Uh… what did this ‘criminal’ write ‘on the internet’?
No, no, no… can’t say. Secret crime. Thought crime. Immediate detention. No bail. Secret Trial. Lengthy imprisonment. Cut in half if the ‘criminal’ pleads guilty.
You said that the law of ‘defamation’ does not exist in Thailand?
Law of defamation does exist in Thailand. If you speak something untrue about anyone, that person can bring you to Court. But it is a civil liability (at least mostly anyway).
Lese Majeste is different. If you say something which is not so fawning to the Monarchy, even if that is the truth, you will still be jailed for fifteen years. Tell me please, if one cannot even say the truth without being liable criminally, how can the law be just? And the fact the Royals do not file the charge is not a good argument, because the law allows anyone to file a charge against anyone.
Also, you accused this student of spreading malicious rumors? Which rumor did he spread? Did you know the facts of the case at all? The student only expressed his dislike on Facebook that he does not like the King. His teacher (this Nipon guy) called him in for a talk, telling him that he must change his opinion. His attempt was unsuccessful, (and rightly so, how can you force someone to like someone they don’t like?). Thus he reported this student to the police, and it is likely that he will be in jail for a long time to come, just because he does not like someone.
Can that ever be justified? If yes, please supply the reasons in an academic way and save your baseless rants and unfound accusations at home. This news itself is abhorrent enough; I do not want your nonsensical ranting to add insult to the injury of this poor student.
Thin line between Academic freedom and Satisfying one’s own ego !
Just because one attended university but spreading malicious rumors about any individual then it is appropriate to take action. In a country like Australia or America where people can sue others when they were verbally attacked. When it comes to Thailand, the royal family have no rights to even do that, because when you spread rumors about their personal lives then it became academic freedom !
What happens now is that the people whose opinions you don’t like and think should no longer have right of residence in Thailand, will continue to work to educate the woefully under-educated Thai population, including dragging a minority of them, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.
This will be a job of several generations thanks to the many people (like yourself) with apparently feudal and bigoted views about social structure, blatant propaganda and hero-worship of a confected demi-god. Most of the rest of the world shook this nonsense off a hundred or more years ago, but not you it seems.
Lets hope Yingluck has the visceral strength for the purge that must take place, in which case it will be people like you that end up leaving Thailand and not straight-thinking (if sometimes extreme) people like Ji.
Have a look at http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/ today for some common knowledge which will likely ruin your whole day. When you’re done, try and shake the sleep out of your eyes and realise that the delusional and undemocratic gravy train you’ve been riding on for such a long time is, little by little,breaking down.
Here in New Zealand the last Labour Govt was criticised heavily for allowing a Government-owned engineering company Kordia to build cellphone towers in Burma (see article here).
Helen Clark, the Prime Minister at the time, was quoted as saying:
“Quite frankly I think that’s probably an aid to democracy in Myanmar, not a step backwards, because one of the ways of getting news out to the world and photos and images out to the world is precisely through that technology.”
At the time I thought she had it the wrong way round. It was my impression that the Burma govt were extending the network to enable the military and USDA to communicate more effectively in the build-up to the election so that democracy could be thwarted.
Cite me a law which says you cannot live in Thailand if you don’t like the King. Unless there is one, and that law has been enacted by Parliament that had been elected by the majority of the Thai people, you have no right to tell anyone to leave the country just because they do not like the King. Stop parroting those unacademic assertions the elites stuff Thai people into their heads on TV, and answer the question I raise: “whether the King who acquiesces to his subjects beint abused, jailed, threatened, and witchhunted by his fanatics is really a good person like what the elites claim?”
Without freedom of political preference and freedom of expression (as long as the person says what is true or what they believe to be true based on the circumstantial evidences around it), there can be no democratic society and fundamental human rights in the society. And I believe that the society which lacks democracy and human rights is nothing but a hell on earth, regardless of how cheap the food and living costs are.
Time is rapidly running out for the newly elected government of Yingluk Shinawat….
