and traditions, are all at heart only human fictions, as historian Yuval Harari correctly explains them in his justly famous book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" (2015). Mindless faith in blind nationalism or spurious ethnic myths notwithstanding, what might once upon a time have been some region's past political or cultural history is and should be irrelevant to its right to self-determination today.

If the people on the piece of land called Taiwan, or Tibet, or Texas, or Catalonia, or Australia, or whatever do not want to be Chinese, or American, or Spanish, or British, or whatever, that is for them to decide today constrained only by just contractual agreements entered into. Should they wish the people currently occupying some piece of real estate to remain within the same fiction that is a nation, it is for China, or the United States, or Britain to persuade those citizens to freely remain in that organizational structure. Force or threats of force already betray any pretence to respecting the rights of the people on the piece of dirt in question.

 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, 2021, under the title "Human fictions" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2188751/investigate-thai
  

Curse of religion

re: "Care needed in Sajat case" (BP, Editorial, September 24, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

In the sad case of the wholesome Nur Sajat, we yet again see zealous ideologues preaching love and peace and morality hounding those cursed to live under their despotism, intolerance, and rejection of moral decency. Religion, one of the most common causes of hell on Earth these last few millennia, is merely one subset of ideology. Like its more honestly political sister ideologies such as communism, fascism and rabid nationalism, religion, as this case plainly demonstrates, demands mindless subservience to and blind faith in its extravagant claims of omnipotence allied to moral perfection. There exists no evidence or reason for those fantastic claims, hence the ruthless suppression of liberty and freedom of peaceful expression that hints at dissent from the dictated orthodoxy.

Islam is, it must nonetheless be admitted, every bit as enlightened and morally decent and founded on truth as are its sister religions that also hold the Bible to be a sacred text direct from the gods. And each member of that subset of sister religions is in turn every bit as reliable as a guide to reality and good morals as every other religion on Earth ever has been, from village shamans, to the Egyptian pantheon, to the Olympian gods, to the high religious traditions of the devout Aztecs, and to sacred Phoenician Ba'al and to every other religion still living or long dead. But that ideology-based insistence on being believed contrary to reason and evidence alike is also a textbook definition of a fake claim.

Whilst respecting the right to religious freedom in private. Whenever religions seek power in the real world, especially political and legal power over the bodies of real, living people, perhaps it is right to be reasonable and to hold the factual and moral claims of such publicly intrusive religions to exactly the same standards applied to claims about Covid, police use of torture, and the sums of the squares of the sides of right-angled triangles. Is there any sound reason not to be so reasonable?

 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 25, 2021, under the title "Curse of religion" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2187435/vaccinations-for-all
  

It's just an opinion

re: "We must end torture in all its forms" (BP, September 21, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

In his opinion piece rightly emphasizing the need for reform of traditional systems and mindsets in the Royal Thai Police and like institutions, Kavi Chongkittavorn missed an opportunity to make a constructive suggestion to improve Thailand's ugly culture of impunity for those who commit violence against Thai citizens.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha could, as a good person would, promptly end the culture of violence that imprisons people merely for the articulate, peaceful expression of views that some find offensive. The prime minister could and should also move to have those undemocratic laws amended in line not only with democratic principle but with good morals. There is no justification whatsoever for the legalized injustice according to which people are thrown into prison merely for statements or expressions of opinion that are deemed to mock or criticize or otherwise offend some public figure or allegedly sacred institution. Imprisoning people for decades for the peaceful expression of opinion is morally indefensible violence against those persons. It also flatly contradicts basic democratic principle. It is morally wrong.

 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 23, 2021, under the title "It's just an opinion" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2186343/phuket-plan-disaster
  

Let protesters speak

re: "Protests follow a predictable path" (BP, September 20, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

In his latest opinion piece, Veera Prateepchaikul makes several odd statements. First he demeans the Thalugas protestors by saying that "since they are not good speakers, their only way they could express themselves was to fight with the police and resort to violence." But have Veera and the Bangkok Post ever thought to invite them or other protestors to articulate their case? Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha continues to use the violence of unjust law to imprison many merely for peacefully and very articulately expressing opinions that he does not want well spoken. And that, whatever else it might be, is neither democratic nor right.

Veera then goes on to proclaim that "hopefully the mutual distrust or hatred should not make them blind as to what is right or wrong," apparently oblivious to the fact that a coup committed against the popular, democratic government of the people is certainly and indefensibly wrong. There has never been any excuse that could make such a slap in the face of the electorate, the Thai nation, anything but wrong.

 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 22, 2021, under the title "Let protesters speak" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2185787/precious-forests
  

Strange coup fruits

re: "2006 coup a success, claims mastermind Sonthi" (BP, September 19, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

General Sonthi's comments on the anniversary of his coup against the Thai nation's very popular elected government of the Thai people are most illuminating. To think that "The Sept 19, 2006 coup against the Thaksin Shinawatra government was a success" suggest some serious failures of critical reasoning. It merely retarded Thailand's political, social, moral and economic growth. And worsened social divides. And entrenched the traditionally corrupt status quo. Such strange fruits of success.

