Poisonous silence
Re: "'Mai pen rai' paradox: from kindness to toxic silence", (Life, Jan 7).
Juranan Soranet is spot on: Silence in the face of either honest mistakes or of deliberately bad ethics is toxic. As she explains, the cost of such silence is both personal and public. It is not made better for the public sphere when bad law dictates such silence. The toxicity of such silence regarding major political players and related acts was blatantly demonstrated after the May 2023 election. That election proved Move Forward, and every one of its raft of policies was the people's popular choice.
As such as honest mistakes have not been corrected. Bad ethics have not been called out as deserved.
This is harmful not only politically and socially, but also morally and economically: Thailand could and should have long been much wealthier and far more just for all Thai citizens, not continually mired in traditional corruption, double standards, and like diseases eating out the nation's wealth as justice and good ethics are trampled underfoot. Thailand could have become and should today be as flourishing as Taiwan and South Korea. It is not.
It is possible that I am completely wrong in thinking thus. I don't know. However, thanks to those same repressive laws imprisoning patriots who speak out, unethically disbanding popular political parties, banning honest, genuinely respected politicians, attacking citizens who seek informed opinion of worth, and now even silencing talk of long overdue reform, no contrary opinion can in fact be substantiated. It is indeed, as the Post headlines it, a paradox.
