Rules for some

re: "Caution advised before extending bar hours to 4am" (BP, October 23, 2023) 

Dear editor,

The officiously concerned party list MP Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, of that famously moral United Thai Nation Party (UTN), is surely correct that "Strict punitive action was needed against those who break the law." 

Following the UTN lead, could any such strictness be more appropriate than the identical punishment meted out to those who plot, commit, collude in or profit from coups against  Thailand's "democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State", as section 2 of the current and many previous constitutions defines it? 

But are there enough cabinet seats to dole out as strict punitive action against those whose deliberate acts so threaten the nation by allowing adults to enjoy their life as they freely choose until 4:00 AM? Could any good person stand for it? 

 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 October 30, 2023, under the title "Rules for some" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2673333/sway-of-video-games

No evidence to hand

re: "Police chief demands Thaksin health report from hospital" (BP, October 18, 2023) 

Dear editor,

If Thaksin Shinawatra were indeed as seriously ill as is being alleged, he would present the evidence. He can waive confidentiality to whatever extent is required to substantiate the claims of his conveniently serious illness. He can order his physicians and others to release MRI scans, other tests, and their expert opinions. Or he can directly release them himself. Doing so would end the ongoing suspicions. He has not done so. 

Until he does this, the claim that he is as seriously ill as insisted on is as credible as a Pheu Thai election promise to under no circumstances invite any party complicit in a coup to form a government. 

 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 October 22, 2023, under the title "No evidence to hand" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2669024/but-those-socks-

Unfolding failure

re: "Old and poor: Thailand sleepwalking towards ageing crisis" (BP, October 16, 2023) and "Tolerating populism for democracy" (October 13), and "PM needs to be open to public criticism" (October 16)

Dear editor,

Who could not feel deep sadness at the plight of ageing Thais such as 73-year-old Chusri Kaewkhio and her ailing 76-year-old husband. Theirs is but one of many sad stories that highlight the unfolding failure recounted in the Bangkok Post's "Old and poor: Thailand sleepwalking towards ageing crisis"? (October 16). Such demographic and economic disasters do not occur overnight nor absent causes. This Thailand was decades in the making. Prayut Chan-o-cha's ongoing decade being only the last period to sow the seeds of insufficiency that millions of Thais must today reap.  

Thailand could decades ago have joined South Korea in taking the path to democracy under just law. That would have brought economic flourishing and the wealth to provide far more decently for the ageing Thai nation of today. Such national success was not to be: myths and luxury lifestyles were at stake. They would not be sacrificed merely to enable political, social and educational development that could in turn have driven healthy, sustained, sufficient and just economic growth. 

Two recent opinion pieces by regular Bangkok Post columnists highlight contrasting mindsets that help explain why Thailand has fallen, or has been pushed, into the developing nightmare of ageing before it got rich.

In "PM needs to be open to public criticism" (October 16), Veera Prateepchaikul presents the venerated view that has endorsed coups such as that of Prayut Chan-o-cha, who, along with his predecessors, preach the deceit that "good" people such as themselves must hold the representatives of the people to account, if necessary, overthrowing the people's popular democratic government to protect the nation from wicked representatives of the people, hence Veera's citing of the magically ripe number 99. Veera expounds a classic tale of the righteous 99 economists who know better, to whom the actual prime minister must listen because they are selfless, impartial experts who have the nation's best interests are heart. Veera sincerely believes that. The auspiciously numbered 99 themselves doubtless believe it.

The plain evidence of what decades of such thinking and its fruits has made Thailand in 2023, having had stolen by the self-electing who then squandered so many opportunities whilst making pretty speeches about unity, compassion, righteousness, modesty, sufficiency and the like, shows the truth of their presumption to virtue and to competence. Theirs is the mindset that justifies coups, whether military or legalist, by an elect piously deeming itself "good" and "righteous" and even "selfless": the virtues Veera attributes to the 99 economists wrapped in the aura of numerological blessing. The fruits of all that magically inspired interference repeatedly disrupting democracy is manifest every day in Thailand as it has traditionally been for many decades: endemic corruption, systemic double standards in the legal system, and gross inequality in the distribution of the nation's wealth, leaving too many of the desperately poor uncertain of even where their next scraps of food are coming from.  

