Campaign for amendments to Article 112 in Chiang Mai
Red Coffee shop on Sri Don Chai Road in Chiang Mai has held activities in support of Nitirat’s calls for amendments to Article 112 and the nullification of the 2006 coup’s legal effects, providing live broadcasts of the Thammasat academic group’s events in Bangkok and offering its customers a sign-up campaign to amend the lèse majesté law.
Nitirat’s events were also transmitted live by local community radio stations, including 99.15 MHz in Chiang Mai and 100.5 MHz in Chiang Rai.
Mangkorn, an elderly villager from Pa Tan village in Muang district of Chiang Mai, said that he wished that Nitirat would hold public talks in major provincial cities such as Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, and others, to propagate their ideas to a wider audience.
Asked whether he felt afraid to sign on to the campaign, he said no as he did it within the scope of the law.
Min, 41, a trader from Chiang Mai’s San Sai district, said that he was not afraid to sign on to the campaign because he thought that it was his constitutional right. However, he found that many of his red-shirt neighbours were reluctant when he asked them to sign, because they did not understand the process, which required copies of their ID cards and house registrations. They were afraid that their identities would be revealed, and they would be targeted by the authorities.
Although red shirts in his neighbourhood have installed satellite dishes to watch Voice TV or Asia Update, and are informed on the issue of Article 112 to a certain extent, they belong to ‘several shades and have several degrees of understanding or courage,’ he said.
Jakkraphan Borirak, a host of FM 99.15 MHz in Chiang Mai, said that since his station’s broadcast of the Nitirat event on 15 Jan over 50 of his station’s audience had signed on to the campaign to amend Article 112, and they had volunteered to take documents for their neighbours to join the petition.
He believes that more and more people will join the campaign if more activities continue to be held and information is distributed.
He said that his station had been providing its audience with information and distributing copies of the Nitirat petition form in various places including other community radio stations, noodle and local food shops, garages and lottery stalls in Chiang Mai and neighbouring provinces such as Lamphun, Lampang and Chiang Rai.
Those who are interested can sign on to the campaign by bringing copies of their ID cards and house registrations to the following places in Chiang Mai: Red Coffee, Book Republic on Liab Kan Klong Rd, 9 Lines Bookstore on Soi Chom Jan, Rassadorn noodle shop on Soi Kanom Ban Ajarn (behind Chiang Mai Rajbhat University), and Bua Thep noodle shop in Tha Kwang subdistrict, Saraphi district.
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So it appears that the "Red
So it appears that the "Red Coffee Shops" and the Thaksin local radio networks are directly involved in the fake 112 "free speech" debate. Of course when Thaksin was in power he led his own Lese Thaksin campaign against anyone who dared question him - so it seems that indeed Nitirat is just trying to undermine the monarchy so that Thaksin and his UDD can replace it. There is no revolution here - we are watching what is in fact a combination of Thaksin's megalomania and foreign interests manipulating the ignorant and vulnerable in society under a facade of progressive reform that will NEVER come.
That Prachatai is myopically obsessed with 112 and the UDD leaders getting sentenced and jailed is slightly suspicious when they claim to be a news outlet. More so when you consider they are funded by the US State Department and foreign banking interests via George Soros and Open Society, especially when these same interests are on record backing Thaksin since 2006 - trying to undermine the Thai military and the monarchy so that Thaksin can return unopposed.
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/corporate-funded-peoples-movement.html
Tony- you appear to know
Tony- you appear to know nothing about the North and about political participation there for someone with such pessimistic opinions. Anyone from there will tell you that it was the atmosphere of political repression since 1976, coupled with the 700th Anniversary of Chiang Mai and outrageous coups in 1991 and 2006 that lit a fire under the North to rectify the injustices against them. Since the 1990s Public forums spread to villages and the poorest sections of northern cities. It became much easier to mobilize people to insist on what they want for their own lives. The internet helped them get more information about the events effecting them.
You still don't seem to get
You still don't seem to get it. If you are putting up portraits of a billionaire, megalomaniac working directly for foreign banks and who has every intention of betraying his support base upon eliminating his opposition (as Hun Sen has done in Cambodia) you don't understand politics nor are you prepared to participate in a political system.
The 2006 coup was outrageous? What about Thaksin unilaterally trying to push through a FTA with Wall Street and London? What about 2,500 Thai extra-legally murdered in the streets without trials? What about Thaksin's own campaign against "lese Thaksin" offenses? What's outrageous is the gullibility of the destitute, and how no one is addressing how ignorance has provided a solid foundation for a scoundrel like Thaksin to build his own personal empire.
And if you think UDD and Thaksin are mobilizing people "to insist on what they want for their own lives" you've apparently missed the last 10 years of Thai history. Thaksin and the UDD are using these people and their capacity for violence and mayhem as a point of leverage - not to achieve for the people what they want, but to return Thaksin to power. Nothing could be clearer.
This is the same "Red Coffee"
This is the same "Red Coffee" cafe featured in the Guardian:
"In the near-empty Red Coffee Corner cafe, in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, the portraits of four men have pride of place above the front window: Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Thaksin Shinawatra.
