<p>Japan’s Emperor&nbsp;Akihito and Empress Michiko&nbsp;will visit Thailand from 5-6 March 2017. This will be their first visit in ten years, mainly to strengthen ties between the two countries and for Their Majesties to pay the last respect to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3793/33079952542_3ce0394132_z.jpg" /></p>

<p>In a sign of what the future may offer, two major reports on Myanmar’s education system released by <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjpz7601aPSAhVKo48KHaUfA-IQFggcMAE&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fthailand.savethechildren.net%2Fsites%2Fthailand.savethechildren.net%2Ffiles%2Flibrary%2FModel%2520of%2520Education%2520in%2520Hard-To-Reach%2520Areas-Final.compressed-2_0.pdf&amp;usg=AFQjCNGOB0yjo8c_ZvRqDs3a6lqUJ9WMNA">Save the Children</a> and the <a href="http://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10</p> </a></p>

<p>The recent announcement that the Ministry of Commerce <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30306190">is pursuing 20 billion baht</a> in allegedly ‘fake’ rice deals in terms of compensation from six senior individuals, namely former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom; his former deputy Poom Sarapol; Manas Soyploy, a former director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade; his former deputy Tikamporn Natvorathat; and Akrapong Theepvajara, ex-director of the Foreign Rice Trading Office, makes one wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes.</p>

<p>Chulalongkorn (we have murals of Hitler as a superhero) University is back in the news and you don’t whether to laugh or cry.</p> <p>Its Faculty of Engineering seems to have spawned its own little Hitlers who are going round seizing the cards of any student not in uniform.&nbsp; And even if you’re in uniform but not the correct one.&nbsp; The blue smock required in workshops is OK if you’re in the workshop, but step outside still wearing it and you’ll get nicked.</p>

<p>Within days of a Section 44 order banning certain ideas from entering the country, chaos reigned at the kingdom’s borders.</p> <p>In an attempt to promote unity and reconciliation and to thwart political divisions, Prime Minister and National Council for Peace and Order Head Prayut Chan-o-cha exercised his supreme authority to ban the entry into Thailand of any work connected to 7 ideologies: communism, socialism, liberalism, anti-monarchism, anti-conservatism, antimilitarism and antidisestablishmentarianism.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/category/human-rights-watch-hrw">Human Rights Watch</a> (HRW) is the Thai junta’s least favourite international human rights non-governmental organization, just below <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/category/amnesty-international-ai">Amnesty International</a> (AI). HRW’s 2017 report, covered in this recent Prachatai English <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/6836">news report</a>, which includes some choice quotes from Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, is quite damning.</p>

<p>I decided to write this letter for you,&nbsp;my&nbsp;little&nbsp;son, and for the many other children&nbsp;who may be confused when you hear the story of&nbsp;“Pai.” You may not understand the disappearance of the once-beautiful world.&nbsp;When you grow up a bit, you will come to be aware of more than your own life and comfort.&nbsp;</p> <p>Pai&nbsp;is a university student and activist.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The new President of the United States believes that ‘torture works.’&nbsp; Or rather, with his unremitting bombast, ‘absolutely torture works.’</p> <p>He bases this not on any empirical evidence (which all points the other way) but on the same kind of fact-free ugly-gut faux-hard-man reaction that has led him to claim that climate change is a Chinese hoax, that his election victory would have been more impressive if millions had not voted illegally, and that his inauguration attracted the biggest audience ever.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; Ever.</p>

<p><em>The venue</em><em>:</em>&nbsp; The meeting room of the Thailand 4.0 Policy and Planning Division, Scenarios Section.</p>

<p>The seminal <em>Imagined Communities</em> by Benedict Anderson is one of those works which joins up dots you had never before thought were even on the same page.&nbsp; And hence the insights.&nbsp; It appears on graduate reading lists for all manner of degrees.</p> <p>But it is a dense text.&nbsp; And should a successful product of the Thai education system, a student accepted for a graduate programme overseas, be asked to read it, the result is unlikely to be satisfactory.&nbsp; Thai students don’t do dense texts.</p>

<p>Since the Thai political crisis that eventually led to a coup in 2006 overthrowing the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, it became evident that the Thai middle class and an army of civil society organisations were not performing as agents of change. Instead they became defenders of the old power to protect their political interests. In 2005, the Bangkok-based People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) launched protests Thaksin. Clad in yellow shirts, the protesters accused Thaksin of commtting corruption and disrespecting the much-revered monarchy—a sacred institution in Thailand.</p>

<p><em>The revised Computer Crime Act has introduced the novel offence of ‘distorted information’.&nbsp; Once the Act comes into force, any information which is transmitted online, like these articles, and which is deliberately false, can serve as the basis for a criminal prosecution.&nbsp;</em></p>