Illusory soft power

re: "Building on Apec pluses" (BP, Editorial, November 24, 2022) 

Dear editor,

When they write glowingly of French President Emmanuel Macron eating Chinese food, of a Muay Thai skit, and a visit to Wat Pho as being "the talk of the town" the Bangkok Post's editor is perhaps expressing wishful thinking of the same variety that leads the national police chief to regularly insist that the latest heavily promoted crackdown will this time solve whatever problem is currently hot once and for all. And there are no gambling in dens in Bangkok.

The claim regarding those rigidly managed photo ops of visiting national leaders doing the approved Thai tourist cultural activities, including the obligatory temple visit, dictated in detail by the same centralized power structures that subject Thailand to militaristic rule that "they helped promote the country's soft power" is equally incredible. That is not what soft power is; it is certainly not any way to nurture any soft power that will win global renown. No, they were cute distractions where duly vetted "good" Thais put on exactly the same shows that have been repeated for decades to impress starry-eyed tourists before they go out to enjoy some real fun if not strictly sequestered in an APEC security bubble. Such is the opposite of soft power. It is stultifying hard power forcing a show of what authoritarian, centralized authority deems properly and politely "Thai." 

Actual soft power would be what Korea's K-pop and economic growth show. Actual soft power would be what is demonstrated in Taiwan's booming economy founded on the technological innovation that drives its computer chip and related industries. Such actual soft power success requires creativity to question old ways and reform them in new ways. Thailand has no soft power industry of global note; it  only sells off its natural beauty, its people kept strictly in line for their own alleged good, and its fancied up historical and cultural myths for profit. 

Actual soft power, not reruns of decades old thinking beloved of coup leaders and enablers, is not compatible with the mindsets that have repeatedly colluded to deny the Thai nation political, social, moral and economic progress for many decades. If Thailand is to emulate the real success of such nations as Taiwan and South Korea, it needs to do what those nations did in the 1980s and rid itself of the stultifying malaise of military interference in civil society. 

The editor's other alleged "pluses" are equally showy bits of theatre of extremely dubious value to Thai society, if not actually harmful. How, for example, does putting a few thousand more drug users or dealers in prison and giving them a criminal record help themselves, their families or society? It does not, as decades of evidence, such as persistently high drug use rates that result in serious harm to users and society shout out too clearly. If the self-alleged fathers of the nation were to address the defects in society that lead so very many Thais to find the yaba or alcohol or other drug filtered version of it preferable to the actual reality of their daily lives, fewer Thais might be so desperately keen to use drugs to escape. 

In fact, were those deeming themselves bounteous fathers who must be strictly obeyed to allow the Thai people to be creative, to think and express themselves freely, to reinterpret inherited social norms, food, traditions and history, and even to decide for themselves how best to live their own lives, Thailand might then enjoy its long-denied soft power success, and collaterally see a massive drop in demand for drugs to escape the not-so-fantastic reality that the likes of Prayut have sedulously forged over the decades through their more than sufficiently boasted selflessness, righteousness and good intentions. 

 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 November 27, 2022, under the title "Illusory soft power" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2447289/so-were-paying-for-thai-

Fifa vs One Love

re: "European teams say won't wear 'OneLove' World Cup armband" (BP, November 21, 2022) 

Dear editor,

It is extremely disappointing to read of FIFA's caving to the bad values of intolerance and hatred that Qatari officials insist on to protect their fragile sensibilities and presumably to shield their citizens from exposure to what is good, just, beautiful and right. No one disputes that Qatar has every right to make such laws as it sees fit and to enforce those laws. It is equally true that such unjust laws founded on corrupted moral values, fake claims about non-existent entities, and unreason deserve to be called out for what they are and to be protested against. 

FIFA players from democratic nations have every right to protest such unjust laws and ugly social norms that flatly contradict their beautiful sport's own embrace of inclusivity. FIFA has seriously let the side down and deserves due contempt for its craven stance of appeasement. 

Regarding the ugly, fake comments quoted from former Qatari international and World Cup ambassador Khalid Salman that being homosexual is "damage in the mind," it should be noted that the only damaged minds are those that in 2022 could still hold such a backward notion, one more fitting for a primitive, cloistered desert culture of patriarchy than any modern, global society.

