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I know there are many New Mandala readers following the tragic case of Australian writer Harry Nicolaides, jailed in Thailand pending a lèse majesté trial. Today two Australian newspapers, The Australian and The Age, have articles about Harry’s predicament. The Chronicle of Higher Education has just taken up the story. Reporters Without Borders is also following it closely. Unfortunately, after months in prison it all sounds as grim as ever.
Previous New Mandala coverage of Harry’s situation is available here.
Let’s hope that he gets home soon.
It is truly amazing how those most shrill of voices screaming for the rule of law during the recent Bangkok Airport closures, the western press, the western tourists, and western bloggers are now shrilly demanding that the rule of law be ignored in the case of an Aussie nitwit who violated Thailand’s strict Lese Majeste law.
Which is it? The “rule of law” you scream about, or the “I’m not going to follow that law because it’s stupid” mantra of your enemy?
Oh, but you are so much better because you are (fill in the blank) !
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Nitwit.
Well, there’s a nice way to condemn a man when down. I continue to be dismayed by the lack of negativity proffered by many uneducated like you on those that have made an educated decision to speak the truth, or fiction.
The real freedom of writers should not be witheld or censored if we are to maintain some sort of democracy in the 21st century. Thailand is a democracy and its archaic laws need to reflect that.
Calling an inprisoned man a nitwit is like asking a man with one leg to beat you another with two capable ones to duel in a football game.
Those with any sense of justice or sanity will laugh at your ludicrous comments and carry on with getting Harry the rights to freedom like anyone in his position is entitled to.
Scott Newton
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bosunj must take readers of NM to be nitwits. The rule of law argument here is a red herring. The Nicolaides case has been about ignoring the rule of law but about trying to make sure that it functions. There seems little rhyme or reason to the way the law is being applied here when compared with others cases involving foreigners or Thais. Enough has been said at NM about this and can be read again by those interested.
By the way, to be a little more relevant to the broader topic, the rule of law does not imply that laws can’t be created, changed, etc. One measure of laws is whether they are applied equally. Clearly, in terms of LM, there is no such equality before the law as this case indicates. Other cases include those against Sondhi Lim and PAD leaders on LM which have been treated in a completely different manner. That would suggest to fair-minded observers that this law is a political law deserving of serious reconsideration.
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Foreigner are as ready to leave Harry to his fate as the are to minimalize and decide unimportant the fate of the hill tribe at the hands of the Thais. When one out of two foreigners are in jail in Thailand over similar bs it won’t be so funny.
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Having just been sentenced to 3 years in prison, Harry should ask for a Royal pardon, The King of Thailand is known for his kindness in these matters. He will probably be home soon.
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Lèse majesté and the Rule of Law are diametrically opposed concepts. The very idea that it is unacceptable to criticise one’s rulers is not compatible with this or with civil democracy. As much as we might like Thailand, let’s not forget that jailing a man for expressing an opinion is abominable, and that the Thai royal family are fallible mortals at best – not divine entities, no matter their accomplishments.
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Thialand is now up there with Saudi Arabia and Iran in my book.
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I was alarmed by the seriousness of feelings of my fellow Australian friends who are sorry for Harry Nicholaides. I therefore wished to gather info in case I was able to help in any way to make life easier for him. Again, after studying his logistics and the circumstances surrounding the case, I personally feel I might not be able to do anything much. Harry taught at the Queen Mother’s University. He has lived here for more than 2-3 years and have been around many refined and educated Thais and fellow professors who would have given him ample insights into what needs to be treated with discretion and due respect in this country. If I were a professor at the Queen Mother’s University, I would have every reason to be grateful to this country and avoid posting any thing that seems sensitive towards the monarchy. If Verisimilitudes was a novel staging the scenes and settings in Thailand, it makes it hard to view that he’s not referring his saying therein to the Crown Prince directly or indirectly, for instances. I guess that’s why he has been denied bails and as such inevitably being imprisoned. I am not Harry so I guess it may not be good for me to say all this. For a neutral understanding, I wish to say that, lese majeste law is not some kind of laws that the government cleverly innovated for the purposes of bureaucracy to win the hearts of the Thais. It is based not only on respectful humanitarian ways but also on the logics that no one shall defame others in any clever or unclever fashions whatsoever especially without clear evidence as yet that would be considered uncivilised… or an older saying that one shall not dwell one’s life on spreading rumours because it is considered unwise. From my following up on heard rumours. And materials containing this sort of info or rumours, I can well tell you that wise people should have better things to do than participating in fabricating or spreading it. While it may seem like nonsense to many westerners, it serves like the Section of Criminal Code that governs cases re defamation among commoners even if in case of commoners the direct reference to the grounds of the case may seem to require a lot more material representation and evidence because of the differentiation of circumstances and setting as well as person’s broader specifics. I am sorry for everybody with bad feelings for that I might not be able to help. I feel bad for Harry’s hardship too but perhaps let’s look at it that every moment in life is like a coin that has got at least two sides. if so, I hope his life in the next three years would contain good things as well as hardship that he might have to go through. May peace be with him for the time-being.
