<p>Prachatai recently received a police summons. No, don&#39;t start worrying. There was nothing in it. But one detail that I want to bring to your attention is that the stamp on the envelope containing the summons was bought at the personal expense of the police officer who had been assigned to the case.</p>

<p>Thai society is steeped in hypocrisy. We pretend to adhere to ultra conservative moral values regarding sex, marriage - and prostitution - while the actual way we live our lives is very different. </p>

<p>In line with expectation about the election, it was almost unnecessary to wonder about the results that came out since the trend was visible from the constitutional referendum. At that time, if many people can remember, the north and northeast regions were so red that you could almost speak of the region as a block without being wrong. One interesting point is that even though the south was entirely green, the 3 southernmost provinces had the highest number of no votes in the south.</p>

<p><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Of the dead, say nothing but what is good. </font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">That hasn&rsquo;t quite been the order of the day in the mainstream reporting of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.</font> <br /></font></p>

<p>Several days ago, I saw the &quot;major motion picture&quot; titled _The Life of Buddha_ --a Thai-made cartoon, that will doubtless define many of the assumptions about the historical Buddha for some time to come (at least within Thailand, if not beyond, as English-translation DVDs are available).</p>

<p>I am not going to use this column to make any New Year wishes. New Year wishes are wishful thinking, especially if one were to wish that a new government, headed either by the People Power party or by the Democrats, would carry out the reforms so badly needed in our country to strengthen democracy, human rights and social justice; seriously combat all forms of corruption, while at the same time reducing the powers of the bureaucracy, the military and the mafia-type power brokers that patronise rural society. </p>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Many Thais hope that the political crisis that began at the end of 2005 and has dragged on until today can end with the parliamentary elections on 23 December 2007. These have an important role in pushing the military back to the barracks and leading the country back to a democratic system.</p>

<p>&nbsp;Time for tales from a past that many today would like to forget. Best to get this out of the way before Samak Sundaravej assumes the powers of the Internal Security Act. You never know what we&#39;ll be able to say a week or so from now.</p>

<p><span>First of all, I would like to express my appreciation to all Thai</span><span>s for the overwhelming turnout in the Sunday polls, no matter what parties you voted for. In this election, in my opinion, the economic policies of the competing parties were not so much of an issue, because almost all parties just followed those of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party. Rather, political reasons seemed to be the deciding factor.</span></p>

<p><span>What a shame for the &lsquo;honourable</span><span> assembly of good people' to pass the Internal Security Act just three days ahead of the general elections, while protesters of the bill went back home to rest.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Two members of our group had a chance to listen to political science and law professors giving comments about the upcoming election on the 23 December. The speeches made us feel weird as if there is something stuck in our throats.</font></span></p>

<p>The version of history that was narrated by my schoolbooks (as is still the case with Thai history schoolbooks) is a story of kings (and the odd queen), generals and other lofty personages of a kind I was never likely to know personally.</p>