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Re: Protests update
A special report: Red shirts dead or alive?
Submitted by editor1 on Mon, 14/12/2015
Updates on the situation of the anti-establishment Red Shirt supporters in the North and Northeast,
тАЬRed ShirtsтАЭ is a well-known term in Thai politics referring to groups of people who share a similar ideology, yet it also includes people from a spectrum of political ideologies. They include supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the Pheu Thai Party, supporters of the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), several autonomous anti-establishment red-shirt groups, individuals in activist and intellectual circles, and many more who may not identify themselves as тАЬRed ShirtsтАЭ per se but share certain fundamental ideas with the other groups. Despite these differences, the Red ShirtsтАЩ power base is presently outside of Bangkok.... (read more).... http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/5692
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Re: Protests update
Thailand's Junta Has Gone to the Dogs
Thailand is ending the year with a series of disappointments on rights
By Mong Palatino
December 16, 2015
A factory worker in Thailand was arrested by authorities for defaming the kingтАЩs dog on Facebook.
Before we tackle this bizarre case, we should start with the original controversy: the corruption scandal surrounding the construction of the Rajabhakti Park.... (read more)... http://thediplomat.com/2015/12/thailand ... -the-dogs/
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Re: Protests update
A state of madness
By James L Taylor, Guest Contributor
тАУ 18 December 2015 insidious creep of fascism in contemporary Thailand.
Tim FrewerтАЩs New Mandala article from March 2015, тАЬFascist Assemblages in Cambodia and MyanmarтАЭ, is an interesting Deleuze and Guattari inspired piece on ThailandтАЩs neighbours. Yet, no mention of the situation in Thailand is made.
Most academics and commentators are reluctant to use the descriptive term тАЬfascismтАЭ for Thailand under military dictatorship and its authoritarian ultra-nationalist ideology. Labels are often misleading and ambiguous, especially a term that carries such emotive historical context.... (read more)... http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandal ... f-madness/
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Re: Protests update
vpn or proxy needed in Thailand
Street dog joins the royal family
December 18, 2015 uglytruththailand
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
In recent days the use of the draconian l├иse majest├й law in Thailand has reached absurd and vicious proportions. It is absurd because a young factory worker has been charged under this law for cracking a joke on social media about the kingтАЩs dog. It is vicious because these cases attract heavy prison sentences and, since the second military coup in 2014, they are judged in military courts with little transparency or justice..... (read more).... (read more)...https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com ... al-family/
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Re: Protests update
Police summon 11 activists for violating political gathering ban
Submitted by editor2 on Sat, 19/12/2015
The Thai police have issued summonses for at least 11 Rajabhakti activists for violating the Thai juntaтАЩs ban on political gatherings.
Chanoknan Ruamsap, one of the key leaders of the New Democracy Movement (NDM), a pro-democracy activist group, told Prachatai that on Friday, 18 December 2015, she received a summons from the Railway Police Station in Thonburi, Bangkok.
The letter orders her and 10 other activists who were intercepted and detained en route to Rajabhakti Park earlier this month, to report to the police station at 9 am on 22 December 2015.... (read more)... http://prachatai.org/english/node/5713
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Re: Protests update
Bike for Dad plot lawyer retaliates against junta with suit
Submitted by editor2 on Fri, 18/12/2015
A lawyer representing a Bike for Dad plot suspect has sued the Thai juntaтАЩs law officers and a police officer after they launched a criminal defamation complaint against her.
Benjarat Meetian, the lawyer for Thanakrit Thongngernperm, a suspect in the Bike for Dad terrorist plot, on Tuesday, 15 December 2015, filed lawsuits at the Criminal Court against Maj Gen Wicharn Jodtaeng, head of the law office of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and Pol Lt Col Mingmontree Siripong, an investigative officer.... (read more)... http://prachatai.org/english/node/5711
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Re: Protests update
A state of madness
By James L Taylor, Guest Contributor
тАУ 18 December 2015
The insidious creep of fascism in contemporary Thailand.
Tim FrewerтАЩs New Mandala article from March 2015, тАЬFascist Assemblages in Cambodia and MyanmarтАЭ, is an interesting Deleuze and Guattari inspired piece on ThailandтАЩs neighbours. Yet, no mention of the situation in Thailand is made.
Most academics and commentators are reluctant to use the descriptive term тАЬfascismтАЭ for Thailand under military dictatorship and its authoritarian ultra-nationalist ideology. Labels are often misleading and ambiguous, especially a term that carries such emotive historical context.
The lack of democracy in Thailand, the repression by state apparatuses.... (read more)... http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandal ... f-madness/
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Re: Protests update
U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Investigated for L├иse Majest├й
It is a move that does not augur well for U.S.-Thailand relations.
By Joshua Kurlantzick
December 19, 2015
Last week, in a move that was shocking despite the cooling U.S.-Thailand relationship, the Thai government announced that the U.S. ambassador in Bangkok, Glyn Davies, was being investigated on suspicion of having insulted King Bhumibhol Adulyadej. Davies had spoken to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in late November. During his talk, according to the New York Times, Davies criticized the тАЬlong prison sentences handed to some of those found guilty of criticizing [the] kingтАЭ under ThailandтАЩs l├иse majest├й laws, generally considered the harshest in the world. (This past weekend, Human Rights Watch warned that one prominent critic of the junta had disappeared after being questioned on l├иse majest├й charges.)
Davies enjoys diplomatic immunity, so even if he is found guilty of l├иse majest├й, he will not be tried and punished under Thai law..... (read more).... http://thediplomat.com/2015/12/u-s-amba ... e-majeste/
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Re: Protests update
Pheu Thai doubts new charter is acceptable
Published: 20/12/2015
Writer: Aekarach Sattaburuth
A Pheu Thai Party legal committee member and former constitution drafter doubts that the new charter document will be acceptable on several questionable grounds.
Kanin Boonsuwan, who helped to draft the 1997 constitution, on Sunday pointed to content in the latest draft relating to the country being open to a non-elected prime minister and appointed senators, additional power for the Constitutional Court and a retroactive ban on corrupt politicians..... (read more)....http://m.bangkokpost.com/news/800208
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Re: Protests update
Propagandizing for the military regime
20 12 2015
PPT sometimes feels it is altogether too naive. For instance, we had considered that the Constitution Drafting Committee was in the process of coming up with a constitution that suited the military and royalists.
That it is, but what we missed is that the CDC is working for the current military dictatorship, apparently to continue its rule. Silly of us. It is not just working with the junta, but for it, advising on propaganda.... (read more).... https://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpres ... ry-regime/