<p>Cyber political pundits, bloggers and Facebook activists in Thailand often feel deeply frustrated and annoyed with their lack of liberty to write at will. Yet netizen's frustration with seemingly increasing internet censorship is not unique to Thailand, but rather it's part of the global insurgence of state control over internet freedom. As the internet and new media come to dominate the flow of news and information around the world, governments have stricken back with measures to control, regulate and censor the content of blogs, websites and text messages.</p>

<p>Another victim of state violence in 2010, Mr. Thanuthat Assawasirimankong, aka &ldquo;Uncle Kim&rdquo;, passed away yesterday after almost two years of pains and immovability. He died of the excessive use of force by the Abhisit government that has led to many unnecessary deaths. He had just recovered from cancer and was celebrating this good news with his family when the shooting happened.</p>

<p>Accusing America&rsquo;s single-most important ally in Southeast Asia of unwarranted interference in the affairs of the United States may sound a bit strong. And especially so in this age of official apologies and expressions of regret at offending those with whom we Americans maintain diplomatic relations.</p>

<p>The 2011 floods that ravaged one-quarter of Thailand have not, surprisingly, adversely affected overall rice production. That should be good news for the government. Since rice has become one of the most politicized commodities, keeping rice farmers happy has also become a policy priority. But the Yingluck administration is facing a rough road ahead with its flagship rice mortgage scheme, partially because of the programme&rsquo;s popularity but also because it is not likely to be sustainable given short-term market conditions.</p>

<p>On 17 February 2012, Thailand&rsquo;s Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa offered two observations, both ill-founded, unfounded and confounded. Despite an international body stating Thailand was a great place to launder money, the general says &ldquo;Ain&rsquo;t so!&rdquo; As well, despite Sukumvit Soi 71 being littered with bomb debris and shadows of cleaned-away blood, he also insists that there is no concrete evidence that the Valentine&rsquo;s Day Iranian bomber attacks were acts of terror.</p>

<p>Thai authorities should &quot;vigorously pursue perpetrators of hate speech directed at Nitirat and other peaceful critics,&quot; say Amnesty International (AI). </p>

<p>It is true that the majority of Thai people love the monarchy. But there may be some sectors that do not love the monarchy. This is understandable and not out of the ordinary. We should be able to accept the divergent feelings of people in society.</p>

<p>Forever to blame the bearer of bad news as the bad news itself, those who don&rsquo;t like to hear the truth, or at least a great speech about it and why it&rsquo;s occasionally necessary to be told the truth, often resort to little tricks to as quickly as possible extinguish growing embers before they become searing flames burning up centuries of lies and deceit.</p>

<p>Yesterday [22 Jan], the <a href="http://www.enlightened-jurists.org/">Khana Nitirat</a>, the group of seven lecturers at Thammasat University who work to put law in the service of the people, held a public seminar on the nullifcation of the 2007 Constitution.&nbsp; The Sriburapha Auditorium at Thammasat University was overflowing with people listening inside, and exchanging ideas, browsing books and doing political performance art outside.</p>

<p>As he shuffled into the court room in central Thailand wearing leg chains that dragged across the wooden floor I saw the same warmth in the greeting that I had seen 30 years ago.&nbsp; This was Somyot Pruksakasemsuk who was the first Thai person I ever met &ndash; at that time he had been organising Thai factory workers near Bangkok and I was arriving for a meeting of workers from throughout the Asia region.</p>

<p>Today I was tremendously affected by things that I saw, so much so that I was at a loss for words. First, in the morning, I saw the Facebook status of a former student of mine. My former student harshly condemned Professor Piyabutr Saengkanokkul and linked to a photo of him from Thai Post newspaper. When I scrolled down, the comments included only further condemnation, including calls to actually harm Professor Piyabutr.</p>

<p>Given the tremendous negative image and loss of reputation Thailand has engendered over the last five or six years arising from vigorous prosecution of lese majest&eacute; cases and cases under the Computer&nbsp; Crime Act, it seems behooving to the state and government to at least clean up the lese majest&eacute; act so as to resemble, in international public opinion and in conformance with international agreements Thailand has already signed, a more civilized process.</p>