A Tale of Two Ambassadors

Kristie Kenney, the US Ambassador to Thailand, has ignored the plight of Joe Gordon and the trumped up charges of lese majeste for almost 6 months now. She has sat by quietly, while her poor fellow American citizen rots in a Thai jail for allegedly exercising his right to free speech in Colorado:  something that was so clearly protected by the First Amendment of a document she has sworn to protect.

But lese majeste is another thing. The Thai government is claiming jurisdiction over free speech performed by a US citizen from within US borders and on servers in the US. Perhaps Ambassador Kenney’s silence signifies her agreement with a supra-national application of Thai law over the sovereignty of the US Constitution and rights to free speech?

Or perhaps she's afraid that if she appears to be defending a US citizen accused of "insulting the King," some Thai people in high places will complain to Washington and get her in trouble and she may lose her cushy job of tweeting all day?

No matter what the reason, Kenney’s refusal to publicly do anything to help her fellow American is nothing more than a disgrace. But contrast Ambassador Kenney’s performance (or lack of performance) to that of the US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke.

For Locke, quiet diplomacy on human rights has been a regular part of his portfolio in China. Shortly after he took up the post, Ambassador Locke actually met with an American citizen, imprisoned in China for his role in the sale of an oil database to a US company.

“He was convicted of violating the state-secrets law for simply downloading material that was readily available on the Internet,” Ambassador Locke said in the interview. “We have been meeting with a lot of organizations and representatives of activists and organizations that are concerned about human rights,” Locke stated. “That's of great concern to me and to the administration, so we have plans to reach out to many of the activists.”

Ambassador Locke’s performance should be commended while Kristie Kenney’s refusal to publicly do anything to help her fellow American is nothing more than a disgrace. 

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Free Speech for "The Dark Lord" – Everyone Else Shut Up

SuthichaiYoon, is the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Nation Publishing Group in Bangkok. The Nation Publishing Group owns "The Nation" which is one of the two English-language daily newspapers in Bangkok. He also writes a daily Thai-language column and a weekly English-language column.  Mr. Yoon has a blog and also hosts a weekly television program on current affairs.

I generally don’t follow Mr. Yoon’s work due to his lack of credibility.  I’ll give two examples:  he works for "The Nation" and he tried to kill Harry Potter.

However, in a classic example of the age old saying; “Even a blind monkey finds a banana every once in awhile,” Mr. Yoon finally got something right.  A couple of weeks ago, he wrote an editorial in “The Nation” about proposed amendments to the Printing Act of 2007 from the Ministry of Culture and the erosion of free speech in Thailand.

The amendments include 7 points:

1.    Any print media, excluding newspapers, printed in the kingdom must identify itself by category according to criteria set by ministerial regulation;
2.    The National Police Chief is authorized to ban the printing, distribution or import of any printed media which affects the monarchy, national security or public order and morals;
3.    Publishers must publish within 60 days after receiving permission;
4.    Publishers must identify in the printed materials the category and ISBN of each publication as issued by the National Library of Thailand, and must submit two copies to the National Library of Thailand;
5.    The name of the publication must not be the same as or similar to any of the name or abbreviation of any state agency;
6.    Publishers who do not submit copies of their publication to the National Library of Thailand within a specified timeframe will be fined up to 10,000 baht; and
7.    Those who violate a banning order by the National Police Chief will be punished with a jail term of up to three years or a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both.

Mr. Yoon correctly condemned these proposed amendments outright but without truly understanding the reasoning behind them. Obviously, these amendments have been proposed in order to address the well known problems of so-called “Thai journalism” – problems which he is a part of.  

When the news media bends over for advertisers, the military, the police and anyone else in power, they no longer become trustworthy. The news media becomes an accomplice to crimes being committed by these powers.

Thai news reporters are long in words, short in action, fearing for their own lives over the truth, typing away like blind sheep at mundane stories; approved by those same powers. There probably are not very many brave Thai reporters in the entire kingdom willing to investigate a story that could endanger them.

During the Thai military’s massacre of democracy protesters in Bangkok during April and May of 2010, there should have been a relatively large ratio of Thai reporters to foreign reporters covering the event.  Yet, how many Thai reporters were killed or injured? Unless one of them received a paper cut from too quickly retyping an army press release – there probably wasn’t any. They knew the score. It is safer to publish the army’s claptrap given to them at press conferences than to get the truth firsthand at the scene and run the risk of getting shot and killed by the army like Fabio Polenghi of Italy and Hiro Muramoto of Japan. The Thai media probably knew that they’d better let someone like NY Times reporter Thomas Fuller be the one to interview General Seh Daeng, an ally of the democracy protesters for fear that a Thai army sniper’s bullet might miss the interviewee and hit the interviewer instead. Yet the foreign media who put reporters on the scene in harm’s way was intensely criticized for their reporting of the massacre by Thai royalists.

The Thai news media, in general, has been and still are accomplices as they see the corruption, they know the details, yet they blindly keep the people from the truth. The time for bringing Thai newspapers up to journalistic standards is long overdue. While other countries have newspapers that are committed to truthfulness and accuracy, many Thai newspapers – like The Nation, and the other English-language daily; The Bangkok Post, twist facts and arouse hatred. Thai newspapers like Thairath and Manager are just as bad. They often don’t report neutrally and are often just a propaganda instrument.

