Alleged IT Minister speaks about lese-majeste, national security, Al Qaeda, holistic way, and 3G (the phone not the G string)

Thank you ! Thank you Bangkok Post for the hilarious (and scary…) interview of Ranongruk, the alleged IT Minister.

My readers are probably aware. They know this woman…

She’s one of the Frankenstein Ministers… She started her career as a nurse… Then she became… are you ready ?… Deputy Finance Minister in Samak’s government in march 2008.

She thought that the VAT was paid only by tourists… and she went on Google to learn about her new job. I’m not joking (proof here).

Abhisit made her IT Minister… I’m wondering who is the most ridiculous for that matter. Anyway. We knew that she would be a real winner.

She started quickly, end of december, with a striking agenda : lese-majeste everywhere, even in her tea.

And now this interview with Bangkok Post. It’s a master piece, nothing less.

I’m copying the whole article, for the legacy. So historians can have a good laugh in a few years.

Lese-majeste : more hysteria and now they want to “educate the foreigners”

The hysteria around the lese-majeste law continues at an unabated pace.

The Senate has resolved to set up an extraordinary committee to strictly enforce laws to better protect the monarchy following an increasing number of websites found to be offensive to the royal institution.

The Senate yesterday voted 90 to 17 to set up an extraordinary panel to follow up on the enforcement of laws and articles relating to the protection of the monarchy as proposed by appointed senator Khamnoon Sitthisamarn.

Wait a minute ? 17 have voted against ? That’s lese-majeste ! In a good banana african country like Thailand, an appropriate result should be 100 %. Nothing less. Goddamnit, what are they learning at school ?

The committee, to be headed by national police chief Patcharawat Wongsuwan, will comprise 30 members – 19 senators and 11 outsiders.

Currently, there are over 10,000 websites deemed offensive to the monarchy. The Information and Communication (ICT) Ministry has been able to block only 2,000 sites.

Now it’s 10000. Before it was 400 or 1200.And then 2000. Why not 5 millions ? They are so stupid they couldn’t even count buffaloes in a rice field.

The Justice Ministry will coordinate with the Foreign Ministry to launch a campaign among foreigners to educate them about lese majeste laws.

Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga said he would coordinate with the Foreign Ministry to instruct all Thai embassies abroad to launch public relations campaigns about lese majeste laws which impose harsh punishments on those who insult the Thai monarchy. (Bangkok Post)

It’s good to laugh. Can you see the intellectual level of those people ? It’s scary.

Do you imagine …. PR campaigns organized in UK, France, USA, Germany… to explain, calmly, that anybody risks 15 years in jail if he dares to criticize one man… ?

The Peter Principle (the whole thai establishment is totally dumb) mixed to the Streisand Effect could be the grave of this law if they continue.

They don’t understand that the more they use like a toy and talk about the lese-majeste law, the more substance they are taking out of it.

They are endangering the monarchy, as an institution, and the King as a person.

Because of them, one day, Rama IX could be remembered as “The King Who Needed A Law To Be Respected”.

At last, Australia asks Thailand to pardon Nicolaides jailed for lese-majeste

Multiplication of inane lese-majeste cases, an australian who rots in jail since august (for a book he wrote… and 7 copies were sold), the revolting boat people scandal… that’s a little bit too much for Abhisit’s shoulders and for his government.

The image of Thailand is literally sinking.

So let’s hope that they will do the right thing, and send back Nicolaides to Australia.

This insanity has to stop.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith made the request in a letter to his Thai counterpart after Harry Nicolaides, 41, pleaded guilty this week to defaming the head of state, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and his son.

“Now that the legal processes before Thailand’s courts have concluded, Australian officials have advised Thai officials that the Australian government strongly supports Mr. Nicolaides’s pardon application,” Smith said in a statement. (Bloomberg)

Another suspect of lese-majeste arrested

The Department of Special Investigation arrests a suspect publicizing lese majeste information on websites.

DSI Director-General Pol.Maj.Gen.Thawi Sodsong led officers to raid a residence of Mr Suwicha Thakhor, a suspect of the case, in Khannayao area following a lead that the place was used by Mr Suwicha to publicize lese majeste content on various websites. The suspect’s computer was seized as evidence.