This is almost ironically comic, given that Yingluck was only elected PM by her peers on Friday, and more than 48 hours later has not received royal endorsement and cannot yet officially take up her role as the political leader of the country.
For some reason, the palace appears to have scheduled the handover of the Royal endorsement for late Monday afternoon.
The clock may be running on K. Yingluck, but it’s running towards the moment when she can begin her official duties; it’s difficult to imagine how one can claim that she may not be moving fast enough in implementing change.
Hey Guy’s
This is Thailand if you do not like it please go back to your so call development country.But will you have the best weather and the cheaper cost of living I bet the answer is no!!!!!!! So what now????????
All fair questions Giles though unlike you most academics wrapped in tenure seeking back massaging peer review have’t got the stones to stand up for principles.
Well – “Dr.” Walker we all knew “empirical veracity” was never your strong suit. Glad you can admit it now – but your back pedaling is equally as laughable as your trying to peddle an unverified letter as the subject of “academic debate.”
Proof yet that PhD’s in Australia are handed out like Crackerjack prizes.
I heard this news yesterday and I was saddened and disgusted. The royalists are behaving in such a bloodthirsty way against their fellow citizens who merely don’t like something they are fanatical to. Yet expressing their indifference or dislike is a crime of the highest order in which lengthy jail terms seem to be justified. The fact that it was the teacher who filed the charge against his own students is so shocking. I can honestly say that I am no longer prous to cal myself a Thai after this incident.
It is so frustrating when I see my fellow countrymen behave like this. It is ironic they call themselves a ‘peace loving, Buddhist country’. Yet any criticism or expression of dislike towards the Royal Family can immediately transform many Thais into violent, bloodthirsty, and craziest people on earth.
Have those royalists ever asked themselves whether killing, threatening, abusing, or jailing others is a good thing? Have they ever asked themselves why the elites incite them to ‘kill’ to protect the King? And have they ever asked themselves whether the ‘King’ who acquiesces to his subjects being threatened, jailed, killed, or witchhunted by his fanatics is really a good person or not?
(Andrew Walker#10) What I guess our host is referring to here – ‘So far, all the information I have received suggests that the letter is authentic and is considered to be so by very senior figures in Thailand.’ – is that soon to be former foreign minister Kasit’s name is high up the food chain on the email distribution list of a copy of the letter. I’m also guessing that AW doesn’t reveal that because it would be breaking a confidence/the conditions under which he obtained a copy.
– yet she was once considered future queen / queen consort of Thailand. Even PhD graduate at ANU have no chance of getting that.
“I doubt that Thaksin would support her family against the wish of CP”
– Based on the so called leaked letter ?
IF the letter were authentic, do you all think she is not capable of working ? To go even further, her own parents, brother all have business in Thailand etc. How much money/ land/ diamonds she received while she was with CP ?
Thanks. I didn’t have concrete laws in mind (it’s not my field), but I’ve always had the impression that in systems where primogeniture is an significant political issue, it’s normally governed fairly strictly.
A significant number of European wars have turned on this, after all.
Living in US is somewhat expensive. Their house in Sanford is not cheap. Sending 4 kids to college is also quite expensive. Yuwathida has no “real” high education to support her parents and kids.
I doubt that Thaksin would support her family against the wish of CP.
A little surfing in between the rugby today reveals: the place of employment of two of the sons, a poem written by a third and the books Mum donated to the University of Miami library. Three guesses? It was Brave New World and Brave New World revisited. How ironic.
Lets wait to see how and when the story will break in Bangkok Post and The Nations, those fierce defenders of press freedom.
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Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
Uh… what did this ‘criminal’ write ‘on the internet’?
No, no, no… can’t say. Secret crime. Thought crime. Immediate detention. No bail. Secret Trial. Lengthy imprisonment. Cut in half if the ‘criminal’ pleads guilty.
Doesn’t pass the laugh test. No laughing matter.
Routine and habitual ‘justice’ in Thailand… sentence first – verdict afterwards.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
@Jesse, have you studied law?
You said that the law of ‘defamation’ does not exist in Thailand?
