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With each successive generation of leaders in the kingdom, Thailand has engaged in multiple human rights abuses at local and international levels. Even during the relatively benign Chuan Leekpai administration in the 1990s, Burmese student demonstrators were, according to a Thai medical worker and other witnesses, summarily executed. Chuan’s response was, “We were both drawing guns but we (government forces) were faster.” Indeed…
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s administration sharply escalated human rights abuses, not stopping at closing down media organs or muzzling reporters at press conferences, but moving on to murdering Muslim protesters inside a southern mosque, untold killings of Muslim protesters in a subsequent anti-government demonstration, and an extrajudicial anti-drug war that left nearly 3,000 corpses on street corners, inside kitchens and in open fields. Despite the notorious reputation of Thailand’s police, nary a policeman was implicated in the drug trade.
The Thai population in general cannot be expected to support the establishment of a decent, legitimate and effective human rights organization. Many Thais will tell you that if you want human rights, “Get out of Thailand and find them somewhere else!”
Vested interests – local business operators, politicians and government civil servants – all engage in a unique form of national administration that pits principles of honesty against practices of deceit and intrigue, keeping anything secret that would threaten those who have dipped their hands in the till. There is therefore little ado over the fact that organizations in Thailand that were designed to promote human rights are instead used to stave off human rights criticism and play lip service to the “We are trying to comply” crowd.
The game is played all the way from the grassroots villages up through local leaders, involving official agencies such as the police and armed forces, through to elected and appointed politicians, government ministers and the country’s other institutions including the court system. Where the need to prevent human rights abuses before they occur is a well-appreciated value in countries making genuine headway toward protecting their citizens, in Thailand prevention is a third-rate consideration at best.
Generally, when aggrieved parties petition government agencies for protection, they are instead told, “Take it to court.” The message is, “Go ahead and suffer human rights abuses and try to take care of your problems this way, on your own, and don't bother us.”
The police, who have a pivotal role in enforcing the law as it pertains to the criminal nature of human rights abuses, seldom take steps to prevent such abuses, acting only when someone in high authority, such as the prime minister, orders them to take action.
Such an incident occurred in the past when Thaksin was prime minister. He had ordered Nakhonratchasima’s Region 3 police to confiscate offending material. The police then walked into a bookstore at the local mall and confiscated CDs that were being distributed by anti-Thaksin media baron Sondhi Liimthongkul. Similar orders were also issued in other parts of the country.
At the time everyone in Thailand who was aware that Thaksin was not the democrat he professed to be knew that if they were not careful their turn would be next. So they remained silent. This is the same way that police, prosecutors and the courts act and have acted in the past, remaining silent at the current set of abuses being committed under their noses, not preventing them, because they are sensitive and involve important and powerful persons.
Making waves in the Land of Smiles is a sure path toward oblivion or personal ruin. Generally people who advocate change and who become activists in the human rights field, or campaign for causes such as a more open media, are viewed by their peers as troublemakers. They receive little sympathy when they are dealt with by authorities, either lightly or severely, to the point where they disappear.
Thailand is a very dangerous place for activists of any color, from human rights to media freedom to political reform. Those who step to the fore and become victims are of course cherished, but not by the majority of society – even though they stand to lose when those that fight for them lose.
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(Frank G. Anderson is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad. He was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965-67, working in community development. A freelance writer and founder of northeast Thailand's first local English language newspaper, the Korat Post – www.thekoratpost.com – he has spent over eight years in Thailand "embedded" with the local media. He has an MBA in information management and an associate degree in construction technology. ©Copyright Frank G. Anderson.)
