Truth to power

Re: “Good and bad”, (PostBag, April 22).

The evidence is solidly against Songdej Praditsmanont’s pious dream that “to prevent a coup, the only way is for parliament, government and judiciary not to give excuses for the military to come out to keep the peace, prevent corruption or other foul deeds by those in power which challenge human decency.”

No coup has been committed this century, at least for which its architects had any justification based on corrupt politicians or any other such deceitful excuse. Those who commit coups, for example that of 2014, lie when they falsely claim they act to prevent corruption or the like.

Irrespective of what politicians, parliament, or the judiciary do, those whose morals are so low, so corrupt, as to actually plot and commit a coup against the Thai people and their nation will happily make up any fanciful falsehood about what motivated them, whilst suppressing the peaceful, free speech that would reveal the ugly truths behind why any coup was committed.

It is coups that are affronts to human decency, leaving any act by any politician, parliament, or court in the dust. Coups are unjust. They are committed by the morally corrupt, seeking to further their own selfish interests whilst pretending to have noble motives; hence, coup-makers feel the need to criminalise open dialogue on a range of “sensitive” topics. Those who oppose corruption naturally support free speech, nor do they cite bad laws to unjustly suppress peaceful expressions of opinion that are essential to a healthy democracy.

FELIX QUI