OPINION

Protection pretence

Atiya Achakulwisut, in her Dec 1 commentary, rightly points out how the application of any such law as Section 112 of Thailand's criminal code [lese majeste] can only undermine the institutions it deceitfully claims to protect. The logically certain reality is more deeply corrosive.

Since undemocratic laws such as Section 112 place an unspeakable veil around whatever is placed off limits, they make it impossible to know whether and to what extent the carefully crafted image matches the reality. No matter how many perfectly true and verifiable details paint a rosy picture, legally forced censorship entails the certain possibility that the rosiness is in reality a cover for something concealed by the law that prejudicially favours image over reality. By so dictating that appearance trumps truth, that law can only undermine the very possibility of informed, rational respect for whatever it makes unknowable, what it cloaks in mystery.

Mystery is an excellent thing to have in an Agatha Christie mystery. There, the worth of the mystery comes from its resolution by the truth being laid out clearly in the end. Until the annoying Poirot or nosey Miss Marple lay out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, with rigorous analysis connecting the dots that show how each detail contributes to the correctly seen overall picture, the mystery enables false perceptions to run riot, with the guilty appearing good and the good guilty.

It is as irrational as it is immoral to have any feeling save a desire to discover the reality behind every mystery, mystery being always an admission of ignorance. When mystery is made legally sacrosanct, the healthy response by rational, moral individuals must be suspicion that something not entirely nice is being protected from just exposure.

Thus does Section 112 necessarily prove itself, and those who resort to it, the enemies of informed respect, thereby undermining what it falsely pretends to protect.

Reports of a Thai woman bringing Covid into Thailand from Myanmar (BP, Nov 30) fills me with despair after all the efforts the Thai government has gone to to keep the virus out. From recent reports it has been clear that the porous border with Myanmar represents the number one pandemic threat to Thailand. The fact that it was a Thai woman and that she apparently crossed the border without being stopped for quarantine, makes matters worse. Whether she crossed at an official border is still unclear, but whatever, the woman was completely irresponsible. Despite indications that she might have Covid, she nonetheless carried on in Chiang Mai as if all was normal. If she turns out to be a super-spreader, then she may have started a second wave. No doubt heads will roll, but too late, the cat's already out the bag.

The Nov 29 letter, "Army cannot have it both ways", shows how little the writer understands Thailand, where the army can have its cake and eat it, too. Yup, it can indeed have it both ways.