Good intentions

Re: “MP faces lese majeste claim over ‘defamatory’ speech,” (BP, March 21).

Perhaps unintentionally, Srisuwan Janya points to an important issue in his accusation that Move Forward Party’s MP Padipat Santipada defamed the monarchy, when Mr Padipat said “some royally initiated projects were riddled with graft”.

Mr Srisuwan says it is “common knowledge that projects royally initiated by His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great and His Majesty the King are intended for the well-being of the people”.

I’m sure that neither Mr Padipat, nor anyone else, could possibly doubt the good intentions of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej the Great or His Majesty the King, but as Mr Srisuwan must certainly know, despite even the best of intentions, any project can experience “challenges” in its execution.

While we would hope that all of those responsible for implementing royally initiated projects would respect the intentions of their Royal Majesties, we cannot assume, as Mr Srisuwan apparently does, that this will be the case in actual practice.

Should any discrepancies be found in their implementation, or even any signs that they are less than perfect, then any evaluator would surely fear that royalist watchdogs such as Mr Srisuwan would pounce.

Short of an effective system for objective review and evaluation of the projects, there is no way that we can verify the comments made by Mr Padipat. But should such an evaluation somehow be possible, and Mr Padipat’s comments found to be grounded, would that not be in keeping with the original intentions of their Royal Majesties that projects benefit the people? N PARKER