In contrast, there is the alternative presented in Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak's  "Tolerating populism for democracy" (October 13). Thitinan honestly calls out the numerological fantasies of the 99 and like for what they are:  a mindset that has for many decades kept Thailand what it remains today. Thitinan sensibly, and I think rightly, agrees that Pheu Thai's flagship 10,000 payment scheme might well be a serious mistake, but he also knows that that cannot justify interfering in the democratic process. Societies learn from mistakes. That essential learning process has also been denied Thailand by the "good people" myth. 

Critically questioning received myths does not destroy a nation's essence. South Korea has not lost its soul since throwing off the curse of military interference in 1980; it has, on the contrary become strong. It now exports its culture along with its smartphones and air-conditioners to an avid global audience. Thailand has been denied that opportunity these past 50 years at least, since October 14, 1973 and earlier. 

Ordinary Thais who must live on charity and scraps in their old age, for which bounty they are expected to be grateful, are the victims of the mindset that continues to enable those disruptions of progress by promising wondrous things for all. They always prophesy the final eradication of corruption, an end to injustice, the healing of all social divides, and of course sufficient wealth to all. That myth-bound mindset forcing itself on all has delivered only what Thailand is today. 

 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 October 19, 2023, under the title "Unfolding failure" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2667123/unfolding-failure

Hocus pocus

re: "Tolerating populism for democracy" (BP, Opinion, October 13, 2023)  

Dear editor,

Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak brilliantly exposes the demon besetting Thailand's politics these several decades: that 99 is Thailand's 666.

That legally mandated possession by supernatural sacredness explains much of why Thailand is what it is when its people should long have been enjoying the economic success and global stature of South Korea or Taiwan. Maintaining the numerological perfections of 99ish myth has cost the Thai people much. Unless exorcized, its insatiable demand for yet more obeisance, and US dollars by the billion, will continue to inflict its manifestly traditional harms. 

 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 October 17, 2023, under the title "Hocus pocus" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2665611/praise-for-milk 

How unspeakable

re: "Merciful option?" (BP, PostBag, October 13, 2023) 

Dear editor,

In his letter as published, "Merciful option?", Ilyn Payne appears to argue that if a prison system is unspeakably inhumane, that justifies killing people in order to reduce the net suffering over a prisoner's life. A more moral stance might hold that the nation's prison system be required to meet minimal standards of decency to reflect a healthier set of public morals.

In his eagerness to lop off heads or otherwise kill, Mr Payne also leaves undefined what might constitute "unspeakable crimes" deserving of "the ultimate cost [that] should be paid." He also leaves unspecified what principle justifies killing another human being. Israel thinks it is justified in killing to hold on to land it illegally occupies. Hamas clearly thinks it is justified in killing to reclaim land stolen from the people it claims to stand for. Pro-choice abortion advocates think pregnant women have the right to kill the human being in their womb. Thai law thinks it acceptable to kill people who supply a popular drug of recreation to eager customers — Thaksin Shinawatra's murderous war on drugs was egged on by the morally stunted at every level of Thai society, none of whom have ever been held to account. Uganda thinks it right to kill gay men for the crime of "aggravated homosexuality". Are all or some these unspeakable crimes? 

Does the author think that the Paragon killer has committed an unspeakable crime deserving the death penalty? Did the Royal Thai Police officer who killed 36, mainly children, a year ago at Nong Bua Lamphu commit an unspeakable crime? Did the Royal Thai Army officer who gunned down 29 in Khorat in 2020 commit an unspeakable crime? Do major drug dealers commit unspeakable crimes according to whether the drugs they deal are legal or illegal?  

But those fatal vagaries in Mr Payne's call to kill leave untouched the deeper question:  whether any punishment can ever be justified. Punishment is legalized vengeance. Should the law be inflicting vengeance, or should its just goal be to prevent some committing acts that harm others? If the former, the eye-for-an-eye doctrine encoding the primitive moral notions of despotic societies, then the death penalty is plainly called for. That follows the  ancient mindset that commanded Moses's followers to steal by military invasion the land of Canaan after their reported exodus from servitude in Egypt, thereby beginning the litany of reprisal killings that more than 2,500 years later continue to define the so called Holy Land that Israel's hard-right nationalists, now ascendant, claim as theirs by the will of God with the same fervour shown by Hamas.

Perhaps Ilyn Payne could consider that we may only be justly punished for what we freely choose to do. Since the mounting evidence is that we could never choose other than we in fact do but only ever act as strictly determined by the physio-chemical processes taking place in our brains, this would suggest that the law's sphere of justice is limited to preventing harm to others, never to engaging in crude vengeance of the primitive eye-for-an-eye type for which he advocates.  

