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 

_______________________________

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

Keys to happiness

re: "More than a forced smile" (BP, Editorial, March 27, 2023)  

Dear editor,

In view of the facts coming to light, it must be wondered whether "the Land of Smiles" was ever anything more than an "Amazing Thailand" trope invented by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to better sell the nation. 

More seriously, perhaps Finns and others in the top tier of happiness are there because they are allowed to reflect freely and honestly on themselves and their nation, because they have the liberty to question, to experiment, and determine how they live their own lives. These are things that laws like sections of the Criminal Code and other repressive laws deny Thai people, dictating instead that all pretend to perfect faith, untouched by critical thought, by honesty, or by evidence of reality. 

Is it to be believed that the clear correlation between happiness and commitment to liberal democracy is an accident? As Thailand has been made less free under Prayut and his allies opposing democratic principle, so too have the Thai people become less happy. It is also unlikely to be a random accident that the most economically successful nations are the liberal democracies, while the authoritarian countries are most plagued by thriving corruption, which naturally flourishes best when honest speech is socially sanctioned or legally criminalized.

The Buddha knew better. In his Kalama Sutta, he warns against believing anything merely because of the authority of tradition or allegedly revered figures. The Buddha would surely approve the healthy honesty of the Finns and other most happy people, who are not forced by law to pretend to smile at what too often rings hollow, at what they rightly suspect to be deceit. 

 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 March 31, 2023, under the title "Keys to happiness" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2540091/lame-excuses

Coups cost country

re: "Changing Thailand: a series (prologue)" (BP, Opinion, February 23, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Chartchai Parasuk rightly draws the stark comparison between Thailand's modern economic growth and that of Malaysia and South Korea. South Korea especially is the telling comparison. From the 1960s through 1980s, both nations were on similar economic trajectories, although South Korea had already began to move forward. 1980 is the salutary year.

South Korea was able to take off economically only after 1980, when that nation was finally able to rid itself of the curse of incompetent, self-serving military interference in civil matters. Thailand, in contrast, has been denied the right to exorcize its demons demanding bountiful sacrifices to a status quo rooted firmly in the 19th century, with the obvious stagnation, the outright retardation, seen today not only economically but politically, socially and morally. It is hard to avoid the suspicion that those who doll themselves up in the fake dress of saviours are a major one of, if not in fact the root cause of Thailand's persistent failure to flourish as the Thai people, all of them, even Dr. Chartchai's cited construction workers, deserve.

Anand Panyarachun, who gifted Thailand the best constitution it has ever had after having himself been made Prime Minister as a result of yet another military coup against the Thai people's popular form of democratic government enshrined in yet another constitution trodden into the dirt, perhaps best summed it up one year ago in the Bangkok Post's "Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy" (March 6, 2022). That article reports him bluntly acknowledging that "The succession of military coups, one after another, since the adoption of constitutional monarchy in 1932 has retarded Thailand's democratic development, leaving a legacy of failed administrations and corruption."

Such are the fruits of men like Prayut Chan-o-cha and those who are so misguided, or perhaps self-serving, or possibly both, who enable them to thrive at the expense of the Thai people's economic, social and political flourishing. It is a high price to pay for empty promises of reform, of fair economic growth, of unity, of equal justice for all, and of an end to corruption. 

Surely Thailand, the Thai people, deserve to move forward? 

 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 February 27, 2023, under the title "Coups cost country" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2515719/the-pm2-5-finger

Knee-jerk reaction

re: "Cops red-faced as scandals rock force" (BP, February 13, 2023) 

Dear editor,

It is sad to read yet again of "further blows to public confidence in the Royal Thai Police (RTP)," but the consequent "increased pressure for long overdue reform" is surely a most inappropriate response to the latest round of scandals, being seriously at odds with traditional Thai social norms. The Royal Thai Police have held a special place in Thai society for many generations, and that must be respected, not overthrown with knee jerk reactions to reform. 

The obvious solution to all such embarrassing truth speaking that comes from free speech is simply to criminalize all such rude speech. Problem solved: no more embarrassing news headlines, no more offensive social media commentary, and no more public stains on the immaculate reputation of a duly respected Thai institution. A few hot heads might need to be arrested and given hefty prison sentences strictly in accord with the law, but that is surely a small price to pay to maintain an unsullied image of which the nation can be proud. 

Have draconian punishments for truth seeking or speaking, let alone recklessly peaceful expression of honest opinion, ever failed to protect an unquestionably deserved reputation?  

