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Thai academics are well-known voices on television and radio as analysts and commentators providing lively debate on politics. But broadcasting freely is no longer a simple and safe matter since the government crackdown against Red Shirt protesters in May.

[...]

“Many professors are reluctant to take sides, often they censor themselves. If I talk about linguistics I have to be [politically] neutral,” said Suda Rangkupan, a lecturer in linguistics at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

[...]

Prestigious Chulalongkorn University in the heart of Bangkok sought to distance itself from comments made by its academics. In a letter, the university said they should not refer to their university affiliation when commenting on broadcast media or in interviews.

“We are not allowed to say we are from Chulalongkorn. The university authorities believe people will be convinced by what we say because we have respect in society as academics of this university,” Suda said.

[...]

“(…) In the second week of June I found in my mailbox an official note from the head asking for cooperation from every faculty member not to talk about politics in classes and not to encourage students to join the [red shirt] movement.”

So Chula did not say it would totally forbid its professors from airing political views; they only need to make sure they don’t “refer to their university affiliation” when they do so. Oh sure, the audience aren’t ever going to find out who they are.

Also, Suda Rangkupan is a red shirt supporter. It was not clear from the report whether any similar warnings were sent out to yellow shirt academics.

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[T]he government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva clearly cares about how foreigners view Thailand and how foreign takes should be consistent and conform to official positions.

The government does not seem to detest the foreign media per se. It selectively prefers the foreign perceptions that toe the official worldview from Bangkok, support the status quo, and obey the mainstream narrative.

For example, the appointment of Ambassador Sihasak Phuangketkeow, Thailand’s permanent representative in Geneva, as president of the United Nations Human Rights Council, has been touted and portrayed as the acceptance and understanding by the international community of the Thai authorities’ handling of the domestic unrest and deadly violence in recent months.

Prior to this high-level international appointment, senior Thai officials have lambasted certain foreign governments for allowing convicted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra freedom of movement in their countries.

I suppose the government is not worried as much about the Thai media, given that Colonel Sansern seems to have been attracting much of their recent attention.

p.s. Read more about Sihasak’s appointment as the UNHRC president here.

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Bangkok’s Democracy Monument (photo credit: minikin on Flickr)

The Nation’s Thanong wrote this on Twitter (h/t Bangkok Pundit) :

Don’t be misled by Freedom, Human rights, Democracy, globalisation and other crazy fashionable ideas. They are poisonous and hollow.

And this is what PAD’s Sondhi Limthongkul said on ASTV two months ago :

Sondhi also opines that he does not believe in the majoritarian system because Parliament is a place of evil. He will fight against the one-man-one-vote system because he wants a ‘Dharma-ocracy’ instead. If Mr Abhisit cannot achieve it, there should be a military coup. He adds that no one is bloodthirsty; people are just doing their duties.

Look, people like these two actually deserve some credits for speaking their minds so clearly. As a friend told me a while ago, these openly anti-democratic folks are much, much more tolerable than those confused, delusional politicians and elites who claim to stand for democracy but whose actions suggest otherwise.

Adding to that, ‘democracy’ is a loaded term anyway, and there are plenty of perfectly valid criticisms that can be made against what we perceive as a democratic system of government in today’s world. Is representative democracy the best system of government out there? Do politicians really listen to the people? Do ethics matter in politics? Some of what people like Sondhi say may sound crazy, but one should not be so quick to dismiss all of them as irrelevant or outdated. What Thailand really needs today is a serious, honest debate about the kind of politics we want to see and why. Everyone, at least within reasonable limits, should be free to voice their opinion without any inhibition or threats. I would encourage more of those who share Thanong’s and Sondhi’s views to similarly speak up rather than continue to pretend to love democracy for whatever fuzzy reasons they can think of.

p.s. In Sondhi’s case, why he still remains a co-leader of a movement that calls itself an alliance for “democracy” is beyond me.

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—

May 2010

Dr. Neric O. Acosta
Secretary General and Interim Executive Director
Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats
7-B Amorsolo Street,
San Lorenzo Village,
Makati City 1223 Philippines

Subject: Continuing abuse of power by Mr. Abhisit Vejajiva in Thailand

Dear Dr. Acosta,

We are a group of concerned scholars, civil society organisations, human rights organisations, students, and individuals who are writing to you to raise your concerns on the recent bloody crackdown by the Democrat Party-led government under Mr. Abhisit Vejajiva. Democrat Party is a member of the Council of Asian Liberal and Democrats (CALD).

There has been confirmed reports by international journalists and rights organisations of the military personnel under the order of Mr. Abhisit have been firing live ammunitions into the crowd of the opposition protest group, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) also known as the “red shirt” resulting in the death of at least 22 unarmed protesters and at least 200 protesters injured, and the number is rising as we speak. The government is also putting military snipers on skyscrapers around the area targeting at the protesters.