But it is for the 5% of Qatari people who love members of the same sex for whom I feel most sad. They are forced by their own fellow citizens and the state that should care for them  into dark closets haunted by the risk of anyone knowing who they really are. Qatari law and social norms thereby breed dishonesty and distrust in society, along with the hatred and intolerance dictated by the religion that the state dictates all be subject to. 

 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 November 24, 2022, under the title "Fifa vs One Love" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2445160/apecs-echo

re: "This Holiday, I’m Going to a Gay Bar"

re: "How to Talk to Kids About Drugs in the Age of Fentanyl" (The New York Times, November 23, 2022)

That took me back near 50 years. I haven't been to a gay bar for a couple of decades now, but they were indeed a lifeline in 1970s Sydney. Whilst their continued existence in communities is reassuring, it's sad that gay bars are yet needed because segments of society yet hate and fear moral progress, terrified even of its whispers. 

Who is more directly harmful to society and children: a drag queen rocking a gay bar (or book reading, or prom, or anywhere else) or a priest, bishop, imam, reverend got up in sacred vestments too camp as he preaches supernaturally dubious claims and hellish intolerance because the authors of an ancient text wrote their inherited patriarchy, ignorance, and bigotry into it?  

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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/2022/11/22/opinion/club-q-colorado-springs-james-dobson.html#commentsContainer&permid=121643065:121643065

There is also an earlier comment:

For all the usual reasons, as Ms Hough sets them forth, Qatar is perhaps the timely example of a society in desperate need of some gay bars. 

t is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/opinion/club-q-colorado-springs-james-dobson.html#commentsContainer&permid=121642956:121642956

Half-truths

re: "Selective reporting" (BP, PostBag, November 21, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Highlighting the need for full reporting of arguably relevant facts on the use of rubber bullets by state forces during a recent APEC protest, Thanin Bumrungsap makes an excellent point regarding the truth behind the proverb "half the truth is often a whole lie," as he cites it.

But must it not then be wondered what that identical insight says about Thailand's state institutions protected by law that dictates only half the truth be spoken? 

 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 November 22, 2022, under the title "Half-truths" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2443159/half-truths

Cannabis sensibility

re: "Champions of pot plot pro-bill rally" (BP, November 19, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Other than objecting on principle to free citizens choosing how to live their own lives without directly harming others, or an even more principled objection to adults having fun at all, what is wrong with recreational use of cannabis that does not apply with at least equal force to recreational use of alcohol? 

Those in favour of freedom, of personal liberties, should support the legalization of cannabis for sale and use by consenting adults, with due safeguards against underage or other inappropriate use. Those safeguards need be no more than now obtain for both alcohol and cigarettes, both of whose recreational uses are more harmful to society and, especially for alcohol, pose a greater threat to the underaged than does fully legal recreational use of cannabis. 

Some of the hysteria around this very sensible policy change, albeit botched in execution, of the current Thai government is reminiscent of the addled thinking of drug damaged brains. Might some perhaps have been at the alcohol too much in their youth?  

 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 November 21, 2022, under the title "Cannabis sensibility" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2442345/cannabis-sensibility

An 'open society'?

re: "Protesters confront riot-control police" (BP, November 17, 2022) 

Dear editor,

There is, I fear, a problem with the wording lauding the APEC love fest. I don't mean that minor matter of the missing "e" from the large welcuming banner advertising that famous command of English inculcated by Thailand's too amazing Ministry of Education. The language problem causing concern is more substantial than the inept orthography that some fool arrogantly deeming his wisdom above being open to correction refused to have competently proofread before a proud public exposure. The more serious error is that the people who thought up the slogan "Open. Connect. Balance." appear to fail to understand at least one of those concepts. 

An open society and people who actually respected the ideal of openness would not be arresting and imprisoning those who peacefully express different ideas about inherited notions, social norms, or alleged articles of faith. To be open, to be an open society, which all the best are, means to be, well, open: open to new ideas; open to critical review of old ideas; open to new perspectives on traditional reverences; and open to competing ways to understand and live in the world. 