 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 February 15, 2023, under the title "Knee-jerk reaction" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2506844/an-economy-for-all

Review vape ban

re: "Actress' vaping case sparks debate" (BP, February 3, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation is doubtless sincere in his convictions. He is also wrong in his conclusion that Thailand is "on the right track by banning e-cigarettes." Digital Economy and Society (DES) Minister Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn is right that vaping should be legalized for adults.

That there are very likely or most certainly health risks to vaping, or any other product that they enjoy using, is not a sufficient reason to ban it for adults. It should be fully legal for adults and regulated the same way alcohol, cigarettes and the host of other unhealthy lifestyle choices are regulated. 

Such legalization would be a serious hit to the income streams of those esteemed members of the Royal Thai Police about whom we have read so much in recent weeks, as usual. It is not, however, obvious that such a reduction in incitement to extortion and other corruption is so terribly undesirable a collateral outcome of just law.  

 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 February 7, 2023, under the title "Review vape ban" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2499781/review-vape-ban

8 years of promises

re: "Prayut hits hustings as Pheu Thai rules out post-poll deal with PPRP" (BP, January 29, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Before jumping too quickly to swallow whole Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's latest round of amazing promises, it would be prudent to look back on the historical record of the past eight years. When he made himself leader of yet another military coup against the Thai people's popular form of democratic government, among the lame excuses then offered up, there were also a host of promises about reforming traditionally corrupt Thai institution, returning happiness, and even ushering in a golden era of "true democracy" in the proper Thai style, presumably as defined by the man who had collaterally just made himself PM. 

Recent headlines confirm what really was clear back in May 2014. The evidence of eight years consistently demonstrates that the reform of the duly respected Royal Thai Police, the Royal Thai Army, or any other Thai institution believed by many to be steeped in the traditional, systemic corruption of decades was never on the road map of Prayut and those working with him. What is, on the contrary, all too apparent is that then Thai constitution defining Thailand's form of democratic government was overthrown precisely to prevent those reforms for which the Thai people have continued to call in vain. 

This is also why Thai patriots peacefully calling for reform along the lines of openness, transparency and accountability are persistently harassed, arrested and imprisoned in strict accord with law made up solely to hobble such just calls for overdue change that might in fact seriously reduce the venerable forms of too often legally blessed corruption long afflicting Thailand.

Thailand has perhaps already choked enough on the promises rudely forced down everyone's throats in 2014. Is another dose of the same really a healthy choice? 

  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 January 31, 2023, under the title "8 years of promises" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2495159/8-years-of-promises

Voting for cash

re: "Expect vote buying to be 'rampant', warns Chuan" (BP, January 2, 2022)

Dear editor,

Their own acts proving such a self-perception false, do all of those Thai people who engage in vote buying, whether buying or selling, actually think themselves honest? Honest people neither buy nor sell votes.

Since the evidence from behavioural economist Dan Ariely and his colleagues (Mazar et al., "The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance", 2008, DOI: 10.1509/jmkr.45.6.633 ) is that being reminded of our own moral principles just before an act is done has a salutary effect on what is then done, it might be helpful to have every voter read aloud and sign a solemn vow just before entering the booth to cast their vote that they will not vote for any candidate from whom they have received cash within the last six months because to do so would be a dishonest act.

Or would they just act dishonestly both before and in the voting booth anyway, and then go to a temple to bribe the karmic bureaucracy to overlook their bad deed by buying some merit with a donation?  

Note: the 2008 paper cited is not the 2012 paper "Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end" (Shu et al., DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1209746109) where Ariely and his team used flawed data, in fact data faked by others, to reach conclusions that are not warranted, as other researchers subsequently picked up on to thereby confirm that science works to openly correct its errors. No human institution can be free of error, which is why free, open debate and critical questioning of every received claim is a necessary condition for holding any opinion of worth on any and every topic.  

 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 January 7, 2023, under the title "Voting for cash" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2477209/local-sports-stars-

It's the status quo

re: "Renew graft fight pledge" (BP, Editorial, January 2, 2023) 

Dear editor,

Like the annual rite of calling for reforms and crackdowns to reduce Thailand's horrific road toll, the Bangkok Post's editorial "Renew graft fight pledge" is another that has been faithfully repeated for decades. If a different outcome is to be expected, it is necessary to allow reform that might work.  