Some members of Pheu Thai at the Ministry of Culture, frustrated at the poor state of journalism in Thailand, may have good intentions in trying to address some of these problems through legislation but by doing so they might accomplish the impossible and actually lower Thailand’s abysmal Press Freedom ranking by brought about by Abhisit Vejjajiva’s repression.  

The government is far too blunt and dangerous an instrument to be used to legislate the news media’s responsibility to maintain journalistic standards.  Incredibly bad and biased reporting by propaganda rags like “The Nation” in Thailand shouldn’t serve as an excuse to expand the repressive powers of a government. 

Fortunately, wiser minds have prevailed. On November 1, Deputy Spokesperson of the PM’s Office Chalitrat Chantarubeksa told reporters that the Office of the Council of State had rejected the amendments to the 2007 Print Registration Act.  

Suthichai Yoon being portrayed as a champion against censorship is laughable.  If he really is an opponent of censorship then why was he so conspicuously silent when the junta and the previous military installed government of Abhisit censored all kinds of websites, radio stations and publications, shutting down those they didn't like with impunity?  Actively involved in the new and social media, Mr. Yoon has attempted to transform his publishing group's newsroom into a fully digital mode.  So, standing up against censorship of his competitors (for example Prachatai) during Abhisit’s regime was not in his best interest; economically.

Abhisit Vejjajiva (left) and Suthichai Yoon chatting on March 6, 2009 during the 10th anniversary celebration of Asia News Network (ANN) at the Peninsula Hotel, Bangkok.  There, Abhisit gave a speech saying he was committed to media freedom and that Thailand’s Freedom of Press ranking in the world (then at 124^th) would improve under his government.  Later that day, police raided Prachatai’s online news office. Abhisit left office two years later with Thailand ranked 153^rd in the world in Press Freedom, only 25 other countries ranked lower.

A-Holes In Holes

By now, you’ve all heard the big news:  Khadafi  is dead!  Earlier this week, rebel forces in Libya seized control of the Khadafi stronghold of Sirte where they captured and killed Khadafi, ending his brutal 42 year reign.

Here’s how it went down:  Libyan officials said that Kadhafi was hiding in some sort of hole or tunnel network.  And that he was pulled from the hole/tunnel network alive and that he was killed by the rebels.

Now if you recall, American troops pulled former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, out of a hole in December 2003.  Also remember that in the lead-up to the July 3 vote in Thailand, the former Deputy Prime Minister of that country, Suthep Thaugsuban, said that he might have to burrow and live underground if Jatuporn Prompan, whom he brands as a terrorist could win a seat in Parliament and grab power.  Jatuporn won his seat.

So evidently, totalitarian style thugs who order the brutal killing of their own people are a nocturnal burrowing species.

 All A-holes please raise their right hand.

Karma catches up with everyone eventually! Two down, one to go.

Thailand’s Political Prisoners and Halloween Party at Don Muang

The lack of effort and response of the US embassy in Thailand in protecting the rights of American citizen Joe Gordon and procuring his release is downright shameful. Instead of righteously condemning lèse majesté and demanding Mr. Gordon’s release, the best they could muster was to register "public disappointment" on the filing of the formal charges three months after his arrest.

Of course, some embassy officials did visit him in jail and did attend some of his hearings, but this was all just to keep up appearances. Bail was denied on eight different occasions until Joe finally gave up fighting for his innocence.

Joe knew the score. He couldn’t win. After over four months of being incarcerated, a disheartened Joe Gordon, wearing handcuffs and ankle shackles, entered a Thai courtroom to plead guilty. His lawyer said that he wanted the penalty to be lessened and intended to ask for a royal pardon.

Gordon told the reporters that pleading innocent was futile. “How can I fight?” he said, adding that the justice system in Thailand is “not fair.”

“I want the American government to help me because this is about freedom of expression,” Gordon said.

But there will be no help from our American diplomats in Thailand.  Joe has nothing to offer in return for their aid.

The Thai government, on the other hand, has plenty to offer the US government to maintain a low profile in this case and for not criticizing their draconian lèse majesté law. For instance, how about allowing the US Central IntelligenceAgency a private torture chamber at Don Muang Airport to interrogate Libyan prisoners?

It seems the inaction of Ambassador Kristie Kenney and her staff at the embassy fulfills the US government’s part of the bargain.  Party on.

Justice and Free Speech Fight Back Against Lèse Majesté

I have to apologize for my previous posting. The gang rape of justice and free speech wasn’t a very uplifting message. The subject and cartoon was sad, frustrating and downright depressing.  It suggested that “all is lost” and that there is nothing that can be done to stop the “Thai royalist bastards” from doing what they want and getting away with it.  

I turn to the words of the great American Poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

And in despair I bowed my head.

There is no peace on earth I said.

For hate is strong and mocks the song,

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

But we shouldn’t despair.  All is not lost.  Justice and free speech don’t have to be victims. They are the only forces which can actually fight and defeat Thailand’s lèse majesté laws and those who use them for their own personal gain.

If we all speak out loud and strong and insist on freedom of speech and justice then lèse majesté laws can be eliminated and placed in the dustbins of history. 

Then rang the bells more loud and deep,

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.

The wrong shall fail, the right, prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men.

On that note, I offer the following cartoon depicting the symbols of free speech and justice victorious over the forces of evil.  Consider this scene as happening moments after the scene depicted in the cartoon of my last post.

FREE DARUNEE!

FREE SURACHAI!

FREE SOMYOS!

FREE JOE GORDON!

FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN THAILAND!