At the Bangkok Post there is an interview with the remarkably brave Kan Thoob, who is due to appear before the police to answer lese majeste accusations on 11 February. The allegations are said to relate to complaints about alleged Facebook posts she made while a minor, almost two years ago.

It seems lese majeste repression applies to children as well as adults. Of course, the hate-filled ultra-royalists at the likes of ASTV/Manager are just as savage in their attacks and harassment of a minor as they are of adults they believe transgress on their sacred soil.

The Post describes that actions by ultra-royalists as a “witch hunt” as idiot royalists have hounded her.

But this brave young woman is not cowed. She plans to report to “police wearing a mask with the number 112 written on it.”

She claims that all of the complaints are fabricated, based on her Facebook page.

She is determined to continue her political activism despite threats and attacks and opposition from her family that caused her to work part-time.

As has long been known, she spoke on the red shirt stage in 2009, calling for an end to the

ammart [elite] system and embracing a full democracy according to the vision of Dr Pridi [Banomyong, former prime minister who led the civilian faction behind the 1932 coup that ended absolute monarchy].

She is still clear:

There’s inequality in the law, it’s not based on justice. As for politics, it’s too high and mighty, too lofty for ordinary people. Both are irrelevant to most people…. I believe humans can change.

When asked if she is afraid of the charges, she replies:

…I am ready to fight for bail…. Even if I’m arrested, I can live with it. I haven’t received justice since the time they filed charges against me. I’m not afraid of the police. I’m not afraid of jail.

Interestingly, she supports Nitirat but won’t sign up with them because she prefers a “petition to abolish the law.”

That is one brave kid who has already faced two years of threat and harassment.

According to the report at The Next Web, MICT permanent secretary Jeerawan Boonperm welcomed the development. The government says it will contact Twitter to begin collaboration on the new feature to censor tweets.

The report notes that:

the positive comments from Thailand’s government towards Twitter’s new move are unsurprising, given its history of censoring the Internet for lese majeste content, and there was even a campaign that proposed to block Twitter, Facebook and other services in the country.

Naturally, all of this is only about the monarchy.

What else would be expected when the climate of fear and intimidation has reached such epic proportions in royalist Thailand.

Freedom of expression hangs in the balance.

In the report there is one bit of information that is of interest for those who tweet: “For those in Thailand, or other countries where tweets may be censored, there are a number of workarounds to ensure tweets are left untouched.”

Update: PPT read this in the Bangkok Post and found it totally predictable:

Chavarong Limpattamapanee, president of the Thai Journalists Association, expressed understanding for the new policy…. “Local users must still comply with local law. Freedom of speech is a human right, but this freedom is not borderless. One must be responsible,” he said.

That any journalists’ association should support censorship is jaw dropping. That it is predictable that the TJA should support censorship is reflective of the failure of the TJA over several years. The mainstream media has been remarkably irresponsible, jettisoning any notion of neutrality and reporting in deliberately biased ways. The TJA is a disgrace.

The group is campaigning against the 2006 coup. It called for laws and rules from the coup junta to be nullified, for the lese majeste law to be modified and for Chapter 2 of the 2007 Constitution to be modified.

That the “group has called for the monarch to take an oath to protect the constitution before ascending to the throne, a position that has attracted a firestorm of controversy from all sides of the political spectrum.”

Worajate said:

For the monarch to vow to protect the charter will help prevent coups…. But the issue has been used to instigate a hate campaign against me, even though changes have been made to [Chapter 2] in the past.

Amongst other things, Worajate has “been called a traitor to the royal institute [the monarchy] for his views.” He counters that Nitirat’s proposal would “ensure the continuity of the monarchy as an institution.” Again, he called debate “based on reason, not emotion.” He stressed that the “the role of the monarchy within a democracy is an issue that needs debate.”

On this, the article states that Worajate was actually supported by the Democrat Party’s Chuan Leekpai, casting doubt on the claims made earlier.

Worajate “firmly dismissed” claims of his political allegiances:  “I am not associated with the government or any politicians…. “People have accused me of being funded by Mr Thaksin, but up until now, I have never had contact with any politicians…”.