 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 October 15, 2023, under the title "How unspeakable" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2664389/how-unspeakable

Beyond populism

re: "Saving the amnesty bill" (BP, Editorial, October 9, 2023) 

Dear editor,

In its call to remove Section 112 offences from Move Forward's proposed amnesty bill, the Bangkok Post fails to even mention such considerations as justice, democratic principle, or good public morals. Does the editor think such things irrelevant to good law? 

It is widely held that Section 112 of the Criminal Code, long enshrined by mythic claims in a position of impunity, is used as a political weapon to intimidate, to harass and to suppress the healthy open dialogue that is a cornerstone of any functioning democracy. This rejection of the possibility of respectful discussion has long been toxic for society, as the editorial itself attests.  

The Post claims that granting an amnesty to those who did nothing more than peacefully express an honest opinion is so "controversial ... [it] could in fact spark new conflicts." Not a shred of evidence is presented for this claim. To the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence to suggest that a solid majority of Thais do not already solidly support the reform of these socially harmful laws that are morally indefensible, with only a rag tag of very loud zealots opposing it from whatever motives. Or I have I missed some relevant polls of public opinion on the matter?

Move Forward is right to include Section 112 offenders in its amnesty bill. Unlike dubious populist policies promising easy money, this policy is deservedly popular only for good reasons: it is just, it comports with democratic principle, and it will improve public morals by encouraging the open dialogue essential to informed opinion on any topic. 

It must, nonetheless, be admitted that, as the editor notes, "the progressive party [Move Forward] stands to benefit for gaining popularity among its supporters." This is natural and proper. Policies that support justice, that improve democracy, and that strengthen good public morals, deserve support. They should be popular and political parties proposing them fully deserve support from the electorate. 

The Post should be encouraging passage of this bill in its current form. 

 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 October 10, 2023, under the title "Beyond populism" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2661013/beyond-populism

Respect is earned

re: "Let's stay respectful" (BP, PostBag, October 4, 2023) 

Dear editor,

In his usual reasoned and respectful way, Burin Kantabutra makes the case for why "chef Ari Alexander Guojonsson should be condemned for berating Senator Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan out of his restaurant in Iceland over her political views." He is correct that "all are entitled to voice their opinion, but all involved must show respect for their opponents." Therein lies the problem, the pertinent reason why reason and respect sometimes fail. 

Thai law, Thai tradition protected by that same law, and in this case the current Thai senate created by that law to do exactly what it has recently done, refuses to accept that "all are entitled to voice their opinion", no matter how peacefully or respectfully they do so. The maintenance of that same law is the explicit reason the senate gave for refusing to respect the people by endorsing the government that Thais voted for on May 14. Senator Porntip agreed with the senate's reason contradicting Khun Burin's rightful reminder that "all are entitled to voice their opinion".

A pertinent current example is that Thailand's internationally honoured human rights advocate Arnon Nampa, recipient of South Korea's 2021 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, today remains in prison under those same laws.

When reasoned, open dialogue is denied them, good people reasonably choose other ways to express their deep feelings. Mr Guojonsson's outburst was a performative act. It was intended to convey an attitude, not to argue for a position in an academic debate, which debates can also become performatively passionate. As the expression of an attitude intended to induce the same in its audience, the restaurant outburst is on a par with such performative acts as the state opening of parliament or a tradition bound procession through the streets. Whilst agreeing that it will certainly, and understandably so, have offended some, it is less obvious that it failed to achieve the purpose of its performance, which was greatly aided by the senator highlighting its significance with threats of law suits "graciously" not to be acted on. 

Khun Burin correctly concludes that "noisy confrontation, such as the chef's or harassment, is the anathema of truth-seeking," but at failing to respect different views, it pales compared to law that actively criminalizes truth-seeking. 

 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 October 7, 2023, under the title "Respect is earned" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2659368/lose-the-gun-scheme

Graft in high places

re: "Army fuel probe findings expected soon" (BP, October 2, 2023) 

Dear editor,

The unusual (Just how unusual is it?) disappearance of more than 200,000 litres of diesel within the space of single month, August to September last year, is disturbing. But the Royal Thai Army (RTA) lads and other official bodies already have to hand an unimpeachable tool for identifying unusually untoward things. This is another job for those trusty GT200s, on which the responsible officers of the RTA spent a sufficient fortune, and which the highly respected forensic expert Senator Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan heartily endorsed for the lads when suspicions of their efficacy were raised. There is no doubt that these devices truly do point unerringly to serious corruption in high places. 