Law of defamation does exist in Thailand. If you speak something untrue about anyone, that person can bring you to Court. But it is a civil liability (at least mostly anyway).
Lese Majeste is different. If you say something which is not so fawning to the Monarchy, even if that is the truth, you will still be jailed for fifteen years. Tell me please, if one cannot even say the truth without being liable criminally, how can the law be just? And the fact the Royals do not file the charge is not a good argument, because the law allows anyone to file a charge against anyone.
Also, you accused this student of spreading malicious rumors? Which rumor did he spread? Did you know the facts of the case at all? The student only expressed his dislike on Facebook that he does not like the King. His teacher (this Nipon guy) called him in for a talk, telling him that he must change his opinion. His attempt was unsuccessful, (and rightly so, how can you force someone to like someone they don’t like?). Thus he reported this student to the police, and it is likely that he will be in jail for a long time to come, just because he does not like someone.
Can that ever be justified? If yes, please supply the reasons in an academic way and save your baseless rants and unfound accusations at home. This news itself is abhorrent enough; I do not want your nonsensical ranting to add insult to the injury of this poor student.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
Thin line between Academic freedom and Satisfying one’s own ego !
Just because one attended university but spreading malicious rumors about any individual then it is appropriate to take action. In a country like Australia or America where people can sue others when they were verbally attacked. When it comes to Thailand, the royal family have no rights to even do that, because when you spread rumors about their personal lives then it became academic freedom !
Use your developed brain to consider this !
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
A lese majeste law, certainly one as used in Thailand, has no place in any country which calls itself a democracy.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
@Thaiman #2:
What happens now is that the people whose opinions you don’t like and think should no longer have right of residence in Thailand, will continue to work to educate the woefully under-educated Thai population, including dragging a minority of them, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.
This will be a job of several generations thanks to the many people (like yourself) with apparently feudal and bigoted views about social structure, blatant propaganda and hero-worship of a confected demi-god. Most of the rest of the world shook this nonsense off a hundred or more years ago, but not you it seems.
Lets hope Yingluck has the visceral strength for the purge that must take place, in which case it will be people like you that end up leaving Thailand and not straight-thinking (if sometimes extreme) people like Ji.
Have a look at http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/ today for some common knowledge which will likely ruin your whole day. When you’re done, try and shake the sleep out of your eyes and realise that the delusional and undemocratic gravy train you’ve been riding on for such a long time is, little by little,breaking down.
Mobile telephony in Burma
Here in New Zealand the last Labour Govt was criticised heavily for allowing a Government-owned engineering company Kordia to build cellphone towers in Burma (see article here).
Helen Clark, the Prime Minister at the time, was quoted as saying:
“Quite frankly I think that’s probably an aid to democracy in Myanmar, not a step backwards, because one of the ways of getting news out to the world and photos and images out to the world is precisely through that technology.”
At the time I thought she had it the wrong way round. It was my impression that the Burma govt were extending the network to enable the military and USDA to communicate more effectively in the build-up to the election so that democracy could be thwarted.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
@Thaiman #2,
Cite me a law which says you cannot live in Thailand if you don’t like the King. Unless there is one, and that law has been enacted by Parliament that had been elected by the majority of the Thai people, you have no right to tell anyone to leave the country just because they do not like the King. Stop parroting those unacademic assertions the elites stuff Thai people into their heads on TV, and answer the question I raise: “whether the King who acquiesces to his subjects beint abused, jailed, threatened, and witchhunted by his fanatics is really a good person like what the elites claim?”
Without freedom of political preference and freedom of expression (as long as the person says what is true or what they believe to be true based on the circumstantial evidences around it), there can be no democratic society and fundamental human rights in the society. And I believe that the society which lacks democracy and human rights is nothing but a hell on earth, regardless of how cheap the food and living costs are.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
This is almost ironically comic, given that Yingluck was only elected PM by her peers on Friday, and more than 48 hours later has not received royal endorsement and cannot yet officially take up her role as the political leader of the country.
For some reason, the palace appears to have scheduled the handover of the Royal endorsement for late Monday afternoon.