We doubt these statements will satisfy ultra-royalists and those determined to link Nitirat to the government and with “anti-monarchy plots” and “disloyalty” or those hoping these issues can be used to overturn yet another election.

Reading The Nation it seems that some old law graduates have forgotten everything about their university. They also appear to have forgotten the most basic notions of justice that is meant to be a part of the law.

Opposing the Nitirat group of law lecturers at Thammasat and their proposals regarding lese majeste and coup-related laws, the law class of 1958 has:

issued a statement calling for an end to Nitirat’s use of the university as a venue for its activities, and alleged that the group had defamed the Royal institution. They said that since the lecturers were government officials but did not support Thai democracy with the monarchy as its head, they should be fired.

We fully understand that aged lawyers – they must all be in their mid-70s – can be forgetful of the heritage of their faculty and university and may also have forgotten the law itself. Even so, their call would be more at home from tinpot military despots than people who were once trained in law and philosophy.

But it is a class that does include some of the major political figures like the Democrat Party’s Chuan Leekpai and royalist ideologue Meechai Ruchupan. At the Bangkok Post these old men are said to be worried that Nitirat professors would have “a bad influence on the students.”  They called for

Disciplinary probes should be launched against the lecturers as they have shown they do not have faith in democracy with the King as head of state….

PPT can well imagine that these aged royalists worry that their ideological edifice is crumbling.

Of course, all of Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva’s closest allies are jumping on the anti-Nitirat train. Abhisit’s buddy Sathit Wongnongtoey is reported at The Nation as “mobilising party members to oppose the group.” When his party was in government, Sathit was responsible for closing opposition and independent media.

In a coordinated attack, Sathit claimed the country was facing “a new security threat.” He identified this as “the distorting of information about the monarchy institution to make it look bad.” We are a little mystified by this claim as most recent “information” has been pro-monarchy. Sathit demanded “[m]ore dissemination of correct information was needed…”. We wonder how much more propaganda is possible.

Another close Abhisit  aide joined in. This is Thepthai Senapong who went the additional step and linked Sathit’s claims to the Yingluck Shinawatra government. He “said the ruling Pheu Thai Party had made it clear at certain levels that they would not make a move to amend the lese majeste law. Whether people believed that or not was another matter, however, he said.” He then exploded into claims of disloyalty:

Thepthai said the lack of trust was related to the fact that many figures associated with the party, from former premier Thaksin Shinawatra down, had been embroiled in actions or words deemed as disloyal to the throne. He claimed that the ousted and convicted former premier always attacked the monarchy in interviews with foreign media.

Thepthai then did a bit of lateral concocting and said the actions and movements of people like Jakrapob Penkair and rather bizarrely, Ji Ungpakorn to claim that “people would trust Pheu Thai when it comes to the issue of the monarchy, no matter how many statements they made.” Thepthai has a history of making scurrilous claims.

PPT has made the point that ultra-royalists – be they old lawyers or the DemoPAD Party – will never accept Puea Thai no matter how royalist it makes itself. Whatever Puea Thai does, it is “disloyal” and this is the issue chosen to bring the election result undone.

For the Democrat Party and its royalist allies in the military, palace, PAD, and so on, the battle began the day the voting public rejected them.

Puea Thai has been misguided (if not politically stupid) in believing that their battle was won when it won that election. Even now surveys show that the public is not supporting the ultra-royalists and Puea Thai has far more support than the Democrat Party. But that counts for nothing with the royalists: they are not democrats and they are desperate to save their crumbling royalist regime.

Jitphat or Chitpas Bhirombhakdi, a deputy Democrat spokeswoman and hieress to the Bhriombhakdi family fortune, called for a mass rally of people loyal to the monarchy and opposed to the Nitirat proposals on reform. Essentially, royalists were to come together to swear alliegance to the monarchy as if an absolute monarchy had been re-established in Thailand.

At the Bangkok Post, Chitpas is reported to have “led a public campaign against the movements to amend Article 112 by the Nitirat group.” She presumably wants to lock more people up. So too we assume does her PAD/multi-color buddy Tul Sitthisomwong who also showed up.

