3 ms·
I really had a moral problem with this in Thailand. It's an amazing country, beautiful, and the people are incredibly friendly, but they also seem pretty toler
by ethbro 10y ago
I really had a moral problem with this in Thailand.
It's an amazing country, beautiful, and the people are incredibly friendly, but they also seem pretty tolerant of the government keeping some ridiculous laws on the books and wielding them for obviously political purposes.
To me, doesn't matter if the king's a saint or a devil: let the people freely voice their own opinion.
- emodendroket 10y agoCuriously Thailand's monarch himself spoke out against lese-majeste laws.
- ssambros 10y agoOh no, poor monarch, if only he could do something about those laws, for example abolish them. But apparently he is powerless, and can only "speak out" against those laws, right?
- emodendroket 10y agoI'm not an expert, but I do not think the Thai king can make law by edict any more than the king of the United Kingdom can. I point it out mostly because I remembered reading an article where he said "people must be able to criticize me" and then days later people were prosecuted for doing just that.
- ethbro 10y agoYou mean the same king who obtained his political power by directly supporting a coup (in the name of lèse-majesté) against the military government which was sidelining him? And supported the Thammasat University massacre (also carried out in the name of lèse-majesté)? I get that he'd spoken out at various times against it. But he also benefited enormously from it and wielded it when it suited his purposes. (Some of which were arguably for the greater good given what was happening in the region)
- emodendroket 10y agoHey, I'm not claiming he's an enlightened figure.
- snrplfth 10y agoTo be fair, given the neighbours, Thailand seems pretty mild on the issue of "ridiculous laws wielded for obviously political purposes."