by Giles Ji Ungpakorn - Tuesday, 08 May 2012[1]
The death in prison of the poor odd-job man “Aa-Kong” is an outrage and it is yet another indication of the barbarity of the lèse majesté law, the injustice of the Thai legal system and the brutality of the Thai ruling class. The fact that he was refused bail to get medical treatment, and the fact that the prison authorities waited 3 days after he became ill before sending him to the prison clinic, is an indication of the terrible conditions in Thai prisons. He was convicted of lèse majesté for supposedly sending an SMS message to ex-Prime Minister Abhisit’s personal secretary. The evidence given by the state proved nothing.
In Thailand, generals and politicians who ordered repeated killings of unarmed demonstrators on 5 occasions since 1973 have never been charged and never been punished. But criticising the ruling class is considered to be a “grave offense”. Long prison sentences are handed down for lèse majesté.
Abhisit became Prime Minister only because the army put him in office. He has never won a majority in any election. While he was Prime Minister in 2010 he ordered the killing of unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators. Aa-Kong was put in prison because of Abhisit’s actions.
Yingluk won a huge majority in the 2011 election. Red Shirts voted for her on mass. Yet she has betrayed all those who are in prison for political reasons and all those who died for Democracy. Yingluk could have spoken out against any further use of lèse majesté and she could have called for the release of all lèse majesté prisoners. Yet she and her loathsome government ministers insisted that they would increase prosecutions under lèse majesté and they set their faces against any reform of the law. Instead of building democracy and justice, Yingluk has spent her time loving up to the military. She is responsible for Aa-Kong’s death in prison.
Aa-Kong is dead. Let us all make sure that the other lèse majesté prisoners such as Somyot, Surachai, Da and all the others are quickly released.
[1] I have changed the title and excised the middle of Ji's rant. Ji lives in England and I live in Thailand. If I am going to die in a Thai prison as did Amphon it's going to be because of something I write, not because of something written by someone else. What is above was written by Giles Ji Ungpakorn on this subject, but is only just the half of it.