The Post's call to "encourage more ethical behaviour," sounds wonderful. It has sounded exactly as wonderful for all of those same decades of failure to reduce corruption, some recent examples of which the editorial lists as evidence of the persistent failure. Calling for "more ethical behaviour" has merely papered over corruption as usual. The current and several previous Thai constitutions have also piously spouted "good morals" and "good public  morals." As the use of Thai law by those intent on propping up unchanged and unreformed the traditional pillars of Thainess attests, such vague phrases are the enemy not only of democratic principle inimical to corruption, but are collaterally powerful tools for maintaining the status quo of many decades. 

With this latest call to reform, is the Post now joining the Thai youth peacefully calling for such specific democratic principles as openness, transparency and accountability, which are indeed essential antidotes to corruption, and for which calls those Thai patriots are often imprisoned in strict accord with Thai law made up to keep exactly the same status quo in place that has for decades faithfully bred corruption, perhaps as intended? Does the Post not see how this latest call flatly contradicts its failure to report on the use of anti-democratic law to persecute those who would reform the traditional fonts of corruption protected from just reform by such bad law?

More positively, the editor's call "to engage with civil society" is both more consistent with democratic principle and at least a very little less uselessly vague. This call also raises a useful question: Who exactly is supposed to do this engaging? The government of the Thai people is itself surely already a part of civil society, so it cannot be the government of the Thai people that the Post has in mind. Who then? What are those other institutions promoting and profiting from pervasive, systemic corruption who are not to be considered a part of it but in need of engaging with Thai civil society?

The call to engage civil society is echoed by widely respected former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, who in addition to pointing out that "military takeovers have been shown to be useless in ending conflicts" ("Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy", Bangkok Post, Mar 22, 2022), also identified coups as both retarding Thailand's democratic development and "leaving a legacy of failed administrations and corruption" (ibid.). With so many decades of evidence backing it, could anyone dispute Anand's bluntly stated insight?

Until the 1980s, Thailand was on a similar path to development politically and economically as South Korea and Taiwan, albeit not as a republic but a constitutional monarchy, a perfectly decent form of democratic governance as proved by the examples of Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. Both Taiwan and South Korea went on to develop flourishing economies and vibrant democracies with plenty of healthy, heated debate. What prevented Thailand following their example as the Thai people deserve? Who or what has deprived the Thai people of the same political, social, moral and economic development that the citizens of Taiwan and South Korea have come to enjoy by allowing democracy to solve political and social disagreements and problems, including corruption, through free, open debate in and out of parliament? 

Let us hope with the Post's editor that next year a fresh new Thai parliament with true vision to move the nation forward will have the courage to make the reforms that Thailand has so desperately needed for so long, something that the old parties and the new parties of old men clinging to power have manifestly failed to deliver the Thai people. 

Let us hope that the Post will not need to republish the same editorial yet again with an updated list of corruption scandals. 

 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 January 4, 2023, under the title "It's the status quo" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2474789/hardly-democratic

A practical solution

re: "Mafia pull alive and well" (BP, Editorial, December 5, 2022) 

Dear editor,

The Bangkok Post is right to be concerned about the scale of criminal gang operations in Thailand by foreigners attracted by the profits to be made. It is perhaps sobering to reflect that such foreign business successes are likely dwarfed by the more smoothly running local Thai mafia gangs and loyal officials also eagerly raking in the billions to be had. It might, therefore, be more constructive to ask what it is that contributes to making Thailand a hub of such gang-led criminal activity. I would suggest that the major answer is Thai law. 

In 1920, the US criminalized alcohol. The result was not that millions of law abiding citizens, or at least citizens who saw themselves as being generally law-abiding, upstanding members of their community suddenly stopped drinking. Well, they did, but not for very long. After an initial, dramatic drop in 1921, alcohol consumption by generally law-abiding, upstanding members of their community, now all officially criminals, rapidly returned to their pre-Prohibition drug drinking habits. In 1919, per capita alcohol consumption in the US was just under 0.8 gallons/person. In 1921, this plunged to a little over 0.2 gallons/person. In 1922, it soared to actually exceed the pre-Prohibition level of 1919 (Clark Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition. Columbia University Press, 1932, pp. 23–26, 72).

Of course, what America's experiment with criminalizing the sale and use of alcohol proved was that decent people often strongly demand what those misled by good intentions righteously deem bad for everyone. When denied the opportunity to legally purchase regulated, safe products from legal, responsible business people, the good citizens of the US turned in their masses to the mafia gangs, enabling those criminal institutions to get a solid footing in American law enforcement, judiciary and government — not exactly all that righteous. 

