The peril of free speech

Burin Kantabutra seems to have overlooked the fact that there is also no free speech without democracy. Democracy spawned the principle of free speech in the first place. If freedom of expression undermines democracy, as it has in Thailand, it must be put on hold until democracy can be understood and established. Campaigning for an undemocratic oligarchy by force of arms while claiming to champion democracy has denied the very existence of democracy and produced an “un-elected prime minister”.

According to Eric Bahrt, multiethnic and multicultural Penang, while being predominantly Muslim, enjoys freedom of expression and movement of people. That of course is how it should be. Unfortunately, the rest of the world does not enjoy the same religious tolerance and social cohesion as Penang. 

The abuse of free speech is threatening democracy in Thailand and much of the West. Here, democracy is denied by those who confuse it with dictatorship (the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship), and in the rest of the world it is under attack from a totalitarian ideology. The first is caused through lack of understanding of democracy. The latter is due to adherents to an invasive, alien seventh-century ideology aggressively imposing anti-democratic Sharia law.

In both cases, freedom of expression becomes democracy’s greatest threat. This is the ultimate irony. Anti-democracy free speech must be controlled, as the Thai junta is wisely doing. 

Western democracies must do the same and ban anti-democracy hate speech both in mosques and on the streets.

JC Wilcox