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Thursday, 1 June 2023

Heart of the problem

re: "Lawyer group calls to screen lese majeste complaints" (BP, May 27, 2023) 

Dear editor,

The suggestion by the Lawyer's Association of Thailand for a panel to screen them before any lèse-majesté charge is pursued by the police and courts is to be commended. It is a constructive effort to protect the highest institution from the harm being done to it by zealots who abuse the existing lèse-majesté (LM) laws, section 112 of Criminal Code, to suppress peaceful speech that is perfectly consistent with justice and democratic principle. Their proposal does not, however, go to the heart of the problem to which the current law and its abuse exposes Thailand's monarchy at the frantically active hands of the overly protective.

The best proposal on offer to genuinely  protect the institution from the persistent harm done its reputation by headlines reporting the arrest and incarceration without bail of yet more people, including 15 year olds for "crimes" committed when 14 years of age, are the sensible amendments to the LM laws proposed by Move Forward. Unless and until that is done, the good name and reputation of the institution will continue to be undermined by charges brought to suppress peaceful and just free speech. Since it alone is uniquely in the best position to decide when such a serious threat has been made, only the Palace itself should be able to decide when it has been sufficiently harmed or threatened with harm to press such charges, not wholly unsolicited others claiming in their ruthless zealotry to be acting for the sake of the institution. 

 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 June 1, 2023, under the title "Heart of the problem" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2582754/bizarre-claims

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