The recent Thai saga of Tuhao, or Chaiyanat Kornchayanant as he is known, illustrates exactly the same phenomena. Millions of Thai and Chinese customers, who not only think of themselves as being decent, law-abiding people who want a bit of fun, and whose bit of fun in almost all cases does not harm anyone save themselves, are eager customers for the likes of foreigners such as Tuhao, and even more so for the Joe Ferraris and others in the Royal Thai Police and other Royal Thai law enforcement bodies serving the local criminal gangs who are getting rich beyond their official salaries' dreams. As reported, Tuhao naturally appears to have all the requisite law enforcement and political connections to ensure high profits.

No business person, Thai or foreign, legal or criminal, ever got rich by selling a product for which there was no demand. The most practical partial solution to the corruption as usual in the Royal Thai Police and elsewhere, which no one who supports the regressive status quo over progressive reform will ever tackle, irrespective of incredible promises, is to at least decriminalize all those activities so beloved of the Thai people that they are staunch customers irrespective of legality. If those inherently unjust laws were reformed, that would immediately put a major dent in the income streams of foreign and local criminal gangs and corrupt Thai officials, which is perhaps the reason those groups so oppose sane law. Such reform of obviously failing law would also greatly reduce the harms to society caused by having the sex industry, the drug industry, the gambling industry and so on run not by regulated, tax-paying business people who could be held to account, but by criminal gangs and corrupt officials getting rich at great cost to Thai society. 

 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 December 8, 2022, under the title "A practical solution" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2455577/just-fine-in-theory

Adding fuel to fire

re: "Tragedy, farce in Mountain B saga" (BP, Opinion, August 15, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Veera Prateepchaikul is spot on that the endemic corruption venerated by many influential Thais over decades is the root cause of the Mountain B deaths. But Veera himself has for decades failed to understand why that is so. Corruption has remained rife because of regular assaults against democratic practice and principle. Openness, transparency and accountability are essential to reducing corruption, and we know exactly how much Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and all he stands for respect such principles. Their distaste for openness, transparency and accountability, which come only with democracy, and which are the only truly effective antidotes to systemic corruption, is demonstrated in the persistent arrest of peaceful protestors. Those patriotic Thais are imprisoned precisely for calling for openness, transparency and accountability. 

No one is so silly as to argue that democracy will end all corruption or bring perfect justice or any such fantasy. It is merely the case that flawed though it be, democracy, as Winston Churchill put it, "is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" (House of Commons speech, Nov. 11, 1947). Had democracy been allowed to evolve to solve the genuinely difficult problems confronting the nation, Thailand could long ago have become a vibrant, rich, and respected nation in the league of South Korea, which blossomed only after ridding itself of its own anti-democratic cancers in 1980. 

But it is not only those who plot, commit, collude in, sign off on, enable or otherwise profit from coups against democracy who are at fault. People like Veera himself, who cheer on coups because decade after decade they continue to gullibly believe the same lies that corruption will be stamped out, or that national unity will be forged, or that traffic jams will disappear from Bangkok, are also guilty. Their complicity by silence or even actual endorsement of the overthrow of the people's right to determine their form of government is a contributing factor to the disease that has for too many decades held Thailand and the Thai people back politically, socially, morally and economically.

It might be conceded that good people sincerely believe the excuses that a coup is needed to end such gross corruption as Thaksin's, but what, when closely examined, does that claim entail? In order to hold that the nation's fledgling (always fledgling) democracy could not deal with Thaksin, it is necessary to also hold that every other allegedly independent Thai institution that had any influence or respect had been corrupted by or was actively colluding with Thaksin. Is this remotely credible? Was every respected Thai institution cheering on the murderous drug war killings? Was every Thai institution happily going along with the tax shenanigans and like? Had Thaksin really corrupted so many institutions and allegedly respected Thai figures who could raise a voice in opposition that only its military overthrow could save democracy? That does not seem to me at all plausible, entailing as it does an extremely negative opinion of all other institutions that exercise either hard or soft power in Thailand. I cannot believe such was the case in 2006, and it most certainly was not the case in 2014.

If Thailand is to grow up into a mature democracy, people like Veera Prateepchaikul need to stop thinking that a bit of alleged corruption, or even a massive amount of very real corruption, can possibly justify overthrowing the Thai people's popular, democratic form of government. That is, as David Bowie has it, "putting out the fire with gasoline" (1982). Veera and others in his position should stop fuelling the raging fires of corruption that engulf the Thai nation as surely as fire engulfed Mountain B. 

