Let’s not return to the dark days before the coup

Here we go again, crying about the current “dictatorship”, how unfair and undemocratic it is. Yes, it is undemocratic, but it is essential for stability. What is the alternative? The alternative is that which preceded the coup.
Thailand was a failed state. Is that what people want, another failed state due to laws not being enforced? Do people want to return to the fiasco of 2010, when those crying out for their interpretation of democracy set fire to Central World in Bangkok right opposite police headquarters, where the gates were kept closed? The government was forced to call in the military to restore law and order.
Do you want a return to the days before the coup, with a partisan armed police force supporting the Shinawatra family; where red shirts, calling for democracy, said they exclusively wanted a member of that same family to run the country? They were the same people who terrorised judges with whom they disagreed. 
The same people were found harbouring a huge arms cache. The same people chanted, “Respect my vote” while stamping on photos of the late, great King Bhumibol.
Our late great leader showed Thailand, the country he so loved, the incredible potential it had as a sovereign nation. Unfortunately His Late Majesty was let down by the lack of fair and just law enforcement. There is far more to democracy than the right to vote. It is government of laws, not people.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha continually calls for attitude adjustment. That can best be achieved by enforcing the law across the whole of society, for rich and poor equally. When that is firmly established and understood, the country will become a jewel of a democracy that will honour our late King and our present King.
JC Wilcox