Different systems

re: "Try Walk the talk" (BP, PostBag, December 18, 2022)  

Dear editor,

Samuel Wright, thank you for that warm response to my recent letter responding to your own. Let me begin by clarifying that I fully agree with you regarding the members of Thailand's patriotic and "inspiring younger generation who take to the streets to demand a return to democracy." It is unfortunate that their peacefully expressed calls for such democratic practices as openness, transparency and accountability are met with suppression in strict accord with Thai law that contradicts democratic principle.

I also concur with your belief in the excellence of the Swiss conscription system. Did Thailand also have such a military conscription system where all able-bodied citizens of a certain age did the same form of military service irrespective of family status or wealth, I would also think that perfectly acceptable to Thailand. However, that system of universal conscription, where citizens from varied backgrounds get to meet in close quarters for an extended period their fellow citizens from very different backgrounds to share experience that included learning of their compatriots very varied life experiences, is radically different to the status quo conscription system you appeared to support. Had you instead argued for a radically reformed conscription system based on the Swiss, Finnish, or similar systems, I could happily have joined you in supporting that. But the historical facts are perfectly clear: the current Thai conscription system has proved itself not a force for democratization but one for enabling coups against democracy.

I would also suggest that under such a radically reformed system of universal military conscription to an armed forces under proper parliamentary civil command as the Swiss, the conscripts have history classes which analyze how the long series of military coups committed by those who proved themselves disloyal to the nation's constitutions have seriously retarded Thailand's growth not only politically and socially, but also morally and economically, as noted by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun ("Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy", Bangkok Post, March 6, 2022), who was himself installed as prime minister as a result of a coup that had yet again overthrown the Thai people's democratic constitution. Also worth remembering is that it was Prime Minister Anand who gifted the Thai nation what was arguably its best permanent constitution to date. Naturally, two further coups were then committed by the conscript-fed military to dismantle that most popular people's constitution.  

 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 December 19, 2022, under the title "Different systems" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2463510/insult-to-democracy