 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 August 20, 2022, under the title "Adding fuel to fire" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2372828/disaster-awaits

Another humble servant

re: "Thamanat says he's ready to lead" (BP, May 26, 2022) 

Dear editor,

Relentlessly furthering unabated the implacable rise of reverence for manifest benevolence and righteousness as he religiously does, could anyone more supremely exemplify the qualities revered by the Thai nation than does the amazingly true or truly amazing story of how the courageous Captain Thamanat Prompow, after a gloriously honourable military career, went on to conquer all obstacles civil, criminal, martial and otherwise as he rose to positions of revered esteem in the nation?

Always a modest man, not boastful of his extensive hands-on research in the field of criminology during a four-year sabbatical as an honoured guest of the Australian Government or of his successfully pursuing a doctorate in one of the United States' most renowned universities, on his glorious return to Thailand, his unquestionable talents in public administration and the promotion of agricultural products, ensured that he should come to the notice of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who seeing a kindred spirit equally opposed to corruption and devoted to selfless public service naturally appointed the most illustrious Capt. Thamanat to high office as a shining example to the Thai nation of a life well-lived in perfect accord not only with the moral values of benevolence and righteousness, but also with the principles of modesty, sufficiency and simplicity.

Could there be any better role model to the Thai nation, or any Thai better suited to selflessly serve the nation in humble leadership at the highest level? With such models of excellence to hand, why notice Thailand's globally honoured human rights patriots? 

 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 May 29, 2022, under the title "Another humble servant" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2317562/landed-interest

Coups and corruption

re: "Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy" (BP, March 6, 2022)

Dear editor,

The Bangkok Post's article, comments banned of course, "Ex-PM Anand says coups have retarded Thai democracy" (March 6) was a timely piece of plain speaking. It was most encouraging to see former PM Anand Panyarachun bluntly speaking the truth: that coups committed by those with lame excuses for trampling the Thai people's aspirations for democracy into the dirt beneath their jackboots have, in Anand's words, "retarded Thailand's democratic development, leaving a legacy of failed administrations and corruption." Spot on. The single greatest cause of Thailand's persistent corruption is the military coups committed against the Thai people.

 To Anand's comment that "most governments between coups did not do much better in terms of Thailand's democratic development," the salient response is that although those governments were indeed rotten, they were also fledgling efforts towards democracy that would, if allowed, develop the transparency, openness and accountability that is the only antidote to pervasive corruption and other abuses. Few would dispute that, for example, the governments of Chatchai Choonhaven or Thaksin Shinawatra were fonts of corruption; what was needed was stronger protection by the laws and courts for free speech on all matters so that their corruption had no place to hide. 

 Had due democratic and legal process been allowed to do so, even the worst of those abuses by civil governments could and would have been solved, as the history of other nations prove possible absent coups. But some did not want democracy to succeed in Thailand. The military coups against the Thai people's popular governments did exactly what Anand says: they retarded Thailand's political development to ensure that corruption could and would continue, thereby also retarding Thailand's social, moral, and economic growth, for which the Thai people have for many decades paid a heavy price.

 Fitting for the latest spate of arrests and imprisonments of Thais peacefully protesting for openness, transparency and accountability, for exercising, in other words, the free speech that is foundational to democracy and that is essential if corruption and other abuses are to be effectively dealt with, Anand's conclusion reminds us that "The law should not be used as a tool for persecution." 

 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 March 13, 2022, under the title "Coups and corruption" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2278347/needs-must-not

re: "Benedict Faulted for Handling of Abuse Cases When He Was an Archbishop"

re: "Benedict Faulted for Handling of Abuse Cases When He Was an Archbishop" (The New York Times, January 20, 2022)

The joy of religious devotion vesting itself in esoteric faith rather than open, honest reason.

And that proclaiming itself unquestionably infallible, wards of inconvenient questions so as to enable centuries of abuse by a morally repugnant hierarchy got up in gaudy robes of opaquest impunity.  

It is little wonder that he Christian and other sacred ideologies side with Communist China and like despotisms in rejecting outright the secular democratic virtue of free speech that heralds openness, transparency, and accountability.

_______________________________

The above comment was submitted by Felix Qui to The New York Times article.