Only such an open society, one where inherited errors can be corrected by healthy, critical interrogation, makes possible progress to a better future. That better future has for many decades been denied the Thai people, who could and should have followed the path to flourishing of Taiwan and South Korea, but were instead condemned to the retarded political, social, moral and economic malaise that is Thailand today — a far cry from South Korea and Taiwan. Perhaps Thais should study not only K-pop, but even more the South Korean history that enabled that nation's great global success. Hint: the seeds were sown in 1980. Thailand, in contrast, continued to repeat the stultifying errors that Thai law strictly bans correcting. 

 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 November 19, 2022, under the title "An 'open society'?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2441319/an-open-society-

Dictatorial disputes

re: "Anti-hate hating" (BP, PostBag, November 10, 2022), re: "Reflecting on a century of Fascism" (BP, November 7, 2022)

Dear editor,

It is not clear exactly which of Jason Stanley's "own words" manifest, as Sam Wright alleges, "anti-democratic views [with] dark dictatorial promise." Mr. Wright usefully reports the professor's points that fascism is both rotten and that it does tend to be beloved of Christian conservatives peddling their perfectly unsubstantiated fantasies as all-justifying fact, fake claims if ever there were. He also helpfully summarizes Prof. Stanley's analysis of the threat that Trump poses to US democratic institutions and principles. But there is nothing in all this that is manifestly anti-democratic or fraught with dictatorial promise of the sort that continues, for example, to afflict Thailand, another nation where religion plays a conspicuous role as a pillar loyally propping up glorified tradition opposing democracy that respects human rights. 

Mr Wright has more solid grounds for his observation that Prof. Stanley fails to also rail against much else that is rotten, such as the "left-wing authoritarianism" cited as absent. It must be agreed that the ideology of left-wing authoritarianism, such as exemplified in Xi Jinping's China, if that is what is to be understood by "left-wing authoritarianism", is also rotten. But since Mr Wright does not trouble himself to indicate what he might in fact mean by the undefined term "left-wing authoritarianism", with neither explanation nor a single example being given, we can only speculate as to whether or not Xi and that ilk qualify.

There are, nonetheless, equally authoritarian tendencies than those inspired by fascist authoritarianism with its love of simple final solutions to complex social issues, typically of the "kill them" or "lock them up" type, as Prof. Stanley also discusses with regard to the modern United States with its extraordinarily high rate of imprisonment, most disproportionately of the less-white demographic.

Mr Wright might also have pointed out that Prof. Stanley could have broadened his comments beyond Christianity, since at the very least the world's other monotheistic religions, with or without the multiple personalities of the Christian god, are every bit as repressively immoral and morally stunting in their primitive authoritarianism as are the religions of the God of Abraham, with His famous Ten Commandments, the first of which explicitly dictates in Exodus 20:3 absolute intolerance of other ways of thinking, living or being. But wait, what was that we read in Prof. Stanley's essay about the political acts of Hindu nationalism in India?

Perhaps a closer reading by Mr Wright would have suggested that Prof. Stanley chose to focus on one acute threat to democracy in the West today, not to analyze every political ill, such as seen in the never-democratic likes of Iran, where religion also naturally allies itself to viciously anti-democratic violation of basic human rights, nor was he analyzing the decline and fall wrought by "left-wing authoritarianism" of Chinese democracy under Xi's rising Maoification. Perhaps that dissection of "left-wing authoritarianism" over the past century will come in a later piece, or perhaps Mr Wright could write that essay for us. 

 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 November 12, 2022, under the title "Dictatorial disputes" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2436077/grim-logic

What a cop out

re: "Drunk doctor avoids jail time for fatal road crash" (BP, November 8, 2022) 

Dear editor,

The facts as reported in the case of the doctor, who happens collaterally to hold the rank of captain in that gloriously uniformed institution the Royal Thai Police, getting off with zero prison time after killing two people and injuring another whilst driving under the influence of his preferred drug of addiction might appear to reasonable people to confirm what observant people have suspected for many decades: namely, that those deemed "good people" by bad people are not to be treated like common people. 

