It just gets worse and worse as the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime becomes farcical in its attempts to silent opposition.
Flip-flops that mean jail
Not that long ago PPT posted on the sorry tale of a flip-flop seller arrested (we think) illegally under a non-existent emergency decree in Ayudhya for selling flip-flops with the faces of Abhisit and his then Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban, linking them to the death of red shirts at Rajaprasong.
PPT had hoped that the stupid people responsible for arresting Amornwan Charoenkij would quickly realize that a case like this makes Thailand an international laughing stock. More, we hoped that they recognized that their actions were damaging to the country when double standards demonstrated that out-of-control state authorities were bent on stamping out every act of “rebellion”, no matter how minute.
Double standard slippers sold at PAD rallies
But no, the stupidity of the repressive regime is demonstrated further.
Prachatai reports that Amorn has been charged with “distorting facts about the killings at Ratchaprasong and offending traditional Thai morals for putting the faces of Abhisit and Suthep on her flip-flops.”
Amornwan’s case has, it is said, “been vetted by a joint committee composed of various police commanders, because the case has attracted much public attention.” Defying logic and justice, if not the law, these commanders decided that Amornwan is a criminal red shirt and will face “additional charges…”. They also continue to emphasize the emergency decree, as if it is in effect where she was arrested.
Two of the most senior police in the province consider the 20 baht flip-flops to be “printed materials which contained messages which might cause panic or misunderstanding among the public about the emergency situation, affecting national security or the good morals of the people, under the Emergency Decree and its derivative regulations issued on 7 April 2010.”
In fact, the actions by these apparently empty-headed police are not simply idiocy at work. Rather, they are part of a broader pattern of repression and authoritarianism that have become the currency of the Abhisit regime.
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