The clock may be running on K. Yingluck, but it’s running towards the moment when she can begin her official duties; it’s difficult to imagine how one can claim that she may not be moving fast enough in implementing change.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
Ta sawaang.
Little by little, the eyes open in the valley of the blind.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
Hey Guy’s
This is Thailand if you do not like it please go back to your so call development country.But will you have the best weather and the cheaper cost of living I bet the answer is no!!!!!!! So what now????????
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
All fair questions Giles though unlike you most academics wrapped in tenure seeking back massaging peer review have’t got the stones to stand up for principles.
Letter to Thailand
Well – “Dr.” Walker we all knew “empirical veracity” was never your strong suit. Glad you can admit it now – but your back pedaling is equally as laughable as your trying to peddle an unverified letter as the subject of “academic debate.”
Proof yet that PhD’s in Australia are handed out like Crackerjack prizes.
Ji Ungpakorn on lese majeste
I heard this news yesterday and I was saddened and disgusted. The royalists are behaving in such a bloodthirsty way against their fellow citizens who merely don’t like something they are fanatical to. Yet expressing their indifference or dislike is a crime of the highest order in which lengthy jail terms seem to be justified. The fact that it was the teacher who filed the charge against his own students is so shocking. I can honestly say that I am no longer prous to cal myself a Thai after this incident.
It is so frustrating when I see my fellow countrymen behave like this. It is ironic they call themselves a ‘peace loving, Buddhist country’. Yet any criticism or expression of dislike towards the Royal Family can immediately transform many Thais into violent, bloodthirsty, and craziest people on earth.
Have those royalists ever asked themselves whether killing, threatening, abusing, or jailing others is a good thing? Have they ever asked themselves why the elites incite them to ‘kill’ to protect the King? And have they ever asked themselves whether the ‘King’ who acquiesces to his subjects being threatened, jailed, killed, or witchhunted by his fanatics is really a good person or not?
Internal insecurity – UMNO’s strategy?
UMNO gearing up for “emergency” declaration on possible defeat at the next general election.
As Sherlock Holmes said “The explanation, no matter how unlikely must be the answer, if all others have been exhausted”
Letter to Thailand
(Andrew Walker#10) What I guess our host is referring to here – ‘So far, all the information I have received suggests that the letter is authentic and is considered to be so by very senior figures in Thailand.’ – is that soon to be former foreign minister Kasit’s name is high up the food chain on the email distribution list of a copy of the letter. I’m also guessing that AW doesn’t reveal that because it would be breaking a confidence/the conditions under which he obtained a copy.
Crown Prince’s family update?
Mooyong (47)
That explains your silly responses because you already disregarded my comments and made up your own points.
Letter to Thailand
toni (27)
“Yuwathida has no “real” high education”
– yet she was once considered future queen / queen consort of Thailand. Even PhD graduate at ANU have no chance of getting that.
“I doubt that Thaksin would support her family against the wish of CP”
– Based on the so called leaked letter ?
IF the letter were authentic, do you all think she is not capable of working ? To go even further, her own parents, brother all have business in Thailand etc. How much money/ land/ diamonds she received while she was with CP ?
Letter to Thailand
Portman #24.
Thanks. I didn’t have concrete laws in mind (it’s not my field), but I’ve always had the impression that in systems where primogeniture is an significant political issue, it’s normally governed fairly strictly.
A significant number of European wars have turned on this, after all.
Letter to Thailand
Living in US is somewhat expensive. Their house in Sanford is not cheap. Sending 4 kids to college is also quite expensive. Yuwathida has no “real” high education to support her parents and kids.
I doubt that Thaksin would support her family against the wish of CP.
Someone has to pay the bill, folks.
Letter to Thailand
A little surfing in between the rugby today reveals: the place of employment of two of the sons, a poem written by a third and the books Mum donated to the University of Miami library. Three guesses? It was Brave New World and Brave New World revisited. How ironic.
Lets wait to see how and when the story will break in Bangkok Post and The Nations, those fierce defenders of press freedom.