When a government uses authoritarian measures to suppress political activism, there will be casualties of various kinds. Last week PPT posted (here and here) on the extraordinary and apparently illegal arrest of a flip-flop seller. The story also received attention at Bangkok Pundit.
Prachatai now has a report of a homeless man who has been in military and police custody since 16 May for breaking the provisions of the emergency decree. His claim is that he was going about his normal business of scavenging and playing takraw with friends. That “suspicious” activity landed him in jail and, more remarkably, has seen his case come to court, with military and police prosecution witnesses.
Some will see cases like these as justified, as in the bizarre account of a National Human Rights Commissioner on the flip-flop seller, while others will see such cases as “unavoidable” in a broader effort to enforce “law and order” and to remove those who might be dangerous for the established order. However, the measure of a government and a society is how its laws are used and abused. In both these cases, poor and disadvantaged people are being abused.
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