Preachers' hypocrisy
Re: "Is this the end for reckless populism?", (Opinion, Dec 4).
What a joy to read Gwynne Dyer's piece setting out some honest truths about authoritarian, law-and-order types. Such populist brutes are, by their very natures, morally suspect. They are often little more than brutish dictators dressed up in militaresque uniforms, even if supposedly civil servants. And as the example of Jozsef Szajer, the "ultra-nationalist, populist, authoritarian grouping that defends 'family values' and condemns homosexuality" shows us, such people are often remarkable for personal lives that flatly contradict their morally stunted preaching about how others should live their lives. They offer simplistic solutions to complex problems and in doing so not only lie about reality, but outlaw real solutions that are good for society. Naturally, vicious censorship is needed to protect the public myth from the threat of just exposure by the reality of the grossly self-indulgent lifestyles of such preachers of chastity, simplicity, sufficiency, monogamy, marital fidelity and the like from becoming known and discussed as reality should be.
As the protesters on its streets well know, exactly the same mismatch is all too common in Thailand. Look at the chasm between the pious preaching of monks who live in literally gilded temples whilst preaching sufficiency. And the sex lives of Thai monks are far too uncomfortably similar to that of Catholic priests and bishops preaching abstinence as they abuse children and the powerless under their control. But this is merely in the ostensibly sacred realm.
In the avowedly secular realm, there is the regularly repeated Thai example of those who preach law and order, despite having overthrown the supreme rule of law, and in the current case, then having failed and persistently refused to make the oath of allegiance to "also uphold and observe the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand in every respect" (Thai Constitution, Section 161). But in the land of no compromise, why would blatant hypocrisy stand out? Modern Thai history of the past 70 years at least teaches that such deceits, protected by unjust law made up for that purpose, are the normal superficial gloss of preaching good morals by those who would not know a good moral if it bit them.
To take one specific Thai example, look at Thaksin Shinawatra's ultra-nationalist excuses for his law-and-order authoritarian killing of thousands of Thai citizens. His drug war killings were evil that many others were complicit in. In fact, it is such things as his populist drug war killings, with support from the morally compromised, that show Thaksin to have had and to still have today far more in common with the current Thai prime minister, who staged a coup to make himself PM, than he does with such eminently new people as Thanatorn, Move Forward and the protesters on the streets, who would no more want the authoritarian old-style Thaksin than they do his replacement in Prayut. Naturally, those who ousted Thaksin did not care to press the charges of killing thousands in morally indefensible drug wars but instead made up silly political charges. It's all most convenient and too traditionally Thai.
Felix Qui