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 

_______________________________

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