Two sides to a coin

I agree with Veera Prateepchaikul when he reminds us of the saying that “there are always two sides of a human being – one side that is open and can be seen and the other side which is concealed like two sides of a coin”. There are, as noted, “always” two sides, so no matter how wonderful someone might appear on the surface publicly, it must always be acknowledged that the publicly managed persona, however laden with luxury watches, gaudy ribbons or other accolades, is not the full story, being but half the human being. This is another reason why free speech is so essential: The unknown dark side might well be doing far more harm in the shadows than any bright and shiny public side, with only strong legal protection for critical truth-seeking and speaking able to afford some measure of confidence that the public mask reflects the full reality. Also instructive was Veera’s thoughtful retelling of a bloody piece of Thai history from 1973 that bears similarities to the recent arrest of a wealthy man of high social standing who carelessly forgot to take a proper collection of luxury watches on his leisure trip to nature to lend to any new close friends in uniform who might stumble upon him amidst the remains of suicidal animals intent on blackening his good name. That tale of past sparks leads to a related historical reflection of more recent vintage; namely, that the one good thing about Thaksin Shinawatra was that he betrayed his own cosy clique of traditional ruling oligarchs who had eagerly supported his rise to populist power while they thought him “one of the boys” who would play along. Will the alleged animal hunter and industrial oligarch be protected by his cronies wielding unaccountable power with impunity, or will he be treated to justice, unlike the conspicuously exempted rich brat Vorayuth Yoovidhya, who doubtless also had plenty of nice watches to lend to eager close friends in uniform? If justice threatens, will the Italian-Thai Development chief keep faith with his cronies in the ruling group, or will he do a Thaksin? FELIX QUI