OPINION

UnDemocrat Party?

Re: "Broken Dems fail to rise from the ashes", (Opinion, Dec 11).

The recent history of Thailand's "hilariously misnamed Democrat Party", as Time magazine described it in November of 2013, when it was already clear that that party and its former members were intent on paving the way to again overthrow Thailand's "democratic regime of government", is neatly summarised by the Post columnist Veera Prateepchaikul.

Whilst speaking airily of "the party's principles and ideologies", Veera did not, however, dare to actually specify what of those doubtless lofty-sounding principles and ideologies might be: a wise decision.

The Democrat Party's problem is that an increasingly large percentage of the electorate now understand what democracy is, and they want it. That is why Move Forward, not the Democrat Party, won the vote on May 14, with 38% of voters supporting the flagship policies of that party, whose principles and ideology are solidly democratic, in marked contrast to the Democrat Party, which does not even now have the decency to support Move Forward's proposed reform of section 112 of the Criminal Code, which blatantly contradicts basic democratic principle. Have the Democrats even come out to support the democratic party's proposed amnesty bill to allow the nation to start moving forward?

The Democrat Party deserve, at most, the level of support they still have. It would be wonderful to see that change. It would also be wonderful to see education reform, and police reform, and military reform. But those are all things that Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was put in place to prevent after some were apparently shocked at what the Thai nation voted for on May 14.

No air oversight

Re: "Govt sends out alert on PM2.5 risk", (BP, Dec 7).

In this respect, consider the choking air quality in Gaza Strip locations from relentless air strikes and infrastructure obliteration, among all the other multiple horrors that are being inflicted on civilian Palestinians and the brave souls from international organisations who are try to help them.

Our air pollution problem is an acknowledged irritating annual itch in comparison that the authorities always ponderously decry. However, they never address the root causes of the problem as no one dares to take direct oversight and crack down on the offenders as the result might backfire on their position(s).

Double downside

Re: "Silencing the critics", (PostBag, Dec 7) and "Seeing red", (PostBag, Dec 6).

I would have to agree with Eric Bahrt in letter "Silencing the critics" that the supposed benefits which the Prayut regime brought to the Thai people were not worth the freedoms which were lost.

Anyways, I think its debatable how much benefit that the military or democratically elected Prayut governments really brought to the populace. It seemed to me that the economy was in worse shape under the Prayut governments than they were under the previous democratically elected regimes. So then Thailand was both less free and in worse economic shape than previously.

This hardly is preferable to the supposed order and stability that the Prayut governments brought to the Thai populace.