Coups cost country

re: "Changing Thailand: a series (prologue)" (BP, Opinion, February 23, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Chartchai Parasuk rightly draws the stark comparison between Thailand's modern economic growth and that of Malaysia and South Korea. South Korea especially is the telling comparison. From the 1960s through 1980s, both nations were on similar economic trajectories, although South Korea had already began to move forward. 1980 is the salutary year.

South Korea was able to take off economically only after 1980, when that nation was finally able to rid itself of the curse of incompetent, self-serving military interference in civil matters. Thailand, in contrast, has been denied the right to exorcize its demons demanding bountiful sacrifices to a status quo rooted firmly in the 19th century, with the obvious stagnation, the outright retardation, seen today not only economically but politically, socially and morally. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that those who doll themselves up in the fake dress of saviours are a major one of, if not in fact the root cause of Thailand's persistent failure to flourish as the Thai people, all of them, even Dr. Chartchai's cited construction workers, deserve.

Anand Panyarachun, who gifted Thailand the best constitution it has ever had after having himself been made Prime Minister as a result of yet another military coup against the Thai people's popular form of democratic government enshrined in yet another constitution trodden into the dirt, perhaps best summed it up one year ago in the Bangkok Post's "Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy" (March 6, 2022). That article reports him bluntly acknowledging that "The succession of military coups, one after another, since the adoption of constitutional monarchy in 1932 has retarded Thailand's democratic development, leaving a legacy of failed administrations and corruption."

Such are the fruits of men like Prayut Chan-o-cha and those who are so misguided, or perhaps self-serving, or possibly both, who enable them to thrive at the expense of the Thai people's economic, social and political flourishing. It is a high price to pay for empty promises of reform, of fair economic growth, of unity, of equal justice for all, and of an end to corruption. 

Surely Thailand, the Thai people, deserve to move forward? 

 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 February 27, 2023, under the title "Coups cost country" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2515719/the-pm2-5-finger