 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 November 11, 2022, under the title "What a cop out" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2435259/financial-injustice

re: "How to Talk to Kids About Drugs in the Age of Fentanyl"

re: "How to Talk to Kids About Drugs in the Age of Fentanyl" (The New York Times, November 9, 2022)

We want to protect children. We also want to protect adults. But adult persons have a right to decide for themselves how to balance advantages and disadvantages: some will opt to skip the high sugar desserts, others will value the present enjoyment and pig out. 

That we know something is unhealthy is a good reason to be concerned. It cannot be a sufficient reason to criminalize its use by or sale to adults. 

Legalize all the drugs so that quality can be regulated and sold by respectable businesses. At least then adults and reckless teenagers will have a fair chance of knowing exactly what they are ingesting and the real risks.  

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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/2022/11/08/opinion/fentanyl-teens.html#commentsContainer&permid=121387215:121387215

Setting an example

re: "Casual dress allowed at college exams" (BP, November 5, 2022) 

Dear editor,

In his loyalist railing against the notion that students be allowed to dress in comfort when taking exams, Atthaphon Sangkhawasee, the permanent secretary for education, really should have presented the compelling factual argument for his stance. It is presumably because they always wear such "uniforms ... closely tied to ... behaviour, discipline, responsibility, and morality," that the Royal Thai Police, Royal Thai Army, and similar institutions are famously respected for setting the example to the Thai nation of moral excellence, with never any hint of corruption, malfeasance, coup plotting, or engaging in any underhand, if not outright criminal, behaviour. 

Need more be said in defence of official opposition to progress in Thai education? 

 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 November 7, 2022, under the title "Setting an example" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2431489/inquiring-minds

Feigned blindness?

re: "No gambling dens in city: police chief" (BP, November 2, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Could anything be more reassuring? We hear direct from MPB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Thiti Saengsawang that "definitively there are no gambling clubs operating currently in Bangkok," echoing National police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, who "insisted there are no gambling dens in the capital." The courage it takes to expose such critical thinking skills in public can only impress.

Perhaps, however, a high school student whose critical thinking skills have not been stunted by bad education could explain to the national police chief the difference between there being no evidence of X and there being no X. The fact that, for example, zero evidence for corruption by Xi Jinping is to be found does not mean that Xi Jinping is not massively corrupt. If true as alleged by themselves that the Royal Thai Police are perfectly ignorant of any gambling dens in Bangkok, it does not follow that such dens are not in fact common in Bangkok, merely that for some reason the RTP does not know that. 

Lest anyone be troubled for any reason by my choice of Xi Jinping as the useful example, replace him with any preferred figure equally revered; exactly the same truth will hold: the perfect absence of evidence of corruption or other abuses cannot logically entail that there is no such ugliness hiding under the suave, ruthlessly managed public façade, no matter how immaculately dressed in rich robes, vestments, or other gaudy uniform.

 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 November 5, 2022, under the title "Feigned blindness?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2430474/world-cup-follies

Crimes of the state

re: "Go softly, softly: 4th Army head" (BP, November 2, 2022) 

Dear editor,

To hear his perfectly fantastic statements promising so much in Thailand's long troubled southern regions from the newly appointed commander of the 4th Army Region, Lt Gen Santi Sakuntanark is to be reminded of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha's equally fantastic promises after he had staged a well-plotted plan to initiate a not at all fantastic, being all too real, road map that began with making himself prime minister: healing social divides, ending corruption, reforming such revered institutions as the Royal Thai Police, bringing true democracy to Thailand after almost a century of it being denied, ensuring transparency and accountability in all things, respecting human rights, and of course restoring happiness to the Thai people. It's all too incredible.

I would suggest that as soon as soon as the 4th Army Region's new commander starts to bring justice and accountability for such horrors as the Tak Bai and Krue Se killings, his promises might move from being purely fantastic to being credible.

In the meantime, those "urged to surrender and prove their innocence in court" might well have some glimmer of miraculously trusting faith that they will indeed "be given the right to a fair trial." But until those responsible for Tak Bai and like horrors committed by the Thai state are held to just account by similar proceedings in open court, those invited to enter that process might also have justified worries about suffocation or other untoward incidents occurring as they are packed for delivery to that trial.  