Beneath the picture of the exiled billionaire former prime minister – ousted in a coup, convicted of corruption but still a hero to millions – Jakrapon Botirak was holding court, discussing the future of Thailand and its fractious politics.
"This [cafe] is not a good business," he said. "It loses a lot of money. But it is important that people have a place where they can come to talk about our country freely. This is a place for that."
Sorry, if you are hanging up pictures of a billionaire autocratic, mass-murdering, foreign-serving crook politician next to Gandhi, YOU DON'T GET IT. And yes, just like it was suspected all along, Nitirat is NOTHING BUT another arm of the Thaksin/UDD movement seeking to return their paymaster back into power. You can get academics to say anything you want and nothing proves this better than an equal but opposite academic circle that has recently come out to oppose Nitirat.
Nitirat = UDD = Thaksin = Wall Street & the 1%
Yes, this is the coffee shop
Yes, this is the coffee shop mentioned by the Guardian. What Tony doesn't say is that the report he quotes was from 7 July 2010 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/07/thailand-redshirt-fight-abhisit-chiang-mai). That is, some 19 months ago. This Prachatai report is from Jan 22 this year, so carries with it a contemporary edge that is well worth considering.
Of course many things have
Of course many things have happened between the Guardian article in July 2010 and now. The most important event was when a Chiengmai native (she is even a smart and beautiful lady) was elected prime minister after thrashing her undemocratic opponents who abuse the name of their own party.
Yes, Chiengmai is a solid stronghold of the Red Shirts, many of them have become victims of this unjust law so they will be happy to support an amendment to this Article 112.
Intha Sribunruang, Sanamjun,
Intha Sribunruang, Sanamjun, Vanida, Pakorn... it's so nice to hear such self-assured and reassuring sounds from Thais writing in English hear at Prachatai/english. Thank you very much! It's sweet music to my ears.
I can think of nothing more
I can think of nothing more undemocratic than a woman being elected into office simply because her last name was Shinawatra. This especially so when you consider the motto of the 2011 campaign was "Thaksin Thinks, Peau Thai Does."
You are absolutely right, a lot has changed since the Guardian article was published. It is now painfully clear that Thaksin, the UDD, and their foreign sponsors are all working in tandem. It is also painfully clear that Prachatai, also funded by the same foreign interests behind Thaksin and the UDD, serves as yet another disingenuous forum for "red shirts" and their handlers.
112 is definitely being used to target UDD - but that is because UDD and Thaksin himself aim squarely not at reforming Thai society - but simply replacing the 800 year old royal institution with their own autocratic, hereditary dictatorship. What more evidence do you need than to see 3 members of the Shinawatra clan holding the office of prime minister? (Somchai being related through marriage.)
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/08/exposed-indy-newspaper-funded-by-us.html
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2011/06/corporate-funded-peoples-movement.html
PS - notice - anyone can pretend they are Thai here to lend them superficial credibility when intellectual credibility is nowhere to be found.
"notice - anyone can pretend
"notice - anyone can pretend they are Thai here to lend them superficial credibility when intellectual credibility is nowhere to be found." Didn't work for you. Still the same dross.
Of course people are afraid
Of course people are afraid to sign. Many do not understand the issue at all, still being inculcated with certain ideas over the decades. Many fear for their safety and freedom, and rightly so. Who knows when the boy scout next door will decide to do the honorable thing and turn in his neighbor for lack of intensity of love.
Being inside the law may be fine for people who are strong and resistant, mutually supportive and know what they are doing politically and why. Also those with a certain education and backing through groups can feel more self assured and safer. But the normal guy in the street has little idea about the niceties of the law.
When general Prayuth comes out as he did now, suggesting the Nitarat group had better "shut up, or else" people are informed and take what the man in uniform says as the overt threat it is. The Nitarats will not have access to the same spread of information. Nor can they guarantee people against threats, real or not from the boys in uniform: military; police; specially trained scouts, and, if one Democrat MP has her way specially watchful and well-trained 12 year old children scouring the internet for what they have been told from above are witches and demons.
PS: TONY you are again on your diatribe. I wonder, can you give us all some examples of who YOU support, why and what changes you suggest in the country? It would be interesting to understand what your motivations and ideals are, rather than who you hate and despise beyond understandable measure.
I am very serious, please do let us know. Thanks. If you actually offer some alternatives you never know, people might listen and actually try to see your PsOV...
Aaaaaargh! Please don't feed
Aaaaaargh!
Please don't feed the troll.
If you summon them, even the most stupid demons will come.
"Mangkorn, an elderly
"Mangkorn, an elderly villager from Pa Tan village in Muang district of Chiang Mai, said that he wished that Nitirat would hold public talks in major provincial cities such as Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, and others, to propagate their ideas to a wider audience."
Nitirat is actually holding public talks in the provinces - this upcoming Sunday (29 January) there will be a talk in Khon kaen at 1pm.
That's interesting. I have a
That's interesting. I have a mate in Khon Kaen who would probably want to go see.
Where is it being held?
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