Asia Times: Purist pursuits of a pathetic fool


	September 4, 2001	atimes.com

Editorials

Purist pursuits of a pathetic fool

Count Mirabeau, a moderate leader of the French Revolution, once said of Maximilien Robespierre ("The Incorruptible"), "He will go far; he believes everything he says." And far he went, the bespectacled, smug and self-righteous little man with the cat-face who seized control of the Committee of Public Safety had thousands executed in the name of virtue.

It would be silly to draw comparisons between the pursuits of Robespierre, the world-historical criminal in the name of moral rectitude, and those of Purachai Piumsombun, the pathetic little academic and narrow-minded bureaucrat become Thai Interior Minister who wants to foist a virtuous "new social order" on Thailand and has chosen strict enforcement of a 1966 law on 2am closing times for night entertainment places throughout the Kingdom as his preferred tool. To date, to the best of our knowledge, no one has been killed as the result of Purachai's moral crusade - except, perhaps, a number of convicted narcotics offenders whose execution date (by firing squad) may have been brought up. "From now on we will conduct weekly executions against drugs offenders ... to send a clear signal to drug traffickers that this government is serious about taking tough action against them," Purachai announced in April.

But there are the obvious psychological comparisons between all self-righteous, self-important, self-styled virtuous activists whose means of blind pursuit become the greater threat than the evils they seek to eradicate. And there is one further point of comparison we find worth pursuing: the Jacobin reign of moral terror finally came to an end (as did Robespierre and his cohorts) when at first small numbers, then ever more of its opponents, showed up at revolutionary tribunals and execution sites exclaiming, "Ca ridicule" (that's ridiculous). Caustic commentary and laughter proved the most potent weapon against the terror of the purist few.

And god knows there's plenty of room for caustic comment and laughter when it comes to Purachai's ridiculous campaign. Responding to complaints that by religiously enforcing early closing hours he is hurting tourism, slashing the incomes of workers in the industry and taking police from more important crime-busting duties, Purachai said last week, "Tourists are here because they want to see natural beauty ... They don't want to see exotic dancers or take drugs. The nightlife is secondary."

What "natural beauty" he didn't say or care to explore, but he might take a look at Thai tourism statistics: unlike in most other countries, male visitors to Thailand outnumber female visitors three to two. No one will or should object to strict enforcement of anti-drug laws or employment and exploitation of children in the night entertainment business. Trouble is, this has little or nothing to do with enforcement of early closing hours, and the interior minister's campaign becomes ridiculous bordering on the absurd when, along with his concern over drug abuse and prostitution of minors, he motivates his crusade by proclaiming that he wishes to bring back the Thai lady of "the good old days" who maintained modesty and valued the importance of virginity, adding, "Thai ladies in the old time would never walk so close to their boyfriends like modern girls are now doing."

Singapore night entertainment places close at 4am; Hong Kong has no legal closing hours in its night districts. Bars and discos close when there are no more customers. But drug abuse compared to Thailand is minimal, prostitution by locals now nearly unheard of - the latter a function of economic advance, the former of uncompromising law enforcement by well-paid police forces that need not resort to bribe-taking to make a decent living. Economic progress will have the same effect over time in Thailand and the Philippines. But one of the - we assume unintended - side effects of Mr Purachai's campaign is that Thai women in ever larger numbers are now flocking to Hong Kong and Singapore where the money is better and harassment less.

With his social engineering tactics, Purachai is driving part of the night entertainment business underground and more desperate Thai women out of the country. Such a campaign is quite obviously not what Thailand requires at this point in time. From weekend reports, it appears that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is taking the counsel of some of his advisers to heart and asking Purachai to tone down his quixotic pursuit. In the meantime, we recommend the tactic of ridicule and outright laughter to stop the purist pursuits of a pathetic crusader.

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