<p>The Thai Immigration Officers were being trained in spotting false documents. There were counterfeit passports, where the entire documents are fakes; and forged passports, which are genuine passports that have been illegally tampered with.</p>

<p>Less than 24 hours after the death while in detention of Lese Majeste convict and prisoner of conscience Amphon &ldquo;Akong&rdquo; Tangnoppakul, better known as Uncle SMS in English, this writer has observed how some ultra-royalists make sense of the first death of Thailand&rsquo;s prisoners of conscience, and it became clear that they will blame it on anything or anyone but the draconian and undemocratic law and themselves.</p>

<p>I woke up this morning to terrible news. The 62 year old Thai political prisoner&nbsp; <a href="http://asiancorrespondent.com/70579/we-are-all-ar-kong-now-human-rights-on-the-slide-in-thailand/">Ampon &quot;Ah Kong&quot; Tangnoppakul</a> is dead. Three days ago, on the 5th of May, it was his 44th wedding anniversary and he leaves behind his wife, Pa Ou, and a large loving family.</p>

<p>13 February 2012. &nbsp;The witness hearing in the case of Somyos Prueksakasemsuk in Songkhla Provincial Court was postponed when the witness failed to appear, citing the unnecessary difficulty of travelling from Bangkok.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> Somyos had been transported from Bangkok to Songkhla because the witness to be heard was registered as resident in Songkhla Province. In fact he lives and studies in Pathum Thani, just north of Bangkok, and asked to give testimony at the Criminal Court in Bangkok. &nbsp;This will now happen on 18 April.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>Soon after Vipar Daomanee, a former Thammasat University lecturer, criticized red-shirt leader Nattawut Sai-gua for his endorsement of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra&rsquo;s decision to pay respect to Privy Council President Gen. Prem Tinsulanond, Vipar received a short note from an audience at a symposium she spoke on lese majeste law and prisoner of conscience Somyos Prueksakasemsuk.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s a great time to be a crime reader. &nbsp;From Tartan Noir to Scandinavian sleuthing, there&rsquo;s a ton of good reading out there.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p><em>Note: This poem is from Mrs. Rosmalin (Aunty Oo), the wife of Mr. Amphon, or Ah Kong [Uncle] SMS. Mr. Amphon is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for allegedly sending 4 SMS messages with lese majest&eacute; content to the secretary of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva, while he was in office as the prime minister.</em></p>

<p>Many ultra-royalists whom I engaged with over the course of many months of twitter exchanges and debates tend to think that something must be wrong with Thais who are against the lese majeste law.</p>

<p>Time was when national security was hardly even a thought. The United States &ldquo;back then&rdquo; was big, still under basic infrastructure development &ndash; and initial stages of environmental degradation &ndash; and no one was really looking ahead at what we had, where we were really heading, and what would happen when we got there.</p>

<p>Suppose you are the government and you want to block a website.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> The constitution says you can&rsquo;t do this. &nbsp;At least not without good reason.<br /> &nbsp;<br /> Section 45 says: &lsquo;A person shall enjoy the liberty to express his or her opinion, make speeches, write, print, publicise, and make expression by other means.&rsquo; &nbsp;Blocking a website, like closing a newspaper or banning a book, is a clear violation of this liberty.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>Over the last couple of weeks there has been a deluge of opeds in the English language Thai media and blogosphere on Thaksin Shinawatra. The Bangkok Post, the Nation and even Asian Correspondent&rsquo;s very own Bangkok Pundit have repeatedly poured over every varied aspect of Thaksin's possible return in what only could be described, in a nod to film theory, as the &ldquo;New Wave of Thaksin Fever&rdquo;.</p>

<p>This is part two of my recent interview with leading Thai historian and academic, the former student leader, Dr. Thongchai Winichakul. Part one can be found <a href="http://bit.ly/HfEW2D">here</a>.</p>