Lest there be any doubt, the general then proceeds to confirm that the critical failure embraces the moral with the absurd claim that his coup was successful because of "gestures of support for his military intervention reflected by the bouquets of flowers presented to the coup-makers and troops." That a tiny minority of undemocratic zealots enslaved by blind faith in an ideology of demeaning subservience gave flowers shows only that the general's moral and critical failures were shared by that minority who applauded the overthrow of the rule of law, who applauded the overthrow of democratic principle and process, and who applauded the overthrow of the popular, elected government of the Thai people. Applauding such acts is itself a shameful act, not made less so by being decked out in flowers.

The getting or giving of flowers, however sincerely bestowed, is an absurd criteria for judging moral worth or success. North Korea's little despot also receives regular floral tributes from the faithful who believe him sacred. In China, Xi's official meetings are regularly decked out with flowers. Every tin-pot despot has themselves wreathed in flowers and got up in spiffy uniforms gaudily medalled and beribboned. Does Sonthi really think that a few flowers given by the faithfully benighted are evidence of moral worth? If the drug war lovers now give Joe Ferrari some handsome bouquets, will that prove him to be a successful, morally exemplary officer of the sacred Royal Thai Police because he tortured to death an alleged drug dealer? Bizarre.

 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 21, 2021, under the title "Strange coup fruits" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2185187/foreigners-beware
  

re: "Is Self-Awareness a Mirage?"

re: "Is Self-Awareness a Mirage?"  (The New York Times, September 16, 2021)

 
and our most enduring story: that we are self-determining agents with free will
 

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

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/opinion/psychology-consciousness-behavior.html#commentsContainer&permid=114568372:114568372

  

Culture of violence

re: "Anti-torture bill overdue" (BP, Editorial, September 14, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

It's very nice that "This draft bill was written primarily to prevent rouge officials from torturing suspects or abducting people with critical views."

But consider: had it already been in force a month ago, or a year ago, or ten years ago, would anything have happened differently? Would less Thais who spoke out against abuses have been disappeared? Would activists in Cambodia and elsewhere not have been disappeared? Would officers of high repute of the Royal Thai Police not have tortured someone to death?

The Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act is a healthy start, but it can't solve the problems of an endemic culture of violence that is further entrenched every time some saviour, the fake banner they dress themselves in, uses violence or threats of violence to overthrow a popular, democratic government of the Thai people. Nor should it be forgot that throwing people into prison for the peaceful expression of an opinion is an act of violence, however blessed by unjust law. There seems, therefore, not much chance of any long overdue reform of corrupt Thai institutions while bad law is used to violently suppress free speech, which is a non-negotiable, foundational principle of democracy, one without which democracy is gutted like a tortured victim who dared to speak up as good people do.

 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 16, 2021, under the title "Culture of violence" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2182643/torture-uncommon-
  

When satire terrifies some

re: "Drama over monks' giggly live-stream chat show settled" (BP, September 9, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Naturally, the totally serious, benevolent and righteous forces that prop up the traditional institutions of Thainess running sacred are terrified of satire. Laughing, even giggling, at the inherited pretensions of ever so serious, ever so benevolent, and ever so righteous preachers of simplicity, frugality and sufficiency, preached from multiple luxury residences where none may know what goes on even after sunrise, threatens to undermine mindlessly blind faith in the antique status quo beloved of those whose acts in defence of their beloved relics will spare no democratic principle, norm, or practice.

It is most fortunate for them that the religion known as Thai Buddhism continues, as in the old days, to be run by and for powerful political figures so that unruly monks who might be too much inclined towards engaging people with right understanding and other principles dear to the Buddha can be properly brought to heel.

It is less fortunate for others that such desires to suppress freedoms are as undemocratic as they are arguably unBuddhist.

 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, 2021, under the title "When satire terrifies some" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2180355/time-for-pm-to-come-clean
  

Institutional cancer

re: "Police power must belong to the people" (BP, September 4, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Wasant Techawongtham is spot on that the latest scandal confirming the long-standing reputation of such institutions as the Royal Thai Police (RTP) is but one case of an "infected sore that happened to burst in public." But are the RTP the root cause of the pandemic corruption that has for many decades characterized that group and others supposed to serve the Thai people? They are not. The malignancy afflicting the RTP is merely one case of a wider cancer in Thai institutions. The RTP do but faithfully follow precedent.

Other Thai institutions set the example that the voice of the people doesn't matter. The morally indefensible example of holding the wishes of the Thai people in contempt has been set for decades every time the people's popular government is overthrown. Every such abuse proclaims not that the law and the state are to be directed by the people, but that the people must slavishly obey authority, however unjust, and bow down before the brutish power of the state and its officers, abusive though they be. Only fools could have expected anything such as the RTP, to become decent under Prayut Chan-o-cha. That is not the reason the popular democratic form of government that the people aspire to have respected is regularly overthrown by Thai institutions deeming themselves above the wishes of the Thai people.

