<div>Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra paid an official visit to Japan from 22-25 May. As Thailand’s first female premier, Yingluck did not just exploit her charm to win over Japan, but was daring to talk openly about the most sensitive issue facing her country—the protracted political crisis that erupted in the wake of the 2006 military coup. That coup overthrew her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, the most successful prime minister in Thailand’s history.</div> <p></p>

<p>So the Thai education system&nbsp;has earned itself some international publicity of the exactly the kind the Ministry of Education doesn’t want.</p> <p>Thomas Fuller of the New York Times got insideNawaminthrachinuthit&nbsp;Triam&nbsp;Udomsewuksa&nbsp;Pattanakarn&nbsp;inPaknam&nbsp;to produce an article ‘In Thailand’s Schools, Vestiges of Military Rule’</p> <p></p>

<div>How do you realize your country of birth is not perfect?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>It goes like this: I was born and raised here. This is my country. This is my cathedral.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>And then one day, for one reason or another, it sets in…an irking feeling that something is amiss, that maybe you have it wrong for one reason or another, that perhaps…more than perhaps…it IS true!...things are not only not perfect, rosy and just, but seriously out of kilter. Justice isn’t the reality you have been conditioned to believe and learned to accept. Rights aren’t really automatic and always defensible. Authorities often abuse their power and are left largely unaccountable for it.</div> <p></p>

<p>My experience of Thai courtrooms is, mercifully, not extensive but as far as I can recall, they all have a notice facing the public seats telling you to turn off your mobile.</p> <p>And fair enough.&nbsp; Other entertainment venues, like cinemas and theatres, also expect you to turn them off.&nbsp; Why should the courts of justice be any different?</p> <p></p>

<div>On this past 10 April, Voice TV did something very interesting. They sent reporters to five neighborhoods in Bangkok, including Kok Wua, to ask 5 people in each area (my guess is that there may have been an unreported principle guiding the selection of people asked for information, for example, ask only those wearing flowered shirts) &nbsp;what happened on 10 April 2010? What were the causes? And what were their thoughts about what happened?</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>It appeared that only 3 out of 25 people knew or still remembered what happened three years ago.</div> <p></p>

<p>Memo</p> <p>To: Central Politburo, Thai Spring</p> <p>From: Acting Temporary Director, Foreign Relations Section</p> <p>Re: International Reaction</p> <p>In response to&nbsp;our Dear Leaders’&nbsp;wise and far-seeingcommand to&nbsp;report on the response in foreign countries to our Dear Leaders’ moving and eloquent&nbsp;Open Letter from Concerned Thai Citizens,&nbsp;it is&nbsp;with&nbsp;undying love and loyalty for our Dear Leaders&nbsp;that&nbsp;we&nbsp;respectfully report the following.</p> <p></p>

<p>They're back on the streets again...this time holding "green" flags and "fists" as their symbol. The reborn sections of the Assembly of the Poor and former Yellow Shirts have learned expensive lessons from their share in the color-coded conflict: never forsake you own grievances for some lofty political gains.&nbsp;</p> <p></p>

<p>Right, I’ve had enough. I’m sick up to here with this mindless ‘if you don’t like it here, then go and live somewhere else’ garbage.</p> <p>So what about you? If you don’t like reading this stuff, why don’t you go and live somewhere else where they don’t write like this? Never thought of that, did you, eh?</p> <p></p>

<p>In “Red Shirt Academic,” Yukti Mukdawijitra, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at Thammasat University, tells his own story of growing involved in struggling for accountability, freedom and human rights in the years since the 19 September 2006 coup. &nbsp;Simultaneously, he tracks the discomfort this has caused among his colleagues and others in Thai society who would prefer that he and others were less active. They call him a “red shirt academic,” a title he comes to embrace.&nbsp;</p> <p></p>

<p>Dear me, I can hardly keep up.&nbsp; A Prime Minister talks about democracy in something more than platitudes, and in front of foreigners.&nbsp; And comes home to a chorus of boos from those whose recent contributions to democracy have included coups, live fire zones, and mass censorship of the internet.&nbsp; How dare she mention the word ‘democracy’ 27 times in a speech at a forum on democracy!</p>

<p>China and Thailand have forged even closer ties with the recent exchanges of visits of key policy makers. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, during his Bangkok trip early this month, extolled Thailand for playing a “significant” role in promoting relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).</p> <p></p>

<p>From a report by the National News Bureau of Thailand, part of the Public Relations Department (stop giggling there, of course news is subordinate to PR):</p> <p>‘Thailand’s Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked the public to stop making comments or criticisms about the controversial bomb detector GT200 procurement.’</p> <p></p>