<p>Trial lawyers, so I am told, are warned to be careful about what questions to ask witnesses.&nbsp; They are advised never to ask a question unless they are confident about what the answer will be.</p> <p>Not so journalists, so I don’t suppose we can berate the reporter who decided to ask Prime Minister and junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha if there was enough money for a referendum on the draft constitution.</p>

<p>The discovery of a remote camp containing the graves of what are thought to be the remains of human rights has sent shockwaves throughout the nation and beyond.&nbsp; The site contained 32 shallow graves but human rights remains have been found in only 26, indicating that it was expected that there would be more victims.</p>

<p>The draft constitution proposed by the Constitutional Drafting Committee has now been disclosed to all sorts of people, with the exception of the vast majority of the citizenry who will be expected to live under it.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A year or more ago, when the Asok-Sukhumwit junction was occupied by a PDRC reform-before-election mob, the site sported a banner supplied by the nearby campus of Srinakharinwirot University.&nbsp; They had obviously been told to put their superior education to use by explaining in English something of what the protests were about.</p> <p>Their sign said ‘Stop Corruptions!’</p> <p>One was tempted to scrawl underneath ‘And Start Learning Englishes!’</p>

<p>She is a paragon of a Thai citizen.&nbsp; She fasts after noon every <em>wan phra</em> and she knows the Pali responses in Buddhist ceremonies (but not always what they mean).&nbsp; Even more religiously than her religious observances, she wears yellow and purple on the appropriate occasions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Oh what a relief.&nbsp;</p> <p>No longer do we have to fear the knock on the door from martial law officers at some ungodly hour of the night.&nbsp;</p> <p>Nor should we worry any more about the hooded journey under martial law to an anonymous military facility where we will be held without charge or trial.&nbsp;</p> <p>And we are now free from the terrible prospect of seven days’ detention under martial law while we have our attitudes forcibly adjusted without the possibility of consulting our family or friends or lawyers or even seeking support and solace from them.</p>

<p>Working on the well-known principle that it is far more important to conceal a scandal than deal with it, Gen Prayut last week threatened to summon a Channel 3 reporter.&nbsp; This brave young woman had travelled to Indonesia to report on the plight of Thais who had escaped slavery on fishing boats.&nbsp; Some were languishing in prison on a remote island (that the Thai media call ‘Benjina’ although that is the name of a town on Kobroor Island). &nbsp;Others sadly had died and been buried there.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-48521428-4f05-d321-f161-f90c228d8fcf">Pol Sr Sgt Maj Suphan Chamnit may soon be on his way out of the police force and into a jail cell, but his recent exploits have provided some insight into the way Thai society has benefitted from the 12 core values that Prime Minister Gen Prayut has bestowed on the nation.</span></p>

<p>Thai cultural officials are becoming concerned at the proliferation on the internet of ‘underblurb selfies’ posted by politicians in an attempt to make themselves attractive to voters.&nbsp;</p>

<p>How refreshing to see a high-ranking Thai military officer expressing support for human rights.&nbsp; In his statement at the 28^th session of the Human Rights Council on March 2 in Geneva, former Chief of Defence Forces and current Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn had this to say:</p>

<p>The many and various oversight mechanisms of the new constitution became ever more tangled over the last week with the revelation that the National Anti-Corruption Commission has initiated an investigation into alleged irregularities at the National Ethics Assembly after a petition by members of the Senate. &nbsp;In turn, the Senate announced it would pursue impeachment proceedings against the National Ethics Assembly in response to a report from the National Anti-Corruption Commission looking into unethical behaviour by the ethics watchdog.</p>

<p>If you haven’t already caught it, I do recommend the clip of an incident on the Paris Metro just before last week’s PSG vs Chelsea game. &nbsp;For his dignified confrontation against wilfully ignorant loutishness, the actions of M. Suleymane would be hard to best.</p> <p>After a 10-hour day, he just wanted to get home, but was pushed out of a train, twice, by Chelsea supporters chanting ‘We’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we like it.’&nbsp; He lost his phone in the incident.</p>