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This is a restoration of a missing message originally posted by GWR on June 15, 2007.
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The Rule of Lords - Awzar Thi
http://ratchasima.net/
Weekly column on the rule of law
and human rights in Thailand
and Burma
Written by Awzar Thi - "the pen name of a member of an Asian Human Rights Commissioner with over 15 years of experience as an advocate of human rights and the rule of law in Thailand and Burma."
Excerpt from today's article:
The inanity of dictatorship
..........
The tragedy of Burma is that it is a country full of brilliant and creative people, none of whom are welcome to contribute anything to the state. As in all dictatorships, it is the dull and mediocre who get ahead. Cardboard-cutout army officers parade nightly around the television news, followed by their untalented children performing bad MTV covers and selling toothpaste. Scholars and writers of dubious credentials are feted with literary awards while the greats of the 20th century fade one by one into the distance. Artists unwilling to compromise their integrity produce obscure works of hidden significance, beyond the comprehension of both the censors and the general public. And as for students, those who succeed are certainly not the ones waiting in vain for a free book: while in most countries money and privilege count in getting an education, in Burma these days they count far more than in most.
............
If some many cases such as these remain unsolved, what hope is there that politicians will ever be prosecuted for abusing their electoral mandate? These are issues that both the junta and its opponents are incapable of addressing, for fear of alienating their influential backers:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/180607_front.jpg
[Photo: Bangkok Post- Residents help unload a bronze statue of Charoen Wat-aksorn, the activist who led a campaign against the Bo Nok coal-fired power plant in Prachuap Khiri Khan. The statue, which commemorates the third anniversary of his murder on June 21, will be erected at Bo Nok intersection close to the spot where he was killed. — JETJARAS NA RANONG]
JUSTICE ACTIVISTS TO MEET MINISTER
No progress in murder probes
ANJIRA ASSAVANONDA
Human rights advocates will meet Justice Minister Charnchai Likitjitta this week to demand investigations be expedited into the murders of environmental activists Charoen Wat-aksorn and Phra Supoj Suvajo, and the disappearance of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit. Boonthan T. Verawongse, of the Thai Coalition on the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, said no progress had been made in three cases: Phra Supoj of the Mettadhamma monastery, who was killed in 2005 over a land dispute in Fang, Chiang Mai; Charoen, who was gunned down in 2004 after successfully fighting the construction of two coal-fired power plants in Prachuap Khiri Khan; and the disappearance of the Muslim lawyer Somchai.
He joined relatives and friends of the activists in criticising state authorities for failing to bring about justice in the cases.
The meeting with the justice minister will take place on Thursday.
Phra Kittisak Kittisophano, who worked closely with Phra Supoj, said the investigation ended up casting a negative light on the victims and their associates.
''We looked at their work last year and found there had been no progress made with the issuing of arrest warrants and arrests of suspects. This year the process is even worse,'' he said.
Inquiries by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) cast a negative image on the murdered monk by linking him with some women.
''This is similar to what happened to Charoen. When he was killed, the authorities wanted to talk about infidelity and involvement in gambling.
''And when Somchai disappeared, we heard that it stemmed from domestic problems with his wife,'' said Phra Kittisak.
Korn-uma Pongnoi, Charoen's widow, said the investigation was irregular.
Some testimony of key witnesses which could have been important evidence in court had been lost.
No arrest warrants had been issued despite a confession by the gunmen implicating others.
The two gunmen died of unnatural causes in prison.
''If you ask me if I still expect something from the judicial process, I would say I have no hope at all.
''The villagers even said we might have to cremate Charoen's body right in front of the Criminal Court on verdict day,'' said Ms Korn-uma.
Pratabchit Neelaphaijit, Somchai's daughter, said her father had been gone for three years, two months and five days, but she still did not know for sure whether he was dead or alive.
Worse, the police suspects in the case, senior officers, remained on duty.
Somchai's wife, Angkhana, and Phra Kittisak will join the group to meet the justice minister.