It is published there at https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/world/europe/benedict-germany-sexual-abuse.html#commentsContainer&permid=116491368:116491368

Institutional cancer

re: "Police power must belong to the people" (BP, September 4, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Wasant Techawongtham is spot on that the latest scandal confirming the long-standing reputation of such institutions as the Royal Thai Police (RTP) is but one case of an "infected sore that happened to burst in public." But are the RTP the root cause of the pandemic corruption that has for many decades characterized that group and others supposed to serve the Thai people? They are not. The malignancy afflicting the RTP is merely one case of a wider cancer in Thai institutions. The RTP do but faithfully follow precedent.

Other Thai institutions set the example that the voice of the people doesn't matter. The morally indefensible example of holding the wishes of the Thai people in contempt has been set for decades every time the people's popular government is overthrown. Every such abuse proclaims not that the law and the state are to be directed by the people, but that the people must slavishly obey authority, however unjust, and bow down before the brutish power of the state and its officers, abusive though they be. Only fools could have expected anything such as the RTP, to become decent under Prayut Chan-o-cha. That is not the reason the popular democratic form of government that the people aspire to have respected is regularly overthrown by Thai institutions deeming themselves above the wishes of the Thai people.

Any spirit of progress or reform, of moving the Thai nation forward to a better future for all Thai people requires transparency and accountability, which in turn require that the voice of all people on all matters be respected by strong legal protection. Sadly, the government of Prayut Chan-o-cha has, like too many such governments before, consistently done the opposite. From sending people for "attitude adjustment", to banning healthy debate about his new constitution, to blocking websites for no good reason, to imprisoning peaceful protestors merely for saying something alleged to have offended someone. Such acts enforce unjust law to subjugate the Thai people, ruling arrogantly over them with impunity to abuse, the outcome seen all too clearly in that infamous video showing the vile abuse committed on their official premises by members then in good standing of the Royal Thai Police.

 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 September 6, 2021, under the title "Institutional cancer" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2176935/institutional-cancer
  

Pathetic justification

re: "Time for cops to come clean" (BP, Editorial, August 28, 2021)

 
When the fatally effective Royal Thai Police officer in his officially approved PR stunt "said he regretted the death, but justified his abhorrent treatment of suspects 'as a means to an end' in the war against the illicit drug trade in local communities," there is no reason to think he was not lying. But the reality he lets slip about the ethos of the Royal Thai Police is much worse: even if he were sincere, even if there were grounds for thinking the suspect had knowledge about a ton of heroin, the use of torture as a matter of course, which the proffered excuse implies is an accepted operating procedure in the Royal Thai Police, shows that traditional Thai institution to be morally abhorrent in its very principles.

Yet worse, that excuse that the ends justifies them, however truly vile those means be, sounds exactly like an equally Royal Thai Army general giving the usual excuses for committing a coup against the Thai people to overthrow a popular, democratic government. Worth noting here is that such repression of democracy by intimidation using threats of violence is the foundation on which stands the decades of corruption in the Royal Thai Police and other famously corrupt Thai institutions.

The best, the only credible, antidote to corruption is democracy. To reduce systemic corruption, democracy must be allowed to develop institutions that protect free speech rather than stifling it with brutish prison sentences, that ensure the people can protest perceived wrongs rather than using police violence to suppress them, and that create transparency rather than systemically enforcing ignorance of what is being done by whom by the use of unjust law.

It would have been naive in the extreme to ever have expected those who committed a coup against the evolution of functioning democracy to allow, let alone initiate, police or any other healthy reform. That is not how the world works.

 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 August 30, 2021, under the title "Pathetic justification" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2173175/pathetic-justification
  

Tip of the iceberg?

re: "Custody death clip sparks storm" (BP, August 25, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

It comes as no surprise that the Royal Thai Police officer who masterminded the alleged torture and murder at a police station by police officers is in fact "Regarded as one of the best drug suppression officers" as reported in the Bangkok Post ("Custody death clip sparks storm", August 25, 2021).

It must be wondered for how long such extortion of suspects has been going on in that police area. It must also be wondered, given the prevalence of such accounts of brutality and extortion, how widespread throughout the Thai nation such practices are. It must further be wondered what other evils lie secreted in closets protected by repressive censorship from healthy public knowledge and open debate. Had the video of this latest alleged torture and murder by those famously upstanding men of law and order waging war against druggies not gone public, would there have been even a pretense of seeking justice?

