<p>The Solidarity for Asian Peoples&#39; Advocacies (SAPA) Working Group on ASEAN invested time and energy to engage the ASEAN Charter building process. </p>

<p>Elections are here. Time to dust off the discreet envelopes, grease the old networks and practise the political skills. One of which is how to deal with the press. Let us eavesdrop on the refresher course for would-be MPs at the campaign headquarters of an unnamed political party, where the trainer is, perhaps unadvisedly, attempting a participatory approach.</p>

<p><span><span>The way we treat our two million migrant workers is absolutely appalling! We treat them as we see them. We don&#39;t seem to see them as human beings with human rights, or as important (even essential) contributors to the Thai economy.</span></span></p>

<p>This connection between social change and dealing with repression is a more acute problem in countries outside those that are called developed countries. In that part of the world called developed countries social revolutions have taken place to deal with forms of repression which maintain the type of inequalities that are prominent in their countries.</p>

<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm">Strange things are happening in the world of Thai secrets. We&#39;ve long been used to the secret budget of the security forces, which is spent on secret things used in secret operations.</p>

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">Here comes the election fest again.<span>&nbsp; </span>Politicians are busy grouping, merging, parting, and regrouping, while calls for free and fair election are made and echoed. </span></p>

<p>There is no end in sight for the chronic violence which has made life miserable and very insecure for communities living in the southern border provinces of our country, Muslims and Buddhists alike, ever since the armed raid on the army camp in January 2004.</p>

<p>It is the self-appointed duty of this column to explain to Prachatai readers the policies of the parties planning to contest the general election in December. Today we will examine the stated policies of the party with the catchy name, the Matchimathipat-</p>

<p>Over 300 men from the three southernmost provinces have been held in army camps in Ranong, Suratthani, and Chumpon undergoing occupational training since August 2007. At least 6 of those detained were juveniles. The military publicized these training camps as capacity building and attitude adjustment programs and stressed that the detainees had enrolled voluntarily.</p>

<p>Today our unelected National Legislative Assembly is scheduled to complete the second and third readings of the Public Broadcasting Bill, which may actually result in the birth of public broadcasting in Thailand. </p>

<p><span>Someone once told me Piang Luang is waiting for us to explore. </span><span>Perhaps that&#39;s true-whenever the name Piang Luang is mentioned, it brings me immense pleasure, the fresh, delightful breeze of orange-blossom.</span></p>

<p>Political circles in Thailand have been busy discussing the results of a recent ABAC poll that revealed that almost 2 in 3 voters were prepared to sell their votes. The poll, which surveyed almost 0.006% of the national population and was conducted in 19% of the kingdom&#39;s provinces, also found that over 4 in 5 voters would not report cases of vote-buying to the authorities.</p>