Is this story true? I don't see that Prachathai/English made any effort to check it. The source is not exactly reliable.

http://www.manager.co.th/Politics/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9520000048134&Keyword=%c1%b5%d4%aa%b9

This is the Manager's report, and it is specific.

Probably Matichon did it based on their instinct for survival as main stream media. Biased reports would reduce their credability among independent readers, when red-shirt popularity dwindling. Matichon has long shot out "biased" reports for yellow, so the paper will be considered more neutral by general readers after having kicked out "mouthpieces" of both colars The journalists can find their jobs at more politicized media outlets, namely, the red-shirt equivalence to ASTV, Mangaers. Or maybe Matichon is just waiting time to reinstate them, when the political trend changes again, given the family-like relations among Matichon reporters. (The author implied the latter is likely, I guess)

"Sathien wrote under many pen names to make it seem there were many people, but with the same opinion" - Were people aware of this?

Barney

StanG: About time you pulled your head out of the sand - go back & read Handley's TKNS, and McCargo on network monarchy to get a better perspective of what's been going on.
You have been advised this many times - if you still don't get it, then the only conclusions one can draw is you are either dumb, don't want to know, or have vested interests in defending the status quo.

Thanks for that link StanG - its also on my blog archives, and I basically stand by the review made at that time, however, unlike you, I am not intractable in my opinions.

Events since then have given much more credence to Handley's theory, and when combined with the deafening silence on way the LM laws have been allowed to crush any dissent & persecute people with reasonable arguable positions, I now think the room for doubt I referred to in my review no lobnger exists.

What may have been a plausible way of managing unity in turbulent times is now a major destabilizing/divisive factor - the old guard are now definitely on the wrong side of history, and what could have been a magnificent legacy now runs the risk of being completely spoiled, all because they were too fearful (or greedy) to let go.

StanG: Don't play dumb - You know it could be stopped just with one word from the top (as an example, just look at the way they run around promoting the Sufficiency Economy - linking it to everything:)

Giles fled before the first hearing where his case could have been dismissed. Or he could have defended himself, I believe his specific allegation was that The King was somehow complicit in the coup.

As for persecution theory - no one from the "putsch" cared about Giles or his book for over a year until some no name policeman decided to go after him.

Darunee clearly had broken the law. The degree of punishment is up to the current laws and the judges.

Hobby, you think that 18 years is excessive but the court has books to follow, not your or my opinions. Darunee herself didn't give ANY grounds for leniency, too.

I don't see Thai society being concerned with her fate either. She turned herself into a pariah and you can't expect some 60 million Thais to change their ideology just to accommodate her foul mouth, even if you are convinced that they are absolutely wrong.

As long as Da doesn't admit any guilt it's hard to talk about sympathy with people, especially with those who thought 18 years was not long enough.

When Political Prisoners put a translation of her verdict they asked people to "read, disseminate, protest" - I don't see anyone picking up the baton, not even here on Prachatai.

The country and local internet must be filled with arseholes, I suppose.

StanG: It was a closed trial - why was that?

Inside Thailand, there is quite a risk discussing the issues raised by Da - a real risk of being chucked in jail and having the key thrown away.

Prachatai gets routinely rumbled by the thought police, and I imagine any other media who took up the details of Da's assertions would run a similar risk.
Sondhi L is facing a LM charge for merely repeating some of the stuff she said.

I cannot comment on the Thai language media, but if you are referring to English language media, I doubt if The Nation or Bangkok Post will be running with the baton any time soon.
Thai Visa, the largest expat forum, won't even allow links to McCargo's articles on Network Monarchy, so what hope is there of getting an open discussion on the real issues in Thailand?

If you are still wondering why the baton is not being picked up, then please just go back to your sand castles.

"People just don't want to talk about it anymore" and they don't want to go to jail or be hounded by lunatic vigilante dobbers.

I read the pdf that PPT posted and what struck me about it was that Da's was pure political speech. Da ripped the present order from one end to the other... and the present order jailed her for nearly two decades in return. For her purely political speech. For expressing her opinion.

The idea of prosecuting her for what she said in any other country would be absurd. Well, maybe not in Burma or North Korea... or Israel, remembering Mordechai Vanunu.

The LM conclusions were all drawn for the judge by the prosecutor. They did not inhere in Da's speech itself. It was guilt by GT200 with an LM card inserted. Da gave her opinion of the Bangkok "elite" in no uncertain terms and they burnt her at the stake for it.

It's sad. People don't dwell on it. But the MO of the court had already been covered at New Mandala, and everyone knew it was a railroad job. That's why they have "secret trials". You don't get 18 years in jail for political speech in anything but a Military dictatorship.

And don't forget that they are doing their best to make that hard time indeed.

I hear the PAD found it inconvenient, again... for the 8th time is it now?.. to show up for their arrangement. The government let them walk, again... for the 8th time is it now?..

Some closet sadists approve wholeheartedly of Military dictatorships, I suppose. Get a vicarious thrill, almost as good as crushing the innocent and defenseless themselves. And its equally thrilling to see the guilty walk, I suppose. Hurray for our side!

Never appealed to me... thank goodness. I'm already quite perverse enough, thank you.

Re. StanG's constant pseudo-conclusions and other comments...
[deus ea machina?]