<p>Forever to blame the bearer of bad news as the bad news itself, those who don&rsquo;t like to hear the truth, or at least a great speech about it and why it&rsquo;s occasionally necessary to be told the truth, often resort to little tricks to as quickly as possible extinguish growing embers before they become searing flames burning up centuries of lies and deceit.</p>

<p>Yesterday [22 Jan], the <a href="http://www.enlightened-jurists.org/">Khana Nitirat</a>, the group of seven lecturers at Thammasat University who work to put law in the service of the people, held a public seminar on the nullifcation of the 2007 Constitution.&nbsp; The Sriburapha Auditorium at Thammasat University was overflowing with people listening inside, and exchanging ideas, browsing books and doing political performance art outside.</p>

<p>As he shuffled into the court room in central Thailand wearing leg chains that dragged across the wooden floor I saw the same warmth in the greeting that I had seen 30 years ago.&nbsp; This was Somyot Pruksakasemsuk who was the first Thai person I ever met &ndash; at that time he had been organising Thai factory workers near Bangkok and I was arriving for a meeting of workers from throughout the Asia region.</p>

<p>Retired Pol Gen Vasit Dejkunjorn is not your average policeman. Apart from winning literary awards, he is regarded as a leading anomaly in the Thai police &ndash; an honest copper.</p>

<p>Today I was tremendously affected by things that I saw, so much so that I was at a loss for words. First, in the morning, I saw the Facebook status of a former student of mine. My former student harshly condemned Professor Piyabutr Saengkanokkul and linked to a photo of him from Thai Post newspaper. When I scrolled down, the comments included only further condemnation, including calls to actually harm Professor Piyabutr.</p>

<p>Given the tremendous negative image and loss of reputation Thailand has engendered over the last five or six years arising from vigorous prosecution of lese majest&eacute; cases and cases under the Computer&nbsp; Crime Act, it seems behooving to the state and government to at least clean up the lese majest&eacute; act so as to resemble, in international public opinion and in conformance with international agreements Thailand has already signed, a more civilized process.</p>

<p class="rteleft">It is recognized that human beings, regardless of origin or status, should have human dignity, liberty, and equality, and show reasonableness and tolerance toward differing opinions, and that in a democratic society, the right to freedom of expression is indispensable and any restriction of this freedom must be in proportion to necessity and not of a form that conflicts with the essence of this freedom.</p>

<p>It can feel very uncomfortable to stand alone.</p> <p>That&rsquo;s why people are so eager to join things &ndash; as long as it doesn&rsquo;t mean actually doing much.</p>

<p>These days any online search in Thai or English for Article 112 usually leads to updated news from one day to the next. We just learned, for example, from <a href="http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/NHRC-needs-rest-of-year-to-consider-lese-majeste-l-30173657.html">The Nation</a> that Thailand&rsquo;s lackluster human rights commission will need all this year to define its position on an issue worthy of such attention several decades ago.</p>

<p>So who is Kan-thoop? Kan-thoop is a name that is familiar to those who have closely followed Thai politics over the past two years, especially if they are embedded in the social media.&nbsp; </p>

<p>Thanks to all who had a Google-unassisted go. Some answers were even right.</p>

<p>&nbsp;That&rsquo;s your ignorance that will be on parade unless you can answer a respectable number of the following questions about 2011. But then, if you do know any answers, then you should seriously contemplate a change of lifestyle. Such as getting one.</p>