More on the advisory committee on lese majeste

The Bangkok Post (15 January 2010) reports that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva continues to plug his new advisory board on the lese majeste law as being able to “create clarity.” He added: “I hope in not too long, perhaps a few months’ time, there will be clear guidance and a lot of cases that are sitting with the police and attorney general will be cleared…”.

That could be read in all kinds of ways. It could mean pushing pending cases through the courts. In The Nation, 15 January 2010), the premier admitted that “some people thought the law was being too liberally interpreted and abused, while some thought the law was too lax.”

In fact, as reported at Prachatai (14 January 2010), the “Advisory Committee on National Security Cases Involving the Monarchy, with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice as chair.” The Committee has been told to take “responsibility of advising the police, DSI and ICT Ministry on the careful, appropriate and fair conduct of lèse majesté cases.” The Director-General of the Department of Special Investigation is the Committee’s secretary.

The first formal meeting of the new Committee took place on 12 January, just hours before Amnesty International announced its support for the new committee. How cosy are AI’s links with the government on lese majeste? How much clarity will there really be? Is the Computer Crimes Act included in the Committee’s work? Why not just dump this political law?

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