re: "Thailand's political charade exposed" (BP, Opinion, January 27, 2023)
Dear editor,
It is encouraging to see the Bangkok Post publish Thitinan Pongsudhirak bluntly stating the open secrets of the collusion that culminated in Prime Minister army Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha's ascent to power by the latest overthrow of Thailand's popular form of democratic government back in May 2014. It is incredible that anyone even then could have swallowed the absurd fiction of Prayut, the leader of a traditionally authoritarian institution of dubious commitment to democratic principle, being "some high and mighty soldier taking power and sacrificing for the country." He sacrificed nothing but the Thai people's aspiration that their nation move forward not backwards. Perhaps the wave of "attitude adjustment" vacations following that meticulously hatched coup was enough to intimidate some into the required credulity.
Another aspect of Thai culture may usefully illuminate the plainly manifest consequences for the Thai nation of such acts as those of the Prayut contingent and their predecessors over the course of many decades.
For those who believe in it, karma justly doles out only what is deserved. This suggests a natural explanation for the nation's traditionally high levels of corruption and general malaise reflected in Thailand's conspicuously poor performance politically, socially and economically when compared to countries such as Taiwan and South Korea since the 1980s. Karma is impartially doing its job.
It further appears that no amount of gaudy merit making by ordered prayer and meditation, let alone soldiers commanded to voluntarily ordain en masse as monks, is sufficient to counter the demerit piled up by all those involved in actively enforcing unjust law that violates basic human rights and democratic principle. Karma is not so easily bribed.
Nor, it would appear, is karma fooled by the dictates of bad law, no matter how religiously the same is falsely proclaimed just and followed to the letter.
Like the Christian God who bluntly warns: "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:7), so too must karma hold even Thai political players and institutions to a higher standard than mere law made up to further a political agenda of dubious merit.
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 January 28, 2023, under the title "Telling it like it is" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2493329/telling-it-like-it-is
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