Down with death

re: "Dhamma helps inmates accept fate" (BP, May 29, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Rather than sending in a monk to teach death-row inmates to "accept their destiny" as imposed by the Thai state, perhaps Thai authorities should instead follow the Buddha's teaching and stop their habit of deliberately killing people. Killing by the state according to law made up to do so serves no good purpose. It does, however, teach the message that such extreme violence is an appropriate response to a perceived problem, a lesson that humans readily follow. Would it not be better for the law to set the the more challenging but socially healthy example taught by the Buddha? 

 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 May 30, 2022, under the title "Down with death" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2317906/army-fatigue

Another humble servant

re: "Thamanat says he's ready to lead" (BP, May 26, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Relentlessly furthering unabated the implacable rise of reverence for manifest benevolence and righteousness as he religiously does, could anyone more supremely exemplify the qualities revered by the Thai nation than does the amazingly true or truly amazing story of how the courageous Captain Thamanat Prompow, after a gloriously honourable military career, went on to conquer all obstacles civil, criminal, martial and otherwise as he rose to positions of revered esteem in the nation?

Always a modest man, not boastful of his extensive hands-on research in the field of criminology during a four-year sabbatical as an honoured guest of the Australian Government or of his successfully pursuing a doctorate in one of the United States' most renowned universities, on his glorious return to Thailand, his unquestionable talents in public administration and the promotion of agricultural products, ensured that he should come to the notice of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who seeing a kindred spirit equally opposed to corruption and devoted to selfless public service naturally appointed the most illustrious Capt. Thamanat to high office as a shining example to the Thai nation of a life well-lived in perfect accord not only with the moral values of benevolence and righteousness, but also with the principles of modesty, sufficiency and simplicity.

Could there be any better role model to the Thai nation, or any Thai better suited to selflessly serve the nation in humble leadership at the highest level? With such models of excellence to hand, why notice Thailand's globally honoured human rights patriots? 

 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 May 29, 2022, under the title "Another humble servant" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2317562/landed-interest

re: "The G.O.P. War on Civil Virtue"

re: "The G.O.P. War on Civil Virtue" (The New York Times, May 26, 2022)

Perhaps the problem is that the GOP and some others think that society ends at the family, or even the individual. It would logically follow that since there exists no society that enables individuals, and perhaps families, to flourish, there can be no duty to any such notion as society, civic or otherwise. Although perhaps a concession can be made for a military society that lauds the warrior ethic of a quick resort to violence to keep the natives and other pests in society (which doesn't exist anyway) in their place and at bay. 

Acknowledging that families, and even rugged libertarian individuals, actually need communities to exist as more than hunter gatherers would entail a concern for things like social justice, distributive justice of wealth, and other wicked notions antithetical to perfectly independent individuals, perhaps dragging along a family dependent or several, as they hunt and gather remorselessly to eke out their narrow life. 

Somehow, I'm not sure that even the most vocal libertarians really do follow that path of the noble hunter gatherer fending for himself and his, and the world be damned.  

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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/2022/05/26/opinion/republicans-guns-uvalde.html#commentsContainer&permid=118524941:118524941

re: "The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown"

re: "The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown" (The New York Times, May 27, 2022) 

As usual, good people should be forgiven for drawing the obvious lesson from history that it is secular morals founded on reason and justice that push religiously inspired moral belief and behaviour to in fact become what is more truly moral. 

Ancient texts might be a reliable guide to what our ancestors believed. They have never been a reliable to guide to reality or to good morals. How could they be? How could the piously inscribed prejudices of one group reflect more than the beliefs and habits of their authors and their society? It seems a tad arrogant to think that any one human being or group long ago got everything infallibly right for all time, either about the movements of the heavenly bodies or about how evolved creatures should best live here on Earth. 

Is this latest episode, the sad story of the Southern Baptist Convention, any different to what has played out for millennia, at least since Plato had Socrates lucidly set forth the fatal flaw in the notion that morality could be god given? Let us not forget that it was the charge of corrupting the young by teaching them to think critically about religious beliefs that led the court of law in democratic Athens to have Socrates put to death at the behest of politicians playing to true believers who valued sacred dogma over reason and justice. 

