<p>The recent unexpected death of former Prime Minister Gen Prem Tinsulanonda &ndash; What?&nbsp; Yes I know he was 98 but I would have put folding money on him reaching his century, wouldn&rsquo;t you?&nbsp; As I was saying, the death of Gen Prem has had us reviewing the 1980s when he presided over a series of fractious coalitions in a system of semi-democracy or semi-dictatorship, take your pick.</p>

<p>While Prachatai English joins other public figures in demanding an end to violence against activists, and calling on the police to take more effective measures to halt the impunity, we are more concerned with an issue often underestimated: hate speech that justifies assaults against activists.</p>

<p>Stories of prison are always in demand, perhaps because prison is a world not encountered by the majority of people. There are many Thai-language books about prison that span those written from first-hand experience to those collected from the experience of others who spent a stint inside.&nbsp;But All They Could Do To Us is different from other written accounts of prison.</p>

<p>In the field of Comparative Constitutional Law, Thailand&acute;s Constitutional Court gained an ambivalent notoriety for its repeated dissolution of opposition political parties and cancellation of general elections in the name of protecting democracy &ndash; but de facto paving the way for military coups, in 2006 and 2014.</p>

<p>Friedrich Hegel, the German philosopher, once said &ldquo;the only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history&rdquo;. With regard to Thai political history, I cannot deny that this quotation expresses one of the &ldquo;all-time&rdquo; brutal truths. It is clearly true that most Thai people have never learned any political lessons in Thai history. They have not only made no democratic progress but have also strengthened the authoritarian rhetoric peace-making to repeatedly disrupt democracy by undertaking a series of coups.</p>