The joke of law
The impressively slow progress on Premchai Karnasuta’s case for alleged poaching in a national wildlife sanctuary can surprise no one (Editorial, Nov 30). It exemplifies perfectly why Thai people do not trust Thai justice, or rather, Thai rule of law posing as justice. Even when the law manages to be just, it is applied with seemingly blatant discrimination to protect corrupt hi-so types who are members in good standing of the old boys club while coming down mercilessly on the poor and powerless, who correctly see it as being created by traditional hi-so types to keep the masses in their place underfoot. We need not imagine where Premchai would be today had he been an aged peasant picking mushrooms illegally.
Exactly the same is seen in the illuminating tale of Thaksin Shinawatra. When he was in with the old boys, he could do not wrong as they pushed him as their poster child elect for PM. Nor was a small “honest mistake” at the time ruled by the courts any bar to his political ascendancy while he was in good standing with the oligarchy, who even went along happily with his war on drugs, going so far as to condone, if not encourage, those vile abuses. They even defended Thaksin’s defence of himself with obstructionist lawsuits and similar threats against the Thai press that dared to question him and what he stood for. It was only after he had fallen out with his former mates that all changed. Thai law was then redirected to attacking him, but that the only charges ever brought were for accusations so manifestly political that no country would ever extradite, while the real crimes of the drug wars were left untouched, is telling.
With such compelling examples of the corruption of the rule of law to serve injustice, who in their right mind, or in a morally decent mind, would respect what has traditionally been applied to favour the self-anointing elect and their gangs? To maintain this entrenched corruption in the rule of law has always been a major reason for military coups against the Thai people, as we see with the self-amnestied gang who most recently overthrew the constitution of the Thai nation precisely when it looked as though democracy threatened to work. It was, after all, immediately after the Thai people’s outrage had stopped the sleazy Pheu Thai amnesty bill that the PDRC and those collaborating with them ratcheted up their destructive protests intent on “shutting down Bangkok” and preventing an election, to pave the way for yet another coup against the evolving good morals of democracy. As we have been constantly reminded these past four years and more, everything since has been committed strictly according to the rule of law, the law, that is, as made up by those who orchestrated the coup. A sign of a small return to happiness is that the sensible Thai people no longer swallow the deceitful non sequitur that having a rule of law means being just, moral, decent or respectable.
FELIX QUI