They will also discuss the government's policy on human rights protection, and its expectations of the DSI revamp. ''As long as human rights are not respected in our society, it is hard for justice to find a place here,'' said Mr Boonthan
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119513
Factsheet on Phra Supoj's murder:
http://www.bpf.org/html/whats_now/2005/documents/supoj_facts.pdf
Forum post on Phra Supoj murder:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=1580&highlight=fang
The issue that Charoen Wat-Aksorn brought to public attention:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15314&postcount=13
If some many cases such as these remain unsolved, what hope is there that politicians will ever be prosecuted for abusing their electoral mandate? These are issues that both the junta and its opponents are incapable of addressing, for fear of alienating their influential backers:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/180607_front.jpg
[Photo: Bangkok Post- Residents help unload a bronze statue of Charoen Wat-aksorn, the activist who led a campaign against the Bo Nok coal-fired power plant in Prachuap Khiri Khan. The statue, which commemorates the third anniversary of his murder on June 21, will be erected at Bo Nok intersection close to the spot where he was killed. — JETJARAS NA RANONG]
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119513
The issue that Charoen Wat-Aksorn brought to public attention:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15314&postcount=13
This is a translation of a speech delivered by Korn-uma Pongnoi on June 21 on the occasion of the third anniversary of the death of Charoen Wat-aksorn, her husband. On that day, a monument of Thailand's first commoner was unveiled on the spot where Charoen was gunned down.
http://www.prachatai.com/english/news.php?id=69
Why we have to love our community
KORN-UMA PONGNOI
04 July 2007
Pick to Post
ANNIVERSARY OF ACTIVIST'S DEATH
'Dear brothers, sisters and friends who are gathered here to witness the erection of Charoen Wat-aksorn's Monument, which is named by Acharn Naowarat Pongpaibool (the SeaWrite laureate) as Thoranong na Thoranee (Pride of our land).
Originally, the artists who built this statue wanted to honour Charoen Wat-aksorn, the head of the Bo Nok-Kuiburi Rak Thongthin (Love our community) group, who was murdered on June 21, 2004. But the real meaning of the statue, as everybody here agrees and which is why we have come from different parts of the country to declare our common will today, is that it is a symbol of the struggle of commoners like us, those who fight because they love their homeland, those who selflessly chip in to build strong communities.
Why do we need an 'ideology' of loving and protecting our communities?
Throughout the long history of this country, a number of communities have stood up to fight for the right to determine their own future. Numerous struggles have been witnessed. Countless amounts of blood and the lives of faceless people have been sacrificed. Sometimes they lost. Sometimes they won. But they have always fought with dignity.
They fight simply because sheer common sense says that we have lived for years on this land. Good or bad, we have lived here from the times of our ancestors. We have brought up our families thanks to the land, river, forest, and the sea. We have always lived together as a community, as kindred families. Sometimes we live in harmony, other times we quarrel. But we still belong to the same communities. We have to depend on one another.
So if one day, someone or some groups threaten to break our rice bowl and tear apart our communities, we can do nothing but fight. This is our basic instinct. This is pure common sense. We have a clear-cut goal that we fight for in order to save our lives, our rice pot, the pots where we buried our umbilical cords.
Don't just toss words like 'the national interest' or 'the interest of the majority' at us, to tell us that we must sacrifice.
The majority is indeed an aggregation of the so-called minorities, the scattering of ordinary folks. How can the majority have pride if the minorities continue to be oppressed?
How can the interest of the majority be real if it comes from theft, destruction, and exploitation of the minorities?
The nation consists of numerous small communities.
When the communities are strong, a nation becomes strong. We know the colours of the national flag.
But when we stand up to protect our community, we sew our own flags. We cut the sticks to make our own flagpoles. We ourselves select what colours we want to use.
When we raise the green or red flags, this is not to deny the national flag.
On the contrary, this is to reconfirm our identity as one of the communities that build up a nation.
If we do not survive, the nation will not survive, either.
The movements of local peoples may appear to be specific to a certain issue or area. But it is within such small-scale movements that we know what is happening. We can see through every single part, every single component of a movement. Because it is our movement. It is under our eyes, our control and our joint decision. Even the core leaders cannot make any decision, or conduct any act without monitoring and evaluation by our own people.
