I think their logic is wrong. She was found guilty for the violation of the LM law. If she had just critiscized the military cuop, she would not have been charged by the law. Proof? Is there any other red activists other than her, who was charged and convicted by the LM law. All the red activists accused the cuop and the PC chairman, almost always. Why are they not charged? Was she pinpointed by the authority? No, she was just a marginal figure in the red movement, so there was no reason for the authority to target her. Decepitive logic won't give anything good to the movement. Besides, the people who joined the protest did not represent the mainstream red, neither. Frankly, I cannot but call this article dobule deception.

Yes it is very good to see and hear people enlisting the aid of the international community within Thailand!

I'm surprised and very much heartened that Khun Prawase has taken on a leadership role himself. I had thought that he was more or less a member of the reactionary power structure himself, that he had come unwillingly as Khun Darunee's defender of last resort, but he has chosen sides now and come down strongly and bravely on the right side.

Bravo Khun Prawase! And who is that lady reading the speech?

And congratulations to all the Thais in these pictures, for getting up on their hind legs and taking action on behalf of their fellows imprisoned by the putsch in Thailand!

I'm sure I've got a lot wrong here. It's hard to hear clearly. And I have farang ears.

... nit noi na krup ... doi Khun Lek ... Put wa now I'm Toy gaw daw ... The recent trampled parties interconnected asked for a pardon. When justice serves dictatorship... it is time to exhibit the people's power. You support power heavy troops. The people's rights to freedom are dropped. You are unsatisfied enemies. You deny the rights of the people. You tried to present a brief of insane logic that struck people's pens covered with empty morals. Underneath they are full of crimes. You kill progressive thought. The people of poor status, too honest to see through your tricks, you imprison them in suffering, hunger, sickness, and stress. Now bring the trampled opponents and the people who are free. Will you touch and hunt them too forever, and kill the lives of the people ! Freedom ! for human rights Freedom ! for human rights No 112! No 112! Seripat khong da ! Duay se chee ... [...] Seripat khong da ! Duay se chee ... [...]

Yes, the general failure of prosecution (persecution) for exercising free speech in the US is different than here in Thailand, where secret tribunals routinely imprison people for decades for exercising their right of free speech, and do so with no apologies and in broad daylight.

The suppression of free speech in America is both more and less subtle. I began signing my name to my postings in 2003, during the mass hysteria in the US leading up to the aggression against Iraq and the far-right wing backlash against dissent.

The far-right wing media, and all the mainstream media were and are right-wing then and now if not far-right wing, engaged in a campaign for "national unity" ( where am I hearing that today? ) and browbeat any who did dissent. Lists of "suspects" were drawn up by government authorities. Many were afraid to speak up. Myself included.

So I decided to make it easy on them and started signing my full name to all public postings and emailings. To cut to the chase. I regularly wrote to George W Bush reminding him that he was a liar, a murderer, and a war criminal. In a nice way, of course. Friends don't let friends become inhuman monsters who burn the world.

I joke now, but the fear of speaking up then was palpable. I grew up in the aftermath of WWII and could never understand how the Germans, the countrymen of Albert Einstein and Heinrich Boelle, Bertolt Brecht and Ludvig von Beethoven could have descended into such a pit of depravity. The Neocons taught me how it was done. The PATRIOT Act has not yet been repealed by Barack No-Change Obama and will not be.

The less subtle suppression of free speech took place and takes place at Guantanamo and Bagrahm and here in Thailand via CIA torture, secret military tribunals which imprison people for decades, and that's just A-OK with Barack No-Change Obama as well.

There are differences in implementation but the similarities seem more salient to me. Be afraid. You cannot do anything anyway. Be afraid. Resistance is useless. Be afraid.

John Francis Lee, I wouldn't say situation is as hopeless for Thais, despite the highest echelons desire to establish a surveillance society here as well. The fact is those must be regular Thais of any shirt colour banging on the door that leads to a truly free speech. The red demonstrations and the Songkran unrest haven't had this objective. The groups of activists showing their support for Lèse majesté victims look different to me.

JFL Re: "I personally think they lay too much of the blame at the feet of the monarch," ect...With hesitation I will ask the obvious question that others might feel inhibited to ask ,which is; Is it not time therefore for the monarch or those around him to speak to the law makers about ammending or totally scraping the Lese Majeste law, especially as the king himself says he is not above critiscism,doing so would surely make outside observers less likely to question his independent political status.

Sorry for mistakenly referring to you as Thep previously.

Going over people's wishes... could you elaborate on the basis for your belief that the draconian lèse majesté laws were enacted by popular demand?

Even if they were, and I think they were not, ought not HM the King have the right to stop people from bring actions in his name, and thus implying that those actions have his approval? in using him as an inanimate stick with which to beat their opponents in any case?

Though I might add that people voted on 2007 constitution...

And we know who counted those votes... adamantly without "interference" from outside observers, don't we?

And the LM law is not applied in the name of the king, so he should not have the right to tell people when to sue and when to not. It's also beyond his constitutional rights.