Interestingly, the Post reports that the “gathering, held at the Royal Plaza, was attended by around 50 people.” We assume that the ultra-royalists will be as shocked by this tiny number as we are, and they they will organize additional rallies to show that they are more than political pawns.

Chitpas, Tul and 50 others opposing lese majeste reform (a Bangkok Post photo)

Chitpas claimed

she was speaking on behalf of a group called the Facebook Network of People Who Love the King. She said the group would also gather signatures of people who disagree with the movement to amend Article 112. She said she understood the country has to change but changes must be based on sound reasoning, not malice.

Perhaps she should also explain how it is that the Democrat Party can for years associate with PAD and Sondhi Limthongkul, a fount of malice and venom against political opponents, outspokenly opposed to electoral democracy, and who repeatedly lies to the public for political gain?

It is thus useful that the ASTV/Manager surrogate channel in English, TAN Network has produced a translation of a column that has been central to the most recent case of a cameraman working for the red shirt-supporting satellite-based Asia Update TV channel being investigated for alleged lese majeste.

The ASTV/Manager account states that it has, since the Yingluck Shinawatra government won the election in July, a focal point for “numerous complaints about controversial comments made on social networks and the cyber world … comments that could be deemed as violating lest majeste laws.”

As self-appointed cyber vigilantes, ASTV/Manager reports that a “recent incident involves an individual who calls himself ‘Tanan Maneewong’ on Facebook.”

Reporters at he Government House are said to have “received complaints” – probably from the Manager itself -  about controversial statements on Facebook. Unnamed sources are said to have seen that some of these comments “could be deemed to violate lest majeste laws and Thailand’s Computer Act.”

Somehow it came to be known that the Facebook page belonged to “a cameramen employed by the Asia Update television station and [who] is assigned to cover the prime minister’s beat.”

Conspiracy! Up goes the shout! “The station is operated by Democracy News Network Company Limited and is widely known for its support of the Yingluck administration and the red shirt movement.” The Facebook poster is then anonymously claimed not to “have a very good opinion of the institution of the monarchy and has been known to make several strong criticisms in the past.”

Of course, this is inciting hatred against the unfortunate cameraman with not a named source in sight. The conspiracy angle is meant to show the government is somehow implicated in the whole thing. As we noted above, this is vigilantism, not journalism.

The ASTV/Manager report claims the “controversial post was made on his Facebook wall on the night of January 22, but was later erased on the 23rd when his associates warned him that it could be against the law.” But this person is seen to be insincere because he commented “I can’t even have an opinion. This is so Thai.” Indeed it is, but truth is not a factor here.

And, of course, it is all reflective of the fact that the Yingluck government is “disloyal.” This alleged crime is further “evidence” for ASTV/Manager maniacal claims about “the failure of government officials to curb the anti-monarchy movement.” Note that the idea that there is a “movement” is taken as a given for the vigilante media. Even Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubumrung is not doing enough.

And it is all to clear for the PAD that this is a pattern of behavior by the hated red shirts because Asia Update television is not only red shirt but is claimed – no evidence presented – that it was “founded” by now Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Anudith Nakornthap,with red shirts also involved.

The implication is that the an anti-monarchy conspiracy is proven. We assume that investigations of the cameraman is being undertaken based on ASTV/Manager’s accusations.

Update: At the Manager, the ever more bizarre Sondhi Limthongkul has yet another “plan” revealing how Thaksin Shinawatra is allegedly to take over Thailand and overthrow the monarchy. Prachatai has a summary of this truly deranged concoction.

In essence, Sondhi plagiarized the nonsensical ideas of “Tony Cartalucci” who runs a pretty much unknown blog that draws on anti-globalist ideas and marries them with U.S. Tea Party, libertarian and  ideas that originate in extreme right-wing conspiricist groups that Sondhi has long been connected, including  Lyndon LaRouche.

“Cartalucci” is a frequent “commentator” posting at Prachatai, continually posting essentially the same “comment,” attacking Prachatai as part of a Thaksin-U.S. conspiracy. “Cartalucci” modus operandi is to “discover”  well-known facts from the web and builds them into a global conspiracy. He is connected with, amongst others, Sam Bushman’s Christian conspiracist Liberty Round Table, which invites “all Liberty-Loving Americans to join with us to restore the principles of our Founding Fathers and promote God, Family and Country in the media and our lives!”