Mr Suwicha, who had fled to stay with his cousin in Nakhon Phanom province, was arrested by investigators of the DSI Office of International Crime while he was buying goods at a market in Nakhon Phanom province. He denied all charges.

DSI will bring the suspect back to its headquarters for interrogation today (January 15th). (PRD)

The campaign of intimidation continues and its pace is increasing.

Change with Abhisit ? Yes we can’t.

Now you know the trick : your competitor, your work collegue, your boss, your neighbor annoys you ?

Just call the police, and accuse him of “lese-majeste”… and tell them that he’s using his computer to defame the royal family.

Justice Minister and lese-majeste : “freedom of speech is like your shoes at the airport”

We know that the new government vows to make lese-majeste a top priority.

It has been said by the IT Minister, Abhisit the Prime Minister, and the Justice Minister. It has been said in the thai medias and in the international press too.

So this campaign is more than a “local one”. And this is is precisely why it’s dangerous.

The thai government is apparently not afraid to ridicule itself on the international scene with this obsessive compulsive political disorder. And to multiply the cases (for instance, there is a third (!!!) pending case against J.Head, the BBC journalist, plus a new case against Giles, the thai academics).

Thailand’s new justice minister vowed yesterday to toughen controversial laws protecting the monarchy and crack down on unprecedented levels of criticism of the palace stemming from recent political turmoil.

Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, a former judge, said protecting the nation’s “most revered institution” was his top priority, adding that he would enlist the help of the army to suppress alleged anti-royal activities.

“In Thailand, the monarchy is not only a symbolic institution. It is the pillar of national security,” he said in an interview. “Whatever is deemed as affecting the monarchy must be treated as a threat to national security,” said Pirapan, who has a US Masters degree in law. [...]

The administration has already announced plans to add 400 Web pages to 2,300 already blocked for lese-majeste, or insulting the monarchy, a crime that carries up to 15 years in prison in Thailand, where many regard the king as semi-divine.

Freedom of speech is enshrined in the constitution but Pirapan said that did not mean criticism of the monarchy amounting to a threat to national security would be tolerated. “When you visit the United States, your rights have been infringed when you have to take your shoes or your belt off for an airport security check. That is done for the sake of national security,” Pirapan said.

“In Thailand, your freedom of speech might have to be compromised for the sake of national security,” he said. (Reuters)

To my knowledge, it’s the first time a direct link is made between the monarchy and “national security“. It’s a very interesting conceptual development.

But it’s astonishing to see the Justice Minister, with a so called US master degree in law, making such comments.

Thai politicians are fascinated by rethoric and other syllogisms. They believe it’s powerful enough to subdue the masses.

Even a high-schooler could answer Pirapan that it’s an intellectual fraud to put on the same level freedom of speech and the fact of removing shoes for airport security screening !

It’s by essence a false comparison.

When the public debate reaches such low levels, then I think all hope is gone.

The old priority of the new ICT minister : to block websites “insulting the monarchy”

The good point with thai politics is that the more it changes, the less it changes.

The new ICT Minister, who has by the way some very weird opinions about economy (look at my special gallery of Frankenstein ministers here) has announced her “new” priorities. Exactly like… the previous government.

The new Information and Communications Technology (ICT) minister has vowed to make it a priority to block websites insulting the monarchy.

Ranongrak Suwanchawee told senior ICT officials that most of the websites originated outside the country and would be blocked, as would sites considered obscene and those offering online games and gambling.

She said her predecessor in the post mistakenly believed that little could be done to control sites originating overseas. (Bangkok Post)

Laos has 3G mobile phone systems… Thailand doesn’t. The country prefers to pursue some absurd crusade against “websites insulting the monarchy”.

Well done Abhisit, with miss Ranongrak you have a real winner.

[by the way, if you want to know why 3G is blocked in Thailand, read this article from Bangkok Post]

The Magical Kingdom and The Economist : “police do not have to officially ban the magazine”

Et voila ! Another day in the Magical Kingdom… where humans and animals live in harmony, on the banks of river of honey and gold. And where… the most important thing is : to avoid loosing face.

Thailand ? You can choose between Lalaland or Disneyland, with Inspecteur Clouseau or Forrest Gump.