Any spirit of progress or reform, of moving the Thai nation forward to a better future for all Thai people requires transparency and accountability, which in turn require that the voice of all people on all matters be respected by strong legal protection. Sadly, the government of Prayut Chan-o-cha has, like too many such governments before, consistently done the opposite. From sending people for "attitude adjustment", to banning healthy debate about his new constitution, to blocking websites for no good reason, to imprisoning peaceful protestors merely for saying something alleged to have offended someone. Such acts enforce unjust law to subjugate the Thai people, ruling arrogantly over them with impunity to abuse, the outcome seen all too clearly in that infamous video showing the vile abuse committed on their official premises by members then in good standing of the Royal Thai Police.

 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 6, 2021, under the title "Institutional cancer" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2176935/institutional-cancer
  

Prayers won't help

re: "Govt denies jab purchase graft" (BP, September 1, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Thailand's self-made Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha often asserts what passes all understanding. His apparently serious recommendation that Thais read George Orwell's Animal Farm comes to mind as being more inexplicable than most. But his self defense during the censure debate going on in parliament that "I pray every day, so I would never resort to doing anything immoral" hits a new record for critical thinking.

Many people pray every day. Catholic priests pray every day, too often before, or during, a spot of child sexual abuse. So too do the Taliban. So too did the Holy Roman inquisitors. So too did Osama bin Laden pray every day. Does Thailand's prime minister never listen to how irrational he often is? Or does he truly want us to follow his logic and accept, at his own insistence, that the likes of bin Laden, Christian torturers, the Taliban, and holy men into child sex abuse are the accurate measure of his own moral excellence merely because they all pray every day, so therefore are equally certain to "never resort to doing anything immoral"?

 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, 2021, under the title "Prayers won't help" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2175727/prayers-wont-help
  

re: "You Are Not Who You Think You Are"

re: "You Are Not Who You Think You Are"  (The New York Times, September 2, 2021)

 
And underlying it all, what we now call emotions, thinking, perceiving, deciding and other mental events, are the nerve cells that make up our brains interacting with fingers, stomachs and diseases we might have, underlying all of which is chemistry following the ineluctable laws of physics. And out of that comes the wonder that is us, whatever we are as ever imperfectly known, not least to ourselves, human persons.
 

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

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/brain-reality-imagination.html#commentsContainer&permid=114368572:114368572

  

re: "Republicans Are Giving Abortion Opponents Power Over the Rest of Us"

re: "Republicans Are Giving Abortion Opponents Power Over the Rest of Us"  (The New York Times, September 1, 2021)

 
There is no reason to doubt that the faith-based who vehemently oppose the right of their fellow citizens to freely choose to abort an embryo that is as certainly a human being as it is certainly not a human person are sincere in their faith.

But faith has ever been a powerful generator of false claims about the world be live in, in which our planet is not in fact the centre of the universe revolving around it. No more is it the case that we humans are not merely one more twig on the evolutionary tree, related to every other living thing on the planet, from cats to carrots and bacteria.

As usual, the faith-based and their religions hawking baseless claims create hell on Earth, in this case the state of Texas, as they lead the charge against reason and reality in a principled rejection of decent, human morals.
 

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

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/opinion/texas-abortion.html#commentsContainer&permid=114350419:114350419

  

Just plain dumb

re: "Autopsy shows drug suspect died of suffocation" (BP, August 30, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

When we read that "According to Pol Col Thitisant, multiple plastic bags were put on Jeerapong’s head because he did not want him to see his face," a couple of questions arise.

First, every school child knows that putting plastic bags over your head and sealing them around the neck leads to death. How comes it that senior officers of the Royal Thai Police, a station commander no less, are so grossly ignorant of basic biology as to not know this? To achieve the goal of knowing less than primary school children, do officers rising in the ranks undergo special training to deepen their ignorance?

Related to having, or not having, useful knowledge is the matter of critical thinking, or plain common sense. Anyone who has played childhood games or watched a kidnap movie knows that in order to prevent the victim seeing the faces of the torturer or kidnapper, it is sufficient to use a blind fold. Those fatal plastic bags could easily have served as a makeshift blindfold. Apparently we are to believe that the level of intelligence, the basic thinking competence, of ranking officers of the Royal Thai Police is in the range that might generously be described as seriously retarded.

Do the alleged torturers and murderers really want to base their defence on a presumption of ignorance and retarded mental ability that so strains credibility? Is the RTP really in the habit of hiring and promoting officers who are capable of the intellectual depths now being claimed by these killers?

 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 2, 2021, under the title "Just plain dumb" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2175099/just-plain-dumb