Re: "Time to lift rights bans", (Editorial, Sept 17).
Whilst the Bangkok Post is doubtless sincere in the editorial, that sincerity clearly fails to understand some basic governing principles of the Thai nation.
First, although some were duty bound on May 22, 2014, to cancel the democratic constitutional monarchy that had previously existed, the cancellation of which repeated a dozen equally well-intended precedents in Thai modern history, such wickedness as peacefully calling for discussion of the political structure of the Thai nation is not to be permitted to less exemplary Thai citizens.
If all Thai people were respected as though they had the dignity accorded to free people, as if they were endowed with basic human rights such as the freedom to peacefully state an opinion on matters of national importance, they might very well start thinking that they are in fact a free people entitled to a democratic voice in their nation's affairs, thereby undoing the achievements of the example-setting politicians who have governed since May 2014 after they appointed themselves the ruling politicians of the Thai state that had suddenly been reformed into something very other than a democratic constitutional monarchy.
Such an unwarranted aspiration to liberty by the Thai masses will never do. What, after all, was the point of the coup if not to stamp out that un-Thai notion that Thai people are free, that they have basic human rights consistent with a constitutional monarchy that respects democratic principles?
Naturally, a few do have a duty to shoulder the burden of freedom; but this duty should be limited to those who make up the rule of law to help the rest maintain their proper places, where tradition allows them the privilege of serving the nation and its generous abundance of army generals diligently protecting the interests of those select Thais who are apparently free to say and do whatever they want, including giving themselves and their loyal allies both actual and de facto amnesties in case the law has loopholes that might allow the better sort to be treated as the poorer type, an aberration not to be borne.
It is not, after all, as though the word "Thai" looked anything remotely like the word "free": they don't even share a single letter!
Felix Qui
Nuclear power out
In a blow to climate change activists whose cause supports (openly or covertly) nuclear energy, Hurricane Florence has caused an alarming emergency at the Brunswick nuclear power plant in North Carolina.
Taking a direct hit by the eye of the storm and experiencing severe flooding, plant operators have been forced to perform a hot shutdown which can take weeks to complete. Unfortunately all plant personnel have been prohibited access to the site and the shutdown procedure is being done without requisite human supervision. This situation illuminates once again the high risk associated with nuclear energy, as if the Fukushima and Chernobyl events were not convincing enough.
The world needs to learn from these examples and put an end to conventional nuclear power.
Michael Setter
Crane blame game
Re: "Sala Daeng crane collapses onto shop, cars, power lines", (Online, Sept 14).
Regarding the crane accident in Silom, Bangkok, I believed those type of cranes used for construction of high-rise buildings were not ready-made products by crane manufacturers, but fabricated by the construction contractor to fit the work on the construction site.
Who has the authority to examine and approve as "safe" those cranes before they are put into operation, to prevent such accidents?
RH Suga
Lamphun
Winds of change
Two major hurricanes hitting the US almost simultaneously (Irma and Harvey, 2017) was said to be a one in a four-million-year occurrence. In the wake of recent hurricanes and typhoons, are we talking about a one-in-a-trillion-year occurrence? Does anyone still believe climate change is a hoax? Yet Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Change agreement. Another reason that psycho has to leave the White House!
Eric Bahrt
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