re: "Broken Dems fail to rise from the ashes" (BP, Opinion, December 11, 2023)
Dear editor,
The recent history of Thailand's "hiliariously misnamed Democrat Party", as Time Magazine described it in November of 2013, when it was already clear that that party and its former members were intent on paving the way to again overthrow Thailand's "democratic regime of government with the King as Head of State", as the then and now Constitutions of the Kingdom all describe it, is neatly summarized by the Post's Veera Prateepchaikul.
Whilst speaking airily of "the party's principles and ideologies", Veera did not, however, dare to actually specify what of those doubtless lofty-sounding principles and ideologies might be: a wise decision.
The Democrat Party's problem is that an increasingly large percentage of the electorate now understand what democracy is, and they want it. That is why Move Forward, not the Democrat Pary, convincingly won the vote on May 14, with 38% of voters supporting the flagship policies of that party, whose principles and ideology are solidly democratic, in marked contrast to the Democrat Party, which does not even now have the decency to support Move Forward's proposed reform of section 112 of the Criminal Code, which blatantly contradicts basic democratic principle. Have the Democrats even come out to support the democratic party's proposed amnesty bill to allow the nation to start moving forward?
The Democrat Party deserve at most the level of support they still have. It would be wonderful to see that change. It would also be wonderful to see education reform, and police reform, and military reform. But those are all things that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was put in place to prevent after some were apparently shocked at what the Thai nation voted for on May 14.
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 December 14, 2023, under the title "UnDemocrat Party?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2704218/undemocrat-party-