 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 October 4, 2023, under the title "Graft in high places" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2657181/lets-stay-respectful

Ethics over appetite

re: "Love all animals, big or small" (BP, October 2, 2023)

Dear editor,

If the Post's Kanokporn Chanasongkram were truly concerned about humans inflicting needless suffering on animals before casually slaughtering them, she could have given much more direct and effective advice: stop eating meat. 

Whilst medical and other scientific experiments do use animals, that use is relatively insignificant compared to the vast food industries that raise literally billions of animals in appalling conditions before casually slaughtering them for no more necessary reason than to make money by catering to the lust for tasty animal flesh of the humans whose purchases order the maintenance of that suffering and mass daily killing.

I suspect the Buddha would also prefer that his followers not order yet more suffering and killing on their behalf every time they buy meat in supermarkets, restaurants, fast-food joints, and on the street. 

 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 October 3, 2023, under the title "Ethics over appetite" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2656422/its-rougher-in-jail

Drugs or alcohol?

re: "Drug-fueled horrors" and "Reality check" (BP, PostBag, September 27, 2023) 

Dear editor,

In my letters to PostBag to which both Richard Bryant (Drug-fueled horrors) and Christian Reeve (Reality check) respond, an original concluding sentence was: "At the very least, there needs to be more public discussion about what could justify criminalizing some recreational drug use whilst legally blessing the use of other, more socially harmful drugs by adults." I thank the writers for contributing their personal perspectives to this discussion.

In both cases, their evidence is entirely personal anecdote and observation of news reports. As such, they are excellent examples of the problematic nature of such observations and reports. Whilst I do not doubt that they honestly report what they believe they observe, such personal accounts are both extremely limited and inherently, albeit unconsciously, biased, so typically do not reliably represent reality. 

Let me begin by conceding that the claim that alcohol is the most socially harmful drug in popular recreational use is based mainly on research regarding the situation in developed Western countries. Two useful pieces of the published research are: 1) "Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis" (Nutt et al., 2010 The Lancet) and 2) "The Australian drug harms ranking study" (Bonomo et al., 2019, Journal of Psychopharmacology). Both of these are available for free public access. The Australian study is particularly useful. Australians like our beer, wine and other alcohol-laced drinks. The experts, therefore, specifically address the obvious concern, writing in their Results section that: "Overall, alcohol was the most harmful drug when harm to users and harm to others was combined. A supplementary analysis took into consideration the prevalence of each substance in Australia. Alcohol was again ranked the most harmful substance overall." Needless to say, this evidence-based conclusion does not go down well with many of my compatriots. 

The situation in Thailand could well be different. I have not been able to find the necessary statistics to say with absolute confidence one way or the other. But what is known suggests that Thailand is not in fact so different to the UK or Australia when it comes to drug harms to society.

As a telling example, it was reported when the Democrat Party's infamous Prinn Panichpakdee's long career of sexual abuse finally came to public light last year that he had been in the habit of plying his victims with alcohol to make them more readily available to his lusts. He typically did this over a meal at a classy restaurant with a few glasses of wine. I am sure that Mr. Panichpakdee saw himself as a responsible social drinker. His mates in the Democrat Party certainly observed nothing to raise any concern worth mentioning to anyone regarding Mr Panichpakdee's social use of alcohol on such occasions.  

We do, however, have some solid statistics for one area where alcohol appears to be the hands down winner in causing harm to others in Thai society: road deaths. Let me quote from a recent, 2023, World Health Organization report that says nothing surprising to anyone who has lived in Thailand for a few years: "Similarly, drunk driving causes 5,529 deaths annually, or roughly 28% of all traffic deaths" (WHO, 2023, "A New Year's resolution 'for life').  

If either Mr Reeve or Mr Bryant has a statistic that shows any such annually repeated drug-fueled horror for cannabis, ya ba, or any other drug in popular recreational use in Thailand, I would very much welcome them to bring it our notice as a valuable contribution to the discussion. 

 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 October 2, 2023, under the title "Drugs or alcohol?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2655831/current-charter-a-no