<p><span>It&rsquo;s an ordinary Friday morning. You leave your office on Rachadapisek Road at 9 a.m. to meet a client at Robinson Department Store, Bangrak. Accompanied by your assistant, you drive along the expressway and park your car at the South Bangkok Civil Court where you instruct your assistant to deliver some documents to another client.</span></p>

<p><span>In envisioning an integrated Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the governments of the six riparian countries and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regard the &quot;connecting of nations&quot; as contributing to the &quot;linking of people&quot; and vice-versa.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>&nbsp;</p>

<p>When he took his oath of office as prime minister in February 2001, Pol Lt Col Thaksin Shinawatra swore to uphold the Thai constitution of 1997. Article 33 of that constitution stated very clearly that in criminal cases, the accused are to be considered innocent and cannot be treated as guilty until proven so in a final court verdict. </p>

<p><span>On Monday the 7</span>^{<span>th</span>}<span> of last month, at a seminar on &quot;What the National Counter Corruption Commission should be like from the perspective of the government, the private sector and the people&quot;. General Pasit Sonthikhan, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Office of the National Security Council said this in his opening remarks:</span></p>

<p>The Election Commission might be the last body to be blamed for the low nationwide turn-out in the Senate election, particularly for the 41% turn-out of Bangkokians in Sunday&#39;s poll.</p>

<p><span>The tragedy of Thai democracy today is that we have a Prime Minister and Interior Minister who tell bare-faced lies and an opposition, in the shape of the Democrat Party, that supported the 19^th September coup, insulted the poor and never showed an interest in the 6^th October in the past.</span></p>

<p><span><span><em>The following article is an edited transcript of a paper given at the International Conference on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All, held in Bangkok, 21-23 November 2007.</em></span><span><em> Prof. Baker has written extensively for activists about the global AIDS pandemic.</em></span></span></p>

<p>Debating on the 6 October events has become a political tool of both leftists and rightists in the present game of post anti-Thaksin and anti-coup struggle but it will not shed any light for later generations unless facts were learned and shared by a majority of the people-not a handful of the October Generation, said academics at a seminar yesterday.</p>

<p>I was fresh to Thailand in 1989 and attended the democracy demonstrations at Sanam Luang against a Thai Army general self-appointed to Prime Minister, Suchinda Krapayoon, in May 1992. Although many people saw Chamlong Srimuang as their leader, I only ever saw him as a political opportunist. I saw Chamlong arrested to safety with his followers at Phanfa Bridge. This was when I sent my Thai family home. </p>

<p>Nothing highlights the inhumanity of the global economic <a id="KonaLink0" href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/20Feb2008_news21.php#" target="_top"><span>system</span></a> better than drug patents. </p>

<p><span>We all know that Prime Minister Samak Sundarawej was lying to the CNN when he claimed that he was not involved in the 6^th October massacre and that only one person died. Before the event, he was closely associated with the Tank Corps Radio Station, which called for right-wing thugs to kill left-wing students. Samak was also very close to the Royally sponsored &quot;Village Scouts&quot;. After the event, and the coup on the same day, he became Minister of the Interior and has lied about the massacre to this day. For those who are unaware of the details of the event, this is part of a chapter on the 6^th October.</span></p>

<p><span><span><em>The following article is an edited transcript </em></span><span><em>of the Keynote Address of the International Conference on Compulsory Licensing: Innovation and Access for All, held in Bangkok, 21-23 November 2007. Dr Wilson is a Member of the Board of Directors of M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF) and was medical coordinator of the MSF in Thailand until August 2007.</em></span></span></p>