Different systems

Re: “Try walk the talk” (PostBag, Dec 18).

Samuel Wright, thank you for that warm response to my recent letter responding to your own.

I also concur with your belief in the excellence of the Swiss conscription system. If Thailand also has such a system where all able-bodied citizens of a certain age are required to do the same form of military service irrespective of family status or wealth, I would also think that will be perfectly acceptable to Thailand.

However, that system of universal conscription, where citizens from varied backgrounds get to meet in close quarters for an extended period, sharing experience that included learning of their compatriots very varied life experiences, is radically different to the status quo conscription system you appeared to support. The historical facts are perfectly clear: the current Thai conscription system has proved itself not a force for democratisation but one for enabling coups against democracy.

I would also suggest the conscripts get history classes which analyse how the series of military coups committed by those who proved themselves disloyal to the nation’s constitutions have impeded Thailand’s growth not only politically and socially, but also morally and economically, as noted by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun (BP, March 6), who was himself installed as prime minister as a result of a coup that had yet again overthrown the people’s democratic constitution.

Also worth remembering is that it was Prime Minister Anand who gifted the Thai nation what was arguably its best permanent constitution to date. Naturally, two further coups were then committed by the conscript-fed military to dismantle that most popular people’s constitution.

FELIX QUI