The Thai Prime Minister was very unpopular before Covid began and in the past 18 months the disdain that people feel towards him and his administration has grown. There are a lot of people that speculate that any time a new "wave" of Covid results in lockdowns it is actually just a power grab on his part because protests against his rule were growing in number of attendees and frequency.
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My opinion about the man doesn't really matter because I can't vote and I am not Thai but I do know what I see around me from day-to-day and mostly the Thai people I know disapprove of the Prime Minister but are afraid to be very vocal about it.
When the protests against his rule were picking up in Bangkok, there was one other place that had mass protests as well that was of note and that was in the city of Chiang Mai, where I live.
The press isn't really free here and all of the major news outlets like The Bangkok Post and all of the news stations that I don't watch on TV because I don't speak Thai well enough to understand them, are all kind of well-known for being mouthpieces of whoever happens to be in the government at the time. They understand that any vocalization of dissent towards the ruling party would be seen as an assault and in the past these offices have simply been raided or the broadcast would be cut if it was something that was critical of the ruling party or the Royal Family.
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I remember I was once watching AL Jazeera on my satellite and a story about Thailand came up in English and before we could even get a glimpse of what they were going to talk about the above image came up on the screen and the Al Jazeera broadcast was interrupted by a group of people that were singing the praises of the government and of course the Royal Family. Certain UK news websites are still blocked by ISP's in this country because of some stories they did years ago about how the Prime Minister's re-election was mired in fraud.
A few days ago, Prime Minister Prayut announced that "fake news" is banned in the Kingdom from this point forward and that all Thai internet service providers are required to track the IP of all users for the sake of tracking down and arresting anyone who makes "fake news" and puts it online. ISP's who do not comply risk having their licenses revoked.
There are some very real problems with this notion and the main one being the fact that Prayut himself is the one who is going to be in charge of determining what is fake news and what isn't.
Thailand has a Constitution that is quite similar to other countries' document in that it provides for freedom of the press and freedom of expression. This would seem like a direct violation of that Constitution and the only reason why the order was passed through without approval of the rest of the government officials is because it falls under the Emergency Decree, Prayut does not need the approval of Parliament in order to make this decision on his own.
6 of the major media organizations immediately condemned the decree and I have to admire their courage in doing so since their words could very well be deemed "fake news" and they could find themselves with the police coming to visit them soon enough.
Basically this country is starting to look more and more like China in terms of information online being suppressed by a single person. The good news is that the government in Thailand is notoriously bad at anything technology-related just like almost every other government in the world. Thus far, their arrests have only resulted in Facebook users getting arrested who foolishly posted something online in their own real name. The scary thing about a few of those posts was that the government also went after anyone who "liked" the article or shared it.
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It is important to keep in mind that this man was not elected initially, he was a general that took power in a coup d'etat and later was re-elected in a vote that was loaded with really suspicious results including one province casting more votes for him than there were people that actually lived there.
He isn't going to go away quietly and hopefully he will give up power peacefully. In the meantime, it seems as though he is starting to not really be all that concerned with what people think of him when he makes one-sided decisions to eliminate all opinions other than the ones he approves.
Even if you could vote I don't think it would make a difference the system seems rigged, everywhere it's getting more like China, things are really getting ridiculous everywhere mostly all linked because of this covid nonsense.
I am starting to feel that way as well. When you look at a lot of the world's leaders it is difficult to imagine that their populations actually WANTED that person to be in charge of anything.
It's actually worse than that. He isn't clamping down on just fake news, he is outlawing any spreading of news that could cause distress or panic which means he is outlawing honest news as well if it's going to 'upset' people.
I'll find you a link later.
Bangkok Post isn't too bad, if you read some of their editorials they are extremely critical of government and often fly very close to the wind when they report royal news.
Take care up there, it's a while lot better than it is down here!
Did you manage to register for a vaccine yet or has your school sorted it?
My school hasn't offered me a vaccine registration. I'm on the fence about if I want to take it given Thailand's track record of screwing up almost anything. Maybe if I had the option of paying for it myself at an intl hospital I might do it. I dunno, I'll look at that when the time comes.
It really doesn't surprise me that he is outlawing news that could distress or cause panic but I would be willing to bet that he and his crew of flunkies are the ones who get to decide what kind of news would be capable of doing that. I am sure that it is probably just a coincidence that anything critical of his regime would likely fall into that "distress" category.
I was in Thailand when this coup happened, and was also there when the one previous to that happened. The problem with Thailand's politics is that the military seems to be very closely affiliated with one particular party and when the other party gains traction they just overthrow the government and change it back to the way it was.
When I was there and this PM was running for re-election, they banned any political advertising or whatever you call it for anyone that was critical of Prayut. Even my friends who hated the guy were afraid to be very vocal about it and you can see why when they are throwing these anti-Prayut activists into jail without bail and then trying to pin some extremely antiquated lese majeste stuff on them.
Prayut is not going to let go of power and since he has such close ties to the military, I would say that he is probably going to remain in power for a very long time. If the "other" party ever manages to get into power again I think the first thing they should do is get rid of all the top military people. It's not like Thailand is going to go to war with anyone anyway.
Yeah, the prevailing opinion among the few Thais that I know is that he is a despot now and while his intentions at the start might have been genuine, they aren't now.
What was it like during the first coup you witnessed? The 2nd one seemed rather anti-climactic and honestly, until i was told about it I didn't even know it happened.
Well the first one I witnessed I think it was Thaksin that was ousted and I was at a bar later at night and someone got on the PA system and told us that everyone had to go home. There was armored vehicles at intersections and what not but there wasn't any violence. I foolishly snapped a photo (using a flash) at one of these vehicles not thinking that the flash could be mistaken for gunfire.... anyway, i went home and later wandered out to 7-11 for something and saw that some of the bars had already reopened.
The next day other than the soldiers on corners with rifles (which has no magazines in them) it was just like any other day.
As coups go, I think that Thailand has it down to a gold-standard. There doesn't seem to be any bloodshed or even violence when it goes down. I'm not sure but they may be the all time record-holders for coups... certainly for the 20th century. I expect another one in a year or so but i don't know who will do it since the military is already in charge.
Totally agreed
Wow! I never encountered any bizarre TV censorship in Cambodia like that, probably because of the difference in technologies of Thailand and Cambodia. Cambodia can only catch people retroactively, and very rarely prevents any potential reputation damage. One thing is for sure, Hun Sen and the Thai government are now closer and more cooperative than ever, and I don't think that is a good thing.
Cambodia has some lèse-majesté laws of sorts too, but nothing on the level that Thailand has and also enforces.
I don't know how much of a factor it is these days in Thailand because fewer and fewer people are actually using terrestrial cable or satellite tv. The government can't really control streaming services but there has been government talk about installing a "single entry" internet something or other where they could control all of that traffic as well. Easy enough to bypass with a VPN though and these are growing in popularity in Thailand.
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