Patriotism is love of one's country, not of a person
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Re: "Patriotism - the first refuge for hypocrites", Letters, July 21.
Eric Bahrt asks “What is Patriotism?” and goes on to suggest that it is a matter of opinion and support for a person or group of people. It is not.
So-called patriotism that is born of naivety or ignorance and proves to be harmful to the country concerned is unpatriotic. People may believe they are being patriotic but that is not the same as “being” patriotic.
For example, if a country claims to be democratically governed, then support for any person or action that is undemocratic is not patriotic. While a person out of naivety may genuinely believe they are patriotic, reality proves otherwise.
True patriotism is rather like true democracy; neither can exist if they are not understood in the first palace.
The writer states, “whether a Thai supports Thaksin Shinawatra, the Democrats or the military junta, he is patriotic if he sincerely believes that his political philosophy is the one that best serves Thailand”.
Here we see Mr Bahrt completely miss the point. Patriotism is not about support for any one person or group of people, it is about support for your country, what it stands for and the interests of its defence.
Blindly supporting any person, authority or government has nothing to do with patriotism, as we saw in 2010 at Ratchaprasong when CentralWorld was attacked by arsonists.
On the other hand, the protests of 2013-’14 were inspired by true patriotism. Patriots stood against a government motivated by self-interest as opposed to the national interest.
The actions of any government must be constantly judged by one criterion: Are they in the interests of the country? The person who does that is a true patriot.
JC Wilcox
