*All photos Copyright*
The 'Red Shirts' protesting at Government House on February 24th, 2009 with a rather effeminate poster of Prime Minister Abhisit.
From Pravit at the Nation:
"Homophobia has been used as a political tool by key elements in both camps on different occasions, casting doubt on how democratic and pluralistic some of these people truly are."
*all photos copyright*
As outlined by Awzar Thi over at the Rule of Lords, Thailand's human rights reputation has been in serious decline.
Citing the The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), the main issues are:
Giles is back and has some interesting quotes.
First, from the Guardian, titled "Thailand's battle for democracy":
"Five years ago, Thailand had a thriving and developing democracy with freedom of expression, a relatively free press and an active civil society, where social movements campaigned to protect the interests of the poor. Today, the country is creeping towards totalitarianism.
Since his (Thaksin's) overthrow and as a result of the prolonged crisis, a grassroots "red shirt" democracy movement has developed. They are moving beyond Thaksin. What is also amazing is that this is becoming a republican movement because of the actions of the military and the PAD in dragging the monarchy into politics."
Not sure how the rest of the Red Shirt movement is going to appreciate being labeled as republican. But in a country where there is simply no honest discussion of the monarchy, it is hard to say whether there is actually support for a republic. If the Red Shirts quietly adopt this, fracture into different groups, or distance themselves from republicanism will be the only way to really see if Giles is correct about it becoming a republican movement.
Regardless though, royalists will be boiling with violent rage over this and the likelihood of clashes between Yellow Shirts and Red Shirts seem certain.
And over that the New Mandala, there is part one of an interview with Giles. Some of the more interesting quotes:
"But I was not going to leave the country with my tail between my legs, I was not going to run away. Once, I left the country, I decided to fight back without any restriction. I wrote the notes of the Manifesto on the airplane I flew from Bangkok to London.
I felt that really it was necessary for someone to say those things because it was in the mind of thousands of people in Thailand but nobody has said it.
What is interesting is that this Manifesto, in a Western European context, is not very progressive. It is normal. In a Thai context, however, it is explosive. I think that indicates the difference between the amount of democracy in Thailand and the amount of democracy in Britain or Western Europe.
I think the whole situation in Thailand has reached what I would describe as a civil war. It might not be a violent civil war, but it is a civil war of ideas between two sections of society. And the Red Shirts section is rapidly becoming republican. So, really, people want to move beyond just fighting Lese Majeste, and talk about political reform. I think people are ready for that.
I think that the monarchy must be feeling insecure. Even more important, I think that the military and those that have in the past enjoyed undemocratic power but claimed legitimacy from the monarchy are really very, very scared that when this King dies, their legitimacy will evaporate because they are not going to be able to claim the same legitimacy from the Crown Prince."
I am not necessarily in agreement with Giles but I certainly appreciate his decision to fight back and to force discussion on the monarchy.
He is certainly right about his manifesto not being progressive in Europe, but it is nothing short to seditious in Thailand.
There are reports that the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, or MICT is attempting to block all access to Professor Giles Ungpakorn's incendiary 'Red Siam Manifesto.
From Prachatai:
Aree Jiworarak, Director of the Information Technology Supervision Office under the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, sent e-mails to executives of internet service providers (ISPs), saying that the Office had found there was a publication disseminated on the internet called the ‘Red Siam Manifesto’ which affected national security.
He asked for their cooperation in ‘keeping watch for the circulation of the article. And if your systems can enable filters to prevent access to it, please do so, as that would greatly benefit national security. Please act urgently.’
This above Al Jazeera video is rumored to be blocked already by a few Thai ISP's. But, at the time of posting, it was still available.
From the Guardian UK: British professor flees Thailand after charge of insulting king
A leading Bangkok-based professor who has joint British and Thai nationality fled Thailand at the weekend in the face of a lengthy sentence under the country's draconian lese-majesty laws, which forbid criticism of the king.
...
"I did not believe I would receive a fair trial," said Ungpakorn
....
He said that the charges arose out of eight paragraphs in the first chapter deemed insulting to King Bhumibol. He claimed that the director of a university bookshop stocking his book had informed the special branch that it "insulted the monarchy". The offending paragraphs deal with incidents around the coup.
"It is clear that the charge is really about preventing any discussion about the relationship between the military junta and the monarchy," Ungpakorn said. "This is in order to protect the military's sole claim to legitimacy: that it acted in the interests of the monarchy."
As was the case of Harry Nicolaides, it is not a matter of a free trail but an attempt to stifle discussion on the monarchy.
But Professor Giles has gone much, much further. He has now released the "Red Siam Manifesto" and its now not just a matter of lese majeste but a call for revolution.
With lese majesty laws reaching a fever pitch in Thailand, there is some helpful advice from Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT):
Thailand's Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Official Censor of the Military Coup, has blocked at least 17,775 websites which, along with blocking by the Royal Thai Police, resulted in more than 50,000 websites blocked in Thailand. Public webboard discussions, circumvention tools, voices from Thailand's Muslim South and critical commentary of Thailand's monarchy were particularly targetted for censorship.
Thailand's military government also passed a Computer-Related Crimes Act with draconian penalties and onerous data retention provisions abnegating privacy and anonymity and chilling public discussion of vital issues among Thais. The result of this cybercrime law was to criminalise circumvention with one notable exception, the Virtual Private Networks (VPN) relied on by business to create a secure, private, encrypted channel.
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) is pleased to provide links to two new, easy tools for private citizens to legally ignore Thailand's Internet censorship. Virtual Private Networks have been complicated to set up and difficult to maintain. However, with these two free, public tools, VPN is available to everyone.
Your own private network is located overseas beyond the reach of Thai censors using an encrypted tunnel so that governments and ISPs won't even be able to see where you're surfing. Unlike anonymous Internet proxies, criminal under the cybercrime law, using VPN makes streaming video and audio freely available.
Two simple, free VPN applications are HotSpot Shield (Mac and Windows) <http://www.hotspotshield.com/
