Students and Activists Declare – “We don’t want the Dictatorial Internal Security Act”

At around 10 am of 28 June 2007, about 15 student activists and young activists under the banner of the Youth and Human Rights NGOs network gathered in front of the government house calling for the end to the consideration of the Internal Security Act (ISA), and burnt a effigy copy of the ISA as the sign to protest the draft act.

 

The seven organizations represented were Young Peoples Democracy in Thailand (YPD), Activists Society for Change (ACS), Social Critics Group - Chulalongkorn University, Campaign for Human Rights, Young Progressives Southeast Asia (YPSEA), NIDA Student Group for Democracy, and Peoples Network for Third Alternative.

 

The current Internal Security Act is in the course of review by the National Legislative Assembly (NLA). The move by the cabinet to pass the review of this act last week has been drawing massive criticism from the civil society group. There are concerns that if the act is passed it will give extreme power to the military, creating fears that the coup plotters could use this act to cling on to power.

 

In the statement of the youth network, it stresses that the act will give more power to the Director of the Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) - which means more power will be given to the Army Chief. The order to arrest or confine anyone in custody, either if it is during the regular or critical political situation by the military means all the power will be given to the chief of the army alone. He will be granted the power to rule and control the country without any punishment if wrongdoings would be committed - since the military will be fully protected under this act.

 

"According to the draft act, the Director of ISOC/ Chief of Army will have as much power as the Prime Minister in terms of declaring power under the Emergency Decree. If the act is passed, they can order all the governmental agencies and does not have to be accountable to the Administrative Procedural Act. The Act also made it clear that those that had use the power from this act does not have to be accountable to civil and criminal law. This means that they cannot be investigate for file complaints against. To make it easy, this means that, the military will have the power to kill anyone."

 

The statement also carried on saying that the act will give an end to the Thai society, and will bring Thailand back to the era of "semi-democracy" or military-ruled period. It means that no matter how many new constitutions we will have or how good the new constitution will be, the ISA will still be above the constitution given that it can prohibit the rights and liberties of any citizens through the power of the Director of ISOC. This is the way to turn the country into "Officer Military System", said the statement.

 

Pokpong Lawansiri, a student activist from Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University explained his incentive for joining this rally for the reason that, "this government does not come from election. It is simply a dictatorial government. Under the principle of the rule of law, this military government does not have any rights in important decision-making in terms of the issues at the policy level. On the other hand, the NLA which have tried to portray itself as Member of Parliament or Members of the house of senate will never be accepted by the people as well. The NLA is recognized by the civil society groups as "the council of thieves", since they are virtually handpicked by the military.

 

Pokpong further emphasized that this act is truly contradicting with many international standards such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in which Thailand ratified, and therefore has to abide by the articles in those documents.

 

Wassamon Oon-anant, from the Activists Society for Change (ACS) added on that "the NLA is not the representative of the people. Therefore they do not have any right or jurisdiction in making decisions in terms of laws that will affect the rights of the people. So all in all, this act should not even go to the council of thieves."

 

She also made an observation that those peoples that tried to push for the adoption of this act have a close minded understanding of the term "security". They only see it as the "security for themselves (military/army) but not human security for the people", Wassamon added.

 

Metha Mathkao from the Campaign for Human Rights stressed that "I understand that some cabinet members did not even get a chance to read the draft act. At the same time, the resolution by the cabinet to approve the draft bill could be from the constant pressures by General Sonthi Boonyaratklin, who has been attending regular cabinet meetings. This is similar to the recent case of the Pak Moon Dam, in which, the order for closure of the dam gate is believed to come from General Sonthi. Therefore I call for General Sonthi to stop attending meeting with the cabinets and stop pressuring the cabinet to do what he wants."

 

After the network had read out the content in the statement, they burned the sample of the draft Internal Security Act as a sign that this act should be burned and abolished in the near future.

 

The activists also yelled together that "We do not want this Act. We do not want authoritarian. We do not want...Military Act!" before their peacefully dispersal.

 

On Tuesday 3 July 2007 - another demonstration against the Internal Security Act will be held again by the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD), an umbrella organization of Thai development NGOs.

Source: 
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