“Tony Cartalucci’s” take on Sondhi’s bizarre rant is here.

Yellow-shirted activists have been circulating “Tony Cartalucci” material for some time and it seems that the heightened political temperature around the Nitirat, lese majeste and “loyalty” issues has given Sondhi and opportunity for these more extremist claims. Sondhi’s hope is such a concocted threat can provoke a response from ultra-nationalists. He apparently believes that the great fear will mean that royalists will grasp even extreme conspiracy nonsense more palatable. Remarkably, he’s probably right as the level of hysteria is truly amazing.

The bravery involved in standing up to the immense power of the hierarchical power of the forces that use and protect the monarchy is seen in how others squirm and flee principled political action.

The elected government under the Puea Thai Party has repeatedly expressed its unwillingness to to get involved in any principled action on lese majeste.

The pressure on supporters of Nitirat has been enormous and the threats are clear and real. Thammasat University law lecturer Sawatree Suksri revealed she had “received a letter from a military officer warning against proceeding with the campaign.”

Reflective of this pressure, former activist – “former” refers to an era now almost four decades ago – Seksan Prasertkul has distanced himself from Nitirat. He says he supports the monarchy but he is clearly fearful. He says he has “no plan to join the movement because I am fed up with conflicts…”. While Seksan hasn’t been politically progressive for years, his incapacity to take a principled stand is obviously also a product of fear.

Meanwhile, Nitirat have reiterated that its members are facing individual attack – including death threats – rather than being directed to the proposals themselves. “It claimed that facts and legal principles were also distorted to create misunderstandings among the public.” That is crystal clear.

The group insisted on the legitimacy of its proposals and its right to debate laws that are unjust or illegitimate.

United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship chair Thida Tawornsate Tojirakarn “urged all groups to maintain objectivity when discussing proposals, including amending Section 112.” She added: “Society should listen and we red shirts will do so. We live in an open society and criticism should be based on reason, not emotion…”.

That seems unlikely as the full power of the royalists has been rained down on a group that has dared to challenge laws and rules that limit democracy in Thailand.

Nitirat’s efforts are remarkably brave and leave them open to the kinds of nasty pressure and intimidation usually reserved for individuals accused of lese majeste.

Of course, they were never really apart, have surreptitious but passionate meetings during their supposed separation on things like Cambodia.

Democrat Party deputy spokesperson Jitphat (or Chitpas) Bhirombhakdi has joined the Nitirat bashing and political use of the monarchy (again) by calling on “Thais to rally to pledge loyalty to His Majesty the King and to oppose amendment to the lese-majesty law.”

We guess pledging loyalty to a monarch is fine while a monarchy pledging loyalty to a constitution is like unprotected sex, a no no.

Jitphat has called the rally at the Royal Plaza on Saturday. She added “that it was her personal campaign and had not been sanctioned by the Democrats.” Hopefully she has resigned. Probably not, but nobody believes this bogus claim anyway.

Her plan, supported by PAD acolytes like Tul Sitthisomwong will take part. They will join hands and “pledge loyalty to the King” before signing “names to express opposition to the planned amendment of the Criminal Code Article 112, which the Nitiraj group is pushing for…”.

Jitphat seems to think that the Nitirat proposals “violated the monarchy.” Others planning to join the royalist engagement apparently “include students of Chitralada School and members of the We Love the King Facebook page.”

Have the students at the palace school replaced the Privy Council in providing palace sanction for these events and alliances?

We are sure that the public reconciliation will be an important event as it is showing the kind of royalist coalition that was so significant prior to the coup in 2006 and again when PAD were supported in their parliament and airports occupations.

When we began Political Prisoners in Thailand on 21 January 2009, we hoped it would be a temporary endeavor. Instead, three years later, we are still at it. We do not anticipate being able to end our work anytime soon.