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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/2022/05/26/opinion/the-southern-baptist-sexual-abuse.html#commentsContainer&permid=118519071:118519071

re: "The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown"

re: "The Southern Baptist Moral Meltdown" (The New York Times, May 27, 2022) 

Is it quite true to speak of "all those true teachings and good beliefs"? 

Perhaps the problem with religious teaching about morality is that by rejecting reason and rejecting human fallibility in favour of claimed infallible perfection from time immemorial, religious ideals about morality set up exactly the deceit of putting empty, superficial appearance over questionable reality, which is exactly what Catholic priests and bishops and the leaders of every other Christian and like sect have traditionally done to keep up the divine image at any cost. 

The Bible's Exodus 20:3 sets the standard: whatever the gods command is deemed right, however morally rotten that might be, and the prime commandment allegedly handed down to Moses is explicitly written down as absolute intolerance allied with the ban on all other graven images save that of the law giver himself as he dictates absent discussion what must be believed with no possibility of improvement, of healthy questioning, or of progress. And that graven image must be obediently worshipped, with no regard to human decency. 

It is those intrinsically flawed moral foundations of such ideologies of faith that found the traditional abuses by religions founded on absurd, unquestioned claims of "all those true teachings and good beliefs." 

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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/2022/05/26/opinion/the-southern-baptist-sexual-abuse.html#commentsContainer&permid=118518397:118518397

Unspoken truth

re: "Judicial precedent 'needed' to prevent coups" (BP, May 22, 2022) 

Dear editor,

It was very nice of the Bangkok Post to interview the former leader of Thailand's "hilariously misnamed" Democrat Party on the eighth anniversary of the latest overthrow for no just reason whatsoever of the Thai people's long desire for democratic government and just law, but the most telling point that shines out in the interview is the one not spoken.

It's all very academically interesting to speculate about the potential role of the courts, but their job is merely to interpret the law and decide matters in accord with the law. They have no power to make law. That is something that those who plot and commit coups arrogate to themselves, along with the amnesties that they legally award themselves in strict accord with their law promulgated in constitutions that corrupt justice and undermine democracy. 

Could it, therefore, have been other than supremely pertinent to have asked Abhisit what type of people would sign off on coups committed against the Thai people's aspirations for democracy and justice? This most salient of questions was not put to Abhisit. 

Of course, had the courts a shred of benevolence for the Thai nation, had they any shred of righteousness, they would decline to sign off on legalizing a coup committed against the Thai people, but then, what person possessed of any genuine benevolence and righteousness would fail to do 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 May 25, 2022, under the title "Unspoken truth" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2315470/time-for-a-photo-op-

Tool of injustice

re: "Nate probe a let-down" (BP, Editorial, May 19, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Yes, the hardly unexpected treatment of Nate Naksuk, former director-general of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) by his colleagues in Thailand's official justice system, as they call it, is a let down. However, like the alleged sex abuse unspoken for decades of its poster boy Prinn Panichpadki by those pillars of pollical correctness Thailand's "hilariously misnamed" (Time, Nov. 2013) Democrat Party, the latest publicly revealed workings of the OAG are likely but the tip of another long-nurtured iceberg of injustice.

If true as the Post's editor alleges that "Society wishes to see justice served," then Thai law, from the constitution down, needs to be radically reformed so that it in fact supports justice rather than the injustice that law corrupted by intervention dressing itself up in ostentatiously uniformed sacredness too often serves. The recent comments by the respected former prime minister Anand Panyarachun are salutary here. When, to take the tip of another righteously nurtured iceberg that collides constantly with justice in Thailand, the law allows globally honoured human rights activists to be be imprisoned for no just reason but merely for the "crime" under Thai law of peacefully protesting in favour of openness, transparency and accountability, then the law proves itself a tool of injustice, and the officials charged with executing such law are made tools of injustice committed against the good people of the Thai nation.

The Red Bull comedy making a mockery of the what passes for official Thai justice for a decade now is hardly the only depressing act being perpetrated by Thai law loyally served by Thai officials. There abounds yet worse legal evil. 

 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 May 22, 2022, under the title "Tool of injustice" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2313838/tool-of-injustice

'Nurturing' the young

re: "Draconian School Rules" (BP, May 13, 2022) 

Dear editor,

In his comments on dictatorial Thai schools pushing some serious patriotism via the draconian methods approved by traditional Thainess, Pornchai Sereemongkolpol might bear in mind that nothing beats a solid marble pillar, perhaps with some pretty gilding, to serve as a millstone anchoring an otherwise active, enquiring, critical and creative young child's mind in the murky depths that are deemed its proper place by authoritarian disciplinarians claiming to be benevolent, righteous and even nurturing educators. 

