By Tyrell Haberkorn |
<p>On 8 June 2012, one month after Ah Kong (Amphon Tangnoppakul) was found dead in prison custody, <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/search/node/thanthawut">Tanthawut Taweewarodomkul</a>, or “Num,” wrote an account of his life and death. Tanthawut, who, like Ah Kong, was serving a sentence following a conviction of alleged violations of the 2007 Computer Crimes Act and Article 112 of the Criminal Code, was imprisoned in the same zone of the Bangkok Remand Prison. Num took care of Ah Kong during the nearly two year period Ah Kong spent behind bars, until his death.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>This is part two of my look at human rights groups, lese majeste and political prisoners in Thailand. Part one can be found <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/3249">here</a>.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>A little background to this piece. The main research and interviews were completed earlier this year and so may seem a little dated now. However, I interviewed 9 lese majeste prisoners at the Bangkok Remand Prison and about 8 political prisoners at the “new” Lak Si political prison. One of the lese majeste prisoners I interviewed was Ah Kong – who I met on two occasions and who died in May 2012. Obviously it now seems horribly ironic when he told me personally that “conditions improved” after the Pheu Thai government were elected in 2011.</p>
By Kaewmala, Asian Correspondent |
<p>Thailand may be heading to its first major constitutional crisis in history.</p>
<p>Thai Constitution Court has performed an interesting exercise in semantics with one of the most basic words: the word “and.” Not that verbal gymnastics is foreign in Thai politics but this case is unusual as it happens in the judiciary, and the ramifications may be explosive and quite significant in the development of Thailand’s political system.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>This article is, of course, in reply to <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/3241">Pravit’s article</a> directed at my Twitter responses to his stated position – that he privileges the rights of large powerful media companies to intimidate, harass and threaten young Thai women, over the rights of these young Thai women to live their lives free of such intimidation.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>Being a committed advocate for freedom of expression, I have recently had the honour of being accused on Twitter by one foreign supporter of the red-shirt movement, by the name of Andrew Spooner (@Andrewspoooner), of supporting the right of yellow-shirt mouthpiece ASTV-Manager Weekly News Magazine to engage in “hate campaign” against one young red-shirt woman on its current weekly issue (Issue no.138, May 26-Jun 1, 2012). </p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p><em>“Today, every child would like to tell father that ‘children love and would like to follow father’s footsteps for ever’. Long Live Your Majesty.”</em></p>
<p>Praew Magazine, issue 775, November 25, 2011, page 202<br />
</p>
<p><em>“If you hate father and no longer love father, then you must leave this place, because this is father’s home.”</em></p>
<p>Pongpat Vachirabanjong, well-known actor, May 16, 2010, statement during Nataraja Acting Award acceptance at Navy Conference Room.<br />
</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>In today’s Thailand, many Thais see one-sided positive-only information about the monarchy and Thai mainstream mass media self-censorship as well as censorship on anything mildly critical of the monarchy as something ‘normal’. Little if any fuzz was made by pro-Thaksin mass media when a film mocking and criticizing Thaksin Shinawatra, entitled ‘Shakespeare Must Die’, was banned for good by the Film Board.</p>
By Andrew Spooner |
<p>Four questions have been asked of the UK government by Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kerry McCarthy MP (Britsol East, Labour Party) regarding the death of political prisoner Ampon Tangnoppakul AKA Ah Kong and the on-going situation vis a vis the use of lese majeste laws in Thailand.</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>Years of mainstream mass media self-censorship on any information and news critical about the Thai monarchy and their incessant supply of mostly one-sided and positive-only information about the royal institution is unlikely to change anytime soon since there’s no outrage or even public introspection by major media associations and corporations.</p>
By Phiengkham Pradabkhwam |
<p>In the end, freedom is slower to arrive than death<br />
Justice can wait can make way for a tranquil homeland<br />
They honeymooned on a day of love a truce <br />
The war is not over yet However many corpses, let it be!</p>
By Pravit Rojanaphruk |
<p>Less than 24 hours after the death while in detention of Lese Majeste convict and prisoner of conscience Amphon “Akong” Tangnoppakul, better known as Uncle SMS in English, this writer has observed how some ultra-royalists make sense of the first death of Thailand’s prisoners of conscience, and it became clear that they will blame it on anything or anyone but the draconian and undemocratic law and themselves.</p>