 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 November 4, 2022, under the title "Crimes of the state" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2429535/fix-the-basics-first

Double gibberish

re: "Recreational use 'doubles' since delisting" (BP, October 31, 2022) 

Dear editor,

"Recreational use 'doubles' since delisting", the Bangkok Post's lead article for most of Monday, front and centre on the website's homepage, certainly catches the reader's attention. It is also a shameful piece of alleged journalism. Admittedly, the Post is not an academic journal. Nonetheless, if such a claim is to be made as that "the number of people aged under 20 who use cannabis recreationally has doubled since the plant was formally decriminalised this year," then at the very least, the before and after numbers must be cited. Did the number allegedly double from one to two? Or was it from 100 to 200? Perhaps 10,000 to 20,000? One million to two million? Without those numbers, the claim is worthless.

Equally important is to explain the research behind those statistics. As far as this piece of reporting goes, it might just be numbers made up by someone at the Centre of Addiction Studies making a more or less educated guess to push an agenda that the Bangkok Post apparently favours. Did the statistics come from polls? From records of hospital admissions acting as proxy for the number of users? Did they come from arrest records? Did they come from the same or different methodologies? Again, without this information being given, the Post's loudly touted headline "Recreational use 'doubles' since delisting" is at best garbage, and possibly deceitful. 

 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 November 2, 2022, under the title "Double gibberish" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2427890/partially-understood

Plea for vaping

re: "Vaping ban fails to do its job" (BP, Editorial, October 30, 2022) 

Dear editor,

It is depressing to again see the Bangkok Post insisting that "The government must put a stop to this dirty business," the dirty business in this case being the thriving market for e-cigarettes, which are, as the Post reminds us, illegal in Thailand, as so many things are to the great benefit of criminal gangs and their loyal aids in law enforcement.

The Post's sole claim to an objective reason for seeking to ban Thai adults deciding for themselves how best to live their own lives is the claim that "the World Health Organization (WHO) says otherwise" of the common belief that "e-cigarette lobbyists insist e-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco and also help tobacco smokers quit the habit." Unfortunately, the Post failed to cite a specific source to check for the dubious claim it attributes so blithely to the WHO. But at least part of the that claim is certainly false; it is definitely not only e-cigarette lobbyists who hold such beliefs: both the UK's NHS and the US's CDC admit that whilst certainly not harmless, e-cigarettes are "less harmful than cigarettes" (NHS, "Using e-cigarettes to stop smoking", 2022; CDC, "About Electronic Cigarettes (E-Cigarettes)", 2022). The Post is pushing what seems dangerously like false claims that will harm the health of Thais, including Thai youth. 

More disturbing is the awful logic, the illogic, that the Post uses to justify even greater state interference in the private lives of Thai citizens. The editor's citing of the 2017 Constitution, currently the latest permanent constitution of the Thai nation, seems disingenuous. If the constitutional requirement that "the government must ensure citizens of their basic rights to good health and provide an effective public healthcare system that includes disease prevention and control" mandates a ban on e-cigarettes, then that same provision also mandates that the government ban or severely restrict high sugar foods, at least their sale or giving, to innocent children and teenagers, whose health is certainly harmed by regular consumption thereof. That will clear out the food floor at Paragon. And perhaps throw a few reckless parents into prison for allowing their darlings to daily pig out on cakes, soft drinks and other sweets. The salient point is that if that were indeed what that section of Thailand's deeply flawed constitution required, it would be but one more example of a section in urgent need of amendment. 

Even if e-cigarettes were more harmful than regular cigarettes as the Post dubiously claims, that would not be a sufficient reason to justify the ban. By all means regulate their sale to and use by those under 18, but if adults want to use them, a society that respects their right to decide personal matters for themselves must allow that. Along with Move Forward's principled politician, in this instance, the government's Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn is correct: "legalising e-cigarettes would enable the country to tax their sales and would provide a safer option for those unable to quit smoking regular cigarettes."  E-cigarettes should be legal, which would also respect the human right to decide how to live your own life.

The Post should retract and revise its stance on e-cigarettes. 

 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 November 1, 2022, under the title "Plea for vaping" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2427005/too-many-curbs