 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 May 16, 2022, under the title "'Nurturing' the young" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2310526/no-cup-coverage-

re: "Overturning Roe Will Disrupt a Lot More Than Abortion. I Can Live With That."

re: "Overturning Roe Will Disrupt a Lot More Than Abortion. I Can Live With That." (The New York Times, May 10, 2022)

Mr Walther, perhaps sensibly, sidesteps why it would be wonderful to have many more unasked babies born from all those unwanted fetuses. But opponents of abortion do need to give a compelling reason for their position; no reason founded either directly or indirectly on sincere religious faith can justify the state interfering in the personal lives of citizens. 

I suspect the true reason he avoided the issue of what could justify such an intrusion by the state into the most private matters of citizens is that Mr Walther knows there is no morally sound reason, merely bad reasons founded on the dubious metaphysics of religious mythology and moral codes that all too blatantly reflect the Levitically hierarchical control structures of the societies that wrote them: of the men who wrote them. 

Mr Walther does at least acknowledge that those who would force babies to be born absent any consent on their part do have a moral obligation to guarantee them a decent life, which means their mothers must be given, unconditionally, an income at least equal to the average national wage. 

Is this in fact what those forcing babies to be born without their consent are proposing in the wake of the aftermath of the overthrowing of Roe v. Wade?

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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/2022/05/10/opinion/roe-overturn-consequences.html#commentsContainer&permid=118256079:118256079

Clashing views

re: "PM defies efforts to oust him from office" (BP, May 7, 2022) 

Dear editor,

When he proclaims that "We are transforming the country for the better and they (his loyal coalition members) are willing to work with me," it must be wondered from what dictionary Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha got his understanding of the verb "transform". 

The peacefully protesting youth, the Bad Students movement, and Move Forward have a clear vision of a transformed Thai nation. When looking at the prime minister's record and the Thailand he appears determined to keep exactly as it was last century by actively suppressing honest, peaceful calls for openness or accountability that might lead to actual transformation, it is hard to see anything transformative. 

Have I failed to see something? 

 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 May 10, 2022, under the title "Clashing views" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2307470/not-state-business

Be fair to all

re: "Police prepare charges in abbot's sex scandal case" (BP, May 6, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Whilst the cynical reaction would be to ask who would not have thought it of a Thai Buddhist monk, an abbot no less, to be indulging in perfectly natural human desires for money and consenting sex, the headline making case of the former Phra Kato and his devotees raises, yet again, the modern issue of audio and video recordings of naughtiness often far more grave than a bit of sex in the temple.

Audio and video recordings are plainly powerful pillars for justice. Perhaps there should, therefore, be a campaign to get a lot more such revealing videos out into the public domain, rather than seeking to suppress them as usual. Should the Joe Ferrari video have been suppressed because it upset Joe and his fans? Should this monk's audio have been suppressed because it upset him and his loyalist devotees? 

 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 May 9, 2022, under the title "Be fair to all" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2306758/elephant-in-the-room

Love the police?

re: "Police fail Tangmo test" (BP, Editorial, April 29, 2022) 

Dear editor,

If the efforts of the honourable officers of the Royal Thai Police, whose sacred commitment to selfless service nurtured the impressively successful Joe Ferrari, that paragon of selfless service to the nation reliably doing whatever it took to eradicate the baddies, is suffering the casting of wicked aspersions and downright insinuation of truths, mere business as usual may not be enough. 

Happily, the bloomed branches of eternal Thainess offer a more efficacious solution. Impossible though it be to credit anyone seriously entertaining such a notion, should there indeed be as alleged some faintest sliver of "distrust in the police" the solution is simple: criminalize any expression of less than perfect faith in the Royal Thai Police. That will immediately make them a perfectly revered Thai institution universally trusted, respected and loved by all for generations past. Job done. Joe Ferrari and his mentors would be proud, and that most impertinently inconvenient video would never have dared come to light.

 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 May 3, 2022, under the title "Love the police?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2303878/love-the-police-