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‘Harry should ask for a Royal pardon, The King of Thailand is known for his kindness in these matters’
Why should he have to ask for a Royal pardon?
Does that ‘kindness’ only come after submission & begging?
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I’m very sad and frustrated too. I don’t know what else can be done. I”m also furious !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!THIs IS THAILAND and ther e are so many people like the one who called himself/herself “Thai” on the other thread!! So many people like him/her !!! And they are often bold enough to speak fro all Thais… This is outrageous but I see no light at the end of the tunnel for Thai people who disagree with that ‘Thai’….
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I imagine my previous comment wasn’t ‘high-quality’ enough to make it past the moderators. To reiterate, this kind of medieval censorship and population control belongs in the distant past. If Thailand wants to be taken seriously on the international stage they will need to revise their legislature to remove these cartoon-type laws. bosunj, Jin, you appear to be proof of being products of your environment. How can two apparently intelligent people support this activity? Your are defending the indefensible.
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“Does that ‘kindness’ only come after submission & begging?”
My poor silly westerner, the ‘kindness’ you speak of is seldom even granted after submission and begging. The freedoms you so enjoy are not natural things, and no protest to the contrary will ever make them so. They are unnatural creations of mankind, sustained by the blood and sacrifice of better men than you, and you have enjoyed their shelter and fruit for far too long without understanding them at all.
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Jin: I find it difficult to follow your line or argument. It seems that you are saying that hanging out with refined people should teach one to keep within the accepted bounds of polite discourse. Clearly, that is nonsense.
But it seems, from your knowing comments, that you have read Verisimilitudes. Where did you get it? This book is unavailable to most of us, unless we go to the Thai National Library. Maybe you can give readers the benefit of your reading? What is the plot? Is it really about Thailand? We already know that it can’t be much good as a novel as it hasn’t sold. But your views would be appreciated.
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Tatterdemalian: I accept whats natural to me (a poor silly westerner) might not be natural to you.
However, we are discussing Royalty in the 21st century, so what’s natural to them?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/natural
PS. I’m the first to admit there are many better men (and women) than me – but thanks for the reminder anyway 🙂
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To Jin, your post is long but what it suggests cannot help with the state of things in Thailand. Worse, it condones injustice under the pretense of cultural sensitivity. You say that westerners can’t understand the Thai LM laws, but in fact, everyone with common sense can see them for what they are if they are not led astrayed too much by bias, prejudice and vested interests. Your post pretends to be intelligent but those who keep a close watch on Thai politics can quickly see it for what it is.
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To: Tatterdemalian
I think you are treating Ngadeeleg patronizingly here. S/he is a very intelligent person with very good knowledge and understanding of Thailand and its people. S/ he is by no means naive when Thai and western culture is concerned. I’m a loyal follower of her blog.
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> The freedoms you so enjoy are not natural things
It is clear that you have no knowledge of human history. In hunter-gatherer societies, freedom of speech is a natural thing.
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Dear Kim
Could you explain your comment:
“Thialand (sic) is now up there with Saudi Arabia and Iran in my book.”
What is the basis of this comparison?
Adam
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Not to step in, but I spent 25 years in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and can offer a similar opinion to Kim that things in Thailand are not that far off in terms of power of the police, of scope of human rights abuses, of absence of protection against human and civil rights violations, and of absence of relatively fair and just treatment overall by the governments of their respective populations.
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