Initially, we saw a gap in the work that existing news and human rights organizations were doing in terms of keeping track of the various political detention cases, which at the time were all related to charges under Article 112 (the lese majeste law) and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act. In the years since then the cases under these two instruments have grown exponentially, harsh sentences have been handed down for the utterance of a few words and even for presumption about a few texted words, and new categories of political prisoners have emerged. We also declared, from the beginning, that we wanted to draw attention to human rights abuses and they are still all too common.

The most striking events in the current political crisis in Thailand have been the 19 September 2006 coup and the red shirt uprisings of 2009 and 2010 and their violent suppression. They have been accompanied by an expansion of repression and censorship.

The  other side of expanding repression is the determination for dissidence and the bravery and willingness of some to take risks to expose injustice. Nitirat is the most recent example. Our work supporting these dissidents will continue.

We thought readers might be interested in some statistics on PPT over the past three years. To date we (auspiciously) had more than 888,000 page views at our main site and the mirror we use when PPT is blocked. Average page views increased between 2010 and 2011, and average nearly 1,000 a day. Not surprisingly, the months of heaviest traffic were April and May 2010. Even so, total page views increased in 2011. We posted earlier on the most popular pages/posts.

We want to thank our readers for sticking with us through all the attempts by the Abhisit Vejjajiva and the Yingluck Shinawatra censors to block PPT. We trust that we remain useful and relevant and we appreciate the many emails of support and advice we receive.

The lese majeste and computer crimes laws must be repealed.

This rearrangement of anti-Thaksin Shinawatra political activists has ensured that Nitirat’s reformist proposals on lese majeste and rolling back military junta laws have become big news. We say “reformist” because there is, for example, no call from Nitirat to abolish the lese majeste law.

PPT has also pointed out how the reform proposals by the Nitirat team have been deliberately construed to make reformist proposals seem like revolutionary republicanism.

That’s why the always difficult to follow Thirayudh Boonmee’s Rip Van Winkle claim that lese majeste “become ‘a very big’ issue if not handled properly” seems both late and misses any political point. Lese majeste is the big issue and has been for some time. “Loyalty” was a theme chosen by the anti-Puea Thai/anti-red shirt lot from the time of the “lom chao” map in 2010, and it became the chosen weapon following the election last July.

Hence, that Puea Thai claim there is a “conspiracy” is not really news to us. After all, the opposition has made it clear that it was going to use the “loyalty” card against Puea Thai and its government. Their suggestion that it is a funded campaign is new, but unlikely to be surprising to many. The claim that the old coup team from 2006 is back together seems like a shot across the bows of privy councilors. We wait to see if Puea Thai or the red shirts name names.

If anyone needs convincing of the use of the Nitirat/lese majeste issue to raise the political temperature need only look at some of the English-language news for the past week:

PT, army, police all back lese majeste law

Thai Divide Growing Over Lese Majeste Law

Nitirat has second thoughts about campaign

PT: Conspiracy to topple government

Lese majeste debate is completely justified

Prayuth tells Nitirat group to think again

PM vows to protect lese majeste law

Lese-majeste law leading to censorship

PT: Conspiracy to destabilise govt

PM to people: Protect monarchy

Thailand lese-majeste law leading to censorship

Abuses in Thailand Continue, Says Human Rights Watch

New heads of state should be sworn in: Nitirat group

Both sides of the argument over lese majeste law

Update: From the Bangkok Post:

The ruling Pheu Thai Party on Friday issued a statement insisting that it has no plan or thought of amending Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese majeste law, reports said.

The statement, read out by party leader Yongyuth Wichaidit, said Pheu Thai respects the high institution and abides by a democratic system in which His Majesty the King is constitutional the head of state.

Pheu Thai has no plan or idea to alter the law, as claimed by some people and reported in some  media, the statement said.

After they have said it, written it, proclaimed it and demonstrated it you’d guess that the conspiracy claim would be getting stronger. How does the Puea Thai Party respond to an obviously biased mainstream media and the yellow-shirted lese majeste onslaught? They tried doing the work of the yellow shirts and that has led nowhere. Where to now? Arrest the Nitirat lawyers or wake up?

As we said about six weeks ago, no matter how many people this government arrests and jails for lese majeste, the royalists will never see it as a “loyal” government. Doing the work of royalist zealots for them is a dumb political strategy.

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