So if the military passed a law saying that anyone could sue when trep's name or honor or reputation was injured, then trep would equally have no say in the matter? Even when people were imprisoned for decades for having done so? That would be beyond your constitutional rights? Your argument seems absurd to me. Why do you bend over backwards in support of authoritarian regimes?

HM King Bhumipol is on record opposing this draconian law. Of course his self-appointed, "worshipful", champions have completely ignored and disrespected his wishes.

He's their tool and he ought not to object to their rough usage of him. He ought to shut up and exhibit the "good grace" that you recommend to him : "It is beyond your constitutional right to object!" It's pretty clear whose "constitutional rights" trump whose.

KFL, the law was not created by puts...something, and all the constitutions in Thailand,including 2540, which the red wants to "get back now", has a similar passage about the King as 2550 does. I don't know why you are always ignoring this point.

I use my real name, spelled out completely, while you hide behind a series of pseudonyms and then feign difficulty with mine. Perhaps you meant Kentucky Fried Chicken?

On what grounds do you say that I am ignoring the fact that all the Thai constitutions have had a lèse majesté clause? None of the Thai constitutions were written with much input from the Thai people, not even the 1997 "people's" constitution which effectively disbars ordinary Thais from serving in their own legislature with its requirement that parliamentarians hold a bachelor's degree.

I imagine that the ordinary Thai does not slander or defame anyone, nor does he or she approve of such behavior, and that those feelings apply to HM the King as well as to anyone else. The fact that authoritarians anywhere on the planet can whip up hatred for "them" among "us", and magnify it by means of a compliant press, is not an argument for the average Thai's approval for lèse majesté persecutions.

A proposal for a referendum on the lèse majesté laws would be interpreted as an act of lèse majesté by the authoritarian elite. Such is their circular "thought" process.

The lèse majesté laws are sometimes abused more than others, with the present period being "one of those times". In fact the present period is now shaping up as "the ISA era", wherein political opposition is driven underground, disallowed completely, on the grounds of "national security".

You and your sidekick strike me as a couple of reactionaries, intent on ignoring reality and its inequities and instead restricting discussion to an abstruse, legalistic realm wherein the problems of real people have been abstracted right out of existence.

This denial of reality is having repercussions all over the planet whether its US and Israeli aggression clothed as "defense"; the "reengineering" of the ponzi schemes, those black holes consuming the world's wealth, of the worlds financiers; or the ruling few here in Thailand trying to perpetuate their oppression of the many.

All these false "realities" are on their way to collapse no matter what you or I say or think about them. Or they are not. Time will tell which is the case.

As long as there are some few who benefit disproportionately from the status quo those few will continue to do whatever they deem necessary to defend it.

There will be no peace or justice in this world until the many hold power in their hands and throttle the greedy and depraved few.

"The fact that authoritarians anywhere on the planet can whip up hatred for "them" among "us", and magnify it by means of a compliant press, is not an argument for the average Thai's approval for lèse majesté persecutions."

I don't know what you are talking about. The only side whipping up hatred is you and other "revolutionaries".

I don't know if you noticed yourself, but you instantly drew them line between you and "us" and grouped us with all other allegedly despicable "them".

Trep is the same [...] as Plus on the Thai Visa forum. Don't even bother with him, he is a [...] nazi. If he was in front of me now , I would very happily [...]. Even that would be doing this [...] a favor.

Hobby: "Was there any hesitation in requesting judges to sort out the pre-coup stalemate, or rubber stamping the subsequent coup?"

Pre-coup stalemate was a judicial mess, it didn't have anything to do with people's wishes.

The coup installed a new, interim constitution, and I frankly don't see any way for anyone to challenge it. Power lied with CNS, that was the reality.

Incidentally - there was no elected government, or parliament, or senate at the time of the coup, no one represented "people's wishes" at that time.

The failed 2006 elections were fraudulent, half the people voted "no" to that farce, and the EC had to be jailed, Thaksin reneged on his promise made on national TV and angled for the new run at elections, despite openly engaging in fake party setup and falsifying official EC records, as if it was a completely normal thing to do. The failed elections themselves were called for no valid reason, just to avoid judicial review of his controversial tax free sale.

Nothing of that had anything to with people's wishes - it was a mess resulting from politicians bending rules and regulations in every possible way. It was a lawless jungle out there, not a democracy, and lots of people jumped on the mob wagon themselves.

These things are not decided by popular vote, it's the work for judiciary, and half the country was in no mood to forgive all those transgressions so heads had to be rolled.

When the law is broken, it's not a question of popularity or previous elections results.

When the law is replaced with popularity contests and mobs slug it out in the streets, it's not democracy.

Thaksin must accept judicial process.

Elections have nothing to do with this and no excuses are needed.

The only way electoral win can have an effect on his case is if they rewrite a constitution to allow popular vote to override judicial decisions, or enact a comprehensive amnesty bill that would cover all his political, civil, and criminal transgressions.

Even the current amnesty proposal covers only post-coup offenses, and he hasn't committed any during that period.

The chances of any of those absurd scenarios happening are none to slim.