It is such a small field like this that trains us to be ready for bigger fields.
From the ideology of loving our communities, we can keep up with the traps and the real meanings of the bigger ideologies.
For us, the genuine structural and policy change must start from the small feet of people who have walked together, who have been through the ups and downs to push for the change together, pace by pace, step by step.
As long as each step forward is on our own feet, by a decision of our own making.
Whether it is slow, or even sometimes broken by a fall, we can still take pride in the fact that these are our steps.
Our friends from the Assembly of the Poor once told us that the constitution must be written by our own feet.
So we do believe that we have to become active to shape the constitution together _ so that the country's highest law will become what we want.
Brothers and sisters, you may not be aware that in preparation for this gathering, many of us here have been depriving themselves of sleep. They took turns carrying the stones, sand, and concrete to build the platform of this monument.
Any monument, however big or important, cannot stand without a platform.
The ideology of loving our communities is an ideology of people who believe in working to build the platform grounds _ to serve the monument or a historic upheaval that is to arise.
It is our belief that the strength of local communities is key to the change, so we plan to turn this ground where the monument stands into a school. This will be a forum for the exchange of experiences among people who struggle to protect their communities. There will be a collection of stories of people who have fought to protect their land. This will serve to keep the records of history by the local people, people who have taken part in rewriting their own history.
This "school" will house the histories of movements by people in Prachuap Khiri Khan and from other communities around the country. It will serve as a hub of villagers who believe in the need to fight to protect their homes.
They can come to meet, exchange and work together to give moral support to one another.
We would like to see numerous communities stand up to build their own history, to fight to protect their homes with strength, to carry and pass on the ideology of loving their communities to other places.
After all, keeping up the strength and ideology of the locals here has not been easy. Our fight is far from over. The Bo Nok-Hin Krut power plants may have been scrapped. But new power plant projects, be they coal, gas, or nuclear-fuelled, are waiting to get in at any time. Mega-industrial plants like Sahaviriya's are eyeing the expansion of their empires to usurp the resources and threaten the health of people of Prachuap. The public land at Khlong Chaithong is still in the hands of local influential groups.
If and when our communities are not aware of the importance of uniting ourselves, of standing on our own feet, past victories will become only mere legends, stories of yore that will eventually be forgotten and destroyed, along with our way of life and the resources of the community.
Then we will only have this bronze monument left, nothing else. We will become a community that has lost its dignity, being dissolved; a community of slaves in a nation that calls itself Thailand."
It superficially appears that the positions of Gen. Montri and Deputy PM Paiboon are in opposition. But reading between the lines of the Montri rant we can probably figure that powerful factions in the military are quite resentful at the loss of some of their ability to gag ordinary people over matters that could interfere with their 'monopolies'. In contrast, Dept. PM Paiboon, seems on the surface of it, to be going against that grain. However, I suspect his interest in press freedom is somewhat hypocritical; and that he too longs for the day when it was easy to sweep anything under the carpet which made the life of Thailand's establishment even the slightest bit uncomfortable. The plea to 'work together' could possibly be interpreted as 'toe the line' in the sense that that there is ONE subject which should never be subjected to any kind of critical scrutiny. Why else would these two comments be lumped together in both this article and the mind of its author?
Both are obviously taking a swipe at what they would call the 'old power'. I'm always inclined to remember how the 'old power' was once largely embraced by the likes of Montri and Paiboon. In this light, the current conflict is nothing more than a bunfight between two 'old power' factions which holds little promise or benefit for the ordinary citizen:
Military sees high-tech threat
By Wassana Nanuam
The army has begun a counter-offensive against what it terms high-tech psychological warfare against national security, with the chief-of-staff posting a strong warning on the army's website.
Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham, meanwhile, called on media organisations, the state and the public to work together to create a strong mass media that enjoys freedom, is ethical and produces quality material.
Mr Paiboon urged the National Press Council, which celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, to rid media of the influence of the powerful and wealthy.
Gen Montri Sangkhasap, the army chief-of-staff, said the high-tech war was being waged ''in the form of SMS messages spreading distorted information, bombs triggered by mobile phones, anti-government websites and messages put up on popular webboards''.
