absolutelyBangkok archive · Health, body & mind
Originally published March 19, 2009
Thailand’s proposed booze ban over Thailand’s booziest holiday of the year is another of those grand superficial initiatives serving a few’s ideological interest at the expense of freedom of choice, ignoring the simple fact that a grown up person should be quite able to think for oneself. A prohibition would be the political paternalism we’ve observed over the past few months gone pseudo-moral.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that fridges would be stocked up in time for the holiday. Add the government’s 2,000 baht cheque that should reach most households in time. How to spend that money. No alcohol would be un-Thai? But then again, the argument of the prohibitionists is a valid one: every life saved is worth the few hours of alcoholic deprivation.
A pipe dream. Not only will it be difficult to statistically any reduction in road accidents. Or does the current prohibition of limited sales of alcohol around noon and in the evenings limit anyone’s alcohol consumption? Another ban seems to be just another burdensomeness — like the closure of gas stations under Thaksin after midnight to save fuel.
You may have been forced to having a nap in the middle of nowhere and wait until the gas pump opened again in early morning. But did you drive one kilometer less because of the gasoline prohibition?
Or has any alcohol ban before elections given you a better government?
A prohibition per definition leads to a whole set of new issues and problems. The law’s most easily circumvented in Thailand by your friendly mom-and-pop store around the corner. And if teenager or party-goer remains dry and still wants to get knocked out, well, there are always those brightly colored pills available somewhere nearby.
Maybe a better way to prevent staggering death tolls over Songkran would be a more responsible social and educational environment from the cradle onwards to nurse a sense of responsibility. If people are not able to figure out for themselves what’s good and what’s bad, how can a ban solve something that hasn’t worked as intended anywhere in the world.
Thailand doesn’t need even more patronizing and dominating behavior from the top. I anyway doubt the Songkran ban will ever happen. A sign at least that the moral crusaders of the People’s Alliance for Democracy PAD remain somehow lonely crusaders in their attempt to purify society.
See how relieved America celebrated the end of the long suffering after 14 years of prohibition. Or do we wanna step back in time not only politically?
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