Perhaps if Thailand's drug laws, which have conspicuously failed decade after decade to reduce drug use or drug-related harms to society, were reformed to respect individual rights, we would see not only no significant increase in drug use, but a great saving of currently wasted  tax money and police resources, a substantial reduction in drug-related harm to society, and certainly the elimination of such corruption as seen in the extortion leading to murder by Royal Thai Police officers who are officially "Regarded as ... the best drug suppression officers".

 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 August 27, 2021, under the title "Tip of the iceberg?" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2171995/stop-squabbling
  

Forced ignorance

re: "Thailand tightens information law" (BP, May 25, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

As Kavi Chongkittavorn reminds us in "Thailand tightens information law" (Bangkok Post, May 25) things were looking up for the Thai nation in 1997. There was, at last, a chance that sound democratic principle would be implemented by legally mandated practices to actually reduce Thailand's traditional corruption by making transparency a reality. Sadly, this moral progress was anathema to some: two coups were subsequently committed against the Thai people to undo the progress towards democracy and to return Thailand to a state more favourable to the traditional plaque of corruption and other abuses protected by morally corrupt law.

What Kavi might have pressed a little more are the logical conclusions that follow from the efforts of the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to keep Thai people uninformed about Thai affairs. It is essential to bear in mind here that the primary reason for censorship is always, without exception, to enforce ignorance of the topic being censored. In  a few cases, this ignorance is a good thing; for example, in times of war, keeping people ignorant of troop movements is an appropriate ignorance to enforce to protect national security. But in times of peace, who general X or minister Y met with last week and their bank accounts are not matters of national security. Nor are the acts of any particular person or government agency normally matters that should be kept secret for national security, which should be very narrowly and explicitly defined, with every allowed use of censorship being solidly defended as a necessary exemption from informed public opinion of worth.

The default position in a just, democratic society that values good morals and that wishes to reduce corruption and other abuses is to provide solid legal protection to the discovery and discussion in public of all matters pertaining to public figures, officials, the government and to the institutions of the nation legally defined under the constitution.

But Thai law as made up by PM Prayut and his predecessors who also committed coups against the popular, democratically elected governments of the Thai people necessarily entails  with logical rigour yet more seriously disturbing conclusions. Any public institution or figure that were genuinely good, that were actually admirable, respectable and as worthy as it were publicly insisted on being would naturally welcome the discovery of the facts of that reality and the free public discussion thereof. That the law stifles or actually criminalizes such discovery of truth can only suggest that public opinion is kept ignorant, uninformed and therefore, however sincere that opinion might be, necessarily of little worth for reasons that cannot inspire confidence or trust.

 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 May 26, 2021, under the title "Forced ignorance" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2121791/vaccine-irony
  

Sincerity forsaken

re: "Thamanat saga a blight" (Editorial, BP, May 7, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Whilst understanding the desperate hope underlying it, I cannot agree that "all we can hope and pray for is that the government will not give Capt Thamanat the justice ministry portfolio that oversees the Office Of The Narcotics Control Board (ONCB)."

Whose elevation thereto, on the contrary, could more perfectly express the sacred absolution of sincerity of the commitment to good morals, to justice, to eradicating corruption, to police reform, and all the other wonderful things that self-made Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has been promising the Thai people these past seven years?

 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 May 8, 2021, under the title "Sincerity forsaken" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2112283/sincerity-forsaken
  

Prayut the pretender

re: "Charter Court rules Thamanat qualified to serve as MP" (BP, May 5, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Will Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha now stop claiming that he thinks there is anything remotely wrong with drug dealing? Will he give up the lame pretence that there is something intrinsically bad about dealing drugs? The known facts prove such a claim fake. Irrespective of this most expected ruling by Thailand's Constitutional Court, to keep someone who is a proven,convicted heroin dealer not merely in your government but in your cabinet sends a perfectly clear message to the Thai nation, to Thai youth: criminal drug dealing is fine so long as you don't get caught, or at least not convicted by a Thai court.

Indeed, the message that PM Prayut sends by keeping this man in his cabinet is blatant: drug dealing, and presumably any other crime in Thailand, is perfectly OK provided you manage to avoid, by any means, a criminal record in Thailand. The reality of your acts, of your character, no matter how well known, matters not in the least; the relevant known facts matter not in the least: all that matters is strict legalism wherein justice plays as important a role as decency, honesty and other good morals.