This posed a threat the country's fragile national security, he said in the article posted at www.rta.mi.th. He cited recent negative messages on the YouTube video-sharing site as offences that had gone too far.
The attacks were hard to contain because the government was unable to control the information and communications systems. But the army would counter the threat by communicating more with the public and making them aware of what he called psychological warfare.
Thailand has an active internet community of about 12 million people, he said. Anti-government groups were trying to win their over the hearts and minds of this large and steadily growing community, he said.
Gen Montri referred to an anti-government programme produced locally, then sent out via cable and transmitted back into the country through a satellite. The programme was available for download on the internet and was also aired by a local cable TV operator.
Such ill-intentioned programmes escaped the Public Relations Department's reach and were protected by the Administrative Court on the grounds of public freedom to receive information.
Gen Montri also cited deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's recent video address to his supporters at the anti-coup rally at Sanam Luang.
..........
Police reform a tough sell
By Sanitsuda Ekachai
Assistant Editor (Outook), Bangkok Post
Email: sanitsudae@bangkokpost.co.th
Judging from the outcry from senior police officers, the government's police reform plan won't be a bed of roses.
Past governments have all failed at it. Will the Surayud government succeed? Scrambling through the thorny bushes may even cause some blood to spill.
This caution is not an exaggeration. Other governments refused to clean up the police not only because politicians at all levels worked hand in glove with corrupt policemen, but also because such an attempt could cause a fatal political hiccup.
Individual attempts to expose police abuses have also proved highly dangerous. Remember what happened to a group of economists led by Pasuk Phongpaichit when they disclosed how a gigantic web of illegal businesses such as drugs, gambling, human trafficking and contraband arms are closely protected by police corruption?
They were hounded, harassed and slapped with libel lawsuits. When some puyai intervened, the harassment stopped, but no one was punished for breaking the law.
Remember human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit's attempt to disclose police torture of some Muslim southerners? Three years after his disappearance, justice has not been done. Adding insult to injury, the officers believed to be involved in the kidnapping have all been reinstated.
It is an open secret that forced disappearances, torture and extortion have become the main tools used by the police to extract confessions and distort justice in favour of those who pay.
Few dare speak up out of fear for their lives.
Since underground businesses reportedly account for nearly 20% of the country's GNP, the huge amount of tea money ends up oiling the cogs of the poorly-funded machinery that is our police force. How, then, can we expect the police to fight dirty money when their wealth and power depend on it?
While police chiefs are up in arms against efforts to decentralise power and make them accountable to the Justice Ministry, opinions on the ground from many low-ranking police officers show the government is on the right track.
Their biggest problem, they say, is indebtedness and the unfair rewards system nurtured by nepotism and corruption.
Despite their very low salaries, they have to buy their own uniforms, guns, handcuffs, mobile phones, motorcycles, computers and what-not. Without any support, many of them accept tea money, resort to extortion and work for gangsters to support their families, buy police accessories and enjoy life's luxuries.
It is, as we Thais call it, a system that lets loose the tigers to hunt on their own.
Many who have challenged this system, however, have learned the hard way to remain silent and go with the flow.
That is why when they say they do not mind which agency they are reporting to as long as they have better welfare, a decent payment to help them work with integrity, and a more transparent, accountable system that is based on merit, they do it in whispers, fearing a backlash from their bosses.
When the big guns claim that it is illegitimate for a military-installed government to rush through police reform, however, don't belittle them as crybabies. Professional rivalry between the military and the militarised police force has been widely known for a long time. So is their competition in the business of protection money.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a former policeman, heightened this organisational animosity further by upping police powers, leading to increased police abuse and complaints against a police state. After the coup, police reform was one of the first promises from the junta-installed administration.
While the police will fiercely fight to protect their turf, we should not pin all our hopes on the rule of law in this bid for police reform. For as much as we need a clean and professional police force, can it do much in a military state, given the government's push for a national security bill that will give a blank cheque to the military to violate our rights?
Do we want a police or a military state? Our country is in position of utter hopelessness because we don't have a choice.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119929
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