Chalerm's bill will mark Thailand as a cruel backward state
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I commend you on Saturday's editorial, "Draconian Bill Ignores the Cause of the Drug Issue".
It was an incisive piece, which drew attention to this bill and its sponsor.
You rightly question the true motives of Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung. This man’s record, as you so rightly say, is highly blemished. This was the man who was part of a “drugs bust” which left an aged couple cowering behind their fridge as a hail of bullets was directed at them.
Notwithstanding this fiasco, what you draw into focus is that the last deplorable phase of the ‘War on Drugs’ when 2,500 people were killed was not the subject of public outcry and you chose to label Thai society weak. I would go further and choose the word ‘flawed’.
If a society sees no problem in its police simply killing people, it is not simply lacking – it is fundamentally flawed.
Given this the likes of Chalerm can prosper and happily claim they indulge in their excesses in the name of the people and thus it is democratic and thus proper. Just because the majority approves of something does not make it morally acceptable.
Policies that do not impinge on morality can most certainly be claimed to be democratically based and thus be proper in a democratic society. But extra-judicial killings are not acceptable to the civilised world and if Thailand deems them to be acceptable, then Thailand must be prepared to be seen as a backward and uncivilised country, and treated as such.
It is always the Thai way to address the appearance of something and not the underlying causes. And predictably the fix does not succeed and the problem persists.
If this bill is enacted and Chalerm gets his way in seeking to execute those convicted, his thuggish tendencies will be transferred to the state and Thailand will reap the results of being seen as a brutal and cruel state that kills rather than rehabilitates.
John Patterson
Bangkok
