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Wednesday, 14 June 2023

Wrong examples

re: "On Chiang's orders" and "Just for defence" (BP, PostBag, June 10, 2023) 

Dear editor,

If I might defend by slightly revising Eric Bahrt's more important point in this instance against the useful historical corrective provided by Przemo Kranz, Taiwan, like South Korea, only truly flourished from the 1980s on, after it had managed to free itself of the curse of military interference in civil matters. In this regard, Burin Kantabutra's timely letter published on the same day, "Just for defence", is yet another reminder that Thailand's growth, culturally and economically as well as socially and politically, has been severely stunted for many decades because the Thai people have been persistently denied that same exorcism of unholy military interference in matters having nothing to do with the defence of the realm from external enemies.

In his letter, "On Chiang's orders", Mr Kranz makes the highly pertinent point that Taiwan has very dark deeds in its history. This makes Taiwan the same as every other nation. As a personal example, my own country, Australia, continues to grapple with the genocidal policies against our Aboriginal people, whose outright abuse by the British colonizers, later joined by other Europeans fleeing brutish lives for better, continued well into the 20th century, and arguably beyond. Nor did Australia escape the institutionalized depredations of socially respected clergy of the imported Catholic sect of the Christian religion preying on children. These are indeed evil. Such evil needs be recognized and called out as such, irrespective of the fake, undeserved good name of perpetrators from the political or other institutions that committed it.

This is where the difference between Taiwan and China is salient. The people of Taiwan can freely investigate, discover, speak out about and memorialize the victims of abuses formerly committed by their nation's institutions, such as those cited by Mr Kranz. The people of China are denied that basic human right. They are kept in ignorance of their own history by despotic rulers who know that the truth damns them, hence the desperate need to viciously suppress free speech. China ruthlessly censors the commemoration by Chinese citizens of the evil committed at Tian An Men in 1989. 

If it is to flourish as they have, Thailand should follow the progressive examples of Taiwan and South Korea, not the repressive lead of China or North Korea. 

 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 14, 2023, under the title "Wrong examples" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2590459/questions-remain

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