Aim to reduce harm

re: "A gruesome reminder" (BP, Travel, May 25, 2023) 

Dear editor,

The certainly gruesome, and hopefully disturbing, piece by the Bangkok Post's Pattarawadee Saengmenee revisiting the historical reality of Thailand's relatively recent prison systems, complete with officially prescribed torture, was an ever timely reminder of how much more barbaric and cruel our not so remote ancestors were; nor do I exclude my own and other nations' law enforcement systems, which were also officially far more brutal than today so recently as only one hundred or even less years ago. 

They might have been doing their best to make progress, but along with the abundance of documentary and other historical evidence, the material artefacts they have left behind attest, as clarified by Ms Saengmenee's article, to how far less morally developed those dear ancestors truly were in practice. We can and should do better than the last generation. We should do far better than those of 100 years ago, let alone of centuries past when cat baiting was as popular a sport throughout Europe as was the entertainment, complete with presiding Christian clergy, of the public torture of dubiously convicted heretics and lesser criminals. 

Contrary to authoritarians preaching law and order to excuse their lust for legalized brutality, harsh criminal punishments, including draconian prison sentences out of all proportion to any actual harm done anyone, are no sign of good morals. They testify only to a viciously cruel character. 

 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 May 27, 2023, under the title "Aim to reduce harm" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2579401/legacy-politics