 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 May 7, 2021, under the title "Prayut the pretender" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2111639/conviction-politics
  

Save true Thai Buddhism

re: "Temple corruption erodes public faith" (BP, Opinion, April 28, 2021)

 
Dear editor,

Whilst I appreciated Thanthip Srisuwannaket's timely essay making constructive suggestions for the salvation of Thai Buddhism from itself, some deeper reforms might also be worth considering.

The clue is in Thanthip's first sentence: "As corruption soars in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, its temples are also facing a serious erosion of public faith due to rife corruption in the closed, non-transparent clergy." The fact is that popular though such might be, it is false to claim that Thailand is predominantly Buddhist. It is not. Thailand does not live according to the wise insights of the Buddha. On the contrary, it lives under the tradition bound, legalistic sway of the religion known as Thai Buddhism. This religion was made up over the centuries to serve an elite who wanted another prop for their ideology of control by legalism. Thai Buddhism thus reflects too well the status quo of many decades, if not centuries, that remains rampant.

Relevant to Thanthip's points, one example of the respect unreasonably accorded monks of the nationalistic religion known as Thai Buddhism is their treatment when found guilty of crimes, such as financial corruption to steal public money. They are disrobed. This is wrong. It is a manifestation of moral corruption, of dishonesty, that has no place in a genuine respect for the Buddha's teachings. It falsely pretends that monks cannot be criminals, that monks are somehow holier than others: a manifestly false prejudice. Going through a ceremony and putting on saffron robes does not make anyone a more moral, more decent or a more respectable person than they were the day before, or than they will be the day after the saffron ceases. To respect this truth about humans, which includes monks, criminal monks should be thrown into prison as monks, complete with their saffron robes. The Buddha teaches right understanding, not deliberate muddying of understanding to save face or protect a sacred myth.

But the real font of corruption in the religion known as Thai Buddhism, which conveniently endorses, for example, the mass daily slaughter of sentient animals for no better reason than to sate human lusts for tasty animal flesh, is in the merit making system. But this sort of thing is nothing uniquely Thai: European history offers instructive parallels. In mediaeval Christianity, a similar system had long become extremely popular. The sacred trade in indulgences bought an easing of the passage to heaven after death, either for the doer of qualifying good deeds or for others for whom the indulgence was purchased. Yes, according to cosmic law interpreted by the Christian clergy, the pouring of suitable amounts of hard currency into the church's coffers came with divine guarantees, from the popes no less, that, as Johann Tetzel, the 15th century preacher and Grand Commissioner for Indulgences is said to have so catchily put it, "As soon a coin in the bowl rings, a soul from purgatory springs." This abuse in the name of religion devoted to imposing cathedrals, gilded images and rich vestments in exchange for ordaining the divine rights of kings and nobles did eventually lead to reformation.

What, really, is merit making according to the preachings of Thai Buddhism? It is the trade in merit to get a better deal in the next life, either for the devotee who contributes to the temple or does suitable good deeds. But for the rich of Thai society, as for the rich of Mediaeval Europe, the surest path to salvation in the next world is a generous donation to a monastery, or even to revered monk himself. Indeed, in many cases, merit making at auspicious temples is expected to result in a better material deal for the generous giver of alms in this life. The proper word for this practice is bribery. It is the corruption of the karmic bureaucracy by money or other valuable consideration. Naturally, when this example is entrenched at the heart of the national religion, endorsed for centuries by those who profit from it, and a daily practice sincerely believed in, it must spread the same attitude throughout society. But as the Christian Reformation and later Enlightenment showed, and as Thanthip Srisuwannaket optimistically suggests, reform is possible.

I would suggest that a concrete step to help Thai Buddhism become more Buddhist would be to put the Buddha's brilliant Kalama Sutta in a prominent position in spreading the Buddha's true wisdom. Regular reading of and reflection on the Kalama Sutta (กาลามสูตร) could do much to counter the too pervasively unBuddhist deference to authority merely because it is authority, whether based on tradition, popular social consensus, accident of birth,  official position, or whatever: none of these, as the Buddha bluntly reminds us, are inherently reliable guides to right understanding; all should be constantly subject to critical review and questioning, along with temple finances.

Seen in the right light, the erosion of public faith in Thai Buddhism due to repeated scandals is a sign of hope. It can lead to a reformation of Thai Buddhism so that Thailand might indeed one day become a predominantly Buddhist nation.

 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 May 2, 2021, under the title "Save true Thai Buddhism" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2109015/knowledge-is-power