The Thai distributor of the Economist said Tuesday it had banned this week’s edition of the magazine because it contained a story critical of His Majesty the King.

Asia Bookssaid the article, which discussed thealleged role in politics of the King,”risks insulting the monarchy.” [...]

“Police have talked to importers and distributors who agreed not to import the issue of Dec 6-10 because an article in the magazine criticised the monarchy,” said Pol Lt Gen Thiradet Rodphothong, commander of Special BranchPolice.

“Therefore the police do not have to officially ban the magazine,” he said. (AFP)

What a piece of work of the famous thai rethoric !

Any rational mind would infere that : if the police asked the distributor to ban the magazine, then… we could say that the police has itself banned the magazine.

But in Thailand, logic doesn’t apply.

Anyway. Those 2 famous articles (already) are going to get even more audience after this news from AFP (press agency serving medias worldwide).

Congratulations to the police !

And those 2 articles are online (with copies probably on hundreds of servers)… and will stay on the Internet for ever.

We are waiting now the thai police to “not ban” The Economist’s website, so the thai ISP’s could “ban not” the website. I mean something like that… I’m confused now.

Press, monarchy : The Economist wants to “break the taboo”

In case you weren’t on planet Earth during the last 48 hours, here is an important update…

The Economist has published 2 articles about the thai monarchy.

The king and them
The untold story of the palace’s role behind the collapse of Thai democracy

and

A right royal mess
Thailand’s interminable political conflict has much to do with the taboo subject of its monarchy. That is why the taboo must be broken

It’s totally unprecedented. First because the Economist is not a lowly newspaper. It’s an important one. And then because the content is indeed very, highly critical.

Here are few quotes. But you really must read the whole text.

Even the most mild, reasoned criticism of the monarchy is forbidden, punishable by up to 15 years in jail. This has had a remarkable effect not just on Thais but on successive generations of Western diplomats, academics and journalists who, with few exceptions, have meekly censored themselves. [...]

Now president of the privy council, General Prem is also supposedly above politics. But this too is a myth: he is widely seen as the mastermind of the 2006 coup. Shortly beforehand he told the arm[...]

The army is a big part of the country’s predicament. Its generals believe they have a right to remove any government that incurs its, or the palace’s, displeasure—taking its cue from the monarchy that has approved so many of its coups.[...]

Other countries, from Spain to Brazil, have overcome dictatorial pasts to grow into strong democracies whose politics is mostly conducted in parliament, not on the streets. Thailand’s failure to follow suit is partly because “Father” has always been willing to step in and sort things out: his children have never quite had to grow up.[...]

“It is more and more difficult for them to hold the illusion that the monarchy is universally adored,” says a Thai academic. This illusion is crumbling amid growing worry about what happens when the king’s reign ends.[...]

For all these reasons, a former senior official with strong palace ties says there is a terror of what will come after Bhumibol. “When we say ‘Long live the king’ we really mean it, because we can’t bear to think of what the next step will be,” he says. [...]

If Bhumibol’s glittering reign either ends in conflagration or leads to a Thailand paralysed by endless strife, with nobody of his stature to break the deadlock, it will be a tragedy. [...]

It’s ironic : The Economist was banned (unofficially, through the distributor) in march 2002, during Thaksin’s premiership, because of an article mentioning the Thai monarchy.

But six years later, it’s like a century later… Things have changed.

Lese-majeste and Harry Nicolaides case : 3 bail requests denied, and pleading not guilty

The Age published a long article about Harry Nicolaides, the australian writer arrested and charged for lese-majeste on august 31.

It gives several details.

-3 bail requests were denied

-”Thai authorities issued a warrant for Nicolaides’ arrest on March 17 this year”.

-his book was “published” (50 copies only, and 7 were sold…) 3 years ago… But he made a big mistake…He sent “his book to the National Library, the Thai Ministry of Culture, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bureau of the Royal Household to check that its contents were acceptable. He received no response.”

That explains everything…

And today we learn that “Harry pleaded not guilty at today’s appearance and has vehemently claimed he never intended to cause any insult or harm to the Thai Royal family” (New Mandala).

So he’s going to stay in jail… Until his trial. That could take a long… time.

His last hope : to be pardoned by the King (this is what happened for Jufer, a Swiss man who was accused of lese-majeste. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 10 years of jail, then pardoned and then deported).