There are also reports of at least 10 Thai and international journalists being injured via gunshot by the military. There are roughly 10,000 protesters in the site, women and children among them and the government has the policy to crackdown on these protesters. This atrocity adds up to the death tolls in the 10 April 2010 crackdown by the government which claimed the lives of 20 protesters and more than 800 peoples injured.

In the past two months, Thailand has been ruled under the grip of the emergency decree giving the absolute power to the Prime Minister to summon and arrest anyone critical of the government. On 13 May 2010, Mr. Abhisit has signed an order in imposing State of Emergency in 15 provinces in the country in an attempt to allow Thai peoples to join the protest site in Bangkok. Human Rights Watch has reported that hundreds of opposition politicians, student activists, media workers, and individuals have been summoned by the government for questioning. Furthermore, more than 1,030 political and news website have been summarily shut down under the order of Mr. Abhisit.

We therefore are writing to you to express our utmost concerns about the recent bloody crackdown and for you to take immediate possible action with the leadership of the Democrat Party. The atrocities and excessive uses of forces by prohibit those voicing opposition to his government as committed under Mr. Abhisit will undermined the principles to respect human rights and democracy as respected by CALD. Governments cannot simply shoot guns at its citizens who think different than them.

Furthermore, the continuing abuse of power by Mr. Abhisit is a direct contradiction to the charter of CALD and its Manifesto for Transparency, Accountability and Access to Information which calls for CALD members that “CALD member party must be in consistent with its policies of good governance when it is in power”.

Sincerely yours,

Signatories

The petition will be sent to members of the CALD, including:

Liberal Party of Sri Lanka, member of CALD
Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan, member of CALD
Liberal Party of the Philippines, member of CALD
Singapore Democratic Party, member of CALD
Sam Rainsy Party of Cambodia, member of CALD
Inter-Parliamentary Union Secretariat
Liberal International Secretariat

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Wassana Nanuam (photo credit)

Wassana Nanuam, a Bangkok Post reporter and columnist specialising in military affairs, has “temporarily” left her job as a co-host of the “Lab Luang Prang” radio show on the state-controlled MCOT‘s FM 100.5 MHz. Siam Report has the details, based on a report in the Thai language daily Khao Sod. Key excerpt:

Khao Sod says the reason Wassana stopped doing the program is because Suthep (Deputy PM, Security) ordered no interviews with “red soldiers”, only interviews with soldiers who support the government. Wassana thinks this situation doesn’t allow her to fulfill her duty as a reporter. Normally, Lab Luang Prang has balanced interviews with soldiers from both colors and sides. But when the government only allows interviews from one side, it doesn’t follow the program objective. It becomes a program that attacks the government opposition, and there are many of these kinds of programs already.

Wassana is not the only one in the media who has faced pressure and intimidation in recent days. Channel 3 reporter Thapanee Eiadseechai also got into hot water over her reporting of the grenade attacks at Silom on 22 April. As far as I know, what got her into trouble was a series of tweets (which have since been removed) on her twitter account documenting the confrontation between police forces and army forces. Khao Sod (in Thai) claims that Channel 3 has ordered Thapanee to stop covering the Bangkok rallies and also to delete all her tweets.

Last year, broadcaster Jom Petpradab caused a stir when he interviewed Thaksin on his radio show, coincidentally also on MCOT’s FM 100.5 MHz (see here and here). According to Jom’s own statement (available here), he resigned from his position at MCOT following the incident because “the government [had] placed substantial pressure on [his] coworkers and [he did] not want them to continue to work in fear of government reprisal.”

Jom now works for Voice TV, a TV station run by Thaksin’s children.

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Ambitious. Foolish. Self-indulgent. Whatever you call it, I would like to announce my decision to venture into the world of political blogging.

It goes without saying that the last few years have been extraordinary for Thailand. Since the 2006 coup, we have had a new constitution, four Prime Ministers, two rounds of party dissolution and two rival colour-coded street movements with unprecedented significance.

Perhaps due to the striking images of the closure of the two airports or the burning buses in the middle of the city, it is a common practice for both Thai and foreign observers to label the post-coup years as a period of turbulence. Yet, for all its obvious faults, one important benefit brought about by the coup is the dramatic increase in political participation and awareness of the general public, at least if that is measured in terms of visibility. The growing willingness of the Thai population to exert influence over matters that were previously reserved for politicians, career bureaucrats and the ‘elites’, can only be a good thing in my book.

Against this backdrop, this blog will serve as a way for me to add my voice to the ongoing public debate regarding where our country is headed. It should be clear to observers of Thai politics that nothing is ever predictable, and many uncertainties still lie ahead. Thus, it is highly important for people to be allowed and even encouraged to engage freely in debates on the topics of their choice.

Having said that, I am fully aware of the existing regulations on what can and cannot be discussed in this country. I do not intend to make myself anonymous, and readers are welcome to follow my tweets or become my Facebook friend. I suppose the price to pay for being publicly accessible is that I will have to moderate comments and readers are requested to avoid making comments that might spell trouble for me as the owner of this blog.

That is all I have to say for now. So stay tuned and watch this space.

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