Shameful antics

re: "Pheu Thai denies 'secret' PPRP deal"  (BP, April 5)  and "Prawit advocates unity, non-violence" (BP, April 5)

Dear editor,

If Pheu Thai wishes to credibly quash the rumours that it might do, or worse, might already have done,  a deal to form a coalition government with Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) after the upcoming election, the party itself can, and must, issue a formal, unequivocal statement that it has not and will not enter into any such deal with any person or party connected with the 2014 coup, which overthrew the Thai people's very popular "democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State", as both the 2007 and the current 2017 Constitutions succinctly describe it in their sections 2. No person and no party tainted by association with that act committed against the Thai nation's supreme law and the institutions defined thereunder for no good reason, specious claims by the perpetrators not withstanding, can be deemed to have any sincere commitment to democratic principle and process.

It is not enough that Pheu Thai party members or officials speaking merely in personal capacity disavow any plan or intention to form such a shameful alliance with those whose acts plainly demonstrated their true feelings regarding democracy for the Thai people. Before the 2019 elections, then Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva made similar promises, only to be betrayed, to no one's surprise, by his own party, which Time Magazine had aptly characterized as "Thailand's hilariously misnamed Democrat Party" (Nov. 2013), when it's members were fomenting the deceitful excuse for the coup committed on May 22, 2014. To be fair, Abhisit had the good grace to promptly resign as leader of such a duplicitous party. 

In related news, it is also now being reported that PPRP leader General Prawit Wongsuwon is industriously seeking to present himself as a voice of reason, a shiny, new convert to peaceful dialogue and democratic principle. He may well be sincere. If so, he can easily enough prove that. 

If Gen. Prawit is truly committed to peaceful dialogue, if he is truly "willing to listen to different opinions" as quoted in "Prawit advocates unity, non-violence" (BP, April 5), he and PPRP will join Move Forward in proposing long overdue reforms to the lèse majesté laws, section 112 of the criminal code. That law has, to Thailand's enduring shame, been used with increasing excess over recent years to deliberately violate the right of Thai citizens to peacefully share their ideas about matters of the highest national importance. Adding his voice to Move Forward's proposed reforms will credibly reassure that Gen. Prawit has indeed changed his spots to those of an advocate for wholesome, open dialogue on all matters that matter to the Thai people. In the meantime, he can also show that his claim to be "willing to dialogue with all sides" is not hollow by speaking with those who have been arrested in accord with those laws, and speaking up for their right to peacefully speak their own minds. His words will then be every bit as credible as Pheu Thai's commitment to only form a coalition with those who truly support democratic principle and process. 

 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 April 7, 2023, under the title "Shameful antics" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2544829/shameful-antics