“It is simply one of the most bizarre cases I’ve ever come across,” says Arnold Zable, author and president of the Melbourne branch of International PEN, an organisation that campaigns on behalf of writers in detention around the world. (The Age)

Indeed.

Lese-majeste : Democrats propose a law to crack down on Internet

What can you do when you’re a member of a party that :
-has absolutly no ideas
-has mediocre leaders
-and is unable to win any elections ?

The Democrat Party has the answer : lese-majeste of course.

It’s not the first time that some MPs try to get their 15 minutes of fames by toying without any shame with the higher institution (read here).

But now, they go one step further : with a proposition of law.

A group of MPs from the opposition Democrat Party yesterday proposed a draft legislation that would penalise people making defamatory remarks or contemptuous tones against the monarchy on the Internet or via computers. [...]

The law’s proponents explained that at present there is no law that deals with offenders of lese majeste through modern electronic means, such as on Internet websites and in computer systems.

Under the proposed law, anyone putting inaccurate content about the monarchy on the Internet or a computer system faces a jail term of between three to 20 years or a fine ranging from Bt200,000 to Bt800,000.

Those uploading defamatory or contemptuous content about the monarchy face an imprisonment of five to 20 years or a fine of between Bt300,000 to Bt800,000.

The law will also punish anyone falsely accusing others of such wrongdoings, with imprisonment of three to 20 years and a fine ranging from Bt200,000 to Bt800,000.

The law also seeks to punish people hiring others to do the job for them, the Internet service provider or computer system administrator who fails to cooperate, as well as repeat offenders. [...] (Nation)

Someone should explain them that Thailand has all the necessary laws to deal with this problem :

-lese-majeste, part of the Penal Code
-and of course the new Computer Crime Act

Furthermore, someone should explain them that lese-majeste doesn’t cover one mean in particular : whether you make a speech in public on the street ( (Da Torpedo), a speech in a room (Jakrapob case), an article on a famous TV’s website (BBC Jonathan Head case), write a book, an article, a radio show, in a cinema, anything… everywhere… by any means.

Lese-majeste is lese-majeste.

We don’t need a special law for lese-majeste… on Internet. Or on “computers”.

Furthermore, those MPs don’t even read the newspapers : “The court issued three orders shutting down about 400 sites, 344 of which carried material that was contemptuous of the royal family.” (september 2008).

It’s the proof that the authorities can already handle lese-majeste on Internet.

Poor country. Poor people.

“Lese majeste-related cases are becoming superfluous, meaningless”

A striking (long) article written by Sulak Sivaraksa , who was recently accused of lese-majeste (and arrested)… after being accused of the same crime in 1984. Then in 1991. Then in 2005. Then in 2007 !!!

He says that “the Princess [Galyani Vadhana] had graciously conveyed her kindness to me on several occasions.” He’s not afraid to talk. And to say that the lese-majeste crime is used as a political tool, that its overuse is going against the King’s will, and that the increasing number of cases is “meaningless”.

Here are some quotes :

It is woeful that politicians continually and endlessly condone trickery and ruse to press lese majeste charges against me and other less fortunate people: even though they know fully well that His Majesty the King had emphatically expressed his view, to no uncertain degree, on this subject in his speech delivered before the annual birthday anniversary celebration on December 4, 2005.

His Majesty had made it known publicly that such allegations would cause harm to him as well as the royal institution.

Nonetheless, governments which claim their ardent loyalty to the royal institution pay little attention to His Majesty’s concern, and wittingly disobey his address altogether.

[...]

The lese majeste-related cases are becoming superfluous as to be meaningless, including one concerning not standing up during the playing of the Royal Anthem. Such allegations are not helpful to the perpetuity of the monarchy. Those desiring to attack the monarchy also use rumours by word of mouth, and numerous websites that do not augur well.

In my opinion, on the occasion of the celebration of the King’s birthday anniversary this year, similar to the 60th anniversary of His Majesty’s ascension to the throne ceremony in 2006, the Office of His Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary should recommend to the police to withdraw all charges relating to lese majeste under its jurisdiction. Such would bring about immense acclaim and greatness of the highest degree upon the King. [...] (Bangkok Post)